Gender! Gender! Society Bender!!

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorCollege, Undergraduate April 2001

download word file, 7 pages 5.0

Downloaded 89 times

SOCIOLOGY PAPER: For the eighteen years that I have lived on this wonderful planet called Earth, I have noticed too often of the differences in which the females and males of our society are treated. They are treated differently right from birth and continue to be treated in a different manner throughout their lives. The way in which a newborn baby is treated depends entirely on the baby's gender. If the baby is a girl, most of her clothes would be pink and people would call her "a pretty, little girl; so soft and delicate"� where as if the baby is a boy, people would call him "a tough, little guy"� and of course, his clothes would be blue. Girls and boys, and women and men of our society are treated differently just on the basis of their gender. This is just one example of the differences in which they are treated.

I think this observation is amenable to a sociological analysis because the way people are treated depending on their sex is an illustration of gender socialization, the aspect of socialization that contains specific messages and practices concerning the nature of being female or male in a specific group or society, which sociologists study.

There are many concepts or ideas in the field of sociology, which can be applied to this example of how being a female or male can affect the way others act toward you. Non-material culture is the component of culture that consists of the abstract or intangible human creations of society (such as attitudes, beliefs, and values) that influence people's behavior. My example can be perfectly applied to non-material culture in that there are certain ideas in our society regarding how one should behave towards the women and men of our society. Women are to...