Question

Do we truly understand how people decide to identify themselves? How we identify other people when it comes to gender roles. Do we even understand the difference between gender and sexuality?

Answer 1

Do we truly understand how people decide to identify themselves?

The concept of identity is not clearly understood from a scientific and psychological terms till date. the locus of the identity in some cases are external in the form of society and in some cases as internal by self reflection and understanding ones feelings towards self identity. People identify themselves based on the cultural, social, family interactions and understanding. But the exact moment of a concrete identity formation and the real reason behind it is still unknown. We do not truly understand how people decide to identify themselves as we cannot exactly predict or infer from the available studies and data as it has to be studies over a long periods with a large set of people and based on that analysis only we can understand how people decide to identify themselves.

How we identify other people when it comes to gender roles.

When it comes to identifying the people based on gender roles we turn to our family, society and culture we live in and based on those teachings, customs and traditions it helps us to determine the gender roles. For example in the western cultures the gender role of being the bread winner is gender neutral as after the WW2 the participation of women in the workforce increased marginally and women too earned at par with the men and the role of bread winner came towards neutrality. Fast forwarding the same today we can see that the western society as gender neutral in terms of the roles they play in society. The same in observed in the male dominated fields of aviation, army. corporate working, science and technology etc where women participation is coming to neutrality.

                Looking at the eastern cultures, we see the opposite trends where the role of the bread winner is still male dominated and the women take care of the household and hence the role in that society based on based on those teachings, customs and traditions is opposite and not neutral. So based on the family, society, culture and country we can identify other people differently then it comes to gender roles.

Do we even understand the difference between gender and sexuality?

We often easily correlate the language, clothing and music as a cultural components but when it comes to gender and sexuality it also has a deep rooted and embedded based on the cultures we belong to. So the terms sex can be used to determine the sexuality or biologically as the genders such as male and a female being. In most society we can think gender as binary male and female in some cultures and these cultures determined the sexuality as male attracted to females and vice versa. Also attributes such as males to be tough as female to be gentle and loving are deeply embedded in the cultures and societies we live in. But as we know today the sexuality is a complex components as homosexuality, queers, bisexuals and heterosexuality and feelings that arise from within also determines the sexuality. A small portion of the critical and scientific population does understand the difference between gender and sexuality upto a certain level but society and cultures as a whole still the understanding and acceptance is not seen. By accepting the sexuality and not exactly linking it to gender roles we try to understanding the exact and correct difference between gender and sexuality.