Heterosexual Identity Reflect and Reinforce Gender Stereotypes

For this assignment I have chosen the Topic of Gender Inequality and in searching for a peer reviewed article I found one co-written by Elizabeth M. Morgan, and Laurel R Davis-delano, titled “How Public Displays of Heterosexual Identity Reflect and Reinforce Gender Stereotypes, Gender Differences, and Gender Inequality.” The study talked about in this article was conducted in 2016 and the findings are used to show examples of how males and females exhibit differnt “hertrosexual markings” and in what way that goes on to perpetuate gender differences and gender inequality (Morgan, Elizabeth M., and Laurel Davis-delano).

For this assignment a large factor of our article should have focused on proving a social construction understanding of a social problem and this article did exactly that. Social Construction goes along with a common idea that is agreed on or accepted and in this study they separate genders and sexualitys and then recored the responses of the participants after watching a heterosexual act in public. The article then goes into more detail explaining how the equates to gender inequality being reinforced.

The identified social problem in the article by Elizabeth M. Morgan, and Laurel R Davis-Delano is that public acts of heterosexuality reinforces gender inequalities. It is no secret that gender inequality is alive and well in our everyday world, but many ignore the fact that in many cases violence is used against women, according to an article published by the Government Reporter, it states “ A better understanding of the complexities of violence and its impact on social and economic progress is necessary to increase the benefits of development assistance to those men, women and children in all regions of the world” (""Women, Men and Development.""). This article further proves the point of Morgan and Davis-delano because often times heterosexual acts in public occur like cat calling and across the world there's many reports of men following through with violent acts after women don't react how they want them to their “heterosexual markings.”

At first I had trouble finding views related to that of Morgan and Davis-delano until I can across an expert of the book by James Joseph Jean called “Straights” but rather focusing on the gender inequality it focused differences in sexuality and how that was affected. Moving on to find another viewpoint of the issue focusing on the gender aspect. The article ""Women, Men and Development."" differs from the peer reviewed article because it does not focus fully on how the acts of heterosexual and public “markings” but rather mostly focuses on the lasting effects that women are facing because of gender inequality. Whether it be through acts of violence done by men but as well oppression and impoverishment by governments as well. Still in this article the men play a huge part in the reinforcement of gender inequality.

Another article that I found focused in on the reinforcement of gender inequality in public places as well but instead brought the education side of gender inequality into it. The article titled “Detours on the Road to Equality: Women, Work and Higher Education” by Jerry A. Jacobs, I feel like this was a much more real life application of how gender inequality is still being reinforced today although there have been strives in bettering the system.

The overall accuracy of “How Public Displays of Heterosexual Identity Reflect and Reinforce Gender Stereotypes, Gender Differences, and Gender Inequality.” by Elizabeth M. Morgan, and Laurel R Davis-delano, is hard to confirm. In the article they have the study results to back up what they are trying to prove but they seem to be the only people trying to prove this particular point, the overall subject matter of of hertorsexual marking is a very slight thing that requires it to be noticed in order to be reinforcing the gender inequalities. Whereas in the other article I found they had overwhelming amounts of evidence and examples.

Morgan and Davis-delano do do a good job of distinguishing fact from opinion, but I do believe there is some bias to start just from the subject matter they picked, it was almost just picking apart any small act that could be taken in an oppressive view but since they had the discussion with the participants it legitimizes the point. The article overall felt as though it wa a one sided argument but I felt that with the other sources I used with the evidence as well, nobody was trying to prove it was not causing inequalities.

Works Cited

Morgan, Elizabeth M., and Laurel Davis-delano. ""How Public Displays of Heterosexual

Identity Reflect and Reinforce Gender Stereotypes, Gender Differences, and Gender Inequality."" Sex Roles, vol. 75, no. 5-6, 2016, pp. 257-271. ProQuest, http://nclive.org/cgi-bin/nclsm?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1811056580?accountid=13217, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11199-016-0613-2.

""Women, Men and Development."" Women, Men and Development, Mar. 2004, pp. 1-27. SIRS

Government Reporter, https://sks-sirs-com.proxy141.nclive.org.

Jacobs, Jerry A. ""Detours on the Road to Equality: Women, Work and Higher Education.""

Contexts, 2003, pp. 32-41. SIRS Issues Researcher,https://sks-sirs-com.proxy141.nclive.org.

Dean, James Joseph. Straights : Heterosexuality in Post-Closeted Culture, New York University

Press, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://search.proquest.com/central/legacydocview/EBC/1707241?accountid=13217.

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