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David Velador Santos

Professor Jon Beadle
English 115
25 November 2016
Do or Do Not: Gender Roles in Society
Choice is a fundamental part of everyday life from seemingly insignificant decisions to
life changing resolutions. In terms of the latter, one such dilemma is having the ability to choose
a gender. However, because of arbitrary rules set in place by society, it is more difficult to simply
choose without repercussions. Judith Lorber, in her article Night to His Day: The Social
Construction of Gender, argues that gender means similar identities for individuals and a
dichotomy for society. Aaron Devor, in his article Becoming Members of Society: The Social
Meanings of Gender, asserts that masculinity and femininity are learned and further progressed
by means of stereotypes, gender roles, and expression. Both authors argue that gender is created
by society, through stereotypes, examples around us, and lessons we are taught. Throughout both
essays, Lorber and Devor discuss how gender is created and instilled upon a population, and how
we fall under its stereotypes, despite having a choice as individuals, in order to avoid being
singled out of society.
From a societal standpoint, there are two genders; one for each sex. This means male and
female should be referred to as man and woman respectively, and this type of viewing has been
held as the norm for a very long time. However, the only reason it has been held for so long is
because ancestors would teach their offspring about these ways, and so on and so forth. As
Lorber quotes, Yet gender, like culture, is a human production that depends on everyone
constantly 'doing gender' (West and Zimmerman 1987) (19). She goes on to explain how doing
gender is a learned task that is taught to each new generation with untold consequences for not

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doing so. Because there are no defined outcomes to defying these lessons, most people follow
them without question, and are confused and even scared by those who do decide to break free.
But these actions do come with consequences, and as Lorber describes it, Gendered norms and
expectations are enforced through informal sanctions of gender-inappropriate behavior by peers
and by formal punishment or threat of punishment by those in authority should behavior deviate
too far from socially imposed standards for women and men (28). In this quote, Lorber
describes how even though there is no legitimate physical consequence for venturing outside
gender norms, the psychological repercussions are beyond that of any sort of punishment. As
social creatures, being excluded from society is enough of a maltreatment to keep gender norms
locked in place into our lives.
From the time we are born to the time we breathe our last breath, we usually have a very
general idea of who we are in this world, as a way to identify and classify ourselves so that we
may fit in. In this identity we create, gender is a fundamental part of who we are. To find
ourselves, we build our character up from examples around us. Devor quotes in his article, As
children, and later adults, learn the rules of membership in society, they come to see themselves
in terms they have learned from the people around them (Devor, 35). He explains how we look
at others around us, from friends and family to strangers and icons, as a benchmark of who we
want to be. In this sense, who we identify as is very strongly classified into one of two genders.
However, a few people who have broken from templates and created their own views have also
become prominent, and are beginning to take down gender roles and remake society into a more
open minded place. More people are beginning to accept this as an acceptable practice, if not a
new norm. Devor writes, Biological evidence is equivocal about the source of gender roles;
psychological androgyny is a widely accepted concept (Devor, 43). In other words, putting
aside societal norms and lessons about gender, there truly are more than two genders, and that

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society restricts it to these two as a means to easily categorize people. These categorizations are
made to differentiate men from women, femininity from masculinity, to establish how a person
must act according to their categories in terms of gender.
Most people would consider the fact that gender roles are not completely instilled upon us
by society. Although this has truth to it, gender roles do take on a grim beginning that worked its
way into society's social norms, still being carried out today from these traditional ways of life.
As Lorber writes in her article, Gender inequality the devaluation of women and the social
domination of men - has social functions and a social history. . . . It is produced and
maintained by identifiable social processes and built into the general social structure and
individual identities deliberately and purposefully (30). By this, she explains how gender roles
have existed for a long time, and were initially created through discrimination between men and
women. This discrimination has been seen throughout most of history, among many cultures, and
has worked its way into society to this day. Not only this, but these roles have instructed men to
be dominant, and women to be submissive, in order to keep these traditions in check in the many
years since its inception. Therefore, society does indeed enforce gender roles, through the media
and lessons taught by parents to children, in order to keep them alive.
In my own experiences, growing up in a changing world, I've seen many people decide to
not conform to these roles and regulations about who should be who. Classmates, teachers,
coworkers, and friends of mine have all made their decisions about what gender they identify as,
with most of them traditionally aligning with their sex, and few choosing to part ways and go
against society's templates. The more people who decide to do so, the more they help to break
down the gender roles that have plagued society for so long. For better or for worse, more and
more people, especially the younger population, have begun to stray from how their parents
before them were raised to be. For example, the death of chivalry is promoted through music

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lyrics and themes of disrespect towards women, feminism has made it acceptable for a woman to
pay the check on a date, and parents are starting to choose more gender neutral clothing for their
babies and toddlers. This, however, does come with a price, as still some people wish to continue
traditional practices and teachings of gender. Nonetheless, people are excluded from daily
activities, are susceptible to more judgment, and overall are more likely to be mistreated due to
their differences. In light of this struggle, not everyone chooses to alienate them on their choices.
With these practices, some people choose to accept these new ways, and even though may not
choose to identify differently, they may be more open minded to them and their ways of life.
Much to their dismay, this may upset traditional values and ethics, but this also opens up new
paths and identifications, to further create new identities and more classifications of people who
feel they do not belong in either of the two preset genders. I myself have chosen to follow these
gender roles due to my upbringings. If given the choice to change, I would decline simply
because I am happy the way I am now. My parents were lenient in my choices as a child, and
although nothing would happen to me in my immediately family if I chose to identify differently,
society would have other judgments in store for me for when I would grow up. One of my best
friends has chosen a different approach in life, however, in the sense that he does not follow
traditional gender roles. He does not typically assert his masculinity at all, and instead chooses to
be more feminine in the sense of being calmer and more submissive. None of my friends in that
group treat him differently for those characteristics he chooses to do, but in public when he
orders food or checks out an item he wants to buy, he often does get mixed reactions from
people. While I admire him sticking to his choices in life, I do notice the different treatment he
receives from men and women, and I respect him for his perseverance to remain how he is
instead of change and conform to society.
In both essays, one by Judith Lorber and the other by Aaron Devor, both authors chose to

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attack and expose how society chooses to classify people into two roles, and the various effects
on people. The reasons go beyond ethics, however, as businesses may benefit to having a larger
target audience, gender roles may confine people to certain tasks and help keep them in check.
After all, gender roles were most likely created through discrimination between men and women,
forcing men to be dominant while women were made to be submissive, along with other
stereotypes. Feminism movements, equality rights and other struggles continue today and are, to
an extent, slowed if not halted by the teachings of gender roles and similar ways of thinking.
Gender roles have become a norm in society, as well as only having two genders, as a way to
classify people into only two groups and make them alienate those who choose to be different
than how we were originally raised. Masculinity and femininity no longer have to be tied down
to a certain gender, and with an ever changing world come changing ideas, and we may very well
be experiencing a new movement in freedom of choice, free of social repercussions.

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Works Cited
Devor, Aaron. Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meanings of Gender. Composing
Gender, O'Hare, John, Groner, Rachael, Bedford/St. Martin's, 2014.
Lorber, Judith. 'Night to His Day': The Social Construction of Gender. Composing Gender,
O'Hare, John, Groner, Rachael, Bedford/St. Martin's, 2014.