Body Image

Sex and Gender

The organization of gender within a society (e.g., male, female, and transgender) and the socialization of individuals into the expected roles and behaviors disparately associated with each gender inform how people manage perceptions of their bodies. Individuals follow these norms of gendered behavior because their identities and self-esteem are determined by the extent to which they meet social expectations. There are high social rewards for women and men performing their gender roles according to socially acceptable norms. Social relationships, familial ties, and upward social mobility are all connected to how well individuals perform gender roles. For those who fall outside of the traditional Western cultural binary of male and female, for example, transgender individuals, social consequences are high, including alienation from both formal and informal social and familial networks and discrimination in the public sphere.

Sociologists of gender argue that differences between men and women that have historically been thought of as biological or natural are actually produced through social practices that persuade men and women to use their bodies differently. Sex and gender are two social categories that are often intertwined. Sex is a category of self-identification and presentation that is assumed to be congruent with biological criteria for classification as female or male. These biological criteria include chromosomes, hormones, gen-italia, and procreative organs. Gender is a category based on the sex assigned at birth, which produces patterns of social expectations for bodies, behavior, emotions, and family and work roles.

Gender display is the way that individuals manage their presentation of self as a gendered body through the use of symbols, attitudes, and physical activities appropriate to their sex category. Men are often expected to be confident, rational actors, while women are often expected to be nurturing and obedient. Gender also determines social roles, like those of mother and father and the type of worker one becomes, for example, domestic caregiver (female) versus corporate executive (male). Gender behaviors are valued differently and produce different social outcomes for men and women. While women entered the workforce at varying positions en masse in the latter part of the 20th century, they are still overwhelmingly in positions that earn significantly lower wages than men earn. Men and women have a different relationship with their bodies, which has direct implications for how men and women are situated within the domestic sphere and the labor force.

In terms of body norms, there is a double standard of beauty for men and women. Men and women relate to their bodies differently, and while men are socialized to be concerned with their bodies, physical appearance plays a greater role in societal perceptions and treatment of women. In Western cultures, women have been associated with nature—body, land, childbirth, caregiving—while men have been associated with culture—the mind, abstract reason. Human dominion over nature and the mind's domination over the body is embodied in the male/female dichotomy. Ideas about women and the body have an influence on gender ideologies and reinforce what is called biological determinism, or the tendency to see women in terms of their reproductive and biological selves. Gender studies scholars incorporate nuanced analyses of the social construction of gender and the impact of stereotypical roles on both male and female perceptions of body ideals. However, feminist scholars emphasize the disparate relations of power between men and women; they assert that the body and its expression have stronger repercussions for women's lives.

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