Gender

Gender is a very strange topic in today's society. Many people don't know what to do with people who are transvestites or transsexuals and they often times hate them because they are different. People always think that there can only be two types of gender: masculine and feminine. People also feel that these genders most always correspond to a person's sex. So if the person is a male, then most people wouldn't accept that person into society if they acted feminine. In a variety of contexts, the word "gender" is used to describe the masculinity or femininity of words, persons, characteristics, or non-human organisms. I was raised in a pre-dominantly male society and of course I inherited those influences. My mom was not allowed to go to college, she got married young and her role as a woman meant to give birth to children, raise her children, clean the house and not have any role in the decision making of the husband what so ever. My father was the bread-basket of our family and made sure that we were protected at all times and made sure we went to school. Sad enough to say I believe that influence is still in me and will never die. Not so strict of course, because I will never deny my wife her right towards education but still some things would bother me.

In Cahill's "Fashioning Gender Identity", the author points out a very important example about how kids are raised and try to fit in their specific gender. The dialog between the young boy who asks his friend to zip his dress and his friends opposition to doing it, telling him that "Those are girls things". There we can see that others encourage young children to "dress into" their ascribed sex-class identity. Also the boys choice to put make-up on because its Halloween is a way to find an excuse, because that is the only day of the year that its fine for the gender role to put make-up on. Meanwhile, Milkie's article " The Impact