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Gender and The Self

Gender is a locus of the self that can change over time. People have fought for the right to express their gender identity. Gender roles taught to children shape their sense of self in ways that can be limiting rather than allowing self-determination. The gendered self is influenced by the particular social and historical context one lives in. True self-discovery requires being able to personally define gender rather than having it dictated by societal expectations.

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Razelle Hilary Viaña Castro
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578 views

Gender and The Self

Gender is a locus of the self that can change over time. People have fought for the right to express their gender identity. Gender roles taught to children shape their sense of self in ways that can be limiting rather than allowing self-determination. The gendered self is influenced by the particular social and historical context one lives in. True self-discovery requires being able to personally define gender rather than having it dictated by societal expectations.

Uploaded by

Razelle Hilary Viaña Castro
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Gender and the Self

GENDER ?
Is one of those loci of the self that is
subject to alteration, change, and
development. In the past years we have
seen people fought hard for the right to
express, validate, and assert their gender
expression.
SONIA TOLSTOY
The wife of the famous Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy
“I am nothing but a miserable crushed worm, whom no
one wants, whom no one loves, a useless creature with
morning sickness, and a big belly, two rotten teeth, and
a bad temper, a battered sense of dignity, and a love
which nobody wants and which nearly drives me
insane.” (wrote when she was 21)

“It makes me laugh to read over this diary. It’s full of


contradictions, and one would think that I was such an
unhappy woman. Yet is there a happier woman than I?”
(Tolstoy 1975)
NANCY CHODOROW
 born on January 20, 1944, in New York
 She married Michael Reich, a professor of
economics had two children with him, Rachel and
Gabriel, and was separated from him in 1977
(Haber, 2002).
 Chodorow's most influential book is thought to
be, Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Gender.
A feminist , argues that because mothers take the role of
taking care of children, there is a tendency for girls to
imitate the same and reproduce the same kind of mentally
women as care providers in the family.

The way that the little girls are given dolls instead of
guns or any other toys or are encouraged to play with
makeshift kitchen also reinforces the notion of what roles
they should take and the selves they should develop.

In boarding schools for girls, young women are


encouraged to act like fine ladies, are trained to
behave in a fashion that befits their status as women in
society.
Men on the other hand, in the periphery of their
own family are tough early on how to behave like a
man.
This normally includes holding in ones emotion,
being tough, fatalistic, not to worry about danger,
and admiration for hard physical labor.
Masculinity is learned by integrating a young boy
in a society.
 The gendered self is then shaped within a
particular context of time and space.
 The sense of self that is being taught make sure
that an individual fits in particular environment.
 This is dangerous and detrimental in the goal of
truly finding one’s self, self-determination, and
growth of the self.
 Gender has to be personally discovered and
asserted and not dictated by culture and society.

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