Quote:
Originally Posted by mikey_the_redneck
Give me some examples...
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The types of shows marketed to little boys and girls are different. The types of magazines marketed to little boys and girls are different. The types of toys marketed to little boys and girls are different. The way they are treated in school can be different. This affects their perception of themselves and their ideas about what is normal for boys and normal for girls. They also base their ideas about how girls and guys relate by watching others at school, watching their parents, watching friends of their parents. They take examples of what it is to be female or male from societal examples, either in real life or on TV.
I believe this is what people mean by gender being socially constructed. Our ideas of what it mean to be female or male are greatly influenced by our cultural products and by how people act in our culture.
Now you flip over to some African tribe and you can find cultures where the women are in charge and the social roles are totally different. Is that because they have way different DNA? Nope. This is why sociologists/anthropologists have decided gender is socially constructed. They've found societies where the roles are totally different.
It would be a mistake to think that every culture views female/male, femininity/masculinity in the same way because they don't. Some people realize this when they travel. Some people realize this by reading about other cultures.
I'm not sure you're really open to these ideas based on your posting style. You seem to champion ignorance. But hopefully you get the gist of what I'm saying about social construction, in the case of gender if you really think about it it does seem pretty obvious. Perhaps hard to see though if you've never learned about any cultures where male/female gender roles were not significantly different from our culture.