Essay Sample on Gender and Sexuality

Typical features of masculinity and femininity in American society have been very developed over the years. In the early stages of our culture, you would never see a girl dress like a boy, that was never heard of. What was the meaning of “dressing like a boy” in the old days? Well let's talk about the stereotypes acquitted with boy clothing at the time. Boy clothing usually entails colors that are dull like gray, navy blue or brown. They are usually wearing jeans or overalls, dress pants occasionally. Girls were made to wear dresses and look presentable all the time. Unless you are Mulan, it was something you couldn't stride for and shouldn't stride for in that society. Around the mid 1950/60s, women started dressing the way they wanted to, wearing jeans and shirts like the men. This has developed into a regular occurrence, and no one sees anything wrong with this. Now let's talk about the way girls should look in the media and ads in America. During the 1960/70s, Jean Kilborne started documenting ads that discriminately set an unimaginable president for women. They showed that you needed to be skinny and fit and pretty and smart and be willing to do anything to become beautiful. Some of the ads read “If your hair isn’t beautiful, the rest hardly matters” and “I’d probably never be married now, if I hadn't lost 49 pounds”. These headlines show the bar at which you were meant to meet, and it is, like I said, unimaginable for many people. Now that time has gone on, ads have changed their demographic to children, while also making their standards higher. Now young ladies strive to be like these photoshopped, ultra-skinny beauty models that they don’t know aren't real. It is impossible for them to look that way, but unfortunately they don’t know that. Now how do men get shown in these same ads? Well, the only photoshopping being done is making the guy even bigger. Young boys are now being shown photoshopped, giant dudes who have abnormally large muscles. This, of course, is somewhat unreachable for most boys. There is even a racial bias when it comes to ads, with Kilborne noting how they photoshop women of color to be lighter. She even showed a picture of Beyonce that was photoshopped to look lighter. 

Gender and sexuality are socially constructed in many ways, and I will be talking about the five I find most important. First, I want to talk about the social construction of gender and sexuality through family. In a family environment, you tend to take a lot of things away from your parents and siblings. This can be good, like learning good manners and good work ethic, and it can also be bad, like being abused mentally and physically. Gender in the family starts with the colors we put on different clothes, and the type of toys we play with as kids. We also teach them different chores to do around the house, to fit the gender of the baby. In Lecture 2: The Institutionalization of Gender and Sexuality there was a great quote addressing this. “For instance, girls are often given dolls to play with at a young age to teach them how to be good nurturers and caretakers, whereas boys are often given blocks, or Legos, or puzzles to solve, emphasizing their motor skills and problem-solving activities”. This shows how the family side of gender starts you out having bias toward other objects, activities, and even colors. Next is media. Media is where you can spread information the fastest and there are very strict presidents set in it. One of them is with the gender of a person and how you should act. These are filled with stereotypes, like men being tough and dominant, and women being submissive and emotional. Media spreads this information like hotcakes, showing young people on the internet what they should wear, how they should act and how they should look. Education is one of the outlets many people have from home. Where they can converse with their peers and have like minded chat with others. You should be able to be yourself, but unfortunately that isn't how it works in school. Women are pushed away from many different forms of learning paths because of their gender, as is stated in Lecture 2. “Women are often socialized away from fields associated with Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics (STEM) and encouraged to follow specific academic paths that are more nurturing, and often less well-paid”. Why is this? Well many say it is because schools believe the women aren't smart enough, and better suited for other roles. Even if they do pursue one of the men dominated fields, they are pushed back against and usually quit while being discriminated against the entire way because of their sex. Women are usually put in a situation where caretaking is their main option. This puts immense pressure on them as this is a main part of society, but it also limits the amount of caretaking jobs for men. Work is where a lot of issues arise with gender and sex. There are very revealing statistics about the way education pushes certain jobs, as shown in Lecture 2. “Consider the following data compiled by sociologist Anthony Giddens and his colleagues: 97% of people majoring in Early Childhood Education across the United States in 2011 were women. 90% of all majors in nursing, elementary education, library science, and school counseling were women. 90% of engineering majors were men”.

This shows how society pushes different work onto different sexes. There is of course the pay gap between men and women, where the message is blatantly clear. Women's work is worth less than men's. Woman are also the victims of discrimination and sexual assault in the workplace. There is a great piece of writing in Lecture 2 talking about the way government discriminates against everything that isn't heterosexual, like how Louisiana prohibited the use of materials showing “male or homosexual activity”. The government obviously shows a distaste to something irregular like same sex material, and they arent afraid to hide it. Stratification of our society has been around for a very long time, and has only recently started changing. Stratification is where sexual orientation is ranked in the American society, withheterosexuality being the top of the line. It is thought of as ideal and the only right way. Different sexualities are discriminated against in this way with being looked at in a very wrong and unfair sense. They are looked at as underneath being straight. This can impact someone's life, as if they like another sex their lives can become a living hell of discrimination, misunderstanding and unfair treatment. 

My experiences with these social constructions of gender and sexuality have been shaped by a very loving and understanding family life growing up. My parents didn't care and do not care who I choose to date and love, even if I am straight. I was taught it was okay to have a feminine side and show emotions as a guy, which really helped me through some tough moments. I have become okay wearing “girl” colors and showing a feminine side, like growing out my hair and wearing a ponytail. I was very fortunate with the way I was raised, and I am very happy I was raised this way.