After reading about gender and sexuality I have found myself questioning my reactions and behavior in society. Lorber and Hubbard highlight how gender and sex are socially created and the importance that society places on identity. Before reading these articles I never gave much thought to how children learn to behave and act, it never occurred to me how much pressure from friends and family there is to conform to gender roles. There was always teasing from classmates and the fear that others would judge but reading about the small things that are done to identify children like dressing them in proper gender colors or giving them gender appropriate toys opened my eyes. This new perspective is helping to change my views; instead of taking everything as black and white I am trying to see the grey.
I feel that the majority of people don’t think of sex, gender, or any of the labels associated with the two as socially created. It will take a long time for society to change this view because they don’t associate the damage it causes with their actions. It would be easier to see if the damage was physical and everyone could see it, but most down play or make excuses to justify any of the –isms we have read about. Only when the majority can see the reality that gender and sex are socially created will the veil of necessity vanish.
Matthew Raffel
You draw attention to the important fact that a part of these socially constructed ideas themselves is to appear as if they are "natural" or "common sense" and not constructed at all.
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