Is Gender/Sexuality something youre

born with or taught ?

Gender identity is something people are born with but some believe
you have also been taught. One theory says you are born with your gender
identity, while on other theory says you can be taught it. Everyone is born
with a gender but not everyone is sure about their gender identity. Gender
identity is how you define yourself and your gender.
In the article The Study of Human Sexuality written by Science and
its times they have described the studies of Alfred Kinsey, sexologist who in
1947 founded the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University, now
known as the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction.
kinsey reported that homosexuality was viewed in the 19th century as a
mental disease to most doctors. This means many believed that
homosexuals were born with have a mental disorder. Less than 30 years
later homosexuality wasn't only viewed as a mental illness to doctors but
now also viewed as a mental disease to society. I believe this is wrong to say
that people who are being themselves and liking who they want to like are
getting a marked label saying they have a mental disorder. The way i look at
it is that homosexuals shouldn't have been marked as having mental
disorders because they are human just like everyone else, but with society
and doctors stating all homosexuals have a mental disorder probably
actually made homosexuals get mad and depressed allowing society to give
them mental disorders. Kinsey had also reported in 1948 that 37% of
American males had at least one homosexual experience during his lifetime.
With that being said and done, by 1950 homophobia had swept the nation.
But 23 years later homosexuality was no longer treated as a mental disorder.
The Inability of the psychologists to discriminate between homosexual and
heterosexual responses provided evidence that homosexuality behavior was
normal human sexual behavior (Science and Its Times). This states that
since psychologist we're unable to look bad upon others who were different,
it allowed people to be who they wanted to be (homosexuals) and others
later learned homosexuality was normal human sexual behavior.
In the article My TED Talk- Understanding Complexities of
Gender by, Sam Killermann , Sam describes how we are born with our
gender but also how we are expected to act through our gender roles. Two
different concepts about us as humans are our gender and sexuality. Our
gender is not a decision we make were just born with it, says Sam
Killermann in his article. It's more about what's outside of our bodies it's
about our social life. Gender is a social construct, a generic law we live by,

(Sam Killermann, My TED Talk). Meaning our gender really doesn't have to be
based on what boys and girls are born with, but with who we interact with.
Gender identity, gender expression, and biological sex are in my perspective
3 categories that break up gender. Gender identity is mental thinking
defining gender, gender expression is your interactions and appearance,
while biological sex are physical characteristics that make up our bodies.
Gender identity is a way of classifying one's personality, and you know your
personality right when you're born. Gender is not universal, gender is not
cross cultural - gender changes over time, gender is relative, gender is
cultural and what gender means and how it's expressed does change over
time, (Sam Killermann, My TED Talk). Killermann is right because gender
does change over time. In my recent paragraph I talked about how
homophobia swept the nation in the 1950s, while in a recent interview I did
with a friend, I asked what do they think about same sex relationships. The
response I received was Yes, I accept it! It's 2015 times have changed from
20 years ago, (Alfred Alcatraz, Interview 1). Which states Killermanns claim
about how gender does change over time. Gender changes over time
because people changed the way they view themselves and others
throughout the years. Sam Killermann also believes that someone can be
taught their gender. In my second interview I did asking the question Is
Gender/Sexuality something youre born with or taught?, my interviewee
agrees with Killermann that you can be taught. He claims, You are taught
what boys are expected to be and what girls are expected to be and what's
right from wrong, masculine from feminine, (Anthony Rodriguez, Interview
2). As kids we all learn about gender and the ways we should act and behave
such as girls being girls and boys being boys. We are taught to be divided as
boys with boys and girls with girls, we are all expected to dress a certain
way, girls with dresses, boys with tuxes, we are taught to play with certain
toys, girls with Barbie dolls and boys with action figures. Both women and
men are taught many things about their gender throughout their life and are
expected to have certain feminine jobs, do feminine things and having
masculine jobs do masculine things. Because we assign a gender based on
a few traits someone is born with, and based on that assigned identity, we
expect someone to grow up to behave a certain way, to be a certain type of
person, (Sam Killermann, My TED Talk). What Sam is referring to is that
people should know how to behave and what type of person they should be,
based on their gender.
Some people may be taught their gender but most of us are born
with our gender identity. The two articles, The Study of Human Sexualitity
and the article Understanding the Complextivites of Gender both have taught

us that gender/sexuality is something we are born with. It connects with

society today because it is 2015 and most people are starting to have
different genders and sexualities most of us are all still born with the same
gender identity that weve had since birth.