Gender and Gender Identity

Femininity, Masculinity, Gender Roles and Stereotypes

Male, female or intersex – we all have a biological sex. Every human being has a gender and a gender identity. Gender is biological but gender identity is one’s deepest feeling of one’s gender. It is expressed through one’s behavior of masculinity, femininity or in some cases, neither or both. Some people may be transgender which means that their biological sex and gender identity do no correlate.

Gender identity is how a person sees oneself socially. A person may be biological male but may relate socially to a woman or on the other hand, a person may be biologically female but may relate socially to a man. Sometimes a person may be fluid like relating as a man at times yet as a woman at other times. It is the manner in which a person expresses – clothing, behavior and personal appearance developed by the age of two or three.

Feminine traits are the culturally specific set of behaviors associated with being a girl or a woman whereas masculine traits are the cultural behavior of being a boy or a man. Culturally, the most common feminine traits are dependent, emotional, innocent, weak, nurturing, sensitive, caring, soft, etc. The words most commonly used to describe masculinity are strong, tough, hard, aggressive, rebellious, competitive, active, etc. These categories are unrealistic as it doesn’t capture how one feels or behaves. It should also be noticed that all men have some feminine traits and all women have some masculine traits. Our culture teaches men and women to be different but the truth is that all men and women are more alike than different.

The characteristics of gender roles are shaped by society although they vary from culture to culture. Children learn gender roles from an early age mostly from their parents, society, culture, religion and also from media. It is the way people act, express, say and does. Gender stereotypes are widely accepted bias with regard to people or groups and most of the stereotypes about gender are inequality and unequal treatment regarded as sexism. Most of the basic stereotypes are with regard to personality traits, domestic behaviors, occupation and physical appearance.

Personality traits are those stereotypes where women are expected to be passive and submissive and men are expected to be aggressive and self-confident. The stereotyped behavior of caring of children is considered to be done best by women while household repairs are best done by men. With regard to occupation, women are thought to do best with work of assisting and care-taking whereas the higher managerial level jobs are thought to be suited more for men. Women are expected to be small and graceful while men are expected to be tall and broad-shouldered with regard to physical appearance.

Hyper-femininity and Hyper-masculinity are exaggerations of stereotyped behaviors. Hyper-feminine women exaggerate the qualities believed to be feminine and believe in boosting men’s ego’s by being passive, nurturing, graceful, innocent, flirtatious and naïve. Hyper-masculine men exaggerate qualities believed to be masculine and believe in competing with other men and dominating women by being aggressive, hard, imposing, ambitious and demanding. These behaviors create difficult relationships and although these behaviors are rare, the inhibitions and anxieties regarding masculinity and femininity remain.