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    Gender Definition

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    Nick Tipsword
    This document discusses gender identity and gender roles. It argues that sex does not define gender, and gender consists of secondary characteristics that define a person. It asserts that everyone should be able to decide their own gender identity and roles. The document also discusses how media and society often portray restrictive gender roles and ideals, and how breaking free of these allows people to truly accept themselves.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Gender Definition

    Uploaded by

    Nick Tipsword
    157 views3 pages
    This document discusses gender identity and gender roles. It argues that sex does not define gender, and gender consists of secondary characteristics that define a person. It asserts that everyone should be able to decide their own gender identity and roles. The document also discusses how media and society often portray restrictive gender roles and ideals, and how breaking free of these allows people to truly accept themselves.

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    A paper on gender definition

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    This document discusses gender identity and gender roles. It argues that sex does not define gender, and gender consists of secondary characteristics that define a person. It asserts that everyone should be able to decide their own gender identity and roles. The document also discusses how media and society often portray restrictive gender roles and ideals, and how breaking free of these allows people to truly accept themselves.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    157 views3 pages

    Gender Definition

    Uploaded by

    Nick Tipsword
    This document discusses gender identity and gender roles. It argues that sex does not define gender, and gender consists of secondary characteristics that define a person. It asserts that everyone should be able to decide their own gender identity and roles. The document also discusses how media and society often portray restrictive gender roles and ideals, and how breaking free of these allows people to truly accept themselves.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    Nick Tipsword

    Critter

    Prof. Zorn

    11/2/16


    Gender Definition

    To define ones gender is to define ones identity. To truly understand this you

    must first understand the separation between sex and gender. Sex does not define your

    gender but is how you are anatomically born. Gender consists of all the secondary

    characteristics that define who a person is and how they act. In the past if you were born

    a certain sex along with that came a list of things you could and could not do. In 2016

    things are changing and people are becoming more accepting of those who do not

    conform to these gender roles, and along with that more and more people feel less

    pressure to conform to the gender roles that are expected of them. It is my belief that

    everyone should be allowed to decide how they identify their gender and the roles they

    want to play in the world.

    Gender roles were very clearly portrayed in a few of the documentaries we

    watched. In The Mask You Live In we see countless stories from young men who have

    been raised to believe that because they are born with a penis they must act like a man.

    The longer we raise our kids this way the more destructive this ideal becomes. It is clear

    that the ideal they are emphasizing is one where we teach young men to idolize

    masculinity and reject feminine qualities, but we are also teaching boys that the only

    option they have to identify themselves is as a cisgendered man. In Miss Representation


    Nick Tipsword

    Critter

    Prof. Zorn

    11/2/16


    we see a similar problem portrayed through different means. In the media we see women

    used as objects to sell products and pander to men, while this tackles the larger issue of

    the objectification of women we also see a trend of developing gender roles for how

    people born with a vagina must behave. If you are born female you according to the

    media you must identify as a female and care about your looks, be hyper feminine in all

    aspects of life, and enjoy doing domestic tasks. Teaching girls that they must be bound

    by the confines of one basic gender is to teach girls that they cannot be who they are.

    I personally identify with gender definition as a young gay man. While I still

    refer to myself as male I do not conform to any of the ideals that are associated with that

    phrase. Growing up I was always a very feminine boy and I was tormented for it.

    Parents of my friends would refer to me as the gay kid long before I knew what the

    word gay even meant. The only way I began to feel comfortable with the person I am

    was by accepting that the textbook definition of my gender was not all there was. I did

    not have to be a typical man. I got to decide the person that I wanted to be and how I

    wanted to define myself by taking control of my own gender identity.

    As young people today we are the generation that can begin to truly accept who

    we are on a basic level. For hundreds of years the human race has been forcing each

    other into boxes to restrict people from thinking beyond societies social constructs, but
    Nick Tipsword

    Critter

    Prof. Zorn

    11/2/16


    its time for that to change. If we believe that everyone can use their gender to embrace

    who they are then we can become a more loving and accepting world. While media may

    continue to portray characters they are the ideals of a gender we must remember that they

    are only portraying what viewers expect to see. It is up to us to break that stigma and

    change how others see gender, and introduce a new age of self-acceptance.

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