Harmful Gender Stereotypes

Our culture continually tries to assign what it means to be masculine or feminine. Unfortunately they often define it in harmful ways by putting people in boxes. This ends up ostracizing anyone who does not fit perfectly in that box (especially boxes like masculinity and femininity). As I talk about gender stereotypes today I want to make it clear that I am addressing the social construct of gender.

Let’s break it down.

The stereotypes of masculine and feminine are:

Masculine:

  • Competitive

  • Strong

  • Assertive

  • Athletic

  • Leader

  • Driven

  • Work Oriented

  • Less Emotional

Feminine:

  • Nurturing

  • Empathetic

  • Soft

  • Supportive

  • Dance

  • Hair/Makeup/Dresses

  • Sensitive, Motherly

  • Relationship Oriented

Why do these gender stereotypes exist?

The world is full of males who are nurturing and females who are driven and competitive. A person can be both nurturing, sensitive, strong, and competitive despite their biological sex. In fact I would argue that the world needs males that are both nurturing and competitive. Females who embody drive and leadership are beautiful and very common. Therefore these stereotypes are clearly not true. Instead these harmful stereotypes only shame away important aspects of people. They are limiting and do not give room to understand the complexity of people.

Another misconception is that only transgender individuals struggle with gender identity.

In fact, every single human alive engages in gender identity development. This is not just an issue for the transgender community. Everyone must decide what both their gender and their body means to them. Everyone explores identity and figures out what fits for them and what doesn’t, what they’re good at and what their weaknesses are. Masculinity and Femininity are aspects of identity that everyone has a relationship with. The more our culture breaks down the harmful stereotypes, the more we’ll be able to freely be ourselves.

It is better to describe people using the traits that make them who they are. A person can be kind, friendly, work oriented, athletic, funny, and someone who dresses with style! These qualities are human qualities. They are not gendered qualities.

Have you been affected by societies’ harmful gender stereotypes?

If you’ve been struggling to figure out who you are and what your gender means to you, feel free to schedule an appointment with us today to talk more about it. We have an easy to use online scheduler which allows you to book with us in a matter of seconds.

We would love to explore with you!

Kathryn Heltzel