The gender continuum (range) refers to an extension of the sex spectrum to take in additional sex identities (Killermann 1). The long-established gender spectrum is linear (1-D), from 100% female to 100% male, with diverse aspects of androgyny in between. A continuum, on the other hand, is multidimensional, permitting third, fourth, fifth gender, genderless or agender, as well as numerous other combinations and possibilities, thus much more precisely echoing the true miscellany of human genders. One advantage of viewing gender as a continuum, instead of a spectrum, is that people have a less ordered shape to fit into when it comes to their sexual distinctiveness. The continuum loom to gender distinctiveness grants an individual much more private freedom in which to convey themselves. Owing to the inflexibility of the gender binary scheme, young women and men have become cramped in the social limits of their demographic (Balter and Williams 786).
Concepts of gender stratification envelop a landscape of speculations and conditions, from broad historical comparisons to micro circumstances (National Catholic Register 1). The explanatory focal point has incorporated infancy, kinship organization, reproductive technologies, healthcare, cultural ideologies, violence, eroticism, and the gender separation of labor. A majority of psychologists conceptualize femininity and masculinity as two different, orthogonal dimensions, simultaneous in different degrees, in a person. Postmodern theorists in three disciplinary traditions (gender studies, sociology and psychology) are among modern intellectuals, who have shifted away from dualistic replicas of gender and sex for instance masculine vs. feminine, males vs. females.
Gender is maybe the most limiting force in the United States, whether the issue is who should be in the kitchen or who could sit in the White House (National Catholic Register 1). This nation is way down the list of nations electing females and, in line with to one research, the nation polarizes gender duties more than the normal democracy (Balter and Williams 786). African American men were given the vote a half-century prior to females of any race were permitted to mark a ballot, and basically have ascended to ranks of power, from the boardroom to the military, prior to any women. The 20/20 "Boys will be Girls" documentary also support this notion that sex is only a binary but gender is a continuum by giving real life examples of how people consider sex only as a binary. This documentary shows how males are taking the secretarial jobs that were meant for females, and females, on the other hand, undertaking leading roles in key organizations. Gender, in general, is all around the universe. It is, in fact, taught to people, from the moment they were born. Gender messages and expectations bombard them regularly (Killermann 1). Culture, upbringing, peers, community, religion and media, are some of the numerous influences, which form people’s understanding of this crucial part of identity. How people learned and associated with gender as young children directly affects how they view the world these days. Gendered interaction between a child and his/her parents started as soon as the sex of the child was identified. In essence, gender is a publicly constructed concept.
Sex is regarded as a binary class, female and male, one or the other. Grammatically talking, a person cannot be more feminine, least womanly, or less male or mainly male (Killermann 1). Western societies treat gender as a binary class, although it is, in reality, a continuous class. An individual can be more or less masculine or feminine. In 1941, Oscar Lewis wrote about the occasional Plains Indian females, who were able to flee from their traditional female tasks and ‘equal’ males in terms of property and wealth, sexual ability and religious contribution. These females, in the Blackfeet tradition, were referred to as ninauposkitzipxpe or, in other words, manly-hearted women. Men have, in the past, been allowed to put on the dress of females without a blush, and to discuss themselves in order to perform those professions that are most odd to the sex, from whence followed a vice of morals past every expression. It was imagined that this tradition came from a certain belief of religion. However, this religion had like a majority of others acquired its origin in the depravation of feeling and ended in the flesh. These effeminate individuals never get married (National Catholic Register 1). They dump themselves to the wickedest passions in which they are detained in the most sovereign disrespect.
In conclusion, gender or sex identity is all about how the person and is in the person’s head. It is about how a person internally interprets the chemistry, which composes them (Killermann 1). As people know it, do they think they fit better into the communal role of man or woman or do neither appear principally true for the person? That is, whether a person is somewhere amid the two? Or do the individual regard his/her gender to fall outside of the range entirely? The answer is a person gender identity. It has been acknowledged that people form their own gender identities about the age of three, and after that, it is extremely hard to change them (Killermann 1). Shaping of identity is provoked by hormones and environment only as much as it is by genetic sex. Oftentimes, issues arise when a person is assigned a gender rooted in their sex at birth, which does not line up with how they for their sexual identify. This should be practices as soon as the child is born.
Works Cited
Balter, Blume and Williams, Thomas W. “Toward a Dialectical Model of Family Gender Discourse: Body, Identity, and Sexuality Libby.” Journal of Marriage and Family 65.4 (2003), 785-794.
Killermann, Sam. Breaking Through The Binary: Gender Explained Using Continuums. N.p, 2012. Web.
National Catholic Register. Boys Will Be Girls - 20-20. N.p, 2012. Web.
