Gender and body image – Looking at women and men through the life course

Throughout our lives we be governed by how we expect and transaction according to br some otherly club. One of the main leaders turn back-to-end history has been which turn on a mortal belongs to. This governs our every aspect in animateness from a baby, by means of to adulthood. Opinion changes constantly to whether children should live a veritable behavior and especially act certain shipway at opposite eras and st yearss throughout life. We atomic number 18 socially constructed from the start of our lives, if a baby wears blue or pink determines rules of orders eyeshot of how to treat the child and some importantly whether it is virile of egg-producing(prenominal).We be judged in our abilities and skills just by from which agitate we belong to. It is mavin of the most influential factors in life, being male or effeminate. I will be reflexioning at the perceived differences between males and female tree trunk stunt cleaning adult female and actions thr oughout the life cycle, from birth through to mature age. One of the world-class things we nonice well-nigh a person is which wind they belong to. like a shot due to changes in societies impressions and discernments on fire and kindle orientation, it is generally possible to immediately determine the get off of a person that gives out initiative impressions and places stereo trunktypes.Every culture distinguishes between male and females and this attach to by beliefs and psychological and bodily demeanors belonging to each sex. It is non a recent act to distinguish differences between the sexes. In pre-industrial Britain children were sent out to work at an early age between 6-7. They were kept apart and designated a job. At this age corporealitys of gender differences would non be distinguish because of no puberty growth in the children causing no differences in somatic ability and strength yet girls would be sent to run short servants eon boys would be def t to be apprentices.In the sixteenth snow boys were change magnitudely sent to boarding school, while girls were mainly kept at home, any small amount of girls who were sent to boarding school were trained for domesticity. Their father or their masters ensureled any girls in a family, deal an ownership. The males possessed them. Any money that was made was not their own to foreclose precisely passed on to their masters or their family for their pargonnts personal use or placed back into the family for food and supplies. Both boys and girls were used for their bodies yet in completely opposite ways.In the early nineteenth century workings class children would be used in working class factories for punk labour. Boys would follow the workforce with physical work while girls were change for prostitution. Girls where not check inton to agree many uses apart from their bodies or domesticity uses. This interposition of girls continued through the years in ball club. Toward s the First World War girls were not sold for much(prenominal) explicit reasons but used in different ways (Humphries 1977). Families became dependent on the wages of their siblings. With men called to war the children would work to answer the families upkeep.Girls would be expected to answer their mothers with domestic tasks and to take the role of gage mother for their early dayser siblings. While boys and infantile men where used for their physical abilities. By the twentieth century psychologists identified that childhood was a life-sustaining part of a persons identity. Freud dedicated his life to the study of throng and the ask of childhood on their adult lives. Children could be scargond for life because of their childhoods. This could rationalise judgements of muckle on sex opinions later in lives because of their upbringings, which had forced the stereo types into society.Post war brought the decline of infant mortality and the decline in birth rate. Children whe re not and then depended upon for their help with the families income. Adults began to mark off children as delicious company. Children soon became the main focus of life. The division of home from the workplace resulted in an isolation of women and children. The home in middle-class households represented a oasis from the competition of the commercialise place and from the exoteric world. workforce would bind in the workplace and women and children were kept confined and protected in the home.This soon broadens from the middle-class household to the working class home. This image of the westward family soon became the model norm of the western societies, which influenced many people throughout their lives. Female and male children be discriminate and classed as different, which has continued up to the present day. From birth they ar condition different clothes and toys and are subjected to socialisation. Children were even segregated at school, boys whitethorn have bee n sent to a different school than girls and be taught different curricula.Children now share schooling and have moved closer in concert in the curricula but in many other ways they are enured differently. Although today boys and girls may study the same curriculum, some subjects are still labelled as being male or female subjects. Increasing anxieties about familiar threat in contemporary society, because of knowledgeable abuse cases, has become increasingly popular causing boys and girls to be treated differently. Girls are surveyed and controlled much than boys of the same age. Girls and boys are sheltered differently.Girls are protected from the real dangers of society but in like manner the ones, which are possibly fictional, or of an adults exaggeration. Girls in particular are sheltered from the real adult world. The sexualisation of adults pinch with children means girls are seldom allowed to walk alone, or spend such(prenominal)(prenominal) period on their own. This treatment causes girls today to be segregated from society from the start of their lives. This influences the way they live their life and attitudes they have towards their influencing adult guides.When children are allowed out to play, boys seem to be allowed out later than girls or more than trust and leniency. Although childhood is seen as psychologically influencing on a persons life adolescence is both psychologically and physically changing. Adolescence is a time for psychological adjustments to the physical changes in the childs body. For materialization girls and women it is normally related with developments of secondary sexual qualities such as breasts, and body hair. When we become adolescences we gain licit responsibilities. At the age of 16 a untried woman stand give agree to sexual intercourse with a man.Before this age a young woman will in the eyes of the truth be seen as irresponsible and unable to give responsible consent. Also at the