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David Gutierrez
Jon Beadle
English 115
10/3/16
How Society Expects You to Act
Since the beginning of time man and women have been gendered. This has
been through religion and culture practices. Everyone does gender while not even
realizing it. When we talk about gender, we are talking about the socially
constructed way men and women have been categorized. Today we live in a world
where we are identified by clothing, mannerism, parenting, toys, and gender roles.
In the readings, Night to His Day by Judith Lorber, Becoming Members of
Society: The Social Meaning of Gender by Aaron Devor, and From Women,
Men, and Society by Claire Renzetti and Daniel Curran, we see the main idea of
how society wants you to act based on your gender and what to do. Gender
matters because it sets the tone for society and society wouldnt function well
without the gender norms as people wouldnt know what role to play.
In the first article Night to his Day Judith Lorber explains in detail what
gender is, how it is different than sex, and how society has made gender what it is
today. And in the second article Becoming Members of Society: The social
meanings of Gender by Aaron Devor, goes into societys expectations and what

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role each gender should play. And From Women, Men, and Society by Claire
Renzetti and Daniel Curran goes into gender stereotypes to indicate sex and
parenting influence on children. But all articles have the main central idea of
gender and how you are expected to act ad what role you play and thats what Ill
be talking about.

First in Lorbers article she states For Human beings there is no essential
femaleness or maleness, femininity or masculinity, womanhood or manhood, but
once gender is ascribed, the social order constructs and holds individuals to
strongly gendered norms and expectations.(26) Here Lorber is saying as man and
women in society they hold you accountable to complete the social norm of them.
This ties back to the whole theme of society telling you how to act based on your
gender. And if you dont do your social norm they might run into problems and
would be looked differently and be critize by people. In general Lorbers main
purpose of the article was to point out how society identifies you because of your
sex and then based on that what role they expect you to play and how to act. She
does this to let the reader know what is the social norms and whether they agree
with it or not, the reader is informed on the gender roles they are expected to play.
In the second article by Devor he mentions also similarly to Lorber how
children begin to settle into a gender identity between ages of eighteen months
and two years. So we see a connection here how kids at an early age are already
being gendered even though they dont know it. Devor then mentions As we

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move through our lives, society demands different gender performances from us
and rewards, tolerates, or punishes us differently for conformity to, or digression
from, social norms(35). Here similarly like Lorbers article is mentioning that
society expects you to act a certain way and rewards you if you do and punishes
you if you dont, It ties back to the whole concept of society wanting you to act a
certain way because thats the way things have been done. Devor is saying that
when children later become adults they have to do whatever is ask from them
based on their gender as they have learned from the people around them. And its
true, demands of gender do change for a man and a women as they older. The

gender codes change for individuals when they are at different ages and stages of
their life. Devor main purpose was to inform the reader how society works so that
he or she is aware of whats going on. And it is significant because we need to
know how society works and act accordingly if you agree.
In the 3 article From Women, Men, and Society the authors mentions a
rd

lot of toys and how that is gendered. The article mentions Research shows that
toys for boys focus on adventure and exploration, while toys for girls reflect
traditional conceptions of femininity.(pg. 81). This shows are even toys are
gendered and how they teach different behaviors. The article also mentions how
parenting differs whether its a baby boy or girl which then I turn helps the child
develop more masculine or feminism. Renzetti and Curran mention, Research
indicates that parents tend to engage in tougher, more physical play with infant

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sons than with infant daughters. This shows how children based on how parents
treat them then turns them into the person they later as they grow older whether it
be masculine or feminine. And thus this contributes to the fact that they are being
taught how to act according to societys expectations.
Now why does all this about gender and what roles we play matter. It
matters because we live in a world that you are expected to portray an image
based on what you are. Many factors go into your gender identity like the
environment you grow up in. Many people confuse gender with sex but its not
the same as gender goes more into detail of what are the social and cultural
difference in a man and a women that the biological ones. We should care more
about gender and identification because there needs to be more equality among
different genders and sexs. The authors purposes were too expand your
knowledge about your surroundings so you can get a better idea of what society
expects from you.
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All these articles after reading them has made me learn more about my
gender role and how I am identified. The way how I can apply these gender norms
that these articles have taught is to start practicing them on an everyday basis.
Like for example guys are taught and are expected to be more masculine, so based
on that social expectation, I will do my part to be masculine and have a strong
body to fulfill that social norm. Also another thing that is expected of me is to be

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more successful and be a leader so I will do my part and study hard and gain
knowledge so I can be successful later on in life as my gender and sex would
indicate that I should be that.
In a nutshell all these articles share the common idea of how we are
supposed to act according to our gender and what role to play. Each article
provides specific and similar examples of how gendered we are. We live in a
world today that everything is gendered and we are expected to be some type of
way. Society has constructed gender what it is today and many people arent
happy with the gender roles they have to play as they are a lot of differences
performances each gender has to perform.

Works Citied Page

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Groner, Racheal, and John OHara F. Composition Gender. Boston:

Bedford/St. Martins 2014.
Devor, Aaron. Becoming Members of Society. The Social Meanings of
Gender. Composition Gender: A bedford Spotlight reader. Bedford/St
Martins, 2014. Boston.