Sociology of Gender

Essay by vbennableCollege, UndergraduateA, November 2014

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Victoria Bennett

April 18 2014

Kolbe Franklin

Sociology of Gender

A social construction is something that does not exist in the natural world, but instead, is something that society creates or invents. Social constructions are dependent of social practices within cultures. In class discussions we have learned that gender is based on socially agreed upon characteristics that are instilled in individuals. An example of one social construction that has been instilled in individuals is the fact that women are supposed to remain pure and virgins until they are married. While on the other hand men can have as many sexual partners as they want. It is a double standard that has been instilled in to young people and amongst different cultures for many years

"Young people have traditionally assigned different meanings to virginity, and experienced virginity loss in divergent ways based on their gender" (Carpenter, 345). Virginity has become a more popular topic amongst people now a day because sex and sexuality have become more widely talked about topics.

But still to most people virginity has a different meaning between genders. Women have ben taught to treat their virginity as precious and to remain virgins until they are married- or at least engaged. While men see their virginity as neutral or even stigmatizing, and more than not try to lose it way before marriage. It has been instilled within young people that to achieve manhood a boy must lose his virginity, where as on the other hand virginity is taught to be a girls womanhood and that she should value and save it (Carpenter, 346).

Aside from the United States, other cultures have the same idea as well that women need to remain pure and virgins. For example according the Better Health Channel, Female genital mutilation, otherwise known as FGM,