Preview

Masculinity In Frankenstein

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
208 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Masculinity In Frankenstein
Throughout the progress of understanding human development, the notion of gender has commonly been the topic of discussion and debate when attempting to understand its foundation. While it is argued to be a societal and cultural manifestation, others suggest it is a biological construct. When an individual is subjected to socialization, they are introduced to the common values, beliefs and cultural norms that are established in society. Despite the ongoing and inconclusive nature vs. nurture debate, what constitutes as masculinity in literature can be found through narratorial voice. The construction and representation of masculine identity as arrogant and condescending can be illustrated through the male narrators in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Gayle Rubin created the sex/gender system concept in the year 1975. She created this term to offer a new way of thinking about the difference between sex and gender. She defined the sex/gender system as “the set of arrangements by which a society transforms biological sexuality into products of human activity, and which these transformed sexual needs are satisfied” (WRWC, 2015). The sex/gender system has many explanations that attempt to address how our sex plays a role in how we learn gender. A few of these theories include: cognitive-developmental theory, social learning theory, gender schema theory, social interactions and gender roles, and lastly, performativity theory. In this essay I will explain how the sex/gender system is created and reinforced from the perspectives of feminist theorists.…

    • 936 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gender refers to culturally constructed distinctions between femininity and masculinity. Individuals are born female or male but they become feminine or masculine through complex developmental processes that take many years to unfold. For example, women usually look after babies while men are the providers. The evolutionary approach argues that gender role division appears as an adaptation to the challenges faced by the ancestral humans in the EEA. Therefore, the role differences we observe are more a product of our biological inheritance than acquired through socialisation…

    • 973 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Masculinity - Cloudstreet

    • 575 Words
    • 3 Pages

    * Characteristics of masculinity and femininity are naturalised in almost every society, but differ based on diverse environments, values and changing time periods. In literature, these assumptions come to underpin the construction of key characters.…

    • 575 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Frankenstein, by Mary Shelly, Victor creates a monster who murders his loved ones. Victor could have prevented two of the female deaths but chose not to in both of the events, which provided proof that women were not of importance. By allowing all of the female characters to die, Mary Shelly was displaying how women were so disposable. In this paper, I will provide details on how women were seen and treated during the book.…

    • 985 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    It is a common practice to assume that gender is biological aspect of human lives, but in social sciences “gender identity [is] not a “thing” that people “have,” but rather a process of construction that develops, comes into crisis, and changes as a person interacts with the social world” (Messner 2009:120). As Messner (2009) explained, gender identity is not static but is rather a dynamic process that all individuals experience through social interactions. When I was young, my parents always referred to me as a “tomboy” because I often played with boys and was comfortable wearing boy’s clothes. Likewise, I knew that I was a girl. However, I preferred to play with boys because their games were more enticing and intriguing. Since I was little,…

    • 240 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Biology alone determines whether a person is female or male, not culture, but cultural myths outline the roles women and men play in society. These cultural myths constitute to the lack of differentiation between sex and gender, imposing the idea of nature versus nurture. While one is born either female or male due to biology, one’s culture ultimately makes one into a woman or a man. Society has predisposed images of what it means to be feminine or masculine. These gender roles limit the individual’s potential, making humans into performers that must conform to their “appropriate” roles. Being a man should not rely on appearing dominant, aggressive, or never admitting to weaknesses, nor should a woman’s life depend on her reproductiveness…

    • 970 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the article entitled, “Men Are From Earth, and So Are Women. It’s faulty”, by Rosalind C. Barnett and Caryl Rivers, the differences between men and women are reexamined as well as challenged. According to Rivers and Barnett, there is really no innate difference between the sexes; there are only varying behaviors that are determined by the degree of power males and females hold in a given situation. Contrasting this with a completely different piece, Anne Fausto-Sterling’s “The Five Sexes: Why Men and Female are Not Enough”, is an erudite work which suggests that people come in bewildering sexual varieties. Testing medical values and social norms, this article delves into some of the biological and cultural issues regarding gender identity as Fausto-Sterling proposes that there are not two, but instead, five human genders. Throughout these readings, considering their differences, one thing has remained—gender is not always as it portrayed in society and the media. Despite this, an important question is raised. Exactly how different are men and women? Or are they?…

