The View from the Classroom – Gender – What is gender? Is it something people are born with, or something they choose? How does someone’s gender affect their lives and choices? Students from Key Stages 4 and 5 in schools all around the country give us the view from the classroom.
Advice for young people who are thinking about gender identity can be found at the following sites:
Curriculum Mapping
Transcript
The View from the Classroom – Gender
I am female and I do like being a female.
I'm male.
Male.
I identify as a female.
I'd say my gender is a male.
I am a woman, and I like being a woman because I don't know, I just like it and I wouldn't have it any other way.
I'm a male.
It's my own gender is female.
Yeah, I like being female. I think that's the way I'll stay.
Gender. Ah, there's different genders like male, female and transgender. Is it a type of gender?
Someone's gender is the way they identify themselves.
Maybe a boy that feels they're more of a girl, or the girl feels more they're a boy.
They could identify as something else, like non-binary, where they don't identify as either gender. They're just themselves.
I think someone's biological sex is like what they were born as, but then someone's gender identity is what they choose to be.
There is a difference in what you're born with and regard yourself as. But the question is, should we accept that? And is what you think more important than your physical body?
In my opinion, there's only two types, right? If you're born a man, you're born a man. If you're born a woman, you're born a woman.
We have things in our bodies that determine what we are.
It's easier to go the male or female based on their, like, sexual organs, really.
My personal belief is that there are only two genders. There's nothing else other than that.
I'm not exactly the most masculine guy, but I'm still a male in with my gender. I don't need to identify as anything other just because I'm not the stereotype.
I think some people do view it as not good and going against God's wishes, I guess, but it's kind of none of their business. It's if that person doesn't feel comfortable and doesn't feel as if they know themselves in that skin and they don't want to be themselves, it's their choice.
They're not harming anyone else, so why discriminate against them for it?
I think people should be able to change their gender because if they don't feel comfortable in their body, then if it makes them happy to change gender, that's better for them.
I think men are better at some jobs, like the hard labour jobs like building, because they have like more muscle and strength, while women, they're pretty good at doing like makeup and like nail salons and stuff like that. I know I'd be judged if I went into like the nail business and stuff.
You do get men where they are involved in makeup, hairdressing, stuff like that, and it is frowned upon by some people, but by others, they see it as them embracing their own what they are doing, what they love. And you can't stop that, because if they love what they're doing, then they should carry on doing it.
People do get bullied for like not doing things that are stereotypical for their gender. I think that's because most girls and boys are brought up like the same way, so they think they can only do certain things. But as you get older, you become more independent and you realise that, um, you can do anything you want to do.
Well, I know a few boys that do want to go into like hair and beauty and stuff like that, and they're doing quite well, to be quite honest with you. But you do get the stereotype that you are, um, gay and stuff like that because you're doing something a girl would normally do, which isn't the case. And I think that's kind of wrong that people do stereotype.
I believe gender is a social construct due to representation in the media. So for example, as simple as adverts for toys with children, we are presented with the ideas that boys like construction and girls like makeup.
I think your upbringing, like the toys you get, can affect it because a lot of girls clothes or toys have things on, like be pretty and stuff like this, where on boys it's always be strong and all of this. So it kind of teaches girls from a really early age that girls can't be strong and girls can't do this and can't do that, and boys can't.. That boys can't cry, for example, and boys can't be emotional.
I think if you're a girl and in society they mostly like girly stuff like unicorns and makeup, so bringing them up like that shouldn't really make that much of a difference. I think boys should also be brought up, as in having toy cars and stuff, because that's what you're going to do in the future, most likely.
I was brought up in like Guiding and Brownies and stuff like that, and then I went into Scouting and enjoyed that a lot more, but because I was a girl, my mum put me into brownies first. And I think a lot of people do that with children.
I think kids should be free to choose what they want to play with or what they want to wear, as it depends on how they feel really. They may not want to be in the girly stuff if they're a girl.
The gender pay gap is where on average, females tend to earn a certain percentage less than males for doing the same role in a job.
I think being a male gives me many advantages in life.
If it's a male and female who have the exact same ability, which is really top calibre, then they deserve the same pay despite the gender, because they do, they fulfil that same role.
At the end of the day, if we're both doing the same job, why is someone else getting paid more than I am? I just don't think that's right. And if you're putting it down to my gender, that's even worse. Because what's different?
Females aren't inferior to men, so they shouldn't be earning less.
People are starting to widen their horizons and people are just making new rules for themselves.
We are all just humans. So if a girl wants to be strong and pretty and all of this at the same time, she can do that, like a boy shouldn't have to sit there and hold all his emotions in and keep it all inside of him.
We should all just accept who someone is, like, we're here to be loving. We're not here to judge people and decide that this is wrong and this is right.
I just say let people be what they want to be. You shouldn't have to live by a set of rules that have been in place for hundreds of years and haven't been updated.
