David Velador Santos

Professor Jon Beadle

English 115
9/25/2016
Do or Do Not: Gender Roles in Society
Choice is a fundamental part of everyday life from seemingly insignificant decisions to life
changing resolutions. In terms of the latter, one such dilemma is having the ability to choose a gender.
However, because of arbitrary rules set in place by society, it is more difficult to simply choose without
repercussions. Judith Lorber, in her article Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender,
argues that gender means similar identities for individuals and a dichotomy for society. Aaron Devor, in
his article Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meanings of Gender, asserts that masculinity and
femininity are learned and further progressed by means of stereotypes, gender roles, and expression.
Throughout both essays, Lorber and Devor discuss how gender is created and instilled upon a
population, and how we fall under its stereotypes, despite having a choice as individuals, in order to
avoid being singled out of society.
From a societal standpoint, there are two genders; one for each sex. This means male and
female should be referred to as man and woman respectively, and this type of viewing has been held as
the norm for a very long time. However, the only reason it has been held for so long is because
ancestors would teach their offspring about these ways, and so on and so forth. As Lorber quotes, Yet
gender, like culture, is a human production that depends on everyone constantly 'doing gender' (West
and Zimmerman 1987) (Lorber, 19). She goes on to explain how doing gender is a learned task that
is taught to each new generation with untold consequences for not doing so. Because there are no
defined outcomes to defying these lessons, most people follow them without question, and are confused
and even scared by those who do decide to break free. But these actions do come with consequences,
and as Lorber describes it, Gendered norms and expectations are enforced through informal sanctions

of gender-inappropriate behavior by peers and by formal punishment or threat of punishment by those

in authority should behavior deviate too far from socially imposed standards for women and men
(Lorber,28). In this quote, Lorber describes how even though there is no legitimate physical
consequence for venturing outside gender norms, the psychological repercussions are beyond that of
any sort of punishment. As social creatures, being excluded from society is enough of a maltreatment to
keep gender norms locked in place into our lives.
From the time we are born to the time we breathe our last breath, we usually have a very general
idea of who we are in this world, as a way to identify and classify ourselves so that we may fit in. In
this identity we create, gender is a fundamental part of who we are. To find ourselves, we build our
character up from examples around us. Devor quotes in his article, As children, and later adults, learn
the rules of membership in society, they come to see themselves in terms they have learned from the
people around them (Devor, 35). He explains how we look at others around us, from friends and
family to strangers and icons, as a benchmark of who we want to be. In this sense, who we identify as
is very strongly classified into one of two genders. However, few who have broken from templates and
created their own views have also become prominent, and are beginning to take down gender roles and
remake society into a more open minded place. Because of this, more people are starting to accept this
as an acceptable practice, if not a new norm. Devor writes, Biological evidence is equivocal about the
source of gender roles; psychological androgyny is a widely accepted concept (Devor, 43). In other
words, putting aside societal norms and lessons about gender, there truly is more than two genders, and
that society restricts it to these two as a means to easily categorize people.
In my own experiences, growing up in a changing world, I've seen many people decide to not
conform to these roles and regulations about who should be who. Classmates, teachers, coworkers, and
friends of mine have all made their decisions about what gender they identify as, with most of them
traditionally aligning with their sex, and few choosing to part ways and go against society's templates.
The more people who decide to do so, the more they help to break down the gender roles that have

plagued society for so long. For better or for worse, more and more people, especially the younger
population, have begun to stray from how their parents before them were raised to be. For example, the
death of chivalry is promoted through music, feminism has made it acceptable for a woman to pay the
check on a date, and parents are starting to choose more gender neutral clothing for their babies and
toddlers. This, however, does come with a price, as still some people wish to continue traditional
practices and teachings of gender. Nonetheless, people are excluded from daily activities, are
susceptible to more judgment, and overall are more likely to be mistreated due to their differences. In
light of this struggle, not everyone chooses to alienate them on their choices. With these practices,
some people choose to accept these new ways, and even though may not choose to identify differently,
they may be more open minded to them and their ways of life. Much to their dismay, this may upset
traditional values and ethics, but this also opens up new paths and identifications, to further create new
identities and more classifications of people who feel they do not belong in either of the two preset
genders. I myself have chosen to follow these gender roles due to my upbringings. If given the choice
to change, I would decline simply because I am happy the way I am now. My parents were lenient in
my choices as a child, and although nothing would happen to me in my immediately family if I chose
to identify differently, society would have other judgments in store for me for when I would grow up.
In both essays, one by Judith Lorber and the other by Aaron Devor, both authors chose to attack
and expose how society chooses to classify people into two roles, and the various effects on people.
The reasons go beyond ethics, however, as businesses may benefit to having a larger target audience,
gender roles may confine people to certain tasks and help keep them in check. After all, gender roles
were most likely created through discrimination between men and women, forcing men to be dominant
while women were made to be submissive, along with other stereotypes. Feminism movements,
equality rights and other struggles continue today and are, to an extent, slowed if not halted by the
teachings of gender roles and similar ways of thinking. Gender roles have become a norm in society, as
well as only having two genders, as a way to classify people into only two groups and make them

alienate those who choose to be different than how we were originally raised. Masculinity and
femininity no longer have to be tied down to a certain gender, and with an ever changing world come
changing ideas, and we may very well be experiencing a new movement in freedom of choice, free of
social repercussions.

Works Cited
Lorber, Judith. 'Night to His Day': The Social Construction of Gender. Composing Gender, O'Hare,
John, Groner, Rachael, Bedford/St. Martin's, 2014.
Devor, Aaron. Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meanings of Gender. Composing Gender,
O'Hare, John, Groner, Rachael, Bedford/St. Martin's, 2014.