Gender Differences and Roles

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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.