Males Versus Females in Society

Males vs. Females in Society

The cliche is that "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus," implying that the worlds of the two genders are completely alien to each other and light years apart in functionality. While recent decades have featured a great deal of "gender-bending" in the forms of feminism, homosexuality, cross-dressing, and trans-gendered males and females alike, there remains a deep-set stereotype regarding what is considered to be masculine and what is feminine. Some of the stereotypes do have basis in actual physical and behavioral norms, but to a large degree any incarnation of these stereotypes may be the product of social training. There have been scientific studies, of course, which do link the male hormone testosterone with the male-stereotypical behaviors such as aggressive and a lack of nurturing behavior [1], but this behavior is very much fostered by the society which has decided it is the norm. Males and females in our society are treated differently as children, communicate differently throughout life, and are portrayed differently in the media.

It has been found that children can identify the differences between males and females around two years of age, and that a great deal of the basis for what are considered to be gender norms are developed between the ages of two and five years old. [2] One of the basic stereotypes about children's gender roles involves the activity level at which they enjoy playing, where boys are considered to be more active, and girls are considered to be less active. [3] Toys are stereotyped to fit society's gender roles, for example trucks are appropriate for boys while dolls are appropriate for girls, and those toys which are considered more "masculine" usually reflect the use of more motor activity skills than those that are "female." [4] Even as young as pre-school-aged, many children have already been conditioned into fitting these roles and will choose gender-appropriate toys in the majority of cases. In choosing role-models, both girls and boys will tend to identify with television stars, however girls will tend to have models as role-models, where boys will tend to relate to athletes. [5] In one study of communication between parents and young children, it was found that both parents will use more emotional words when speaking with a daughter rather than a son, and both parents would be overall more emotional with a girl child compared to a boy child. [6] Reactions in children to gender-bending has shown that when boys break gender stereotypes it is considered to be a far worse violation than when girls do so. [7]