Many argue that gender roles are culturally rather than biologically produced and whiles a person’s sex refers to biological differences between male and females, it is through gender socialisation that a person acquires his or her gender. It is through this process that a person learns what is masculine and feminine, and how to act accordingly, dependant on the surroundings he or she is in. ()
Giddens states that when speaking of sexual differences we are distinguishing between males and females, when speaking of gender it is between masculine and feminine. The content of the male / female distinction is genetically determined and largely universal, whereas the content of the masculine / feminine distinction is culturally determined and highly variable. (Giddens, pg 148, 1987)
Depending on the society in which we live depends on the activities and characteristics donated to males and females, and while these may be deemed as natural within their own unique culture this may not be so throughout all of society.
An example of this being the rituals carried out within the Sambia, an initiation takes place were the main purpose is to make boys big and strong and to make them aggressive warriors. They have to be removed from their mothers and other females as this will also remove their feminine traits, such as shyness and crying. The initiation process involves ridding them of these feminine traits and unlearning all of their so far learnt behaviour. They have to learn how to be masculine. However, this is also a slight two fold initiation in that the Sambia believe that as the male body is incapable of producing semen it has to be externally acquired, as the presence of semen in the body is a sign of masculinity. The semen is digested orally, provided by older members of the men’s secret society. The boys will never be allowed back to theirs mothers again and will remain with the other male members of the tribe throughout their childhood, teenage years and early manhood. The female is seen as weaker and the boys can not be allowed to be weakened by her. (Herdt, pg 68, 1987)
As has already been identified different societies define gender roles in a variety of different ways, however what is evident is that regardless of culture or society, males tend to always have more power and more authority than women. (Giddens, pg 149, 1987) Anthropologists such as George Peter Murdoch argue that biological differences such as the greater physical strength of men and the fact that women bear children lead to a sexual division of labour in society. Murdoch surveyed 224 societies and found that tasks such as hunting, lumbering and mining are usually part of the male role, while cooking and child care were usually assigned to the women. Murdoch states that women were handicapped by the physiological burdens of pregnancy and nursing. (Haralambos, pg 267, 1986)
The rise of the Women’s Liberation Movement have contributed to the criticism that gender roles are shaped by biology, and more are now arguing that the roles of men and women are determined by culture and are therefore learned as part of the socialisation process, and ultimately there is nothing natural about the roles that women play. It is all learnt behaviour, and as Marjorie Garber states in Vested Interest (1991) the reason that that female to male transgendered people are not generally seen as that remarkable as their male to female equivalents is because it is quite normal in our male dominated culture for a woman to want to become a man, as it is still recognised that social power is most often attached to being male.
Even Sigmund Freud’s theory on gender was based on the idea that the ownership of a penis reflects masculinity and power, and being female means simply being absent of a penis. Girls, he states suffer from “penis envy” and due to this they under value their mother’s position in the family because she lacks a penis. The father is therefore generally in power and makes all females within the family adopt a submissive attitude. This is referred to by Freud as the Electra Complex.
Freud’s theory comes in for a lot of criticism by many, as most of his analysis is based solely on biological differences, namely the ownership of a penis. However, as Mark Johnson discovered whilst carrying out fieldwork in the Southern Philippines the ownership of a penis is not always a sign of masculinity and it is rather what is done with it. The ‘bantut’ he discovered was thought of by almost all of the community as a man who was either sexually impotent in some way, or who had a small penis, or who was unable to have or sustain an erection (Johnson, pg 94, 1997) It could not be conceived that the ‘bantut’ chose this way of life and the desire to be elegant and sensual, to take care over their appearance, to appreciate beauty, to be vulnerable and protected, to be tender and caring, to be coy and flirtatious. As in many cultures there are two types of gender, male and female, masculine or feminine. Transgender is a term that has over recent years entered the vocabulary as a term to designate to anyone not covered by the term, man or woman () However, it should be noted that transgender people, along with homosexuals, women and any number of racial and ethnic groups have joined the ranks of being publicly recognised minorities. ()
In Cross-Dressing and Re-Dressing: Transvestism as Metaphor, Gilbert and Gubar remark that both Violet Trefusis and Vita Sackville-West wrote about their experiences of there being more than one possibility of opposite genders:
In 1920, when Vita Sackville West looked back on her exuberant impersonation of the wounded soldier, ‘Julian’ during the height of her post war love affair with Violet Trefusis, she was bemused. She had experienced herself, she remembered, as inhabited by several sexes: “I hold the conviction that as centuries go on the sexes will become more nearly merged on account of their increasing resemblances” (Gilbert & Gumar, pg 324, 1989)
Clearly, this has not happened, eighty six years on and although, although it is not illegal for a man to wear women’s clothing, we would certainly not appear to be moving towards a gender free, multi-gender or even gender-balanced society, despite living in an age were hairstyles and clothing have such a huge impact on how we perceive a person and their individuality. Why in the twenty first century is it still more acceptable for a man to carry a knife than to wear women’s clothes, and why is it still so clear that they are women’s clothes. (Suthrell, pg 9, 2004)
The area of gender is a very confusing and at times very cloudy one. It appears that studies throughout history have shown that there are explicit differences between sex and gender and that it is society which transforms biological males and females into sociological men and women. Children it appears discover their gender identity from their parents and parents construct their identity by ensuring that they pursue interests and adopt mannerisms that are stereotypical of a male or female within their society. This means that from a very early age the child knows which gender category he or she falls into.
In Western society it could be argued that the media plays a huge role in depicting how males and females should behave, with women usually portrayed in the traditional role of mother and wife, or damsel in distress. Indeed, many fairytales, which have a huge influence on children still tend to portray men as the heroic male, who along with saving the planet will ultimately also have to save the female too.
Even in non Western societies were the media have very little or no influence gender roles are still very apparent, Ian Hogbin’s account of childbirth and the role of men in a New Guinea villages gives an account of men supposedly being too clumsy and unskilled to minister to a tiny infant, and therefore, the father does not touch his young offspring. After about two weeks the women may give it to him for a few minutes, but six months elapse before he holds it for any length of time. (Hogbin, pg 58, 1963) From birth this child will know his or her place within the village and thus history continues to repeat itself. Nobody within the village will question why things are done this way and social pressure will ensure that this is how things continue.
It could therefore be assumed that it is in fact social pressure which ensures that most within society conform to the gender role bequeathed to them, a role which they are led to believe is “normal” and this is why those who elect their own gender, whether that be male, female or something entirely different are usually pushed out of society and not accepted.
References
Garber, M, 1992, Vested Interests, Penguin, London
Giddens, A et al, Introductory Sociology, 2nd Edition, 1987, Macmillan Education, Hampshire
Gilbert and Gubar, Cross-Dressing and Re-Dressing: Transvestism as Metaphor, 1989, Yale University Press, Boston
Haralambos, M et al, Sociology, A New Approach, 2nd Edition, 1986, Causeway Press Ltd, Lancashire
Herdt, G, The Sambia, Ritual and Gender in new Guinea, 1987, Harcart College Publishers, London
Hogbin, I, Kinship and Marriage in a New Guinea Village, 1963, University of London Press, London
Johnson, M, Beauty and Power, Transgendering and Cultural Transformation in the Southern Philappines, 1997, Oxford International Publishers Ltd, London
Nadelson, C, Women and Men: New Perspectives on Gender Differences 1991, American Psychiatric Press, Washington, DC
Sutherell, C, Unzipping Gender: Sex, Cross Dressing and Culture, 2004, Berg, New York
