Deconstructing Society’s Rules

Type :

Term papers

Pages :

3 pages

Format :

.doc

Published date :

05/03/2007

Category :

Political science

Sub category :

Social sciences

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Summary :

Abstract

Before children are even born, their gender is already being regulated. With the advent of technology, such as the sonogram, parents can learn the sex of their child before its birth. When it is time for the baby shower, if parents choose not to find out the sex of their child, guests must buy gender neutral colors like yellow, so that the baby will be appropriately clothed. This ambiguity often causes some discomfort because people do not know what to expect. If the parents do announce the sex of the child, the gifts will follow the requisite color scheme: blue for boys and pink for girls. Once the baby is born, the first question people ask is often not, "Is the baby healthy?", but "Is it a boy or a girl?". People seem to need to know the sex of the child, so that they can determine how they will interact with the infant. These examples illustrate some explicit ways in which gender is regulated from very early in life. However, these examples do not even begin to scrape the surface of the complicated ways in which gender and sexuality are implicitly and explicitly regulated by our society, by our peers, by our families, and by ourselves. We are taught to behave in certain ways, to dress in certain colors, and to play with certain toys in order to be considered "normal"; however, after a while, we no longer need external regulation because we internalize gender roles and accepted expressions of sexuality.