SOCIOL 1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Gender Identity, Cross-Dressing, Jeff Lorber
Document Summary
We assume that everyone falls into one gender category or the other. That are no characteristics that always and without exception are true of one gender and one gender only. We make a gender attribution every time we see a new person. Western society"s incorrigible proposition: there are 2 genders and each person is an example of one of them: part of being a socialized member of a group is knowing the rules for giving acceptable evidence for categorizing. Gender assignment occurs only once: at birth (vagina girl, penis boy declared by the doctor or nurse) Gender identity: an individual"s own feeling of whether she/he is a woman or a man (a self-attribution of gender: can be independent of attributions made by others. Gender-role identity: how much a person approves of and participates in feelings and behaviors which are seen as appropriate for his/her gender: as expectations become more flexible, gender identity conflicts may become less likely.
