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Joana Hernandez
Professor Ditch
English 114A
6 December 2014
Gender Stereotypes
Many people often make comments and judge due to stereotypes placed upon peoples
sex and not their gender. In "Night to His Day" by Judith Lorber and in "Women, Men and
Society" by Claire Renzetti and Daniel Curran, talk about doing gender and how stereotypes play
a role in it. For example, when people say "you can't wear that or that's not for you, its for the
opposite sex" they are judging based on gender performances. Some are as intense as "Don't be a
girl which are referring to don't be emotional nor afraid and more of "Be a man" referring to
being aggressive and brave. Emphasizing that being a man is more valuable and better than to be
a woman, yet that's how society is constructed it to be. Social construction is important on how
people started to categorize yet now it has people creating gender stereotypes. There are various
types of stereotypes that have to do with gender and some people don't realize when they are
doing gender or when it is done. I have found myself doing gender as well. Gender stereotypes
have become a part in our daily life and people are not realizing it which leads to people
conforming and others stay in hiding in order to not get judge.
In the article "Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender, Judith Lorber
explains how people created a social construction to place people on to two categorize either
youre a female with feminine characteristics or a male with masculine characteristics, not both.
She mentions how she has done gender and various types of situations where she usually
encounters, on a typical day, scenarios where people distinguish females and males and

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stereotypes. Also she mentions different examples of how and when gender is done even when
some don't realize they are doing gender.
In the article "Women, Men, and Society", Claire Renzetti and Daniel Curran examine
and explain how children encounter gender stereotypes at an early age. Both authors, explain
how most parents participate in gender stereotypes and apply it to their children even if they are
not yet born. When they find out of the sex of the baby they dress them a certain way so they
avoid confusion. Renzetti and Curran talk to parents and observe parents-child interactions on
how and what they do with a daughter compared to their sons and their actions if one of their
children is doesnt conform.
While I was reading "Women, Men, and Society" Renzetti and Curran wrote "I dress her
in pink and she always wears earring, but people still look at her and say, 'hey, big fella.' What
else can I do (77)? Informing us how she tried so hard for society to refer her daughter as
feminist. I also notice that in Judith Lorber article "Night to His Day" she wrote how when a
new baby is born they usually distinguish a girl by wearing pink and a boy by wearing blue
(20). That's participating to gender stereotypes already. Both of them gave example about how
people participated on gender stereotypes without people really thinking it was stereotyping.
Throughout both of the article, the authors explain how society has taken stereotypes to a daily
life.
I myself have been placed in gender stereotypes as I grew up. When I was born I had
pretty much everything pink and everything was so feminine. I had pink blankets to clothes
growing up. Yet still today I don't consider pink as one or my favorite colors. I still remember
when I got my first bicycle; it was pink with butterflies and with pink, white and purple
streamers coming out of the handlebars. I didn't understand why my neighbors bicycle was blue;

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it was simple, but had more of a masculine look. As time went by, I started getting older, and I
started to make my own decisions of what I wanted, and I what I liked. I have two sisters and one
brother but my brother moved out when I was around three. So my household contained mostly
females, while my dad stayed as the only man. It was easier for me to be raised as a feminine
child. I used to play being a "mother" and "baked" good for my dolls. Yet, when I would visit my
brother I wanted to play with him and his car toys or enjoy watching masculine shows like
wrestling and sports. He would also sometimes play house and dolls with me. At first when I told
my parents I wanted a toy car rather than another doll they were surprised, but they still bought
the toy. I wanted to have my own toy car when I visited my brother. So I would change gender
roles while I was with my brother to be around him. Until I actually started school I saw some
boys playing and I asked if I can play with them but they responded "Girls don't play with cars."
Society has constructed that girls should play with certain toys. I was sad because I didn't realize
what was happening so I try avoiding playing with masculine toys until I reach secondary school.
I lost time playing without cars just for gender conformity and stereotypes that are placed on
females and males.
This has been going on throughout history; people have been fighting for gender equality,
like Elizabeth Cady Stanton or Susan B. Anthony fought for women rights. People grow up
learning about gender roles yet all gender stereotypes are bad but the majority of the western
people confuse sex stereotypes with gender stereotypes. Sex is biological while gender is a
performance of femininity or masculinity Lorber mentions gender is constantly created and recreated out of humans interactions, out of social life and is the texture and order of that social
life (19). Gender has limited people based on strong and aggressive activities should only be for
males while females should be based only on activities of kindness and sensitiveness rather than

