Differences between men and women.

What is the difference between males and females? We notice the different dressing styles, different roles in the workplace and how we spend our leisure time, how we wear our emotions, and also how differently we think. But a question arises. Are males and females really different in every aspect? The first question we ask when a baby is born is: "Is it a boy or a girl?" Though most people accept most of the socially prescribed roles for the gender they were born with, some struggle against what they see as rigid and arbitrary social norms. In this essay, I will describe and give my input on the roles of human sexuality and gender.

Most people think of sex and gender as one and the same when in fact they are not. Wood, Wood, and Boyd (2005) define sex as "a biological term, while gender is more commonly used to refer to the psychological and social variables associated with one's sex" (p.

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2004 Chery Fulwin at Shanghai Shi, Shanghai, China...

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410). In the biological approach, when defining the sociocultural characteristics of masculinity and femininity, cultures look into the behaviors each gender should act upon. Males should be the dominant figure. They should be strong, competitive, be able to stand their ground, confident, and independent. Women on the other had are expected to be the exact opposite. They should be dependent, caring, encouraging, emotional, and nurturing. As children approach the age of two or so, they start to realize the roles such as attitudes, interest, and behaviors, in which males and females are supposed to portray. This is referred to as gender typing. When understanding which roles are to be taken, then they can start their development.

In the psychoanalytic theory, Freud asserts that children's thoughts about gender occur out of a clash relating to their...