Critical Reflection Paper 4

Reflection on “Sexuality and Gender”

There are an infinite number of social elements in society; amongst them are gender and sexuality. Gender is your sense of being male or female and individuals playing masculine and feminine roles as defined to be appropriate by your culture and society. There are certain actions, reactions and behaviours which are specific to both the males and females. Gender is also used by sociologists to study both males and females. Sexuality is the condition of being characterized and distinguished by sex and can be defined as the quality or state of being sexual. As discussed in class sexuality, quite often it is an aspect of one's need for closeness, caring, touch and determines a person’s sexual likes or dislikes and interests (Leroux, 9 Nov 2010). Sexuality is defined biologically to determine the sex of an individual, whereas gender is associated with social roles and norms in a society. Both gender and sexuality are categories of people. It is very easy for us to think of gender as male or female, and of sexuality as sexual activity between man and women only, but there are many more binaries and conflicts to the terms. Strong social and cultural forces lead us to distinguish men from women and heterosexuals from homosexuals. We learn these distinctions throughout the socialization process, and we continuously construct them anew in our daily interactions. Most people use positive and negative sanctions to ensure that others conform to conventional heterosexual gender roles; some people resort to violence to enforce conformity and punish deviance. We do not yet understand well why some individuals develop homosexual orientations. Some scientists believe that the cause of homosexuality is mainly genetic, others think it is chiefly hormonal, while still others point to life experiences during early childhood as the most important factor. It is important to note in this connection though that homosexuality has become less of a stigma over the past century. Especially since the middle of the twentieth century, gays and lesbians have gone public with their lifestyles and built large communities. As discussed in class, same-sex marriage was legalized in Canada back in 2005 (Leroux, 9 Nov 2010). If we refer back to the term gender; how gender roles play off in society, and how the media has an impact on it. We can see that it is usually something that is done. Norms justify male domination and have much more social power than women do. When women and men are more equal socially, and norms justify gender equality, the rate of male aggression against women is lower. The media reinforces normality of traditional gender roles in many ways; a woman’s role in society is to become a housewife and mans role in society is to become the provider and authoritative role. Gender and sexuality exist in any and every society. Sociologically speaking, gender relates to how a person, a male or female, expect to behave and be treated by society. On the other hand, sexuality is more of a biological determination, or physical attributes of a male or a female with no specific expectations.