Children from any background understand from an early age what it means to be born a girl or boy. These children also experience a process known as gender socialization through countless activities. Such activities include overt behaviour, forms of guidance, covert suggestions, encouragements, and discouragements that may or may not lead to androgynous behaviour (Larsen, Johan, and Grigorii, 23). It is, therefore, rare for any child to grow up without any experiences relating to gender bias or stereotyping. This essay targets those children who do follow tradition sex roles and criticizes Perrins view about androgynous behavior.
Perrins essay focuses much on males when the term androgynous should represent both male and female. This, however, maybe because he includes himself in it. Children who are not androgynous generate this kind of behaviour and attitude from their home setting. . Besides that, this kind of attitude also grows from interaction with their peers, school environment, and television viewing. This happens as parents pass on both covertly and overtly, their traditions and beliefs about gender (Cohen, 27). In such cases, children learn gender stereotyped behaviour, and as they develop, these gender typecasts become a part of their self-concept. Doing this does not mean that they remain in bondage as Perrin sees it. There are various debates concerning the nature and nurture of sex roles. Some believe these customary attitudes naturally flow through biological sex and individual traits. Others believe that they are complete cultural constructions.
Sex roles may come as a disadvantage to those who see themselves as members of a group yet they do not fully conform to the established norms (Cohen, Lisa J, 33). For example, many books in this century focus on how homosexuals seek political sanctuary from homophobic hounding. However, their governments have turned them away saying that they are not gay enough to conform to Western yardstick concepts of gender roles already occupied by gays and lesbians (Bellur and Thomas, 63). On the other hand, Perrin believes that heterosexual males and females who are not masculine or feminine enough are receiving persecution for no reason. As a critic of Perrins writing, I believe that they are silent homosexuals.
In spite of this, not playing androgynous is also proving to be beneficial. According to many practitioners, non-androgynous behaviour can offer a clear avenue to structure and validate socially accepted manners and attitudes. Children learn from birth, to categorize themselves. Males discover how to maneuver their physical surroundings through physical dexterity. Females, on the other hand, learn to preserve themselves as objects of admiration. All these constitute the free behaviour of the non-androgynous. The fact that Men and women are now sharing jobs and responsibilities does not imply that we have become much freer. The issue that Perrin does not address here is that women have only gotten better opportunities. Not by changing behaviour, but by learning to take up bigger responsibilities. (Larsen, Johan, and Grigorii, 38).
Contrary to what people like Perrin view as negative angles in regards to sex roles, this essays study reveals the positive sides associated with traditional concepts of masculinity and feminism. As long as strength, honor, respect, and action exist, gender roles will always be beneficial.
Works Cited
Bellur, Venkatakrishna V, and Thomas R. Baird. The 1980’s: A Decade of Marketing;;;;;Challenges: Proceedings of the 1981 Academy of Marketing Science (ams) Annual Conference. , 2015. Print.
Cohen, Lisa J.;The Handy Psychology Answer Book. Detroit, MI: Visible Ink Press, 2011. Print.
Larsen, Knud S, Johann F. Schneider, Krum Krumov, and Grigorii Vazow.;Advances in International Psychology: Research Approaches and Personal Dispositions, Socialization Processes and Organizational Behaviour. Kassel: Kassel Univ. Press, 2013. Print.
