How Gender Shapes Our Identities - Essay Example

Gender refers to the different attributes differentiating about feminist and masculinity. Gender includes the socio cultural roles and obligations assigned to both the men and women in the society. Gender shapes the personality of a person by influencing one to build up a given origination viewing oneself as a female or a male. Sex assumes a huge part of the advancement of our ways of life as individuals. Sex character includes a person's feeling of ending up either a man or a woman and the acknowledgment to belong to a particular social group. Some individuals in different societies do not necessarily identify with the particular gender assigned to them by the biological sex (Goktan et al.98).

Gender affects an individual right from birth. One develops an identity by mastering the daily activities practiced since childhood. According to the schema theory, a child mainly develops different social traits and characteristics depending on the learning experienced during the childhood. A child primarily acquires the identity based on the influence the elder individuals have on the child as postulated by the theory. Gender, therefore, affects you based on how other people within the society views you as an individual. The socio cultural responsibilities assigned to both the girls and boys in the society affect the behavior of the children as they imitate the elder sisters and brothers. Gender thus shapes the identity human beings.

This study focuses on the short story "Girl" to depict the various ways in which gender shapes the identity of different people. The story mainly focuses on the female perspective as the different roles and activities girls are assigned from childhood affects their behavior and reasoning and thus the identity. According to the short story, girls are assigned mainly the household chores. They prepare meals and wash the clothes within the family. The short story also postulates that girls are taught how to respect and love their husbands. These practices shape the behavior and socio cultural life of the girl child. An individual's gender, therefore, significantly affects how a person behaviors and reasons and thus affects the identity. Both the boys and girls are subjected to different treatments as children by the society. This results in the development of different behaviors and thus characters exhibited by both the girls and the boys in the community (Beneria et al.13).

The short story "Girl" is upheld by the different speculations, for example, Marxist and Feminist hypotheses. As per the Marxist theory, gender shapes the identity of an individual given the social class and imbalance experienced in the society. Marxist likewise trusts sexual orientation shapes character through the different types of abuses experienced by women in the society. Marxists contend that women are mistreated through the frameworks of private property and free enterprise. The feminists additionally assert that sexual orientation shapes the personality of people in the community (Goktan et al.106). As per the feminist's hypothesis; sexual orientation influences the character of individuals through mastery and power. As indicated by the short story "Girl," the young woman youngster is persecuted by appointing them distinctive exercises. Ladies wash and iron the garments for their fathers. The girls are additionally educated to regard and love their spouses, which shapes their identity as people. Women are required to lead the family household tasks while the men are suppliers of the fundamental family needs. The two speculations along these lines are a positive impression of the way that gender shapes the character of people. Gender is therefore exceptionally principal in the advancement of a person's character, and the society should in this manner guarantee the best possible improvement of sex inside the group.

Work Cited

Beneria, Lourdes, Gunseli Berik, and Maria Floro. Gender, development, and globalization: economics as if all people mattered. Routledge, 2015.

Goktan, A. Banu, and Vishal K. Gupta. "Sex, gender, and individual entrepreneurial orientation: evidence from four countries." International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal 11.1 (2015): 95-112.