Gender as a Social Construction

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Gender as a Social Construction “I invite you too to resist the lie.” -John Stoltenberg In this paper, I intend to argue for John Stoltenberg’s idea that gender simply does not exist. I will concentrate this further to the idea that society, not sex, dictates gender constructions. I will first describe why we do not naturally have a gender and then go on to explain how society is able to reinforce our ideas of gender roles. I will begin by explaining how gender does not exist. We must look within and ask ourselves what qualifies us to be a male or a female. Society would have us believe it is having a penis or a vagina, but Stoltenberg states that these can, “…vary along a continuum, from clitorises with a vulva through all possible combinations and gradations to penises with a scrotal sac” (Stoltenberg 23). It is obvious there is a huge spectrum of qualifications in which we could place either male or female qualities. And what if you have a combination of these said male or female qualifications? There is such a vast range of genital formations that “if you look at all the variables in nature that are said to determine human ‘sex,’ you can’t possibly find one that will unequivocally split the species into two” (Stoltenberg 24). So if there is such a vast range of genital formations, to assign just two gender roles for every single person that is born seems downright silly. One can have an enlarged clitoris or a microphallis, and society feels the pressure to fit this person neatly into either the “male” or “female” categorization. But, it is society itself that makes the qualifications of what this categorization means. You have a penis, you’re a male- grow up to be strong and dominating! You have a clitoris, you’re a woman; now, you must grow up to be docile and subordinate to those with the penises. Having a vagina does not make you subordinate, being
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