Gender is a culturally constructed concept?

Question

"Gender is a culturally constructed concept" What does this mean? Thanks

Answer 1

means that gender strength and weaknesses are product of culture, and somewhere, sometime there could be a society where women hunt and men stay home and cook the food.

Answer 2

It means that, while there are biological differences between men and women, each culture makes its own definitions for what it means to be a man or a woman.  For instance, in western cultures, masculinity is defined by independence, stoicism, aggression, and arrogance, among other things.  Femininity is defined by passivity, being emotional, greater dependence on relationships, and greater concern with appearance.  There's very little evidence that those traits are exclusive to men or women.  Instead, we teach children that that's how men and women are supposed to act, and they conform to those ideas.

Different cultures have different ideas about what makes someone a man or a woman, and sometimes cultures have opposite ideas from each other.  This concept doesn't deny that there are some biological differences, but it does deny that those are the only or the biggest differences.

Answer 3

so is race!!!

think of how there are transgender people. we make up an idea of what a gender is. what it is meant to be a woman, or man. it is a cultural construct b/c we have an idea in our head of how a gender should act. a little boy should like cars and rough house, while a little girl should like to play w/ dolls. a teenager boy should be riding bikes and playing football, while a girls should be chatting w/ friends and shopping. a female woman should stay home and take care of the family while the man goes to work to support the family. all these are cultural construct b/c the differ in each society. if you are in a matrilineal society then the women are in charge of everything instead of men.... soceties are crazy, thats what i love about cultural anthro!!

Answer 4

to some extent.  the same way that there is a range of ways of being american based on our culture.  But then the individual personality makes everyone different.  

Genetics account for a fair amount of gender behaviour not environment.

Answer 5

I'm not sure if I am understanding the question properly.  But I would like to give it a try anyway.  I think it mean that your gender, male or female is in question and people can be influenced by the "world" as to what s*x they want to be.  I do not believe God makes mistakes when He "knit us together in our mother's womb"  

Changing one's gender is the ultimate rebellion to God.  Rebellion is compared to Witchcraft in the Bible.

Answer 6

You have read what it means and now I will tell you that this social science concept is the same superficial, incoherent blather that afflicts much of the social sciences. A biologist knows that there is a superficial variance in sexual displays and behavior over time and culturally mediated. He also knows that the evidence from neurobiology, neurology, evolutionary biology, genetics and even psychology show a strong universality of sexual variance and a evolved history of the sexes.

Answer 7

From my own research (so don't plagarize it):

In the social sciences, gender is the social part of a dichotomy vs. biological or natural s*x.  Thus gender is defined as the behaviors and attitudes that people of a certain s*x are said to have because they are that s*x.  

Saying that gender is a social construct is not saying that men and women are exactly the same and only culture makes them different.  It means that qualities associated with femininity and masculinity are different from each other, from themselves at other times in history, and from themselves in other cultures.  

In contrast, s*x is believed to be the natural bodies which can be divided into the sexes without culture.  This isn't necessarily so.  The distinction is made at a local level (and may be compared to but not overwritten by Western ideas).  That is, what a culture believes to be cultural is gender and what they believe to be natural is s*x.  Even in Western culture and biomedicine, one can observe changes in what is perceived as natural and what is actually cultural (Ex: changing protocols for infant intersex surgeries).

For more information, reread the Intro to Gender Trouble by Butler and consider also the theories of Durkheim, Foucault, and Bourdieu.

Answer 8

Gender means... male or female (or anywhere in between and is genetically determined)  But, as far as "sexual orientation" and/or "roles" I think this also has cultural influence (on macro and micro levels).  The whole thing is very complex with lots of variables and is not cut and dried.  I think there is a physical gender, a physiological gender, and a psychological gender that are influenced by genetics and environment.  The "culturally constructed concept" refers to the environment or how an individual might be nutured or psychologically influenced.

This is the old "nature versus nuture" question.   Also, known as genetics versus environment".  

Just think of the influence that hormones might play as genetic AND then think of influences from various religious doctrine... as cultural source of influence... that is just one example of the above.  This has been dissected and analyzed from the viewpoint of medicine, psychology, theologians, anthropologists, sociologists, etc. etc. and you will get 50 million concepts and ideas.  It will never be resolved BUT, you will hear people on both sides with very strong opinions.

I gave you MY "best answer"

Answer 9

It means that in defiance of common scientific knowledge, there are people who belief that the human race is asexual.

Answer 10

I'll add to what everybody is saying that this statement is indeed false. Firstly, all culture has genetic and environmental basis: culture is not a gift from god, but a result of our behavior. Secondly, you see distinct gender roles in all primates. It's not a coincidence that only chimpanzee males hunt.

Answer 11

That the roles of males and females are created by society, including individuals/institutions, traditions, religion.  essentially men and women are taught that there are certain things that are for 'boys' and 'girls'.  If it wasn't for those things males and females wouldn't be as different.

Answer 12

s*x characteristics, primary and secondary, define female and male humans.  Those objective physical sexual characteristics are related to reproduction.  "Gender" characteristics, on the other hand, are subjective behaviors that we learn through social acculturation and that change like trends and fashions.  

For example, today it is considered effeminate for a man to wear lots of lace about his neck.  But, in earlier societies, a man was not considered to be a true man unless he wore the finest lace.  For many centuries in China, a woman was not considered to be "feminine" unless she bounded and horribly crippled her feet in a fad related to unbounding the feet and men snorting them like aphrodisiac.  Some cultures consider the back of a woman's neck to be "s**y" and feminine and those cultures usually require that women keep their necks covered in a form of social fetish to heightened the rarity of the sight of that part of a woman's body.  And, in those cultures, a woman's b*****s may be bared publicly with no condemnation.  But, as you know, some cultures have a social fetish about b*****s and require that women keep them covered.  Some cultures say a woman must be obese to be considered "feminine".  Some cultures say that a woman must be anorexic to be considered feminine.  Some cultures require a woman to have long hair to be considered feminine.  Some require braids, etc.

Behaviors like occupation can be culturally genderized, too.  For example, men shy away from nursing today because society recognizes that profession as a "feminine" profession.  But, just 60 years ago, the majority of nurses were males and nursing was not considered to be appropriate for "ladies".  Medicine has traditionally been considered to be a "masculine" profession and women were not allowed to go to medical school.  In the old Soviet Union, though, after so many men were killed during WWII, women began to dominate medicine and that profession is now considered "feminine" there.

In general, aside from fashion trends, most gender characteristics are determined by the dominate s*x to favor and give advantage to that dominate s*x.  For example, just as the compliant "Uncle Tom" behavior of slaves were acculturations and grew to be considered "natural" and "right" and an actual characteristic of Black people, docility and submissiveness and the housekeeper role in a female gives males the advantage of exploitation in lieu of paying for domestic services.  And, all patriarchal societies require women to deform themselves in some way to conform to transient male notions of "feminity" related to male sexual pleasure, for example foot binding and corsets which created an hourglass figure that pleased men but horribly deformed women and caused them to be physically compromised and unable to be athletic, which became thought of as "natural" and "right" and an actual characteristic of women. Many males highly resent the rise of women due to the easing of those unfair advantages and sexually - oriented physical deformity behaviors.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/koreana/299...

Answer 13

a few aspects of gender norms are socially constructed and these change with cultures through time. Most gender differences are not socailly constructed however, but are biological and common across the globe and bwteen differnt cultures.