Artifact 1 seeks to provide some information on my background and upbringing and as a result it establishes my beliefs coming in to this lecture. It also expresses my hopes for our culture as a whole and my opinion on how misinformation or at the very least not being informed at all is what creates the most problems when it comes to gender roles and respect.

          Prior to enrolling in this course, I really did not even give much thought to “sex” and “gender,” much less think

about what either one of the terms meant. From pre-school to high school, I attended a private and Catholic school.

The curriculum and the lack of resources, never really allowed for any education on gender and sex outside of

religious text. Before lecture, I thought that the terms “sex” and “gender” were interchangeable and both described a

person’s biology. Now that I know the differences between the two concepts I have begun to think more about how

each one of the terms affects an individual’s life.

          Being more educated on the difference, I know better understand how restrictive these terms are on people. I

can better grasp the difficulty that transgendered individual may face. Biologically being one sex and personally

identifying as another. I believe that the lack of education regarding the matter is what causes such conflict and

controversy around the world, but more specifically in the United States (i.e. the “Bathroom Bills”). I think that if all

were educated on the topic and understood that gender is nothing other than a concept that society itself has created,

then people would be more understanding. This understanding, in my opinion, would also shatter the notion that

women are less capable than men, and therefore deserve to be paid less for holding and completing the same role as

a male counterpart.

          The implications on the way that we define sex and gender are tenfold. As I previously mentioned, just by being

more educated and better understanding the terms our society will adjust the roles that it ascribes to gender into

making them equal and as a result the expectations of both genders will also be equal. This goes beyond the home or

workplace, in my opinion it will lead to decreasing levels of homophobia and a more welcoming culture.

Jonathan Verhoff

BI218X

VMI Class of 2017

HR: NONE