Felkai 1

Aaron Felkai
Mr. Beadle
English 115
8 December 2015
Society is Behind the Times
Lorber, Devor, and Kantrowitz and Wingert all agree that gender and sex confusion cause
issues in society and beyond, thereby showing that this association is a significant issue that has
gone too long unaccounted for. Gender is a universal topic, where it applies to everyone's life and
affects everyone in one way or another. Society innately ties sex to gender, thereby causing
people that defy gender and sex norms to seem like they dont fit into society. Gender and sex are
not synonymous, as many people fall in the gray area between male and female.
Judith Lorber focuses her article, Night to His Day: The Social Construction of
Gender, on the idea that gender is ubiquitous and it decides a persons place in society. Lorber
says, Yet gender, like culture, is a human production that depends on everyone constantly
doing gender (Lorber 19), meaning that everyone judges and is judged based on their gender.
Gender is an innate phenomenon that causes people to judge others based off of sex
characteristics, which may not have anything to do with a persons gender. A common
misconception is that gender and sex are related, but in reality, sex and gender are two very
different phenomena. Sex is simply the physiological differences between males and females,
while gender is the social construction that stems from a persons sex that causes them to
experience situations differently and to have different social statuses. But, as has been the case
for as long as sex has existed and gender has been constructed, society innately ties sex to

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gender, when it should not do so. Sex does not have to define gender, and one person can have a
gender that, according to society, defies the sex norms. Lorber tells her audience of everyone
with a gender that sex does not have to define gender, and although society polarizes male and
female, it is not the reality of life.
Similarly to Lorber, Aaron Devor takes a very blunt approach to tell his audience that
masculinity and femininity are not necessarily polar opposites. Devor, who authors Becoming
Members of Society: The Social Meanings of Gender, uses logos in his argument to push his
point home about how society confuses sex and gender, as society believes that people cannot
change genders without the process of a sex change (Devor 36). Even in the title of this work,
Becoming Members of Society, Devor indicates that to become a proper member of society,
one has to properly conform and fit into their respective gender category. He talks about how
children do not judge other children by their physiological differences, but instead by their
personal preferences of style and gender. Contrary to the adult way of thought, children believe
that other children can change their sex at will, and not through major physiological surgery.
Devor also reveals how society confuse sex and gender, and it causes misconceptions such as
males being dominant and brutal, when the reality is that many men are not necessarily
tyrannical, but instead gentle and feminine. When society forces people to conform into the
gender molds of their respective sexes, males become dominant, and females become submissive
because they succumb to the pressure of men. People believe that their prescribed sex has to
match their gender, and this leads to gender conformity and misidentification. What Devor says
matters because he tries to teach his audience that if they feel like they dont fit into the extremes
of male and female, it is completely normal to fit somewhere in between, as sex is not
necessarily indicative of gender.

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Kantrowitz and Wingert ask the practical question that stems from Lorbers and Devors
articles, which is, Are We Facing a Genderless Future? Kantrowitz and Wingert talk about the
practical applications of gender neutrality and the switch of society over from male and female,
to male, female, and everything in between. Similar to Lorber and Devor, Kantrowitz and
Wingert point out that physical evidence does not necessarily indicate gender. Kantrowitz and
Wingert say, You cant always detect gender by physical evidence. You have to ask the person
how they identify themselves, in that sense, its psychological (Kantrowitz and Wingert 69).
This means that peoples psychological profile, or gender, is something developed through their
experiences and not based purely off of their sex. Adding on to what Devor says in his article,
Kantrowitz and Wingert say that sex change surgery does not resolve a persons gender identity
issues. They state that gender and sex are not the same thing. They again teach that sex is
something that is decided at birth, and is decided based on appearance of the external genitalia.
Gender identity on the other hand, is not something that can be seen early on in a persons life, it
is only something that can be seen once a person grows up, and when they can communicate how
they identify themselves in society. Kantrowitz and Wingert make the distinction between
genderless and gender-neutral, and asexual. Being asexual is not desiring sex with anyone, but
being genderless or gender-neutral may be attracted to either sex (or both) or other people who
identify as gender-neutral or genderless. It seems that only time can tell when society will change
enough to adapt to the idea that the entire world does not fit perfectly in two categories.
I can relate to Kantrowitz and Wingerts article, because they tell of how colleges and
college students are the leaders in changing current gender and social issues. I have just been
thrown into this crazy world of college and intersecting races, cultures, and religions, and this
has opened my eyes to the fact that most people do not fit perfectly into those gender molds that

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society has forced us into for our entire lives. Colleges are where countless worlds converge,
from culture, to race, to every gender, both on and off of the spectrum. Many campuses
including Harvard, Penn and Michigan now offer gender neutral housing and more unisex
bathrooms to accommodate students who dont fall neatly into male or female categories
(Kantrowitz and Wingert 70). I have seen that at California State University, Northridge, the
university at which I reside, there are new gender neutral bathrooms starting to be built
throughout campus, in an effort to serve all, regardless of sex or gender identification. All of
these accommodations are to cater towards people who do not fall perfectly within their
respective sex categories. Even the Common Application is going to start to add fields for people
to input their gender as how they identify themselves. I see firsthand that colleges are the leading
proponents for equality for all.
Some may think that gender and sex should be correlated, and a persons sex should be
indicative of their gender. Society molds peoples genders based on their respective sex, and this
causes uniformity between the sexes; males are masculine and dominant, and females are
feminine and submissive. Society has always been run this way, and since it has worked for this
long, why should things be changed? This way of thinking is incorrect because times do change,
and as people see themselves in different ways and start to question more and more, they realize
that things are not right in society, and start to question previous gender stereotypes. This causes
the separation between gender and sex, which is an integral part of present-day society. This is
important because if there was not this separation between gender and sex, society would keep
going down the dark path of hegemonic masculinity and gender inequity. This new revelation has
pushed society forward into a new age of fairness and equality.

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The authors write about gender and gender neutrality because they, like everyone else,
have experienced gender biases, and understand that so many people feel out of place and are not
treated well because they do not fit perfectly in the gender molds created by society. Those who
have dared to challenge the societal gender norms in the past would be shunned, bullied, and
vilified. Some even decide to end their life because they see no escape from the persecution of
society. This is starting to become less of an issue as we move into a new age of equality and
egalitarianism. This topic is relevant to my life, as I am a part of the leading charge for change, a
college student. I am thrown into this world of questions about gender identity and stereotypes,
and I am at the forefront of the adaptation of gender in society. All of the authors agree that
gender and sex should not be used interchangeably, but they often are. They all are trying to tell
their target audience that ironically, society is behind the times.

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Works Cited
Devor, Aaron. Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meanings of Gender. Composing
Gender Comp. Eds. Rachel Groner and John F. OHara. Boston:

Bedford/St. Martins,

2014. 35-43. Print.

Kantrowitz, Barbara, and Pat Wingert. "Are We Facing a Genderless Future?" Composing
Gender Eds. Rachel Groner and John F. OHara. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2014. 6871. Print.
Lorber, Judith. ""Night to His Day": The Social Construction of Gender." Composing
Gender Eds. Rachel Groner and John F. OHara. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2014. 1934. Print.