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Justin Arevalo
Professor Corri Ditch
English 114A
03 December 2014
Twisted Genders in the Course of Society
Specific gender roles in western society limit individuals from acting the way they really
want to, maybe the way they act or how they dressed doesnt fit the criteria for the traditional
gender role. If they dont meet western societys norms, society places judgments on them if the
individual is missing something from their specific gender. Figuring out what sex someone is
usually involves knowing the anatomy of the person, but gender is the way an individual
performs in everyday life. Aaron Devor writer of an article called Becoming Members of
Society: The Social Meanings of Gender and Judith Lorber who writes an article called Night
to His Day: Construction of Gender both share a similar theme. They share the opinion that
society shows us the way gender is expected to be and over time, we are put into socially
constructed categories of gender. Society puts images and idols into our minds and to show us
what a masculine and feminine individual should be like. The development of gender places us
in socially constructed categories through media, culture and family; it affects who we are in
many ways, such as unrealistic expectations society places on humanity and inequality.
Through Lorbers extensive research, Erving Goffman, an aspect of Felicitys Condition
describes gender as being any arrangement which leads us to judge an individual. (Lorber 9)
American society is constantly judging an individuals gender by noticing things that are not the

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norm. Ruth Hubbard, a researcher of biochemistry and photochemistry states that What we do is
determined by societys interpretation of what is normal (Hubbard 47) Society shapes the
way people in todays world see how a specific gender should act; through the media they show
us unrealistic goals and expectations of society, different cultures have different norms and slo
ask for certain norms to be seen, and the people around us may teach us acts that western society
is looking for or what is expected for a certain family, even when growing up.
When born, parents usually pierce the ears of a girl or dress them in pink, and if it were a
boy they would dress them in blue. An individual is born sexed not gendered, gender and sex are
not the same, and gender is already being placed upon the baby. To understand why this is the
way it is, Lorber explains that we have to look not only at the way individuals experience
gender but as gender as a social institution (Lorber 21). Children usually learn most of what
they are doing through what they see, whether it is from their parents or what they see on the
television. Learning that, to be masculine you should play with trucks and cars or play in the
mud, and to be feminine, play with Barbie dolls and pick flowers, but once the individual grows
older, he or she starts to develop their own feelings and gets to choose the way they want to act.
Western society often judges an individuals gender by looking at the way he or she
dresses, acts or speaks. Through society, it is expected that in order to be a man ones posture
must include walking tall, taking up a lot of space and having their arms further away from their
body, whereas people who seem to be feminine. Aaron Devor states demonstrate subordination
through minimizing of spatial use: people appear feminine when they keep their arms closer to
their bodies and their torsos and heads less vertical that do masculine-looking individuals.
(Devor 41). This is evidence that what western society deems as masculine or feminine is
socially constructed. The way an individual speaks also shows their gender, Devor explains that

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Speech characterized by inflections, intonations, and phrases that convey nonaggression and
subordinate status also make a speaker appear more feminine, (Devor 41) implying that if one
were to do the opposite of what he stated would be considered masculine. We see this portrayed
in many movies and stories the media gives us, and also reading and paying attention to them
affects the way we act.
People in todays society often mistake other peoples sex because of how they portray
their gender. In my own life, I have experienced judgment in gender. One day when my friend,
Ian and I went to the mall and were looking for new shoes. When we were looking at shoes, one
of the workers named Jesse came by to ask if we needed any help. After the worker went away,
Ian and I looked at each other and wondered if the individual was a woman or a man. The name
of the worker was unisex, the characteristics that were expressed by the person were feminine,
but the facial structure was of a man After a couple of minutes of discussing whether or not the
person was a female or male, we noticed that he was missing the anatomy that a woman has, he
was just a man that just acted like a woman. Figuring out the sex of someone can be difficult
when the gender that is portrayed as something that todays society deems not normal, or we also
notice the differences when something about the person is missing or ambiguous. But before an
individual can see what gender he or she chooses to be, they are constantly judged by others
around them at a young age.
An individuals actions can be influenced by many things, but when a specific sex acts a
way society deems different, he or she is looked at in another way. In western society there are
two types of gender, but there is also an incident where an individual being transsexual who is
someone who changed their sex biologically or being transvestites who act like the other sex, but
dont want to make the change to their bodies. Certain culture societies have more than one type

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of gender, men, women, and berdaches or hijras or xaniths. Berdaches or hijras or xaniths are
biological males who behave, dress work and are treated in most respects as social women; they
are therefore not men, nor are they female women. (Lorber 22), people who are this way usually
are not born like this, but could have been affected by their society to act this way. Lorber states,
These odd or deviant or third genders show us what we are ordinarily take for granted- that
people have to learn to be women and men. (Lorber 23), showing that these different types are
evidence of how gender is constructed because; society places transvestites and transsexuals in
different categories due to how they express themselves.
Going further into other cultures and their genders, during Devors extensive research,
he explains that Many cultures go beyond clothing, gestures, and demeanor in gendering
children. They inscribe gender directly into bodies (Devor 24). For women in other cultures, for
example, in Chinese society, mothers would bind their daughters feet to increase their
attractiveness, and in Jewish cultures, fathers would circumcise their sons to show their
covenant with God. (Devor 24), and these cultures usually get their ways of gender through
their own society and what they consider the norm, and to this day, there are still people that
believe in those practices. In my family, I learned how the masculine gender is portrayed by
watching my father do the heavy lifting, and working on the house. I also noticed through my
mom and other mothers that being feminine is giving great care to the kids and cooking for the
family. My dad also cleans the house and cooks for the family, which in western society when
we think of an individual cleaning the house, they think of it as feminine, or picture a woman
doing that job, but everyone has masculine and feminine characteristics.
In society, because people in western society expect a certain gender behavior from each
sex, the aspects of masculinity and femininity cause inequalities. Lorber explains that

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Nonetheless, though individuals may be able to shift gender statuses, the gender boundaries
have hold, or the whole gendered social order will come crashing down. (Lorber 27) Lorber
also explains the inequalities caused by masculine and feminine expectations by the way women
in the U.S. Marine Corps were forced to wear make-up to distinguish a clear difference between
male marines and female marines. Another instance is when people assume that doctors should
be male and nurses should be females. Assuming that an individuals certain sex should be a
certain profession is an example of inequality.
To bring it all to a close, since the development of gender places us in socially
constructed categories through media by placing unrealistic goals; it affects who we are in many
ways. Culture and family also share the construction of gender performances, due to different
expectations for different lifestyles. These unrealistic expectations society places on human kind
can link to inequality among sexes. The difference between sex and gender is that sex is anatomy
based and gender is the performance in which an individual can masculine or feminine, but in
other cultures, there can be more than two genders. Scholars on gender performances show us
what they have studied and leaned about each gender role. Having these roles socially
constructed is a weakness for society. In my own experience, people may act or dress a certain
way, through the media and what society expects to be normal. In western society, we expect a
male to act masculine and a female to act feminine, and when an individual doesnt act the way
others expect them to act; they automatically place them in categories shaped by society.

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Works Cited
Groner, Rachel, and JohnF. OHara. Composing Gender: A Bedford Spotlight Reader. Boston:
New York 2014. Print.
Lorber, Judith. Night to His Day: Construction of Gender, from Paradoxes of Gender.
1994
Devor, Aaron. Male Transsexuals in Society Becoming Members of Society: The Social
Meanings of Gender. 1997