Exposition-+Ben+Lim

Men and Women are from different planets. Men and women are very much like aliens and humans. We both have different biological makeups, dissimilar upbringings, and fulfil distinct social roles. Put simply, because we were created differently, the world came to understand us through separate lenses and the majority of us are in turn shaped to fit those lenses.

Although we would like to think that men and women are fundamentally the same (excepting our reproductive organs), the fact remains that we were wired differently right from the beginning. Because our sex is fixed from the very moment of conception, our unique cellular blueprints determine our sexual organs which in turn produce sex-specific hormones that govern our moods, personalities, neurological processes and even our health. For one, men have 6.5 times more gray matter in their brains than women do. The neuroscience behind this reads that men have more developed active neurons while the white matter of women’s brains tend towards the connective tissue between the neurons. In studying women's brains, psychologist Sandra Witelson found that those neurons were most densely crowded on certain layers of the cortex, namely the ones responsible for signals coming in and out of the brain. This would hence explain the reason behind Samantha topping her language classes while Sam excelled in Math. In one study, men and women were asked to sound out different words. Men relied on just one small area on the left side of the brain to complete the task, while the majority of women used areas in both sides of the brain. However, what was interesting was that both genders sounded the words equally well, which is indicative of how men and women employ different ways to arrive at the same result. Because of our biological differences, men and women hence come to understand the world differently. However, men and women do not simply orientate themselves differently with their environments, it is also the environments which they are brought up in that orientate both genders differently. Society has defined gender stereotypes. Women are from Venus and men are from Mars. These over-generalization of traits exist because the need to classify and characterize our knowledge in orienting ourselves to the world around us is an intrinsic tendency. As sentient beings, our fixation with the familiar extends along gender lines. Our preconceived notions of gender-specific traits reassure us of our knowledge of men and women specifically, just as how these notions help us reaffirm our own gender identities. In turn, we tend to project notions of gender norms onto our children, nieces and nephews and even those of our friends. As such, the way we dress (boys are bought blue shirts, girls wear pink dresses), the manner in which we talk and even the toys we play with are hence distinguished along gender lines.

With the notion of men and women being shaped differently in mind, it is also logical that they would fulfil different social roles according to separate societal expectations. Perceived gender roles form the basis of gender identity. In accordance with the gender schema theory, socialization and genetic justifications ingrain gender roles as unchallenged core beliefs in the male and female psyche. (I.e. it isn't enough to be a male; you must be a masculine male) Because society reinforces these gender specific prescriptions (through societal reprisal, the mass media and the notion of the traditional family), we now seem to segregate all activities along gender lines, which is why “Mom cooks, Dad works/ Men buy, girls shop” become such commonly entertained preconceptions. The male social role is designed to reward masculine men, while the female social role offers its relative advantages only to feminine women. The aggressive man will run the bigger business; the pretty, agreeable woman will find the richer husband. In historical terms, this translates to macho men dominating the upper echelons of Western society while feminine features were absolute priorities for women who wanted to be married. As such, gender roles become necessitated, doubly so when deviance away from these norms force a moral evaluation. Notable examples would include the condemnation of homosexuals in traditional Christian societies and views of orgasmic women as being unfeminine and unclean in Medieval England. Therefore, it can be concluded that practical necessity combined with social reprisal converge as societal mechanisms that compel men and women to fulfil distinct roles in society as defined by their stereotypes.