Nature or Nurture? Or both? Are Gender Roles and Norms More a Matter of Nature

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   Peter Leeperposted 12 years ago

   Nature or Nurture?  Or both?  Are Gender Roles and Norms More a Matter of Nature, Nurture, or Both?

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2. 60

   Leaderofmanyposted 12 years ago

   This is one of my favorite topics, I tend to go with nature over nurture. Children know from a young age what gender role they are going to play. I may not have said this a few years a go, but I have experienced it for myself. I knew a young male child who swore that he was a young female child. He would repeatedly wear his mother's undergarments and dresses. The mother would repeatedly punish this child and it would do no good. I lean toward nature in some many other ways also.
   
   My sister and I never knew each other until 2000, but we share so many like qualities, The first thing we noticed is that we share a liking for the same cocktail. We live in different states now, but often share similar likes in clothes or shoes. One time on a visit we both had on the same shoes, we both had the same picture hanging in our homes. Just small things that one might miss if they were not paying attention.

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3. 86

   krillcoposted 12 years ago

   Both. Genetically, male or female, or transgender is obvious. Along with the genetics effecting physical gender, it shapes mental gender as well. Add to this cultural and intra-family behavioral shaping and expectation, and the full picture comes into view. Though, the physical gender strongly influences the latter; the environemnt either helping the individual become who God intended them to be, or crippling them if their environment insists that they adhere to stereotypes.

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4. 58

   Brittany Sloanposted 12 years ago

   I suppose I favor nature more than nurture although in different societies gender roles are very different from what you find in the United States. Even in the US there are a variety of thoughts on gender roles depending on the parents and their background. Speaking from experience, both from my own childhood and now raising my son, I think it is largely nature with pressure from society to be one way or another. I was very boyish as a child and teenager and rarely identified with any of the typical things associated with women. My mother thought I was actually homosexual for a long time, which annoyed me honestly. Also it was harder for me to make friends because most people thought I was pretty weird for not being the typical girl.
   
   Now I am a stay-at-home mother, and guess what? I love it. I am still in many ways not a typical 'woman' but the way I was raised, I was allowed to think for myself. I don't let society dictate how I should behave one way or another. My son seems to be 110% boy almost all the time, but he stills like to play with dolls or other toys that are supposed to be for girls. I think it is ridiculous not to allow your child the freedom to make his or her own choices, especially about something that is so intrinsically designed into each person. It depends on how you are raised, either to think for yourself and do what is going to work for you and whatever your standards are, or to let society tell you how to act. This can go both ways, forcing either gender into roles that do not work for them. I will not feel guilty for loving my role as a stay at home mother, or for enjoying to shop for clothing and shoes, liking baby animals, or whatever other silly preconceived notions there are for woman. Similarly men should not feel guilty for wanting to feel manly, for wanting to be a sole provider for their family, for enjoying sports, or any other thing typically associated with men. Neither should either gender feel like they cannot enjoy the things that the other gender enjoys, or play a similar role in life as the other gender.

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5. 61

   prosetraineeposted 10 years ago

   Today's gender roles, are under rated, due to advanced technology, social media, and increase trending careers for women, performing "male" task or duties?  allegedly

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