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doing what they desire to do. Gender stereotypes are typically constructed by society. There are
some topics of social construction that gender stereotypes are in, like appearance, behavior, and
the preference of males over females.
Gender stereotypes usually start with appearance. Many people make "A sex category
becomes a gender status through naming, dressing and the use of other gender markers (20). In
stores, owners already place "men clothes" and "women clothes" labels in their stores to
distinguish the clothes. People are usually stereotyping on what others wear if its based on their
sex or not. The article by Renzetti and Curran explains how clothes are a "significant part in
gender socialization." It encourages and discourages from different behaviors and activities.
Also, it "sends a message on how the child should be treated (Renzetti and Curran 77). Usually
a person is uncomfortable until we place a person on an either a female or male category. We
usually feel uncomfortable because our visual is focus more on trying to categorize people.
Many western people often use behaviors as a gender stereotype. "Parents are teaching
their daughters to be more attentive to others' feelings and join interpersonal relationships, while
they teach boys to be assertive, but unemotional except when showing anger (Renzetti and
Curran 79). Women are seen as fragile and are expected to get married and have children, while
men are seen as strong and are expected to be financial provider and protectors. If someone from
the opposite sex contributes too others gender expectations, they are often judge for not
conforming to gender stereotypes.
When having children theres a preference of boys over girls is a part stereotypes.
Stereotypes have lead to womens value decreasing like "In many of the western society "man"
is A, "Women" is not A (Lorber 29). Also, in many of today's jobs they prefer man over women
even if they are in the same race and class. Some have different salaries; men often get paid more

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than women no matter if they are doing the same exact thing. If a man comes in with a feminine
personality and the job is more of a masculine job, say construction, I doubt that person will get
the job due to his feminine performance. The most popular gender stereotype is masculine being
better than feminine, which ends up effect the people.
Yet there is a big controversy when it comes to gender performances. "Fathers are taking
care of little children, girls and boys are wearing unisex clothing and getting the same education,
women and men are working at the same jobs. They are changing gender roles and stereotypes
are now changing saying it is okay. However, people are still criticizing when they change
gender but it easier for females to be males than the other way around. According to western
society, if a female was to change gender to be masculine it would be okay because being a man
is better.
Negative gender stereotypes effects people. It effects peoples emotions of feeling
unwanted or out of place, for example, cross-over genders. Western societies have two genders
while other societies have three genders according to Lorber. It also limits many people on what
they can do. I plan to try to not participate in negative gender stereotypes by not choosing for my
children. If they want to play or dress a certain way I will let them. I will try to not let them
conform to gender norms because of society.
Gender stereotypes are important because it reminds us of the gender biases in our lives
that we take for granted. Many people, at an early age "learn to view the world in terms of
dichotomy"(Renzetti and Curran 84), in other words learn to view the world as women and men.
Children have to learn to be either women or men by their parents and the cycle continues. When
a gender is changed some parents think of it as failure, but it only means that their child isn't
being part of gender conformity and breaking gender stereotypes. "Even when we don't think we

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are behaving in gender stereotypes ways, or are encouraging gender-typed behavior in our
children, examination of our actual behavior indicates that we are (80). Gender stereotypes have
been a "blind spot" that the majority of the western people usually don't understand or don't
realize they are participating and should become aware of it because they affect others by being
afraid to rebel with society and starts new gender traditions.

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Work Cited
Groner, Rachael and John F. OHara. Composing Gender: A bedford spotlight reader. Bedford
St. Martin's, 2013.
Renzetti, Claire and Daniel J. Curran. Women, Men and Society. Composing Gender. Boston
New York: Bedford/ St. Martin's. 2009. 76-85. Print.
Lorber, Judith. Night to His Day: The social construction of Gender. Composing Gender.
Boston New York: Bedford/St. Martins, 2009. 19-33. Print.