age of 16 a young man and woman may annoy married however although legitimately responsible to have a sexual race and possibly bare children, the young adults essential have maternal(p) permission. Their responsibilities are too high to be married from their own prime(a) at this age. The legal view on heterosexual relationships seems a fairly understandable law, compared to the opinions on homosexual relationships.Homosexual relationships between men are not legal unless both parties are 18, however same sex relationships between two women are legal at any age. It is ap advert(a) from these figures that young men and women have a different statues in law reflecting different assumptions about masculinity and femininity. Young people become legally responsible for their actions from their age of 10. This makes youth today so much continuing than it was many years ago. This extended end in the youth physique causes extensive protection from the parents.One explanation for this could be the incre asing pick by children to stay in education for a longer period of time. The number of young people choosing to go into higher education increases because of more opportunities, larger choices in courses and the range of training schemes increases. It is apparent that young people especially women seem to be spending longer being trained and educated, and then having greater uncertain futures because finding full-time work is increasing remote. This is especially apparent for young people because they are most modify by unemployment.Young women have come through time from not being educated to spending more time in education than young men. Government reports have cited that young women do intimately better in school than young men due to a stronger ambition to be successful and ability to concentrate their efforts into studying. It is generally stated that adolescence is a period of stressful experience. However an anthropologist Margaret Mead challenged this. She studied pu erile women in eastern Samoa (1943) and found no evidence of role confusion, conflict or revolt.Suggesting that adolescence was not world-wide and biologicly determined but ethnically variable, and that the stresses of this time could be socially determined, and because of confusing status to which, young people find themselves consigned by particular communal forms. It is a wide-ranging protest from adults to complain of adolescent deviant behaviour however this suggests that it is the western societal norms which push adolescents to be seen as irresponsible and problematic to society. Adolescence is a particular distressing time for young women.Trying to conform to societies views of how to behave and to trying to keep their paper with friends and partners at the same time makes life very traumatic. The behaviour of teenage women is partly the result of being treated differently from boys through their life. As was stated earlier women are seen as more in take on of care and protection. Parents police their daughters more strictly than their sons. This then is linked to the ideological explanation of appropriate behaviour of women. Sue Lees (1986) has shown how boys control young women in the unexclusive eye through threat of labelling them sexually promiscuous.It is expected of young men to copulate but for a young women to continue with the same behaviour would result in such labels as slag or slut and scrubber or an slatternly lay. This labelling is less to do with the actual sexual action rather than to the issue to which young womens behaviour deviates from the normal ideas of femininity. For spokesperson a female should not be seen using foul language or rough behaviour as they could be classed as a tom boy. Sexuality is classed in very different ways. Both sexes are concerned with reputation the ground on which it rests is very distinct.For boys sexual reputation is enhanced by change experience boasting to their friends for all the girls they have made, for a girl reputation is to be guarded. It is to be under threat not merely if she is cognize to have sex with anyone other than with her steady boyfriend but similarly if she goes out with several different boys, or dresses in a certain way. To remain a nice girl a young woman must suppress any sexual desire, and instead conform to the dream image of romanticist love and complete monogamy.This double standard serves to constrain the mankind and private lives of young women to ensure conformity based on a model of sexuality, which ultimately takes its form from the ideology of the nuclear family. Feminist sociologists arguments showed that pip ideas that suggestions of femininity and masculinity classed as natural were actually of a social origin. Young people apparently learn roles. Mc Robbie and Garber stated that young women didnt rebel in the same way which young men did but instead used the ideal romantic fantasy as a form of escapism.Sue Lees (1986), Christ ine Griffin (1985) and Clair Wallace (1987) have looked into the theory of the role that romantic love fantasies have in young womens lives. They are apparently not deceived by characters lives portrayed in womens literature, but actually have true-to-life(prenominal) ideas of married life. It was also believed that young women have tactics of resistance for example tom boys or pregnancy, which are not in the nice girl stereotype. They state that an important aspect in young girls lives is their status and independence at bottom and out of the family that could be achieved by them acquiring a job by themselves.Sharpe (1995) study contrast to an earlier study found that young women interviewed no longer saw marriage and parenthood as their only coating in life. These studies show a change in young womens views and opinions however, it causes views of people to think young girls are rebelling against the norms of society because family life is not their first objective in life. The media is one of the most influential aspects to peoples lives. It is used to inform, sell, advise, and help the readers and many other uses. Young women are important customers of media resources.There are magazines, which particularly target young women and influence their lives. The magazines give advise on romance, hygiene and behaviour according to societies rules at the time. 80% of magazines are articles about fashion and appearance pushing young women into a proposed look. They steer young women to see romance as standard and as an ultimate polish in life to have a normal steady monogamous relationship leading to marriage and all as typecasts with a male companion. jibe to these magazines the main interest of their teenage years is in getting a man.The young women become immersed into the ideology of romance and of falling in love. maturity date is associated with taking up full status in society, having sexual relationships, getting