GENERgenderGENDER

GENDER is a very commonly mis-understood term. Many people, when talking about gender, will think it is the same thing as sex (Make/Female).  “What gender are you?” someone might ask on a survey to see whether the person taking the survey is male or female. But, gender is NOT the same thing as sex. Although many people think it is, sex is male or female. Plain and simple. Penis or Vagina. Gender is NOT that. Gender is the social construction of cultural meanings that are attached to biological differences in genitalia. This means that based on if you have a penis or vagina, that is what will determine how society looks at you and what the “norms” of your sex are. Gender is how society as a whole looks at you. For example, if you are a girl, you are feminine; you are dainty, stressed, hormonal, bitchy, drama filled, talkative, etc. Whether people like to admit it or not, that the “norm” of how a typical woman should act. If we look at the male norms, we will see hard workers, masculine, big, strong, tough, etc. The two different sex’s have two completely opposite views of them by society. Gender is clearly not just about genitalia, it is about what comes with it by how society looks at you.

Although gender is deemed as how people look at you based on your genitalia, people who are queer might act more feminine and show signs of how women are looked at by society. Clearly, they might not be women, but they might act as it which will have people questioning their gender. This is the same way that lesbians might come off more masculine even though they are clearly not men.

Because the norm of queer and lesbian have been the opposite of what they are “supposed” to be, the “norm” is that lesbians=masculine and queer=feminine.

Advertisements are the strongest way to see how men and women are looked at by society.

In this advertisement, it shows a woman, very dainty, smiling, tiny. Her finger is in her mouth. Looking at this one ad. won’t bring you to the conclusion that her finger is in her mouth so that men will think that she is being quiet “for once”. In many other ads that feature women, their fingers are usually in their mouths to promote quietness and showing that the girls who are usually so talkative are not in this ad. This will relate to men better.    

In this advertisement, you will see that the man is masculine and tough. He is confident and sure of himself. In almost every ad. this is how the man is portrayed.