Impact of Gender on Stereotypes: Gender and Mansplaining

Impact of Gender on Stereotypes
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Gender and Mansplaining
Lorber makes a case that gender is a social construct. She observes that ‘gender and sex are not equivalent and does not flow automatically from genitalia and reproductive organs.’ However, this distinction of sex and gender is fuzzy for many people and, they continue to associate physical attributes of a human body with abilities and cognitive power’CITATION Jud94 \p 56 \l 1033 (Lorber 56). The social construction of gender has created superior and inferior genders. Males are considered stronger, more intelligent, and superior to females who are subordinates. Lorber observes that gendering is ‘carefully constructed through prescribed processes of teaching, learning, emulation and enforcement’ (56). However, gender cannot and should not be reduced to ‘biological and physiological differences between human females and males’ CITATION Jud94 \p 56 \l 1033 (Lorber 56). It is always more than that. The gender spectrum is more diverse and cannot fit into that narrow fields of categorization.
Gender, according to Lober, is a learned process that begins at birth. As the child grows, he/she is put in gender molds created for the gender they assign the child because of its sex. The child is also assigned different roles and responsibilities pertinent to their assigned genders. This shapes their experiences, feelings, motivations, and ambitions for different people. The law, religion, and set of values structured by the society further legitimize gendering.
Gendering manifested in the way different gender groups behave. One of the most prominent ways it manifests itself is ...