Gender, Sexuality And Crime

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What do you understand by gender and to what extent is a person’s behaviour regulated by their gender? This paper will aim to define gender and to look at how people in society are delegated by the gender they presume to be. Gender is understood and defined by most feminist as a set of socially constructed category that is culturally defined as masculine and feminine. This in society is easily mistaken with sex, which refers to the physical, internal and external sexual organs of a person. A person being born a female does not necessarily mean they are destined to be of feminine gender, even though this is what is seen as the norm in most societies today. Women may choose to portray traits of the masculine gender, as De Beauvior wrote, “we are not born but become women.” Gender is not something we are but something we become, and this highly shapes a person’s behaviour. For example, in Islamic countries some women have chosen to conduct themselves according to the feminine role and live their life according to the feminine order of daughter, sister, wife and mother, whereas other women assert themselves and refuse to conform. They can be said to have a masculine character. “Gender is a term that has psychological and cultural connotations. Gender is the amount of masculinity and femininity found in a person, and, obviously, while there are mixtures of both in many humans. The normal male has a preponderance of masculinity and the normal female a preponderance of femininity.” (Stoller, 1968, pp 9-10) Gender refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women. It is a constructed category that is culturally defined as masculine and feminine. When it comes to gender, there is no one single masculine or feminine identity. Our gender includes a mix of beliefs, behaviours and

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