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Gender is study of human beings as women and men. In a particular society gender refers
to the behaviors and cognitive processes that are more or less distinctive for women and men.
Gender also refers to the femininities and masculinities that characterize particular society and
subcultures based on mental potentials that shaped. Gender stereotypes persist in few main areas
which are personality traits, family roles, occupational roles, personal style, leisure activities and
appearances.

Gender is an ideal. It forms a template for what is attractive, desirable, notable and
valuable within oneself and others. People evaluate themselves and others based on their
perceived distance from their socially created and internalized ideal for gendered individuals.
These evaluative schemes may involve physical attributes.

Nature versus nurture is the combined effect of inherited factors (nature) and
environmental factors (nurture) on the development of an organism. The genetic potential of an
organism will only be realized under appropriate environmental conditions. We also understand
that characteristic of a person shaped by nurture rather than nature. Further, we also understand
interactionist approach which means behavior is the product of the interaction of both heredity
and environment which is two direction processes.

The matter of ³nature´ versus ³nurture´ is not so easily settled, however, and some
sociologists acknowledge that biological factors are involved in some human behavior other than
reproduction and childbearing (Udry 2000). Alice Rossi, a feminist sociologist Association, has
suggested that women are better prepared biologically for ³mothering´ than are men. She (1977,
1984) says that women are more sensitive to the infants¶ soft skin and to their nonverbal
communications. Rossi stresses that the issue is not either biology or society. It is that nature
provides biological predispositions, which are then overlaid with culture.

This topic also teaches us about the male advantage in general intelligence does not
emerge until their puberty, because girls mature faster than boys. During childhood, we could
observe that the girls are much wiser and mature than boys. Meanwhile, during adolescence the
boys will be more intelligent than girls. Naturally, older and more mature children have
greater cognitive capacity than younger and less mature children. So if you compare boys and
girls at the same chronological age, girls on average are more intelligent than boys. In other
words, the sex difference in the rate of maturity masks and drowns the sex difference in general
intelligence÷

For a better understanding on the topic we are given a task to find some article from
various sources which related to the chosen topic. The first article is basically support evolution
but not the idea that genes are a one-way path to specific traits and behaviors. Instead, they argue
that development involves a complex system in which genes and environmental factors
constantly interact. Genes are expressed at every point in development and are affected all along
the way by a gamut of environmental factors that everything from proteins and chemicals to the
socioeconomic status of a family. These ideas are unified by a perspective called developmental
systems theory.

Moreover, one of the articles is regarding the reason of women becoming lesbians. Some
have enjoyed being women but suddenly became lesbians. They have their own reasons for
doing so and most of their reason is being rejected or their boyfriends have dumped them for
other women. These women were all born girls and enjoyed being girls for years up to the time
they were in high school when they were heartbroken and have to find solace to becoming
lesbians. It¶s quite surprising for such a sudden change in gender. But according to them, they
have suffered enough and they don¶t want things repeated. So the best thing for them is to rival
with men who hurt them.

Further, the next article is about behavioural differences between the sexes. The content
is related about the behavioral differences between sexes are not hard-wired at birth but are the
result of society's expectations. In this article, a growing number of scientists are challenging the
pseudo-science of "neurosexism", as they call it, and are raising concerns about its implications.
These researchers argue that by telling parents that boys have poor chances of acquiring good
verbal skills and girls have little prospect of developing mathematical prowess, serious and
unjustified obstacles are being placed in the paths of children's education. The article is also says
basic behavioral differences between the sexes and these differences increase with age because
our children's intellectual biases are being exaggerated and intensified by our gendered culture.
›hildren don't inherit intellectual differences. They learn them. They are a result of what we
expect a boy or a girl to be.
Apart from that, the next article is about an interview on publisher weekly with one
³Lolita´. This text is about ³costume role play´ (cosplay), is a type of hobby in which
participants don costumes and accessories to represent a specific character. ›haracters are often
drawn from popular fiction like manga, anime or video game in Japan. Lolita¶s stay up-to-date
on the latest spring and autumn winter trends as a regular fashionista might, except that their type
of clothes will probably never make it to the New York Runaway. They claim that they are not
doing it to attract the attention of the opposite sex. They think with Lolita, their love for
everything feminist just intensified. They have a special opinion about dressing up. They say
³clothes are just clothes. In the end, what I wear doesn¶t make me any different from who I am
inside´.

At last but not least, the final article refers to the status of intelligence between male and
female from childhood and adolescent. This article discuss the new consensus in the intelligence
research in the 21st century that men on average are slightly (but significantly) more intelligent
than women, by about 3-5 IQ points. However, the writer also notes that it is Ô
because they
are male that men are more intelligent but because they are taller. Taller individuals are more
intelligent than shorter individuals, and men just happen to be taller than women. From the
research it is proven that girls are more intelligent than boys during their childhood since they
mature faster than boys. Meanwhile, during adolescent men are more intelligent than women
because the male advantage in intelligence does not appear until after puberty, when boys and
girls finish maturing and growing. Until then, girls are on average always more mature than
boys at any given chronological age.Y
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As a conclusion the human behavior is a result of both our genetic in heritance and the
environment that shapes us. Therefore, characteristic of a person shaped by nurture rather than
nature.
 BIBILOGRAPHY

1)Y Weekender, 7th August 2010. Girls will be girls. Johor : Star Publications Ltd.
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3)Y Gayagay, Lisa. (2010). Why do some women become lesbians? England, London.

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