How Societ Influences Gender Identity - 3802 Words

Introduction The impact of social and cultural norms on the way an adolescent shapes and perceives identity has come under greater scrutiny in recent years. Although societies differ in the specific nature of the attributes associated with maleness and femaleness, each society attempts to communicate the gender norms to children and adolescents through various mechanisms. Acculturated gender roles have a significant influence on the way parents rear children, which impacts the way the children view themselves. A conflict between the external societal role assigned to an adolescent based on biological gender and the internal gender identity formed by the adolescent can have negative consequences for psychological health. Gender identity†¦show more content†¦Case Study (Person Whom I Know) Samantha, who uses the nickname Sam, is a female aged 14 who is considered a tomboy by her parents and peers. She tends to dress in male clothing and engage in activities that are stereotypically male such as contact sports and playing action video games. She also watches television for two to three hours a day and frequently attends movies, usually alone. While she wears a stereotypically female hair style, it is cut relatively short. She is academically bright and intends to enter college after she completes high school. She is sexually attracted to boys he r age, but conceals her feelings because she is concerned about rejection. She is socially ostracized by the females in her peer group and is often the object of negative comments about her behavior and sexuality. As a result, she has engaged in physical fights with some of her female peers. At the same time, she is not fully accepted by males in her age group as a peer because of their awareness that she is a female. Her parents encourage her to dress in more traditionally female clothing, which she resists. They also attempted to ensure that she had only the toys they deemed appropriate for a girl when she was a child. Although they continuously encourage her to be more feminine, they assume that she will eventually outgrow the behaviors they consider inappropriate for an adolescent girl. As a