Gender shapes culture

  

          

            Gender and Popular Culture

Gender plays an extensively important part in shaping the popular culture of between the males and the females. A famous quote of Judith Lorber can be hereby highlighted in this respect, “Talking about gender for most people is the equivalent of fish talking about water”. From this quote, it can be broadly said that the gender depicts the appearance of the natural identities of the people. In our current society the gender discrimination is an immense controversial topic that engages all the people to a great extent. It might be argued that gender shapes popular culture because popular culture shapes femininity and masculinity.

Gender is the identity with which we are born. Gender and sex actually depicts the same meaning. It can be said that gender is absolutely socially constructed. Men and women are being distinguished on the basis of their likes and dislikes and now in the current times, this has become a most popular culture. In the toy stores, it has been perceived that pink toys are kept for the girls while blue ones for the boys (Milestone & Meyer, 2012). Again it is believed and is quite renowned that women like romantic movies whereas the men prefer watching the action movies. Hence all these indicate that there are certain significant symbols or signs that distinguish the males and the females and have become the most popular culture in the recent times. It has been perceived that men and women are recognised by several specific things (like a STOP sign).

Furthermore, the words spoken by the men and the women, their dressing senses, their behaviours, attitudes, sounds, images, thoughts, etc. can be considered to be the most definite signs that differentiate both of them in the society. In the words of Gauntlett the popular culture infiltrates the public and the private spaces that create the ideals. But sometimes these ideals can create popular culture in the society.

In addition to this the popular culture reinforces the ideals and expectations of the hegemonic genders that pose a challenge to both the men and the women in the society. Since gender is constructed socially and not inherent, it can be said that the men and women can be distinguished on the basis of their interactions with the people in the society and the cultural texts that vary from the males and the females. Benato, R. Katie, M & Anneke M have stated that gender identity refers to how a person perceives another one with respect to the femininity and masculinity.

This naturally affects their gender roles. The gender roles identify what is actually acceptable for both the women and the men. The preferences and the choices of the girls and the boys signify their gender differences. In this society, keeping all these factors in mind, a definite culture has been promoted that separates or shapes the males and the females in a specific way. How the men and women perform their actions are partially determined by how the popular culture shapes or frames them in the society.

As argued by Ivashkevich there are some key determinants that symbolise the masculinity and the femininity. In the modern society, males are symbolised as the strong, determined, dominant, empowered, independent, active, aggressive, breadwinner, productive and technology friendly. On the other hand, females are considered to be weak, submissive, vulnerable, dependence, passive, emotional fools, disempowerment, nurturer, objective and working indoors.

In conclusion the binary view of sex has been taken into utmost consideration for the people in the society. When the concept of gender is being discussed, the characteristics, values and principles of the men and the women play a significant role in how we tend to perceive or understand the individuals. Thus we can say that the gender shapes popular culture because popular culture shapes femininity and masculinity.