Anthropology - Gender issue

The issues on gender became one of the crucial s in various disciplines , such as in sociology and anthropology . Gender is a discourse that we can see not only on the academic community but also a discourse we experience in our mundane activities each day . By merely walking along busy streets one can observe social realities concerning gender such as , sexy women on the cover page of a men 's magazine prostitution , sexual abuse and many others . Even the simple way of observing people at the park , such as who usually accompanies children

br What color of dress parents assign to a baby girl or a baby boy ? For example , I would remember one instance where my friends who expect to have a baby boy , prefer to buy blue-colored things since they believe it is more appropriate ' for their baby 's gender . By gender norms , I would understand it as the expected behavior for each sex (male /female . It is usually in these norms that one can find if there are unequal treatment between men and women in society . People sometimes do not find it disturbing that in some societies , the preference for a boy rather than a girl for a child is a kind of mentality brought by cultural expectations and practices . This is taken for granted but when one looks at it , the very problem lies on how society creates norms that would favor one sex over another

Through history , some societies favor the idea that men have always been the strong , the aggressive and the productive . But who will claim that these traits are biologically innate to the male ? Gender roles are not biological , rather these are expectations given by society . Male and female have distinct physiological characteristics (such as difference in the reproductive system , however , defining what it means to be male or to be female ' and on how will the sexes interact on given social settings is shaped by society

If a woman carries the burden of rearing her children , it is not nature rather it is society that dictates this role . Martin for instance looked at the second rate position of women , at the discourse in biology such as the value of the egg and the sperm cells . Interestingly , Martin portrayed how the use of language in discussing the process of fertilization depicts the question of power ' Should the sperm as it is usually described as active , penetrates the egg or should the egg as it is usually described as passive , engulfs the sperm ? Language is so powerful that it transmits meanings and represents norms . In this case gender norms are depicted in the way science used language . Moreover , in continuously using sexist language we are creating a sexist culture

Part of the things that gender norms teach us is on the roles or tasks that we should do as a female or a male . The burden of child rearing for example was left to the mothers as if no other member of society is...