Gender and Family Life

This week we have been discussing the topic of gender. In the Marriage and Family text, I learned that sex and gender, although seem to mean the same thing, are actually defined differently. Sex refers to to your biological identity, while gender refers to males and females as social creatures. Gender roles are the behaviors associated with being male or female. Gender-role orientation is the conception of self having masculine and feminine traits.

We can determine our traits as being more masculine or feminine by taking a test of whether we have more instrumental male traits (aggressiveness, competitiveness, self-confidence, and logic-achievement qualities) or female expressive traits (warmth, caring, sensitivity, and nurturance-relationship qualities).

Is being more masculine or feminine a bad thing? No, but studies show that being androgynous, or having both male and female characteristics whether you are a boy or girl, helps you live a more successful life! For example, men who exhibit the female characteristic of good communication may reap satisfaction of having better intimate relationships. Females, may benefit from the male characteristic of aggression to achieve well in school or other pursuits.

So what defines male and female traits? How do we know if these traits come to be socialized or are they biological? According to science, a little bit of both. Initially, environment plays a big part in nurturing our inborn temperaments. Interestingly enough, there are observed differences between males and females at birth. Female infants tend to have more eye contact while males exhibit aggressiveness. This may be due to hormones. As babies get older, they are even drawn to stereotypical toys- sports for boys and dolls for girls. Boys tend to draw towards those activities that are aggressive. Furthermore, this may account for why males tend to have better spacial skills and girls fine-motor. However, with our society beginning to change, as girls engage in other activities, girls are reaching the same level or higher in achievement in the mathematics. The conclusion is, males and females are equally capable.

Some of us are born more with female characteristics than male. Some girls call themselves "tom-boys." They usually like doing boy-ish things. When I watched the video by John Stossel called, Men, Women, and Sex Differences, it referred to Tom-boys as CAH girls. Their biological make-up has more testosterone. These girls typically will find themselves feeling different from the other girls of their gender. While their same-sex friends are playing with barbies, they like to play with the boy toys or immerse themselves in aggressive activities. The woman that was interviewed in the video was grown up and happily married to her husband, but even still, liked to continue to chop wood. Interestingly enough, when scientists observed monkeys, the females tended to be the ones nurturing their young, but the males often fought with each other. When females were injected with the hormone testosterone, they stopped nurturing and started fighting. 

      Then when reading about Transgenderism: A Pathogenic Meme, by Paul McHugh, I learned how the Johns Hopkins hospitals are getting rid of sex change surgeries for children because it is unethical and 80 percent of the time by the time of late adolescence, it resolves itself. In sex change surgery, children are given hormone medicines that block puberty that result in sterilization and other significant health risks. Sadly enough, the suicide rate goes up 20 times for those who have sex change surgery.