In 1949, Simone de Beauvoir famously asserted that “one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman,” which suggests that womanhood is not an innate or fixed feature. In 2018, the Chinese government banned several actors who were perceived to be effeminate from appearing on TV. That incident indicated that a man, just like a woman, is also a perception rather than a fact. Even though male and female humans have different reproductive systems, “man” and “woman” are culturally constructed concepts that are largely irrelevant to a person's biological category because men and women are born with the same level of brain potential that determines behavioral traits, the qualities of an ideal man vary in different regions in the world throughout history, and anyone can identify himself as a “man” at any point of life.
Although men and women are physically different in regards to reproductive systems, there is no difference in the intelligence between them. It is education, not biological sex, that makes a boy become a certain kind of man. Men’s overall brain size is about 11% bigger than women’s, but there is no individual brain region varies by more than about 1% between men and women.1 This turns down the idea that the tiny difference in connectivity between left and right hemispheres explains any behavioral difference between men and women, at least initially. However, people’s brains could develop differently in ways that permanently alter their capabilities, habits, and personalities, and the different development is rooted in their childhood. According to Gender Schema Theory (Bem 1981, Martin and Halverson 1981)2, young people develop a sense of maleness and femaleness based on gender stereotypes they perceived. If a man pursues dominance while lacks the ability to feel emotions, it could be traced back to his childhood when his parents praised him for being the tough type and blamed him when he was not.3 It is also possible that he grew up reading books with indifferent male role models who chase power and accomplishment.4 If a boy likes to fight and show aggression, and is permitted by his parents,5 he is likely to respond to distressful events with anger when he enters adulthood.
Moreover, if the public opinion surrounds him makes him believe that men are not able to change their behaviors, that “boys will be boys”, that rape, sexism, domestic violence, aggression, and self-centeredness are natural to men,6 he is more inclined to stick to his macho behaviors that he is used to. In addition to that, the development of the stereotypical male characteristics is also found in classrooms where boys get higher-quality instruction such as more open-ended questions, and more spontaneous and problem-solving interaction with teachers. In such learning environment, boys may learn to be active, attention seeking, and self-confident (Anselmi & Law, 1998)7.
However, there is also the type of men who are relatively indifferent to the masculine stereotypes mentioned above. Instead, they are empathetic, gentle and comfortable with their sentiment. Often, they have been encouraged to explore inward to find their true self since they were young, thus they tend to become more spiritual and sensitive (Mahalik and Lagan, 2001).8 Because they have learned to form strong bonds with their heart, they possess the confidence not to imitate others’ behaviors that they don’t feel natural to them. They don’t have the need to fit in the majority of ordinary men.
Apart from the differences in individual upbringing, gender norm is also inconsistent throughout history and varies in different regions in the world. In the US, the breadwinner position in a family is historically more often associated with men. Theories about precarious manhood (Bosson et al., 2013)9 suggest that in the traditional western mentality, femininity is seen as a natural consequence of being born as a woman, whereas masculinity is something that men need to perform over time. However, the components of the masculine performance are undergoing a change in the U.S. in the last forty years. Between 1980 and 1992, the American married men’s employment rate dropped from 93% to 84%, but their wives' employment increased from 57% to 71%.10 Meanwhile, in 1980, 42 to 53 percent of men held the belief that the husband should be the breadwinner even if the wife works. In 1992, only 26 to 36 percent of men believe so (Zuo, Jiping, and Shengming Tang, 2000).11 The working wife and unemployed husband image is getting more acceptable, indicating that working’s proportion is declining in the concept of masculinity.
Among the working men, the stereotypical gender norm has not only been a major impediment to achieving labor force parity, but also an obstacle for some men whose passion lie in spheres other than leadership. In 2000, men hold 90% of cabinet-level positions in national governments, and most top positions in international agencies.12 In 2017, nearly 94% of the chief executive officers in the S&P 500 are men (Catalyst, 2020). Meanwhile, men who enter nursing, librarian or elementary school teaching are often considered as losers or sexual deviants (Williams, Christine L. 1992).13 In 1997, male nurse only accounted for 1.9% of the total nurse number in the U.S. Although the number has grown nearly 10 times up till 2018, it was still a small fraction in the whole nursing industry.14 It may take several more decades for 10 Zuo, Jiping, and Shengming Tang. “Breadwinner Status and Gender Ideologies of Men and Women Regarding Family Roles.”
