One should define gender on the basis of how that individual knows themselves to be, whether or not they act as the stereotypical boy or girl. Having a gender, means having a sense of identity and with that we can start to find our place in the world, whether it's by our choice or someone's choice.
I think that gender starts out natural, but becomes socially constructed as time moves on. When we are infants, we do not know who we should be or how we should act, we just do what we feel and that is good enough for us. When we get older and start recognizing the roles that the genders play, we start to find ourselves going in the direction that we see our gender go in, such as women playing the role of the princess and the boy being the brave one. With that being said, I think the gender can be anything someone wants it to be. If someone wants women to have power, then they can start socially constructing other women's views and have them feel that it is in their gender to be strong and have power and that it is completely okay to do so. We also can say the same for when parents either let their young sons willing play with dolls, while others will take it away and let them know how bad it is for playing with dolls and how a doll is a girls toy and not a boy's.
By knowing this, we need to be careful. The media is powerful and so are the people that we interact with everyday, such as our teachers and our friends. These people and things shape up how we feel we think we need to be, but in reality, we just need to be ourselves and make gender not so stereotypical, but something that we don't have to put signals with.
Hello Amanda Garza. So good to know you through your profile on the blogger and the post. I am glad to stop by your blog post so that I have opportunity to get connected with you. I am a Pastor from Mumbai, India and have a strong desire to get connected with the people of God globally to strengthen, encourage and pray for one another. I have been in the Pastoral ministry for last 37yrs in the great city of Mumbai a city with great contrast where richest of rich and the poorest of poor live. We also reach out to the people in the slums with the love of Christ to bring healing to the broken hearted. We also encourage young and the adults from the west to come to Mumbai to work with us during their vacation time. We would love to have you come to Mumbai to work with us during their vacation time. I am sure they will have a life changing experience. My email id is: dhwankhede(at)gmail(dot)com. I am name is Diwakar Wamlkhede. Looking forward to hear from you very soon. God's richest blessings on you, your family and friends.
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