married, having children, having a fu ll time stable job, and living in an autarkic household. When we become an adult we associate it with citizenship status -the right to vote, to take loans, or to enter legal contract we are addicted responsibility and trusted. This legal responsibility is associated with the turning of age to 18. There are many physical body aspects, which are also associated with adulthood. Such as first menstruation, and first sex.This today is more associated with the teenage years because of younger people having sex earlier and young girls developing into women earlier so the legal opinion of an adult may not be the same as a physical adult. The transition of adolescence to adulthood shag be more heartful for women than young men generally because young women marry earlier, have sex earlier and many other things earlier than men. It is often said than young girls mature earlier than young boys. It is a stressful time for women when the etymon of sexual activity occurs. It is a time of prid e and manhood for males while traumatic and cautious for women.Not to be seen on the one stead as frigid or a promiscuous slag on the other (Cowie and Lees 1985 Halson 1991). Marriage, childbearing and parenthood are also parts of adulthood that are given different meanings from men than women. This seems to be because although attitudes are changing in society today women in the main have the foremost responsibilities and usually end up interrupting their careers to care for children. Today it is increasingly popular for virtuoso parent families which again is mostly women taking the responsibilities, the majority of about 90% of single parent families are headed by women.Baring children is also seen as keep a womens working career and leisure life. The process of pregnancy changes a womens body, and although both men and womens bodies change in the life course this can be seen as the biggest change a women can experience. Increased hormones and the dilatory growth of the baby stretches and changes the womens normal body chassis. This change, during pregnancy and after can affect a woman greatly because of opinions of what a woman should look like. It is looked upon badly if the bulge during pregnancy is on show when in the public eye.It is a nature event that is seen as part of a womens meaning on earth. However, it cannot be looked upon, only in disgrace. Is it a disgusting view to see a woman pregnant? Or is it disgusting to see a woman out of shape, from societies view of what a woman should look like, as I suspect it could be. Womens careers are perceived as more intimately tied to their biology and reproductive cycles than are mens. Mens bodies are defined by their performance and action in the labour market and public life. Their reproductive functions and their bodies are seldom referred to and are seen as unproblematic.Womens body shape and reproductive functions are constantly studied and are sometimes referred to as determining their lives (U ssher 1989). In the media it is womens bodies that are used to sell their products. A car advert will usually at some channelize show a young stereotype of a woman cloaked over their product in order to sell it. It is unusual to see a man or even a larger woman used in the same way. Womens lives are constantly referred to by their menstruation. They are frequently seen as victims of ragging hormones either because of pre-menstrual tension or because of change of life.Each case supposedly causes women to suffer from temporary indisposition that can sometimes become insanity This then could be the reason why it is used for reasons of moodiness, road accidents and even cases of murder. On cypher of these biologic problems womens lives are intervened with medical examination attention and even seen as a kind of disease. Women can be urgeed hormone replacements therapy and hysterectomies as a settlement to menopausal problems and are given special diets or hormone treatment for pr e-menstrual tension.Unlike male bodies womens are somewhat controlled by medical acquaintance from the moment of first problems with menstruation or with the need for birth control through to menopausal problems. Some women may never need medical assistance, but most do at some point in their lives. Imagine what might have happened in a world with different cultural and moral attitudes towards gender and responsibilities for family planning and children. It is not beyond mood that we would have ended up with a male contraceptive pill, a medical treatment for male menopause and a classification system of multiple sexes (Oudshoor 1994).One of the most traumatic times in a persons life is the process of ageing. No person wants to loose his or her looks, shape or mind. For men it is loosing their hair or gaining that beer belly. For women physical attractiveness is the most important feature and loosing this is a major source of anxiety. Women spend thousands of pounds on creams, poti ons, dieting, exercise and even plastic surgery. Men today are also increasingly purchasing these types of items but it is generally women that advertising is focused on (Arber and Ginn 1991). It has been questioned what is persona purpose in life?One of the proposed reasons is to reproduce, to keep the population. Men are seen to do this throughout their lives, so women who have therefore passed the menopause could be seen as having no use anymore for their reproductive functions and therefore are uninterested in sex. Doctors are more likely to recommend hysterectomies to women than men. In medical textbooks womens ovaries are described as shrivelled or senile metaphors, which, express they are useless, or past it. Women are classified by their biological position in and throughout their lives. Pre-menstrual in their youth, pre-menopausal in their thirties, menopausal in their forties and post-menopausal in their fifties, its as though their reproductive organs control womens liv es. Women who have children find themselves defined in terms of their roles as mothers and carers. On the other hand childless women are seen as frustrated mothers and somehow incomplete. It is as if a womans ultimate goal is to bare children. A childless woman is classed as having psychological inadequacies or a lack of feminine qualities.Today many more women are pursuing careers rather than starting a family, this is seen as selfish whereas men are not exposed to such punishments. It is seen as acceptable for a man to never be a part of a family. Womens lives are seen as shaped by their biological bodies and the changes these bodies undergo. Mens lives by contrast are seen as shaped by their achievements. Throughout our lives we are governed by our sex and opinions made by society which label us according to our sex. These labels are started through opinions made from birth, which stay with us until death.