gender is a social construct

Gender, which is the role that we are supposed to play in society is usually constructed by society itself. We as humans, depending on culture are expected to perform in a certain way. we also have certain chores that we are expected to take care of primarily according to sex. I would say the construct is not universal because I have been through three cultures already (Swaziland, Italy and the USA) and what I am expected to do here is definitely not the same as what I was expected to do, years ago back home. Simple examples are chores like cooking. I am 21 years old and surprisingly I do not know how to cook anything except for rice because my mother believes that it is a woman's job. When I was younger, she would even hire a maid so that the maid would cook because all 3 of us were boys in the house. In Swazi culture cooking is a female's job and culturally, men are not supposed to even sit in the kitchen. Here it is a different case. There is no male or female chore. Almost everyone is expected to play an equal role in such a case.

There are hundreds of examples that can be used to support how gender is definitely a social construct. Generally the roles of our parents is to guide us on how to behave according to society's expectations. They try to teach us basketball or American football as kids when we are male and give us dolls if we are female. That is something that a lot of people have experienced before and it is not an exaggeration. As humans for the betterment of society we are always channeled somewhere according to our sex. If we did not have such, there would be no disparity on the way males and females behave. The only problem arises when a child is born with both male and female organs. Parents are usually faced with a task of choosing the appropriate sex for the newborn child. Usually the child undergoes a sex change between the two because society believes that there is no in between. They then raise the child according to the sex they have selected for him or her. Sometimes the kids grow up and realize that the sex that was chosen for them was the wrong one. They then change and accept that fact by undergoing a second sex change procedure.

One story that struck me this week was a story about a girl called caster Semenya from South Africa. Well maybe I shouldn't refer to her as a girl or boy because she is a hemaphrodite. She has a female genitals but she does not have ovaries and has 3 times more the level of testosterone compared to a normal woman. The sad part is that she won a gold medal in Berlin in athletics. She overpowered her opponents and there was a dispute on whether she is male or female. The hermaphrodite issue appeared after tests had been undertaken. The sad part is that now it is not clear on whether she would be allowed to compete with males or females because on both she doesn't fit. Now she is in hiding after being the face of ridicule to the public. This shows how inadequate the idea that there is only one choice, either male or female and we have to do everything according to our sex. Only society decides that and genetics usually clashes with what society demands at times.