    • 566 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gender is a resolute attribute that creates normalized behaviors and peculiarity for each person,holding them liable for even the most insignificant actions.Gender roles and indications are imprinted in children far prior to any knowledge of the anatomy of the sexes.This knowledge is learned socially and culturally.As soon as a child,whether a boy or girl is born,they end up being taught many different sets of behaviour and how they should act.So gender is not the sex of the body but it is how people evaluate,distinguish the sex and how they attach meanings and expectations on it. Therefore, culture and society is more important in dictating the gender roles of an individual than their biological alignments and placements because as a child itself,their interests, preferences, behaviors and overall…

    • 408 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Summary Of Seeing Straight

    • 1204 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Strong evidence against the biological definition of gender reminds us that “gender”, in and of itself, is a social construction…

    • 1204 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Gender In Childhood

    • 1241 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Gender identity has become a prominent topic in today’s society as people are becoming more aware of personal identity. Gender awareness is fundamental for self-assessment and predominant in our perception of others. Social pressures also influence gender as they create stereotypes that people are expected to follow. These societal definitions of male and female greatly impact childhood development as they create restrictions and regulatory mechanisms that guide conduct relating to one’s gender and sex throughout the course of life (Bussey and Bandura 1). Societal perceptions of gender play a fundamental role in childhood development; gender conceptions and roles are the product of a network of social influences operating on the basis of a…

    • 1241 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    West and Zimmerman (1987, p. 125) believed gender was constructed through “psychological, cultural and social means”. Gender appeared less of an ‘accomplishment’ as a result of anthropological, psychological, and social essentials researched, for example the division of labour, the development of gender identities, and the social inferiority of females in contrast to males. The belief of gender socialisation theories made known the powerful information that while gender may be ‘accomplished’ until the age of five, after that it’s definitely fixed and unchanging, just like sex (West and Zimmerman, 1987, p. 126). 1975 and onwards, the uncertainty about gender escalated, because people came to the realisation that the connection between genetic…

    • 728 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Sex is formally defined as the biological differences between men and women whereas gender refers to differences in attitudes and behavior among individuals. These differences are often times perceived as a product of a socialization process rather than of biology. Beginning from when we are born, our lives immediately are shaped by our own biological identity, which can be further influenced by factors such as social, cultural, pyschological and enviromental forces. In addition, as we grow to eventaully become adults, these forces still appear extremely prevelant. The determinism between male and female extends far past our biological traits. Often times, without any self awareness; our attitudes, behavior and aspirations are greatly influenced…

    • 246 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Everybody in today’s society experiences gender throughout his or her life. However, as a female, I have personally always been affected by the social construction of gender in my day-to-day life, whether I was aware of it or not. Gender is such a prominent aspect of life for everyone that we barely recognize the effect it has on us, especially when it’s constructed within our own families.…

    • 565 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Individuals learn to be masculine or feminine since they were born and also continually perceive their society’s gender schema. A gender schema is a cognitive structure shaped by gender role, gender identity, and gender norms that organize an individuals’ perception and action (Kohlberg, 1966, as cited in Bussey & Bandura, 1999; Egan & Perry, 2001; Bandura, 1986, as cited in Martin, Ruble & Szkrybalo, 2002). There are 2 factors; biology and environment that play important roles in gender recognition (Gould, 1987, as cited in Bussey & Bandura, 1999). To be clear, for gender development, children need to learn content-specific information, the particular attributes and behaviors that link with sex and are associated to features such as anatomy, reproductive function and division of labor (Kohlberg, 1966, as cited in Bem, 1981). Gender identity requires the simple ability to label oneself as a boy or girl and others as a boy, girl, man, or woman (Slaby & Frey, 1975, as cited in Bussey & Bandura, 1999). However, when gender identity is stable, gender stability will proceed toward recognition that gender remains constant over time. Nevertheless, children socialize themselves by their perception they experience from their culture. They also anticipate having sex-specific, self-concepts and personality attributes to be masculine or feminine. Therefore, the difference in perceiving gender schema is come form bidirectional biology-culture coevolution.…

    • 2265 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gender and Development

    • 500 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Sex and gender are two separate but often interlinked concepts. Sex can be defined as the biological and physiological features which differentiate between male or female, such as males having testicles and females having ovaries. There are however more than two sexes, some people are born with both genitalia and are referred to as being intersexed. Gender is socially constructed and refers to the learned behaviours, practices, and cultural ideas used to identify a person as being masculine or feminine, people “do” gender. Gender is a dynamic process with historical and cultural differences (Richardson, 2007, p.7-13; West and Zimmerman, 1987, p.127-137).…

    • 500 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays