Gender is defined by the Oxford Dictionaries as ‘either of the two sexes, especially when considered with references to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones’. Empirical analysis puts forward the concept that gender roles are “socially constructs that vary significantly across time, context, and culture” (Levant, R.F.) . When we consider gender as a social construct this means that the concept of being male or female has been created and accepted by the people in society (for example, class distinction is a social construct). However, the term gender signifies a variety of identities that do not only match established ideas of male and female.
Considering the view that gender is socially constructed, infants are as ‘blank slates’ and through interactions with other human beings children learn what is expected from them in society. This occurs through different types of reinforcements, such as rewards (or punishments) for gender appropriate deviation. For example, when parents interact with their children different approaches take place based on the sex of the child. With boys, adults engage in more physical games, such as fighting. Meanwhile, with girls, parents are more likely to take part in less aggressive activities (McDonald and Parke, 1986), such as intellectually stimulating board games or doll playing. In addition, people respond differently when young boys or girls try to communicate with them (Fagot et al., 1985). For example, when boys demand attention by screaming or acting aggressively they will receive care and will be considered. However, when girls use aggressive behaviours they tend to be ignored; causing girls to act with more gently.
Furthermore, when children start school and enter teenage years they subdue to stronger reinforcement of gendered identities. For example, bullying between female and male students occur in different ways. On one hand, boys tend to bully other students through physical violence or sexist verbal practices of denigrating girls. This is linked to the machismo concept, for which boys are expected to subscribe to in order to be considered ‘normal boys’. On the other hand, girls tend to use exclusively verbal gossiping against each other without any physical actions. Overall, harassments based on gender identity reinforce the boundaries between students with different genders.
However, it can be argued that girls do not engage in physical fights because the human body structure of women is genetically weaker than men. Although, different social norms do strongly affect how girls or boys act, such as machismo or the view that women’s main purpose is childbearing and so all females must be characterised for being gentle, sensible and empathic.
The school environment and the parent behaviour are the main traits that characterise the existence of social construct in gender identity. However, there are also other factors that influence how individuals behave in society; such as social media, magazines and phone applications. For example, teen magazines, such as Seventeen, Teen Vogue and Teenage, teach teenagers how to act in certain scenarios. These magazines illustrate to the youth how to become ‘cool’ by explaining the teenage readers what to say to friends, family or ‘crushes’. This will influence the way in which teenagers act with one another, strengthening differences between gender identity. Furthermore, with social media online relationships and friendships can be built, however this increases the probability of manipulation of the youth’s identities.
Body image is another feature that separates men and women and there are many determinants affecting how people view their bodies and how they desire to look like. For example, some of these factors are: “Sex, media, parental relationship, and puberty as well as weight and popularity” . Teenage men are expected to have muscles, meanwhile young women desire large breasts and skinny bodies. Overall, this led to men and women’s identities being created and established in the society. This because not only physiological features between men and women exist but also physical and these are reinforced by parents, other teenagers and the whole society surrounding the individuals.
Nonetheless some populations in the world contribute to the view that gender is not socially constructed. Before the 20th century and the development of social media and high-technology communications, some Native American Indians did not distinguish men and women though physical characteristics; going against the Western gender norms. In fact, men that preferred cooking or weaving could dress like females and marry other women. Meanwhile, women that were more inclined to fight and hunt belonged to the male group. An example of people who did not conform to the Western ideals is known as ‘berdache’. This term was used by Europeans to identify men and women that became part of the women or male group, by dressing and acting like the opposite sex. However, due to colonisation and the spread of Western norms berdache traditions and the people part of it were forced out and segregated from the rest of the world’s ideals on gender.
However, today many movements of free self-expression exist, and Northern European countries are trying to promote this concept of unrestricted selfness, based on the concept that gender is mostly socially constructed. In Sweden, for example, toy company catalogues must illustrate both boys and girls playing with dolls and both sexes playing with guns as well. In addition, in 2012 Swedish people introduced a genderless pronoun “hen” that means both he and she. In spite of all these actions, males and female are different and continue to behave differently from an early age also if there is no social pressure on the child. This can be due to biological characteristic; women have female hormones and men have male hormones and this cannot be influenced by social pressure from friends and family. For example, testosterone makes men act in a more recklessly, making them more impulsive and increasing their self-confidence.
Overall, Sweden’s aim to eliminate the gender boundary between children in schools is hard to achieve, especially because the physical differences between males and females are uncontradictable. So, what if a man or a woman is born without their sexual organs? In 1967 David Reimer suffered irreparable damage to his penis in an accident when he was an infant. He was clinically castrated and treated with female hormones during his puberty. Reimer was raised as a girl with female genitals and was dressed like one. However, Reimer always identified himself as a male and rejected the female identity and this resulted for him to develop depression. This unhappiness of living in the opposite sex caused Reimer to conduct suicide. Demonstrating that even if a certain gender identity is socially expected from an individual it does not mean that gender is uniquely a social construct, as gender can be considered partly inborn.
Overall, by trying to forcefully eliminate the gender boundaries (believing that gender is not socially constructed) this can result in identity damages, as it happened with the case of David Reimer. Nevertheless, from the opposing point of view (that gender is mostly socially constructed): if some people do not conform to the Western gender criteria and sexual norms this does not mean that people such as the berdache have to be pushed out, as this could also harm individuals and so the whole society.
Altogether, it cannot be denied that social factors affect gender identity, and this occurs especially through peer pressure, parent behaviour towards the child and through many other determinants, such as social media and magazines. This means that gender can be shaped, especially based on where individuals live (considering time, location and culture) and so the cultural traits that surround them. However, it can be stated that gender is partially inborn as there are main differences between men and women, such as hormones, so, gender cannot be always altered completely. Our view of men and women’s as separate identities exists because, first of all, we are not sexually all the same and secondly because through historical development men and women’s identity have been created and established and now it is nearly impossible to change the opinion of millions of individuals. To conclude, gender is a significant aspect of self-identity for majority of the human population.