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Andres Morales
Professor Beadle
English 113A
8 December, 2015
Gender in Our Society
It can be hard to fit into society if you are confused about your gender because our
society can be very judgmental. The articles Are We Facing a Genderless Future? By Barbara
Kantrowitz and Pat Wingert and No Way My Boys Are Going to Be Like That: Parents
Responses to Childrens Gender Nonconformity by Emily W. Kane both have two things in
common: finding your gender and how to fit into society. What people do not know is that
parents have an enormous influence on this topic with what their kids can and cannot do. These
topics have been talked about for a very long time with a variety of opinions. These opinions can
be changed over time if we were to have a genderless society in the future.
Kantrowitz and Wingert focus on the fact we could be or are facing a genderless future.
Lately it has been a new generation with more gender rights. There are debates that different
types of sexuality and gender confusion can be a mental disorder only if it is disturbing the
patient. It is not uncommon for the people that are going to undergo a sex change to think that it
will solve all of their gender issues. With the surgery and the hormones, they have the idea that
they can just change their gender when in reality it is much more complicated than that. The
people that get a sex change do not become a third gender like some would believe. Once the
change is done they would only change genders. The people that undergo the transition already
know the repercussions that they will have to go through once it is done.

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In the article No Way My Boy Are Going to Be Like That the author talks about how
most parents lean their child into being what everyone thinks is regular. She uses an example
of a lady who is white, low income, and heterosexual who cooks with her son and the first big
toys she bought him were a kitchen set with an apron that he wears, a dirt devil vacuum, and a
doll with a high chair that he feeds. This mother has no problem with the fact that her son
enjoys these toys. Fathers are usually the ones that do not condone that type of activity for their
children especially if it is their son. Everyone is so used to the fact of father son activity being
sports and more masculine things it is even portrayed in the media such as movies, magazines
and even some books. With the parents in our society in these days most of the parents would not
have encouraged this. Some parents want their children to follow in their footsteps but I believe
if you have a child you should be open minded and let them grow up into what they choose to be.
With all the parents that are leaning their children to be so called regular its harder to
fit into society for those who are not forced or leaned in either direction. Then again there is the
theory of a genderless future that can make it much easier for everyone in general. A genderless
future being that all types of genders and sexuality is accepted without being judged or frowned
upon. With a genderless future there would be one less problem we have in our society but we
never know if it will happen and if it were to happen it would not just happen overnight it would
be a process in time. I believe that a genderless future can happen but our society would need to
have an open mind and it probably would not happen in this generation.
The common idea I saw in both of these articles is that if you grow up confused about
your gender role or do choose to change or be a different gender it would be tough to fit in and
you would have to bear with the comments and wait for people to accept the fact that you have
changed. Your parents have a huge impact on your gender role when you are growing up. They

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decide what you wear, the toys you play with, and much more. Children grow up to see which
gender they fit in to or what gender they believe they are supposed to fit into at their age. How
you grow up and your surrounding have a huge impact on how you are. Society puts a load of
pressure on you because you think you need to be what you see growing up. Gender organizes
the way society has an effect on you because of the things that we are so used too.
The authors Barbra Kantrowitz and Pat Wingert wrote their article to tell people about
gender roles and a genderless future. They talked about what would happen if we were to have a
genderless future were to happen. They went into detail about how if we did have this future
there would be much less judgmental people in our society. I believe they wrote this part have
people think about what can happen and how hard it is for the people that do have trouble
figuring out their gender and gender role in society. They have people thinking about what can
happen and what their actions do to affect others. Also telling people that sex change is a hard
and sensitive thing for people to deal with but if you are undergoing this operation you must
prepare yourself for other things can happen once you change genders. They tell people that once
the change is done they only change genders there is no third gender or other gender because
most people do not understand this fact.
Emily W. Kane emphasizes on how your parents have a huge impact on your gender
decisions and gender role. The author writes about this idea because of the fact that you might
have been pushed into the gender that you are today or for those that were pushed to think about
why they might have been pushed. They inform people that parents actually have more of an
impact than everyone thinks. The house hold you grew up in and your parents teachings are main
points of who are today. Your parents might be strict on this topic so that can be another main
reason. It all depends were you come from it can even be from religious aspects. Most religions

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frown upon the idea of being a different gender from what you were before. The point trying to
be made is that parents have more of an impact on society than everyone thought. This topic is
very important not only to inform the ones that do not know about it but to give another
perspective on our society. These practices have been used for a very long time and some of
these practices are changing little by little. Some parents are becoming more lenient with their
childs decisions and how they act.
In my life I see all sorts of people, how they dress, how they look, and how they act. The
people that tend to get judged the most is homosexuals, I believe they deal with this so much is
because everyone is so used to seeing males being masculine and females being feminine. The
judgment is pretty harsh sometimes but that is a price to pay even though they should not have to
go through it. I personally know a guy that went through this exact situation. Even though people
were disrespectful he would surround himself with good friends so he can feel better. Once he
became what everyone sees as a real women, long hair, nice body, dresses like a women,
everyone already accepted the fact that she changed. So throughout my life I have seen and
realized more about gender.
Gender is everywhere and is happening in all different types of ways. Even though most
people do not know the fact that gender is everywhere it is seen in all places if you were to try to
notice. Hopefully once reading this essay you learned and notice about all types of gender around
them. After reading these articles I personally learned more and have started to notice more
about the gender around me. Reading these articles from the book Composing Gender by
Rachael Groner and John F. OHara, they are ones that open your mind some more and make
you think. Once noticing everything becomes everything around you gets much more interesting.
So from now on if you start to notice more, the more learning you would do.

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