Sex vs Gender ROUGH rough draft

Payton Schwarz
Sex vs Gender Rough Draft


People are born with a specific sex.  You can't change that, you're either born a male or a female.  But that does not necessarily define you as a man or a woman.  There are also specific gender roles that are associated with either being masculine or feminine.  These roles are placed on one via society, whether it be from your family, friends, school, church, etc.  Our distinction between one another is culturally adapted with specific traits.


Here in our country of the United States, we seem to associate gender directly to one's sex.  If you have a penis, you are ordered to be manly, rugged and enjoy cars/guns.  If you have a vagina, you must be sweet, decorated with makeup, maternal and passive.  But what happens if someone steps outside of those gender barriers?


Our gender roles are so intertwined with us in our society that we don't notice them.  But the second someone DOES, we immediately notice.  Think if you saw a full grown man, walking down the street in pumps and a halter top.  You would immediately take notice of him over everyone else on the street.  Why?  Because he's "weird", we have an immediate prejudice against that individual because he doesn't fit the roll of a fully grown man.


In World War II, women had to take up a "man's role" of building airplanes, tanks, bombs and more to fuel the war and our eventual success.  Eventhough temporary and brief, there was still a gender role switch in the United States.  Unlike us here in America, there are cultures all around the world that have much different roles that what we assign our citizens.  Native American tribes in Northern America have what is called "Two Spirit", which is someone who has qualities of both male and female.  They would wear the clothing of both genders and perform actions that were of both genders as well.  They were held in high regard and held positions such as healers and match-makers