Blog post #2

Response to Lorber's "Night to His Day"

Each society has its own norms and expectations of gender for people. As an individual, you may choose the gender that you want to be as long as you fit these requirements. Otherwise, you will be kicked out of the society. Form the day you were born, the society already has its rules for female and male no matter what you like it or not. These rules already exist there even you don`t know when the society starts to use them. These rules are passed down from one generation to the next generation. Gradually, they will affect people`s behaviors, the way they treat others, and the way they be treated. It is just like the example mentioned in the article. In one African society, as a man, you should eat wholeheartedly with whole mouth when you eat something. Maybe you never think about why you do it. You do it may just because everyone does it. So, for them, It is just the way that a men needs to do. Another example from the article is when a baby was born, most parents gender them by naming, birth announcement, dress. It is a natural way for parents to prepare children like that in order to make sure that their children are on the right track and fit in our society, which means they want their children to be either a male or female. As a child, in the beginning, he or she seems like a blank paper. They doesn`t know about which gender they should belong to. But as the article says that from the process that they grow from the early childhood to adolescents to adults, they all will interact with their parents, the opposite gender, and guided by the schools, media, even the society stratification system. Later on, they all will know what exactly they should do to meet the rules. All in all, for the gender that we have, once we follow the rules, we will be fine.