Jonathan Harrington

Hinks

BI-218x-01

22 June 2016

Reflective Essay

The artifacts and assignments done on gender have helped me learn that gender is actually a culture, and not just an identifying marker for an individual. However, I have found that certain genders have more benefits and equality than any of the other genders, with the best example is the male gender since many societies in the past and present are still paternalistic societies. The most distinctive feature of gender is how others perceive your gender and how they act towards it. Many people have hard stereotypes for many genders, and look down upon genders that aren’t their own.

Gender is described as the sex that people identify as (Artifact 1). While many people believe that there are only two genders, there are many more than just the two. They identify as their own gender through psychological influences, social influences, and behavior (Artifact 1). Through these three categories, people are able to decide what gender group that they fall under. These genders are defined through the gender roles in society. The problem with identifying like this is that gender roles are not completely accurate to today’s society. Many females, who are traditionally stay at home moms or housewives, are now out in the business world or the military. This applies to males as well, who are traditionally the warriors and hunters, are now stay at home dads and take care of the family from the home front (Artifact 2).

Due to globalization and the beginning of acceptance in the identification of gender, gender roles are becoming much more broadened than they use to be. Gender roles in ancient times, and even in the traditional societies of today, were extremely different. As stated above, male and females had their specific roles, and neither was allowed to intertwine without being accepted amongst their communities. Those who attempted to change were scrutinized and not accepted, and sometimes were even killed. This mindset lasted until the beginning of the feminist movement in the 1960’s, which began to spark some equality and intertwining of the genders. This change can be shown in the Global Gender Gap, as some countries are still in the traditional patrilineal societies. A country like Iceland is very accepting and believes in gender equality. This allows them to rank consistently in the top 3 of the best countries to live in as a female or mother (Artifact 3). On the other end of the spectrum, Africa is still in a very patrilineal society. This causes females to be constantly under scrutiny and is always vulnerable to being raped and murdered throughout many countries in Africa. Many of these African countries are at the bottom of the list in countries to live in as a female (Artifact 3). There is some movement toward helping progress in these countries, as many are being westernized and becoming progressive. It has shown that in these countries, the big cities do not show as heavy of a gender gap as that of the tribal civilizations, but gender equality is finally being spread into these countries, and will hopefully take hold and progress forward.

The bigger issue than just the male versus female gender roles in society is the transgender and intersex genders. These people are hugely scrutinized, even in the most progressive of countries. In order for people who identify as trans or intersex, to get anywhere in life, such as jobs, they have to hide their identity, and play the part of the gender that society thinks they are. In many cases, even in the USA, people who are open about their identification are even murdered, just because of their gender orientation (Artifact 4). On top of being shamed, they are also not even able to show their identity in many cases. For example, on passports, there are only two genders that are identifies, male and female. For someone that doesn’t identify as either has a hard time trying to express their gender because they are afraid of the gender shaming that will come along with it. Another example is the Hijra of India. These people are transgender females, who were males that received gender reconstruction surgery. When they undergo this process, they are thrown out of their families, and disowned by the community, which forced them to make up their own community in order to avoid persecution. While not accepted now, many changes are taking place in order for them to be accepted in society (Artifact 4).

Hopefully, in today’s ever-changing society, some progress can be made in order to have equality amongst all genders. A current event, the Orlando shooting, shows that many people are not ready to progress into the new era, and hopefully instances like these can be stopped in the future. The debate about transgender bathrooms is a heavily discussed topic among many groups and organizations, with many people denying that it will ever happen. However, the future is coming, and many of these cases will be present in different scenarios and there will have to be a push for equality in order for the world to progress as a whole.