Masculinity and Femininity: Myths and Stereotypes

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Name: Shaneall Mathieu Programme: B.A Psychology Year: 2012 Masculinity and femininity: myths and stereotypes "Gender role socialization in our society prepares us as children for a world in which men are expected to be instrumental and controlling, Women in contrast are suppose to be expressive , emotional and dependent. We cannot cleanly and clearly separate "sex and "gender", however, cultural expectations for women and men are not separable from observation about men and women physical bodies". what are myths and stereotypes? are myths really true? how often do we see cases of stereotyping? what is masculinity and femininity? what type of qualities do we have to possess to show masculinity? Is femininity socially defined and or biologically created factors? According to the Wikipedia free encyclopaedia masculinity is possessing qualities or characteristic considered typical of or appropriate to man. The term can be used to describe any animal or object that has the quality of being masculine. It also says that femininity also called "womanliness" is a set of attributes, behaviours and roles generally associated with girls and women. Femininity is made up of both social defined and biological created factors. myths is a popular belief or story that has become associated with a person, institution or occurrence, especially on considered to illustrate a cultural ideal. Femininity and Masculinity are involved in mythology because there is a division between man and woman in mythology. A stereotype is a belief that maybe adopted about a specific type of individuals or a certain way of doing things, but that belief may or may not accurately affect reality. ( Deaux & Lewis, 1984; Foushee, Helmreich, & Spence, 1979) States that sex stereotypes are socially shared beliefs about what qualities can be assigned to individuals based on their
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