Aaron Devor, the author of the essay “Gender Role Behaviors and Attitudes”, states that gender is a social construct that has very little to do with biology. On the other hand, Deborah Blum, in her essay “The Gender Blur: Where Does Biology End And Society Take Over”, claims that while society has an effect on gender, so does biology. In this essay, I plan to present the argument that biology and society both have an effect on gender. I, like Blum, noticed biological gender differences in my children (two boys and a girl). As a father who has raised his children to believe that, men and women both do the housework, I noticed that my boys were much more aggressive than my daughter ever was even before pre-school. Therefore, I feel my insight
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Femininity is characterized by passivity and submission, while masculinity is defined as the dominant and aggressive role. These characteristics have typically been used to identify a person’s assigned or chosen sex. The “natural roles” of males and females are derived from the gender behavior, males that perform the feminine activities, and vice versa, the female that performs the masculine activities will be “rewarded with ridicule for blurring the gender lines.” (506). According to the patriarchal gender schema currently in use in Northern America, all feminine characteristics are the result of a “natural” dependency on men and “therefore find themselves relatively helpless and dependent on males for support and protection” (509). However, according to Devor, that should be impossible since “biological evidence is equivocal about the source of gender roles” (510). I can understand how society affects the “normal gender behavior” where sometimes a female has assumed the masculine role and the male has assumed the feminine role out of necessity of life. For example, a man could be forced into acting in the feminine role, if a man and wife had some children, and the wife left, who would raise the children? The man would have to assume the motherly role. What about the male chef, the female racecar driver, the female construction equipment driver, the list goes on and on, some of these folks have suffered from being ridiculed, but others are very well thought of
Femininity is characterized by passivity and submission, while masculinity is defined as the dominant and aggressive role. These characteristics have typically been used to identify a person’s assigned or chosen sex. The “natural roles” of males and females are derived from the gender behavior, males that perform the feminine activities, and vice versa, the female that performs the masculine activities will be “rewarded with ridicule for blurring the gender lines.” (506). According to the patriarchal gender schema currently in use in Northern America, all feminine characteristics are the result of a “natural” dependency on men and “therefore find themselves relatively helpless and dependent on males for support and protection” (509). However, according to Devor, that should be impossible since “biological evidence is equivocal about the source of gender roles” (510). I can understand how society affects the “normal gender behavior” where sometimes a female has assumed the masculine role and the male has assumed the feminine role out of necessity of life. For example, a man could be forced into acting in the feminine role, if a man and wife had some children, and the wife left, who would raise the children? The man would have to assume the motherly role. What about the male chef, the female racecar driver, the female construction equipment driver, the list goes on and on, some of these folks have suffered from being ridiculed, but others are very well thought of