Theorizing Gender
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Upon entering this gender and communication class, my ideas of gender development stemmed largely from my own experience and observations. I mostly believed that how you deal with what you experience (the internal assessment that is turned into your personal history) is who you become. So, as I go through my life and faced multiple scenarios, I tell myself a story of what happened and have a stored feeling or reaction on some level, whether it conscious or unconscious. In turn, as I go throughout my life, these pre-experienced events are affecting my interpretation of the present reality. As I unconsciously compare this scenario to those that have come before, I better define my relationship with the external world. It is in this internal dialog that I develop my identity and gender. Not only is it the external forces implied through society, culture and biology, but also how my “soul” filters that information determines how I internalize these influences. With that said, my idea about how gender is developed match more closely to the cultural theories, especially the anthropology and standpoint theories within.
We can start to see humanistic norms when cross-cultural analysis is made. The examples used to explain the anthropology theory attest to the importance on societal emphasis in the development of gender identity. As someone is encouraged to engage in one activity or another, they advance in that area due to the channeled intension and focus. This is why the Tahitian men can be socialized into a more traditionally feminine role and Native American societies have women who take on traditionally masculine categorized traits. The Anthropology theory is still missing the perspective of the individual though, which is why the standpoint theory is also needed. An individual perspective on the society in which he/she lives contributes greatly to the way in which that individual develops. I agree with this because I think that the internal dialog is encouraging that person to be a certain way whether it to appease or reject the societal norms. A culture may put into place a map for which its people should follow so that they can identify with that culture, however the levels of understanding of the multiple roles varies greatly as well as the acceptance of that plan. As the standpoint theory illuminates in a class structure, those who are on the lower end of the class structure, usually understand the dynamics of those on top, while the