Posted: September 1st, 2023

Myth of Gender Assignment

Myth of Gender
“Men are better suited in making money just like women are suited in making babies.” This sounds insensitive and old school, but myths like these, that have no scientific evidence, guided our fore fathers in making decisions that have negatively affected women for generations. John F. Kennedy was well aware of the negative impact on myths when he said that “The great enemy of truth is not the lie-deliberate, contravened and dishonest- but the myth-persistent, persuasive and unrealistic”. Gender myths have existed for time in memorial. The society has expected, for a long time, specific gender to behave in certain manner prescribed to it by societal agents such as schools, family, friends as well their cultural norms. The term gender had not attracted a buzz until the late 1960s and became common in the professional disciplines like social sciences in early 1970s. The term is today used for purposes of differentiating aspects of sexuality that that are defined by our cultural and ingrained in our society as opposed to biological orientation. Gender is a term that is so widely used but unfortunately, so much misunderstood. By focusing sorely on what weve known through generations, we have negated that fact that only properly researched conclusion should be used to determine gender as well as its trait linked to it.
Unlike myths on racial stereotypes that have continually been debunked, gender myths remain understood as biological truths in most parts of the world, yet its only what our culture has known to be “truth” for generations (Anne). By critically examining the biological, psychological, genetic and evolutionary evidence, there is unimaginable lack of truth about common misconception on biological sex differences (Fausto-Sterling). However, in recent times, there has been notable change in the way people perceive gender roles. In this paper, I will debunk commonly held gender myths that are held in our society.
The most common myth in relation to gender is sex. Some people use gender and sex interchangeably, however they don’t mean the same. The discrepant use of the term has resulted in confusion, misconception and general lack of understanding. It’s important to conceptually differentiate the two terms in order to understand this gender myth. While as sex is biological and inherited by birth, gender is the social cultural roles assigned to men and women and is determined by society through its association with societal agents like families, friends and schools. The gender differences are as a result of social, ethnic, economic and cultural factors. As such, they exist, not only between men and women but perpetuated by their interaction. Sex will determine whether one is born a male or a female but not necessarily determine the gender of an individual. It’s therefore wrong to make the assumption that because I am man, I am naturally violent as opposed to a woman. There are women in our country that are more violent than men. Nearly a third of all women murdered in our country are murdered by their male partners (Kilbourne 25). However, researches on men who are murdered by women are not available, yet we have experienced a number of such cases. Aggression and violence is not only a factor of genetic make-up but also the environmental predisposition (Reif et al). although most men are not violent, they are preserved when the topic is raised. This is as a result of gender violence societal false narrative that “a man should be rough”. As such, even when one is not violent, they will tend not to criticize it because of their gender.
Another commonly held myth is that gender related issues only affect women. This has been held on a positive note considering the fact that in most societies, women are the most disadvantaged beings. Therefore, there are more gender initiatives that have been created to improve the plight of women. As much as this is the right thing to do to improve on gender equality, a balance needs to be struck when dealing with such initiatives. Our society has concentrated so much on one side that we might be heading to crises that will force us to go back to the drawing board in order to genuinely create a gender balanced system. In the same way our society has been subjecting roles like home chores to women, home maintenance and bills have been subjected to male counterparts. In creating initiatives that try to make the society understand that both sexes can comfortably do house chores, there ought to be similar initiatives that should educate the same women that they can as well chip in buying or contribute in paying home bills. That way, no gender will fill overwhelmed at the expense of the other.
Another gender myth concerns sex orientation and subsequently the assumption that there are only two genders. Human sexuality is not restricted to male and female, there is a third orientation referred to transgender. This is when an individual’s gender identity doesn’t confirm to specific biological sex. In sister is complicated, Padawer explores how female institutions are struggling with what it means to be a women as they cop up with the new generations of transgender students(Padawer 34-39). It gets even more intriguing that our society has for a long time limited our view on the subject so bad that when a child born intersexual has to undergo surgeries to assign it to a specific sex. The societal practices of categorizing intersexuality through gender assignment surgeries create both psychological and physical implications on the victim. Its high time that today’s society appreciate that one can be born with mixed sexual orientation and still fits in the society by enabling and providing such individuals with public as well private amenities that will enable them thrive just like others who are born with specified sex orientation. Although the essence of gender assignment is to assist the individuals fit into our set up society as is, it encourages the traditional believe that deviating from traditional two-sex system is abnormal. Its high time we started accommodating how these individuals are born rather than forcing to change them just to fit.
In “Killing us Softly”, Kilbourne criticizes the use of femininity in advertising. The use of women as advertising objects has advanced the notion of female as sex objects. More often than not, there is a niche of women that the media see it fit for them to appear in advert images, not just any woman. They have characterized a beautiful woman as one who has specific features such as thin, tall, straight and white (Kilbourne). This creates a line of thinking among young girls that they have to look in certain way in order to feel good, as advanced by the media. Young women learn from tender age that their sexualized behaviors and looks will be rewarded by the society. There is no scientific metrics on how to measure beauty. In fact this kind of reasoning has made some of the women lack self-esteem yet they are equally good or even smarter than their glorified counterparts. In 2007, the American Psychological Association released a report concluding that girls exposed to sexualized images from a young age are more prone to depression, eating disorders, and low self-esteem. Women adverts are displayed and target not only women but men. On the contrary, men adverts are specific to male consumers. Kilborne has insisted that she has no problem with women wanting to be attractive or not irrespective of qualities needed to justify one as such. She however insists that there should be a broader and fairer way of approaching it not just objectifying their body at the exclusion of other important qualities in relation to their gender.
Job inequality is another agenda that has been suppressed by gender myths that work on suppressing the capacity of women in the job market. Feminist sociologist Kilbourne has substantially contributed to relook into theories in the work and employment sector. This is however creating new feminist myths to replace the old patriarchal concerning women’s attitude toward career choice that will eventually make a difference in the employment sector (Kilbourne 17). As stated ealier, ideas such as women don’t have enough confidence to handle some positions or that they lack the right kinds of connection that may result to employment opportunities is commonly referenced in media. This is worrying state considering that no one questions such myths. In a research carried out by KPMG in London to establish gender differences in career management at a level, it was found there are more women in employment, earning degrees and breadwinners than ever before. The study also wanted to determine what was enhancing women success as well as the challenges holding them back. The research established quite a number of challenges facing women in their effort to gain career success. Irrespective of those challenges, we need to applaud women for the far they have in equalizing the gender gap in employment sector. There are almost equal similarities between men and women as far as leadership styles, passion, aspirations and ambitions. The few notable differences are those created by difference in career path and not gender differences (Adams).
In conclusion, gender myths should not be tolerated in today’s generation. They are lies, misconception that generally lack evidence yet they are still held not only in the world countries but even in developed nations like United States. There ought to massive and consistent imitative that should promote education on only scientifically verified gender traits and at the same time engage in programs that will make our society unlearn some of the negative gender myths that have been learnt in the previous generations. The media and advertising agencies should refrain from traditional use of women objectification to drive their sales. They should rather come up with a neutral and sensitive methods of advertising instead of eroding the masses, especially young girls on what beauty is according to them while crafting a narrative of what men should consider beautiful or not. We should have a society that shares almost all of human qualities. I believe that gender differences should only be used to uplift each other and not suppress each other. Most of the gender myths discussed are oppressive to women and girls and I believe that’s why past generations have been holding onto them. We should rise against such oppressive myths in today’s society and appreciate every gender as it is.

Robert A. LeVine, PhD: Gender Difference: Interpreting Anthropological Data
Source: ABC of Women Worker’s Rights and Gender Equality, ILO, Geneva, 2000
Fausto-Sterling, Anne. Myths of gender: Biological theories about women and men. Basic Books, 2008.
Padawer, Ruth. “Sisterhood is complicated: What is a women’s college when gender is fluid.” The New York Times Magazine 19 (2014): 34-39.
Kilbourne, Jean. “Still killing us softly: Advertising and the obsession with thinness.” Feminist perspectives on eating disorders 17 (1994): 395-418.
Adams, Renee B. “Myths and facts about female directors.” IFC Private Sector Opinion 37 (2015).

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