Thomas Resendis

Professor Ditch
English 113A
8 December 2015
Society has Gendered
The idea of being a man came to be since the beginning of human life. If you think about
it, men would be the ones going around hunting the food. The women would be staying home,
taking care of the kids and making the food. The ideas of these roles where never written rather
than it was just an idea that their society at the time had. This idea that a man and a women had
different roles to play stayed and effected the way people live now in modern society. These
roles are now being taught to everyone in many different forms such as: the way your parents
raise you, your social surroundings and the media. As time progresses, these roles change to fit
the standards that society has for people. Now men are expected to still be tough but also be the
ones providing the money. But there are many qualities that have to be taken to account such as
the type of person the men are. Men that are wealthy have different roles to play than a man that
is in the working class. In the book Composing Gender there are two articles that address this
issue. The articles are Night to His Day: The Social Construct of Gender by Judith Lorber and
Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meaning of Gender by Aaron Devor. These articles
explain how the idea of gender norms are portrayed through parents, media, and your
surroundings.
When I was a child my parents, especially my dad, would always tell me to be ready
because one day I am going to be the man of the house. I never truly understood what he meant

by that but, I understood that I was going to have to live up to that one day. I was raised in what
is known as a typical Mexican house. I say typical because my dad is the one going to work
while my mom is the one at home making the food and cleaning the house. Since I have matured
I have come to understand that I am become more like my dad, not because I wanted to but
because I never questioned my position as a man. The task of learning to be properly gendered
members of society only begins with the establishment of gender identity. (Devor 35). As
people grow up, one begins to fulfill roles that they are expected to and one normally does not
ask why but just simply believe it is their duty to fulfill. As a child little by little I was molded to
be tough the way my dad expected me to be. If their social categories are highly valued, they
value themselves highly; if their categories are of low status, they lose self-esteem. (Lorber 25)
My dad had many expectations of me and I usually met them and he was proud. That made me
feel great about myself and it made me think that being tough working had was a proper way to
act as a man. I would only allow my dad to see the masculine side of me.
The way parents raise a child influences the way they grow up and the standards that they
meet. Most Parents create a gendered world for their newborn by naming, birth announcements,
and dress. (Lorber 25) Gender is established since birth. The influence of parents is not only
great by naming but they also influence the child by the way they treat them and they type of
activities they give them. For a girl a parent would usually have a baby shower with pink
ornaments. Right then they start establishing gender upon the unborn baby; same if the baby
were a boy. Children begin to settle into gender identities between the ages of eighteen months
and two years. By the time age of two, children usually understand that they are members of a
gender (Devor 35) When parents influence children to dress a certain way that eventually
develops they child to think a certain way. It makes them feel that a boy or a girl has to be have

great distinctions. Boys are raised to be tough while some girls are raised to be gentle.
Distinguishes between both genders are known to these children at a young age. In page 37 in
Composing Gender Devor mentions that a study was done on children to identify what sex of the
doll. And nearly most children identified them by their cloths of their hair length. That shows
that as a child since they are taught that a boy or a girl has to dress a certain why that they feel
like everyone else has to be the same. Five-year-olds, for example, may be able to accurately
recognize their own gender and the gender of the people around them (Devor 37). Children
learn to identify one another at a young age simply because they are have already learned what it
is to be a boy or a girl.
Parents are not the only way children are influences to behave or act in ways that portray
gender. The media is one great influence on children to act, behave and want certain things.
Commercials, for example, show boys that they have to have specific toys such as: monster
trucks, guns, action figures and motorcycles. Same thing with girls. they are expected to want
dolls, princesses, a kitchen set and make-up kits. The media constructs the social norms that
create gender for everyone. In western society gendering is seen everywhere. Western societys
values legitimate gendering by claiming that it all comes from physiology- female and male
procreative differences. (Lorber 21). There are different expectations in different societies for
gender. Lorber states in page 22 that western society has two genders where as in other countries
they have a few more like bredaches, hijras, or xaniths. Which are all treated differently in their
own ways. Lorber also argues that depending the part of wealth class the person is they are going
to have a different expectation of gendering. Being part of a class is also gendering because of
the way that society views one another. As we move through our lives, society demands
different genders performances from us and reward, tolerates, or punishes us differently for

conformity to or digression from, social norms. (Devor 35). Western society has standards that
it feels ever person must meet for their gender, to be masculine for boys and feminine for girls.
Gender construction is a concept of how boys and girls are expected to behave as a
gender in western societies taught since childhood. The expectations of a parent to a child
influences them to either grow up masculine or feminine and society has an expectation for the
child to grow up masculine if it is a boy or feminine if it is a girl. Judith Lorber and Aaron Devor
both argue that parenting and social expectations influence people to behave and act a certain
way that constructs gender in their lives. As boys grow up they are taught to believe that being
tough if a natural expectation and for women to be submissive. As Devor mentions throughout
his article that there are many factors that make masculinity and femininity distinct in ways that
one dresses, acts, walks, talks and even their body positioning. Gender is shown in our day to
day lives and people normally do not notice it because of their lack of questioning the norms.
Talking about gender for most people is equivalent of fish talking about water. Gender is so
much the routine ground of everyday activities that questioning its take-for-granted assumptions
and presupposition is like wondering about whether the sun will come up (Lorber 19). The lack
of questioning brings lack of understanding and that is why society easily abides to these rules
without questioning. Gender has firm grounds that must be met to fit the society that one is in.
otherwise one can be punished until one abides to these social standards of gender.

Work Cited
Devor, Aaron. "Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meanings of Gender." Composing
Gender: A Bedford Spotlight Reader. By Rachel Groner and John F. O'Hara. Boston:
Bedford/St. Martin's, 2014. 35-45. Print.
Lorber, Judith. Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender. Composing Gender: A
Bedford Spotlight Reader. By Rachel Groner and John F. OHara. Boston: Bedford/St.
Martins, 2014. 19-33. Print