Gender Presentation

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by Caleb Heal1 view·Updated May 3, 2021
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  1. All right, So one of the most important differences when
  2. discussing gender is understanding the difference between gender and sex.
  3. Um so these two terms can kind of be thrown
  4. around the same sentence and a lot of times if
  5. you don't understand the difference, it can kind of go
  6. over your head and there's a very big difference.
  7. So sex is the biological side and refers to the
  8. physical and biological differences between a male and a female.
  9. While the gender part is the part that goes into
  10. um the socially constructed differences between us, the kind of
  11. abstract little details that we um we don't think about
  12. twice in society, such as boys liking cars and girls
  13. liking dolls and boys being associated with the color blue
  14. and girls being associated with the color pink.
  15. Um, just these little little details reinforce our gender identity.
  16. Like growing up, my room was always painted blue.
  17. My sister's room was painted pink and that just kind
  18. of reinforced that girls like girls like pink and boys
  19. like blue.
  20. Um, this was just the socially constructed gender norm in
  21. our society.
  22. When I was growing up.
  23. Um moving on.
  24. Um, one of the most important ways that um, generals
  25. can be just um constructed and popularized in society is
  26. through the use of media general shown in media shape
  27. a child's understanding of how boys and girls to act
  28. and therefore the power that the media holds is great
  29. and with great power comes great responsibility.
  30. And the media has not always respected that responsibility.
  31. Disney, for example, um, still has not entered into the
  32. arena of non heteronormative relationships.
  33. Despite the increasingly open discourse surrounding sexuality and society, Heteronormative
  34. itty is the idea that heterosexuality is default sex and
  35. that deviations from heterosexuality are abnormal.
  36. This can be dangerous because it can lead to Children
  37. facing fear of abandonment and feeling just different from everyone
  38. else. And that's not what Disney wants to do.
  39. And I think they're going to realize that going forward
  40. that profit is not as important as um you know,
  41. I feel like Disney's main selling point is, Yeah, like
  42. the idea of magic and they can kids feel magical.
  43. Like Disneyland, it's just a magical place, but it's not
  44. going to be a magical place.
  45. Always if your knots encouraging kids to be who they
  46. are. And I feel like if you're promoting it heteronormative
  47. environment, you're not welcoming everyone and that's going to catch
  48. up with them if they don't change the way that
  49. they act.
  50. And I think including LGBTQ characters and their show is
  51. going to be a big part of that going forward.
  52. And I think we're going to see that a lot
  53. more with these bigger companies, it's just a lot more
  54. diversity among gender norms and um that kind of topic.
  55. All right.
  56. Moving on.
  57. I want to talk about conflict theory.
  58. Conflict theory is the idea that conflict is at the
  59. heart of everything, including gender.
  60. Because of this, there will always be inequality.
  61. And gender conflict theory argues in order to better understand
  62. how gender roles are pushed and Children shows, I watched
  63. the first three episodes of two very popular Children's shows.
  64. Teenage mutant ninja turtles and My Little pony Friendship is
  65. magic, um, and teenage mutant ninja turtles.
  66. Um The show opened with the turtles fighting in the
  67. first place, which automatically set the tone for just very
  68. aggressive, very masculine tones for the show.
  69. Um the aggressiveness and then they also showed toughness, showed
  70. resilience. Some of the turtle showed intelligence, some of the
  71. turtle showed incompetence, but ultimately it was just about the
  72. turtles using good teamwork to help save a girl.
  73. But the girl was the only girl In the entire
  74. 1st 3 episodes, one girl and she was only in
  75. the show when she was she was being displayed as
  76. weak and vulnerable and the turtles, the male turtles had
  77. to go save her.
  78. So in the end the male turtles were the ones
  79. who were looking heroic and they were the ones shown
  80. in the positive light.
  81. Well, the one girl on the show was shown in
  82. a negative way on the other hand, and my little
  83. pony. Throughout the first three episodes, there were only two
  84. male characters, neither of whom showed any masculine traits.
  85. In fact, the boys in the show were both displayed
  86. as weak and vulnerable.
  87. The females in the story, we're able to take the
  88. role of the hero, which is a great message for
  89. little girls growing up looking for a hero.
  90. However, in doing so, the show also portrayed boys in
  91. a negative light, which only supports conflict theory.
  92. All right.
  93. Moving on to the conclusion, large companies with large media
  94. power such as Disney, need to worry less about profit
  95. and more about making sure that kids are being encouraged
  96. to be who they are rather than who they should
  97. be. According to outdated gender norms.
  98. More diverse characters should be included in their movies and
  99. Children would be much more confident in being who they
  100. are. And finally, here on my sources.
  101. Thank you.