|
| |
DIFFEENCES BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN.
Term Paper ID:30361
|
|
|
Essay Subject:
Biological and physical differences and stereotypes that emerge from them.... More...
|
3 Pages / 675 Words
3 sources, 14 Citations,
MLA Format
$12.00
Return to List of Papers
|
Paper Abstract:
Biological and physical differences and stereotypes that emerge from them. Perceived behavior traits of women and men. Societal view. Role of testosterone. How the hormone creates diffeences between the sexes. Biology vs. bias. Societal demands of beauty and the female body. Connection between body ideal and correct attitude or traits.
Paper Introduction:
The Difference Between Men and Women
One of the most obvious differences between men and women is primary and secondary genitalia, but there are other as well. Men are usually larger in stature than women and have more body hair. Men are considered more extroverted, aggressive, physically active, "dense", and sexually oriented than women. Women, on the other hand, are stereotypically seen as "high maintenance", more sensitive, interactive, sensual, and submissive. Although many of these stereotypes hold true for many people, they do not always account for individual differences.
In "The He Hormone" by Andrew Sullivan, the author opens his article by describing the mysterious liquid that he injects, his "He Hormone", which is testosterone. He then goes onto describe how th
Text of the Paper:
The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper.
Men are consideredmore extroverted, aggressive, physically active, "dense", and sexuallyoriented than women. This is an ideal that holds true for bothmen and women as "the firm, developed body has become a symbol of correctattitude...suggesting willpower, energy, control over infantile impulse"(698). AsSullivan notes, "the behavioral traits associated with testosterone arelargely cliché-ridden ones you might expect. She finishes her yearavoiding mirrors when she realizes that she has been talking to anattractive man and has not once thought about how she looked to him (6 ). Susan Bordo, in her article "Reading the Slender Body" has anotheridea of the types of stereotypical differences that may exist between thesexes. In a sense this story cuts through bothSullivan's and Bordo's articles as Grealy must come to terms with who sheis inside and not be dependent on what she looks like on the outside as shewill never be able to truly live up to that ideal (6 ). In "The He Hormone" by Andrew Sullivan, the author opens his articleby describing the mysterious liquid that he injects, his "He Hormone",which is testosterone. This is one of the few times thatshe addresses how it would be different if she were a man. Bordo indicates that this"tyranny of slenderness" began to control women particularly as men lookedfor slender wives who were to be "the showpieces of their husbands'success" (697). Lucy Grealy in "Mirrors" discusses how the damage to her face hasmade her try to see past the shallow surface of things to dwell more deeplyon who a person is. This has become alife long struggle for her, however, as "our whole lives are dominated,though it is not always so clearly translatable, with the question 'How doI look?'" (6 ). Women, on the other hand, are stereotypically seen as"high maintenance", more sensitive, interactive, sensual, and submissive.Although many of these stereotypes hold true for many people, they do notalways account for individual differences. Her article, while dealing with physical traits as Sullivan's is, ismore geared towards the historical aspects of physical traits, specificallythose regarding the female body, although many societal demands are nowplaced upon the male body as well. Where, historically, people had shown there wealth by physicallyshowing their girth (697), now they showed it by striving to achieve "anidealized physical weight or shape" (693). Walking down the street on a sunny day invited unprovoked insults."They weren't thrown at me because I was disfigured, they were thrown at mebecause I was a disfigured woman" (57). "Reading the Slender Body." Body/Politics: Women and the Discourse of Science. She "understood that the image of my face was merelythat, an image, a surface that was not directly related to any true, deepdefinition of the self" (6 ). As Bordo points out, it was not untilthe late Victorian era when "those who could afford to eat well begansystematically to deny themselves food in pursuit of an aesthetic ideal"(693). Sothat now, being slender is no longer enough, but the body must now be firmand muscular to prove itself. In hisopinion this is one reason that stereotypes persist in our society and "itis foolish to insist that numerical inequality is always a function of biasrather than biology" (549). Men are usuallylarger in stature than women and have more body hair. The Big 'T' correlates withenergy, self-confidence, competitiveness, tenacity, strength and sexualdrive" (541). Bordo considers this association asproof of our societal "anxiety about internal processes out of control--uncontained desire, unrestrained hunger, uncontrolled impulses" (695). April 2, 2 . "Mirrors." Harper's Magazine. If this had been a struggle that she was making with agroup of people, it may have been easier to bear, but she was alone inthis. "The He Hormone." The New York Times Magazine. 1994.Sullivan, Andrew. 1989.Grealy, Lucy. The Difference Between Men and Women One of the most obvious differences between men and women is primaryand secondary genitalia, but there are other as well. He also points out that there seems to be a correlationbetween depression and lack of testosterone in the system, "this may be onereason women tend to suffer more from depression than men" (541). Works CitedBordo, Susan. For some reasonit is more important for her, as a woman, to be pretty and not disfigured,than for a man to be handsome and not disfigured. In our society, although weight has retained some of itsclass associations, as in the saying "a woman can never be too rich or toothin", weight, or bulge, "came to be seen as reflecting moral or personalinadequacy, or lack of will" (697). In a certain sense this is similar to the energy and powersuggested by the "Big 'T'" in Sullivan's article. He then goes onto describe how this one hormone cancreate such vast differences between the sexes, specifically thestereotypical ones such as physical differences and aggression.
If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again:
or
Click here to request an essay written just for you.
|
|
|
