Introduction
Gender defines the process of social status-making, which is used in the allocation of responsibilities and rights. As part of the stratification system, gender ranks different statuses differently and unequally and is the primary building block of the social stratification of different statuses. Sexuality is a person’s capacity for sexual feeling (Ron). This paper examines gender stratification, sexuality, the way they vary, and their different possibilities.
The social stratification of gender, sexuality, and their variations
To be born a female is more than a pure biological fact; it is a fact that has some social complications (Oneontaeducation). Women are a component of distinct social groups, and characteristics of this group that have been neglected by history do not affect the “nature” of the feminine. The biological sexes are represented, redefined, valued, and, again, channeled into different roles in different ways that are culturally dependent. Sex or gender systems are the set of arrangements through which society transforms biological sexuality into the products of human activity, where these transformed sexual needs are met (Bridge Development).
We are born female or male but not either feminine or masculine. Femininity is an achievement, an artifice, and a mode of reenacting and enacting the received gender norms that surface as an increased flesh style. There are disciplinary practices that make the body recognized as feminine through producing a shape of a particular configuration, movement, posture, and gestures, and those that facilitate the display of the given screen of the body as the ornamented surface.
Gender constructions start with the assignment to a given category of sex based on the appearance of the genitals. From this, babies are then handled and dressed in a way that represents their division as parents avoid being asked whether their baby is either a boy or a girl (Lorber).
After gender is evident, these different genders are treated differently, and these children respond to different treatments and hence start feeling and behaving in a different manner, bringing about variation in their behavior and the way they speak, walk, and even approach situations. After they have been assigned and treated in a particular way that represents a specific gender, they refer to themselves as members of this gender, and therefore, the gender group to which they are assigned according to norms and expectations shapes their practices, sexual desires, and feelings. Even parenting is gendered with different expectations and standards for fathers and mothers, and different kinds of gender work in different jobs (Reachout.com). The work done is according to the norms that adults follow, either as mothers or fathers, which shapes the norms and expectations of a gender and produces different feelings and relationship skills, which may be referred to as masculine or feminine and constitute the social construction of gender.
Female figure styles vary across cultures and over time, and they are reflections of cultural preoccupations and obsessions in poorly understood ways. Power, massiveness, or abundance in the woman’s body is met with distaste. Today’s body fashion is small-breasted, taut, narrow-hipped, slim, and so on. Heterosexual men are attracted to these women and usually tend to stare at them and often judge them on these bases.
There are increased differences between females and males in posture, gesture, general body comportment, and movement. Females are much more restricted in their spatiality and movement than men. Women are surrounded by the space in their imagination that makes them hesitant to move beyond, which manifests itself through their reluctance to stretch, reach, and extend their bodies to meet the resistance of the matter in motion and even in the general style of movement and their constricted posture. A woman’s space is the enclosure in which she feels comfortably positioned and in which she is confined rather than the field in which the female’s body intentions can be realized freely. However, this norm is violated by the “loose woman,” which can be manifested in her manner of speech, norms, and even in the natural way in which she moves (Oneontaeducation).
There are differences in postures for feminine and masculine people; for example, men, while waiting for the train, sit while expanding into the available space, arms flung out at a given distance from their body, and legs far apart. Women, on the other hand, place their arms close to the body, toes pointing inward or straight ahead, their hands folded together in their laps, and their legs pressed together.
As a structure, gender divides work in economic production and the home, organizes emotional life and sexuality, and legitimates those in authority. In situations where gender is the major constituent of structured inequality, the gender that is devalued has less power, fewer economic rewards, and less prestige than the gender that is valued (Lorber). The importance of gendering at birth is because individuals experience gender as a social institution, which is the way in which human beings organize their lives. Human society relies on a predictable division of labor, a designed allocation of goods that are scarce in nature, and responsibility assigned to children and others who cannot take care of themselves; it also relies on shared values, their systematic transmission to new members, games, and so on. A way of selecting people to handle different tasks is by looking at their talents, competence, motivations, and demonstrated achievements. On the other hand, gender, ethnicity, a given membership, and race can also be used as a way of choosing individuals to handle particular tasks (Sexuality and Social Justice).
In maintaining gender separation, men and women, when doing the same tasks, are spatially segregated, and different jobs are also given different titles and names, for example, administrative assistant and executive secretary.
As a part of the stratification system, gender tends to rank women below men in a similar class and race. Although women and men could be different, they are equal. Different evaluations, to an extent, are the best practices for creating differences between men and women.
Gender inequality, where women are devalued more than men, and the social domination of males constitute social history and social functions. Gender inequality is not caused by procreation, sex, anatomy, genetic predispositions, hormones, or physiology, but is generated and maintained by social processes that are identifiable and purposefully and deliberately constructed into individual identities and general social structures. The continuing purpose of gender as a current and modern social institution is aimed at constructing females as a group that is subordinate to men (Lorber). To sum up, as gender is a process, there is increased room for variation and modification by small groups and individuals and for institutionalized change.
References
Lorber, Judith. “Night to his Day”: The Social Construction of Gender.” Paradoxes of Gender. 1994.
Oneontaeducation.1994.20032018.<https://www.oneonta.edu/faculty/farberas/arth/arth200/gender.html>.
Reachout.com. 2018. 2003 2018.<https://schools.au.reachout.com/articles/gender-and-sexuality>.
Ron, Willian Little and.Openbooksbc.2014.2002018.<https://opentextbc.ca/introductiontosociology/chapter/chapter12-gender-sex-and-sexuality/>.
Academic Master Education Team is a group of academic editors and subject specialists responsible for producing structured, research-backed essays across multiple disciplines. Each article is developed following Academic Master’s Editorial Policy and supported by credible academic references. The team ensures clarity, citation accuracy, and adherence to ethical academic writing standards
Content reviewed under Academic Master Editorial Policy.
