Gender and gender roles are the identity of individuals in the community as either male or female due to the culture around an individual. Societal orientations of gender and gender roles require that the different sexes behave and think in a particular manner because of their genders. For instance, the dressing code of feminine individuals is quite different from those that are masculine. The basic environment that an individual is exposed to primarily dictates their gender roles and personalization. For instance, when a child is born into the society, they have no exposure to television or internet and therefore their parents, teachers and friends during childhood are responsible for reinforcing their gender roles. While boys are expected to play what is perceived as boy games and be hard, girls do not have the same expectations of them. Each generation perceives and expects young children to behave and follow a laid out path that defines both genders. More often than not a kid can be ridiculed for crying like a girl or kicking a ball like a girl. Somewhat, an individual has little or no choice in defining their gender roles because of the gender expectation from the society towards young children. Conforming to the societal gender expectation is approved by the society while anything less is repulsed. It is important to let young generations to choose their own gender especially because of the effects of forcing gender roles on each gender.
According to Yaber and Sayad (2016), a lot of children are born with disorders of sex development amongst other conditions that are not clearly male or female. When children are born with ambiguous sexual organs, it is hard to tell whether they are born to be female or male. The possibility of such disorders is enough proof that society should have little or no role to decide what gender role any individual should play. Most doctors, parents and organizations take it into their hands to operate on such young children mutilating one sexual organ and leaving the child with the most prominent organ. However, undoing a child’s gender takes more than surgery and removing one sexual organ. The possibility that the child could still be a female trapped in a man’s body is evident especially since the young kids are never consulted or left alone to reach an age when they can decide to be either male or female. Democracy works in more way than just politics and governments. Denying young generations to choose their genders and gender roles is the highest form of dictatorship by society towards individuals that have disorders of sex development.
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Gender and gender roles designed by the society are affected by gender dysphoria where a study emphasizing on the sense in a person identifies lack of sync between the genders of a person and how they truly feel. Sexual incongruence makes an individual distressed primarily because of societal opposition, and such people are unable to live life fully. In most instances, a person may strongly feel as the opposite gender and uncomfortable with being in one gender. Yaber and Sayad (2016) identify this form of condition as different with transgender since transgender individuals do not feel distressed about their sexual identity. The essence of democracy is to live and let live. However, in the current and past society little effort has been taken to ensure that folks who suffer from gender dysphoria have the freedom to live while identifying with the opposite genders although their natal gender is not similar with how the individuals in question are born. Gender development and orientation as people interact in the society. Gender roles exist, whether bad or good, but at the same time, the reality tends to portray the failure of the society’s attempt to choose people’s gender. Tellingly, people should be allowed to choose the gender they identify with, whether male or female, despite the fact that the same might not be in sync with their natal genders.
Conclusively, gender and gender roles have been mainly a set of rules decided by the older adults and societal institutions. While a family setting is the primary circle of interaction for an individual, schools and childhood exposure plays a secondary role. It is high time people who insist on sharing gender roles and who should identify with being female or male as a failure. It is impossible to set rules that guide each gender as the decision to identify with whichever gender should be reserved for every individual. The experience of living life fully for people suffering from the above-discussed disorders and much more depends on the possibility of being accepted in the society as part of humanity. However, history has denied such people who do not follow the rules the opportunity to experience life. From the authors of Human Sexuality: Diversity in Contemporary America Yaber and Sayed’s exploration of the conditions it is logical to conclude that gender and gender roles are hard to determine. The society should not force people to conform to certain rules that have been in existence for centuries just to conform to the rules.
References
Yarber, W. L., & Sayad, B. W. (2016). Human sexuality: Diversity in contemporary America .
