gender moments Essay -- essays research papers

He throws like a girl This insult is heard totally too often and is jumpy to boys because of the perception of girls being weak. We are constantly bombarded with moments emphasizing gender in everyday situations. After training myself to see these differences my eyes do been opened to something I have previously believed natural and allowed a new perspective to exhort through. I see attitudes and behavior now as socially constructed and not ordinarily inherent. In R. W. Connels book Gender, he limns gender as the structure of social relationship that centers on the reproductive arena, and the set of practices that bring reproductive distinctions between bodies into social processes (pg 10). I have found that gender is an institution, a pattern that has attained a social state. Gender is unique in that it is meshed with some(prenominal) other institutions, thus changing gender, it would mean changing much of society. I chose to focus my paper on the different institutions ge nder is a part of, in education through bulge development, relationships, religion, and politics. Although I have only touched the surface, I believe that gender is an institution an order or pattern that has attained a social state or property. Education is a potent institution used to reinforce gender differences. In our reading we found that children are much more likely to separate themselves at school in gender categories than in their neighborhoods. As Barrie Thorne points out in her book Gender Play, Apart from age, of all the social categories of the students, gender was the most formally, and informally, highlighted in the course of each school day (pg 34). I feel that many experiences in elementary school have reinforced my gender outlook. I spent much of my time in elementary school racing the boys and biting my nails to show I wasnt excite to break a nail and never wearing a dress. Recess was a fight for me half the time. I didnt like the connotation of being called a g irl. Now I realize that I was trying to oppose the gender role I was expected to perform, yet eventually I grew out of that phase of fighting against the norm and joined the ranks of the girls. I moved from the field, to the bars and jump rope. I see now that the change I went through was near giving in to the reinforcement around me to be feminine. Instead of fighting against the grain, I chose the easy road by... ...ibed in the article, Gender and New Institutionalism Cornwall and King define institutions as possessing 1. Classification 2. Institutionalized logics and 3. Diffusion, legitimization, and taken for grantedness. After reading this, I found all the characteristics in my gender moments. Although individuals act on a in-person basis, their acts collectively fit societies pre-determined standard and mold. I see much of individuality as either conforming to decisions already made or trying to push against the mold. Men and women are different, but not as different as so ciety would like to assume. Gender is intertwined in many of societys institutions-education, religion, relationships, and politics- and because it is elusive up in all, it is very hard to change gender as an institution. It is very likely to be reinforced beginning in childhood from children, adults, and peers. Because of the reinforcement, it is reproduced from parents to children and conforming is the easiest way to go through society. Change happens very slowly and although there is change from my grandmothers experience to my own, I see the change as not very fluid- instead of water its more like heavy mud.