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Gender Construct and Stereotypical Roles

In: English and Literature

Submitted By a2xs
Words 644
Pages 3
When we say “gender is a construct” it basically means that gender is constructed or created by ourselves. For instance, someone once said that gender is not the same as “sex”. This can be rather confusing to a lot of people. While gender is how we act, sex is what our body is. To explain this better, the sex of a person says whether that person is a female or a male by their body parts. Gender is how we act and/or feel according to what we wear, our personality, and even our speaking style.
Another analysis about this subject is the differences of boys and girls personalities. Girls are quiet, passive, compassionate, and emotional. Meanwhile, boys are aggressive, competitive, and rough. However, this is not always the case. The mentioned behavior does not have to be tied to a specific gender. This is where the constructed gender comes into place. Not to mention that some cultures have a different meaning of how girls and boys are supposed to behave.
Aspects of Conventional Images
Aspects of conventional images of women in general literature according to Kolodny (1975) are “the stereotyped traditional literary images of women as, for example, the loving Mom, “the bitch," the Sex Goddess”. In other words, depending on the character and her personality they were stereotyped. Kolodny (1989) also mentions that the reason why they are being stereotyped is to hide their “hidden reality”. For instance, the loving mom depicts a woman who is devoted to their kids making them a priority above all else. They sacrifice everything in order to make them happy. “The bitch” is a woman who doesn’t care who she hurts by her actions or what everybody else thinks about her for that matter. At times, this image of a woman could be aggressive, competitive, and even selfish. The sex goddess is a woman who is very conceded about her appearance and only cares about her appearance in

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