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Kevin Pinto
John Kubler
English 114B
28 March 2014
The Natural Gender
Gender has always seemed like something people are naturally born with. People are
expected to automatically know what it means to be man or women. But some experts argue that
gender is a social construction in which sexes are taught which gender is appropriate for them.
Gender is almost like a play in which we all act in and if someone steers away from the
gender script then they must be prepared to face the consequences of society. These
consequences can vary from discrimination to violence and even to being disowned from ones
own family. But why? Why must those who steer away from the gender script be subject to such
abuse and suffering? Well society has rarely been open-minded when people challenge what is
socially normal. All it takes to see that is to turn to the past and see the countless examples of
hardships of those who sheared away from societys script. For example, African Americans
received a huge amount of discrimination when they were fighting for civil rights. Also more
recently the whole debate about wither homosexuals should have the right to marry aroused
many feelings of hatred towards the gays. But over time society learns to accept these changes
and actually made these changes too society the new norm.
Now it is time for society to adjust the script one more time and see that gender
something so close to home people arent even willing to discuss it-isnt as black and white as
previously assumed. Just because youre born with certain genitalia doesnt mean youre
naturally subjected to act like a man or women. But in fact it is the environment around us that
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teaches us how to behavior according to what society believes is appropriate for ones sex.
Gender isnt a two way street any more, but in fact a complex system that turns and weaves.
Take for example transgender people, people born who feel they were born in the wrong body.
They live in a constant battle with themselves as they try to understand why they feel so different
from everyone else. I know when I first heard about transgendered people I had my own doubts
about them. I asked: Wouldnt they just be gay? But recently I watched a film called A Girl Like
Me: The Gwen Araujo Story, which was based on real events of a young transgender teenager
who was brutally murdered by a group of boys. In the beginning of the film a young boy named
Eddie surprised his family by wearing a dress. And instantly there were gasps and shaking heads
surrounding the boy. This was a constant thing Eddie/Gwen went through as she was growing
up. It seemed that she didnt have her familys full support until after she was murdered.
Watching this film I discovered two things: first it made me realize that transgender
people arent any different from the rest of us and second it should me just how cruel society can
be towards people who dont follow the gender norms. Gwens only crime was being herself and
who she was wasnt accepted by society and it got her killed. What kind of world do we live in
where people are brutally murdered for being different? A broken world! If society didnt give
labels to ones sex then Gwen would perhaps still be alive today. As Judith Butler states,
Performing one's gender wrong initiates a set of punishments both obvious and indirect, and
performing it well provides the reassurance that there is an essentialism of gender identity after
all (Butler 528). So if Eddie never became Gwen her true self then she would have been
reward by not having to die; but at the cost of lying to herself just to make society happy. Gwen
didnt need to change. Society need to be the one who changes.
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It may be hard to comprehend the idea that gender is not born in us but rather nurtured into
us by our environment. In reality our surroundings have everything to do with shaping our minds
as we grow up. The human experience is all about learning from those around us and seeing how
human interact according to ones society. Take for example the graphic novel Persepolis 2:
The Story of a Return, the story of a young girl named Marjane who was forced to move to a new
country at a young age. She was thrown into a new society entirely different from her own and
because of that it changed her. In the beginning Marjane believed she knew who she was as a
person but quickly realized that who she was didnt fit into her new societies norms. In her quest
to fit into society she felt that: The harder I tried to assimilate, the more I had the feeling that I
was distancing myself from my culture, betraying my parents and my origins, that I was playing
a game by somebody elses rules (Satrapi 39). Society has the power to change anyone even
when the person knows that they are losing sight of who they truly are. No one is safe from the
power society has over an individual all one can do is hope that they are not so different that they
can no longer be a part of said society.
Some people might argue that gender is and always has been natural. Just look back at
early human life and you will clearly see the gender roles in action: the men will hunt and the
women will gather fruit and take care of the kids. Who taught them to act like that? Clearly they
were just born with the knowledge that since they were born with certain geniality they each
have different roles. Well maybe. But in the early days of human life it was all about surviving
and finding the best way to survive. Since men were biologically born stronger than women they
had to take the role as the hunter and all the other labels that go along with being a hunter. But if
you look deeper you will see the catalyst for this divide in gender roles-even way back then- was
indeed the environment. Men were forced to act and behave like hunter because back then times
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were extremely dangerous and they were born with a biologic advantage over the women to
handle this unstable world. Men werent born with the desire to hunt but in fact were demanded
to because of their surroundings. Then they continued that tradition by teaching their children the
roles expected by them from their society, In social interaction throughout their lives,
individuals learn what is expected, see what is expected, act and react in expected ways, and thus
simultaneously construct and maintain the gender order (Lorber 60). So even way back then
society had an expectation of sexes; but the difference then was that those differences were for
survival.
We have the privilege of not having to live in such a deadly environment anymore. In
todays world there are no real advantages of being either male or female (other than the ones
society implements). But still we feel there is a need to have this gender division between sexes.
Why is there still a need for this division? Well Judith Lorber believes that Human society
depends on a predictable division of labor on the basis of gender, race, ethnicity although
societies vary in the extent to which they use one or the other of these ways of allocating people
to work and to carry out other responsibilities, every society uses gender and age grades.
(Lorber 55). Well if that is the case there is no longer a reason to demand only two genders that
corresponds to what kind of genital you are born with.
The idea that gender is something people are naturally born with has far out stayed its
welcome. The social script that is gender causes nothing but uncertainty and fear among those
who dont follow the script. When you create labels there are always going to be those few
people who dont fit that label and refuse to be a part of it. And those people can be targets of
hate and discrimination. It is time for society to throw away the idea that gender is natural
because: it is simply not true and because it leads to violence. Society needs to open its mind up
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to the idea that there are more than just two genders and that it is actually the surroundings that
dictates a person gender. From birth little boys and little girls are being programed to be
masculine or feminine and that cycle has been going on for years. But if we break that cycle then
we will see a bloom of different and unique genders that will inhabit our society. And with that,
eliminate another reason to hate one another because these new genders will become our new
norm. Humans will no longer feel the need to drill their children with old ideas about gender and
just let that child grow up to be who he/she wants be wither that is straight, gay, bisexual,
transsexual, transgender and everything in between. After all variety is the spice of life.















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Work Cited
A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story. Dir. Agnieszka Holland. Perf. J.D Pardo, Leela Savasta,
Henry Darrow and Lupe Ontiveros. 2006. Film. YouTube, Google.
Butler, Judith. "Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and
Feminist Theory." Theatre Journal Vol. 40.No.4 (1988): 519-31. Web. 22 Mar.
2014.
Lorber, Judith. "Night to his Day: The Social Construction of Gender." Paradoxes of gender 1
(1994): 1-8.
Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return. New York: Pantheon, 2004. Print.

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