Leyva 1

Marisol Leyva

Professor Beadle

English 114A

27 February 2017

Progression 1 Essay

Now in these days it is very common for people to behave how society has taught us. Sometimes

some people are able to notice that not everything should be but most of the time all those people who

realize this, do not make any changes for the better of this world. There is many ways that those other

people who do do something to try to make the changes such as writing an article on what society has to

realize and try to change. In the article Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meanings of

Gender by Aaron Devor, Devor is arguing that based on the beliefs of society, we have been taught

throughout our lives the way we are supposed to act according to our gender. In the other article

Women, Men, and Society by Claire Renzetti and Daniel Curran, the authors are arguing that parents

are the main influence on their children as to what is normal according to their gender. These are very

common topics in todays world since there has been many more people confronting their parents and

society and based on an experience I had, it has been more clear to me that people are actually

influenced by society.

There are many things that our surroundings tell us about how we should be acting based on our

gender and these things is what Devor is arguing that should not be like that. In the life we are taught to

be in, there are things that we are rejecting such as what the article Becoming Members of Society: The

Social Meanings of Gender, by Devor mentions, ...those who do change sex are considered to be both

disturbed and exceedingly rare (pg.36). People are not used to seeing people who are not the way they
 Leyva 2

are. Also Devor mentions that since the time that we are children we are given certain tools for us to

already be practicing for what we will have to do as adults ...it is popularly believed that the social

position of females is biologically mandated to be intertwined with the care of children and a natural

dependency on men for the maintenance of mother-child units (pg.40). Women were born to take care

of the children and to not be able to live without the support of men. Devor also says that with society

being so involved in our beliefs, the schema claims that males are innately aggressive and competitive

and therefore will dominate over females (pg. 43). According to society women have to listen to men

and obey to their orders while they can behave any way they can. Devor is trying to make us all make

some changes so that we can all accept each other the way we are.

Parents are the people who are with us once we are born and that is what makes parents play a role

in a childs developing, especially when it is in the topic of gender, as Renzetti and Curran argue. These

two authors emphasize the idea of a parents role on their children saying that ...research shows that

parents do have different expectations of their babies and treat them differently, simply on the basis of

sex (pg. 76). If parents have children and have a boy and a girl, they are most likely to treat them

differently such as treating the boy with a more aggressive behavior and treating the girl more gentle.

This example also can relate to another extremely important point that Renzetti and Curran make, both

fathers and mothers are more likely to believe - and to act on the belief - that daughters need more help

than sons (pg. 79). A girl will always need more attention emotionally than men will, according to what

society has implied. To this we can relate a really important thing that then later on in life affects both

men and women ...parents may be providing early training for their sons to be independent and their

daughters dependent (pg. 79). With men being trained to be independent they are basically forced to be
 Leyva 3

someone that they probably are not and women trained to be dependent, can make them later on weak

and harder for them to move on no matter the circumstances and to find a job.

Many of us may experience some gender type of situation and some may have just simply seen an

event. In my case I have been through both. In my family my parents only have three girls (no boys),

and because of this we never have experienced playing with videogames, because that is for boys as

my parents have told us. Just as the article of Renzetti and Curran says toys for boys tend to encourage

exploration, manipulation, invention, construction, competition, and aggression. In contrast, girls toys

typically rate high on manipulability, but also creativity, nurturance, and attractiveness (pg. 82). This

explains why my parents would not let us play with video games because they were afraid for us three to

become aggressive and have all those behaviors only men are supposed to have. Also as a second hand

experience I have seen how my uncle and auntie have treated my boy cousin very differently that my

girl cousin. They have gave them different values and different believes. My girl cousin once asked her

parents if they could buy her a toy car and to no surprise, they said no because to them, that was meant

for her brother and not for her.

In the families of today there has been a little change of explaining to their kids that there can be

people who are not always going to be exactly like them, but in other families they continue to think the

way that society always made them believe. These authors Aaron Devor, Claire Renzetti and Daniel

Curran all make very interesting points in their articles that have been written meant for us as the readers

to reflect on how society has damaged both men and women throughout many years and now it is the

time to make a change by speaking for ourselves and not let anyone tell us how to behave because what

we are meant to be no one will be able to stop that.