The issue of what makes us who we are, dealing with gender roles and expectations, have definitely shaped controversies all over the world and began topics of debate ever since the woman’s rights movement started. Are men and women different because of our ancestral background and biological systems? Or, do both only seem different because of the way society shapes all of us? This is a debate of “nature versus nurture”. Nature is our genes and nurture is how we are raised through means from society, family, peers, school, and the media. There are two main reasons why this issue is universally controversial. One reason is because people say that it is sexist to think that men and women aren’t the same and this stirs up many arguments. The other reason deals with religion. Do you think more in a scientist’s perspective or more in a spiritual, religious perspective? In this debate, there will be two perspectives from each side that will be heavily dealt with. Diana Kendall, the author of Society in Our Times, will be presented on the “nurture” side of the debate because of the plethora of information found in her textbook, and the idea that her books are being taught in Sociology classes, is important to this issue because that means many teachers believe that it is true.

In the film documentary, Men, Women & The Sex Difference, John Stossel, a journalist and a father, hosts and plays an important part on the “nature” side of the debate. First of all, John has raised both genders, so he says that “There are distinct differences between them.” To help John out, June Reinisch, a PhD psychologist says that “Difference is great and the whole idea that males and females are different come from biological studies.” It’s all comes from when the sperm meets the egg to form a zygote, then eventually, the newborn is different because of the excess amount of androgen and estrogen in both boys and girls. There are only few exceptions, but almost all have the same amount of each in them: boys with much androgen and girls with much estrogen.

The directional study was a plan hosted many times in the recent years, and is a common method to show how different both genders are when it comes to remembering and showing how to arrive at a certain destination through certain clues, and path routes. In almost all cases, the men would state direct ways of where to go, such as saying, “left” or “right”. They wouldn’t be specific and point to certain landmarks, like the women did. The females remembered in detail where to go, but men seemed to have a stronger sense of direction. The final part of the test was when they blindfolded a guy and a gal to show how to get from point A to point B, of course, with having a guide with them so they don’t knock into a wall or a person. It turns out that men were able to show them the way more effectively than woman. This proves the idea that men have an excellent sense of direction, while woman, have a direct mind for detail.

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The second study that went on was a trial to see if monkey’s would act different if they were injected with more androgen to prove the idea that the chemicals in our bodies shape who we are and how we act as either a male or a female. So, they injected a female monkey with the androgen and she acted exactly like a male monkey. We have an extreme connection with monkeys in terms of DNA, so this was another successful study that determined the conclusion that men and women are different because of our chemical formulas. Also, Laura Allen, an M.D. from doing research at UCLA, stated that “Out of eight samples, seven were different…” when comparing the brain of a man and of a woman.

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That was the first perspective: that men and women are contrasted by the chemicals in our bodies and by how are bodies are different in that way. The second perspective on the “nature” side deals with our ancestral background. Both of these points directly link to the proposed thought that we are just born different and our roles we have in society would be better formed if we acted on those stereotypical roles, and it’s alright to expect no lawsuits that would simply steal our hard-earned money away from us.

Helen Fischer, an anthropologist with a PhD says that: “We have four million years of differences in our evolving processes throughout those years. This leads to the way are ancestral background is, which relate to our genes.” We act and feel the way they used, and it was the stereotypical roles that they played before leading up to the twenty-first century. Even if people are bothered by this topic, we must educate ourselves, and to do that, we must investigate in further studies.

The second side is the “nurture” side where people from these two perspectives believe that society is the prominent component to how we are formed ever since this sexist society has been created. The first perspective shows that television and the media, especially in this day and age, shape the way we raise our kids. Bella Abzug, Gloria Steinem, and Gloria Allred are women that helped improve the equality of women in today’s world, and they make great points on why we view our baby boys and girls differently. TV shows, such as Sesame Street are sexist because they show more male main characters, so the children will think that the leaders are supposed to be a man in life. Steinem says that “We are conditioned by our sexist society, and the culture, and we just treat our kids different.”

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f you bring your kid to a store full of toys, more than likely, you will go to the blue section filled with action figures for your boy, and you will go to the mostly pink section filled with Barbie dolls and makeup kits for your girl. This generally comes from the media showing girls playing with Barbie dolls and boys playing with airplanes, tanks, fake guns, and toy trucks. Abzug concludes this by saying that, “In the sexist society we live in, it forces us to shape us to agree to images that shape our society and expectations.”

The first perspective from the “nurture” side of the debate came from the film documentary, to reiterate, Men, Women & The Sex Difference, which is that we, as men and women together, form our thoughts from sexist roles, images, and words from society, the media, which relates to how we are raised from our parents. They say that we aren’t shaped as much from genes, but more from what we pick up as we grow older. The second side’s second point comes from the author, Diana Kendall, who wrote the book, Society in Our Times, which is being and have been taught in schools. She adds on to the “nurture” side by stating opinions and facts without being too frank about what she believes in.

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Kendall basically says that the studies that show that males are more competitive with games with many people (baseball, etc.) and girls, the opposite (hopscotch, etc.) are distinctly different only because of the “feeling accepted” factor with their friends. Boys feel more masculine and strong when they finally find that group of friends that accept him because of what he does. If that boy comes to school and dresses like a girl, then he will be ridiculed, so this comes from years of gender roles that need to be altered in some way. However, now-a-days, if a girl dresses like a guy, she is accepted, so society has improved, but not by much. People still get ridiculed for being homosexual from sexists and highly religious people. The way parents raise kids are most likely going to be the same when it comes to how they were raised themselves, so it’s reasonable to say, that that will affect how their kids are raised directly no matter how much they are different from the other gender.

So, it’s a debate between how we are formed at birth and how we are formed through life. I believe that it can go both ways; however, it is safe to say that I think society shapes us mostly, and our “nature” shapes us somewhat. I would say a 3:1 ratio (75% nurture, 25% nature) because we learn many ideas through life and we, as humans, want to be accepted into society, and to do that, sexist roles and expectations can be made into your decision for what you do during the longs hours of the day. People aren’t all the same and for everyone to be accepted, we do not need a sexist society, but that will take many years to reach. I don’t want more lawsuits because I don’t want to pay for them, but it takes a couple to make sure that women can do “man occupations” and men can do “women occupations,” then so be it. However, the money to pay for the lawsuits should come from the government and not from the citizens that have nothing to do with the cases. Personally, I do believe men and women are very different, according to the studies with monkeys and the “Directional Study” that I saw. They helped me believe what I already believed. I know that both sexes are distinctly different, and yes, certain roles are better suited. On the other hand, the exceptions that want to do the other sex’s stereotypical role should be accepted by society. I certainly can’t wait until that day, but for now, I will think and try to help other people think non-bias thoughts, so I can feel better about think that we actually might accept all minorities someday.