In Zambia, it is generally accepted that men are the owners of resources. Each male head of a household is entitled to possess land for his home, and his male children inherit his land upon his death. But women can never acquire land or landed property on their own. Instead, they have to live with their parents, husbands or sons (Adams 2003: 19).15 Moreover, when one of a Zambian couple dies, the Intestate Succession Act (issued in 1989) allows the surviving spouse to inherit 20% of the deceased's estate. However, the Act didn’t give women the equal rights of inheritance, as a widow only gains the right of usufruct, not complete ownership (Richardson 2004: 21).16 Also, levirate marriage still exists in Zambia, although it has shown decline in recent years. And if a woman refuses to marry her brother-in-law, she may lose the access to the land that her deceased husband previously gave her (Spichiger, Rachel, and Edna Kabala, 2014).17 Both the local laws and customs reflect the mentality that Zambian men are expected to be independent individuals, but Zambian women are supposed to be appendages of the men in the family.
While some of the Eastern and African countries still hold the binary belief that one is either a man or a woman, solely determined by their genitals, the more liberal regions in the West has agreed on the concept that gender is acquired, constructed and changeable. In 1972, Sweden became the first country in the world to allow transgender people to change their legal gender after doing sex reassignment surgery.18 In 2003, the International Olympic Committee adopted the Stockholm Consensus, which allows transgender-athletes to compete as the gender they identify if they have undergone bodily modifications that “minimize gender related advantaged.”19 In 2008, the American Medical Association House of Delegates stated that the denial to patients with gender dysphoria represents discrimination.20 In 2017, the United States Defense Health Agency for the first time approved payment for sex reassignment surgery for an active-duty U.S. military service member.21 Currently, 96 countries out of 193 member states of the United Nations allow people to change gender legally. Among them, in France, Canada, Chile, and the UK, sex reassignment surgery is not mandated for gender change on legal documents.22 The man identity should be available to not only biological males, but also any biological female who consider themself as a man, and he doesn’t have to go through the transgender surgery to prove it although he has the right to do so.
However, not everyone in the world has the privilege to have the agency to be who they decide to be. People in remote areas far away from big cities may not have the access to open information, such as the concept of transgender and gender-fluid. People who were born into oppressive families may feel confused about their gender identity, but it would be safer for them to be repressed in their narrow shells. Under these circumstances, if one is not a cisgender person, then he or she might be persuaded to believe that they are who their physical characteristics tell them. More specifically, a person may always feel like a woman mentally, but because he is biologically male, and because of the lack of the updated information related to gender, everyone around him tells him that he is male, he will probably be persuaded, although his doubt might not disappear.
Overall, gender identity is a collective imagination that varies in each culture and era. In the more developed areas in our time, the patriarchal structure still exists but is weakening. Having a penis doesn’t guarantee having more power. Possessing a vagina also doesn’t mean that a person must give birth or dedicate herself to housework. While no one can decide which society they were born into, I strongly suggest that people should be aware of their own truth and be responsible in constructing their own gender identity, as opposed to counting on the existence of certain sexual organs or the public opinion around them.
References
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2 https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/gender-schema-theory
3 Brown, Christia. Parenting Beyond Pink & Blue, Ten Speed Press, 2014
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19 WESTBROOK, LAUREL, and KRISTEN SCHILT. “DOING GENDER, DETERMINING GENDER: Transgender People, Gender Panics, and the Maintenance of the Sex/Gender/Sexuality System.” Gender and Society, vol. 28, no. 1, Sage Publications, Inc., 2014, pp. 32–57, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43669855.
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22 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_reassignment_surgery