In class we have been talking about gender identity and nature vs nurture. We watched a documentary called “The Boy who was Turned into a Girl” and discussed it. It was mainly about if the environment you grow up in and the way you are treated by those around you defines your gender, or if it is solely defined by your DNA and what is within. Some argue that you gender identity is already chosen when you are still in the womb when your brain is first coded by DNA. Whereas others say that if you are treated as a certain gender from the time you are born until about 2 years old, that is the gender you will act and think like.

In my personal opinion, I think its a mix of both. I think that your genetic code and DNA has a big impact on your gender, but your environment can also have an equally as important impact. Honestly, I think someone should be allowed to classify there gender as whatever they want it to be no matter what their DNA or environment tells them. I think if someone is born into a male body, but feel like a girl, then they should be a girl (and the same for boys). I think what science cannot explain is how sometimes its not about the environment or the DNA, its about how that person feels and who they feel they truly are.

For me, my gender identity doesn’t play a massive role in my life. I know that I identify as a girl, but I don’t let that stop me from doing things. For example, I play a lot of sports and enjoy exercise. I am terrible at cooking and don’t enjoying sitting inside and doing more “girly” things. I don’t generally spend a lot of time on my hair or nails. Although these things may all seem like the way a girl should act, they are all stereotypes. Doing things like your hair and caring a lot about your appearance doesn’t make you a girl. So I don’t feel like I’m not a girl just because I don’t like doing things like this. I think society (me included) has been influenced a lot by the media, on subjects like gender stereotypes and identity. There are little female hero’s in the media today. That job is usually played by the male. The most common thing we see in media is a girl needing to be saved by the outgoing, adventurous, and courages male lead. This leads to many young girls to believe that that is all they can be too. They think they are not supposed to be strong and courages, that they should just sit and wait for a man to come save them. But this is not the case at all. My family and friends have always been very influential in teaching me that I can be whatever I want to be don’t need to follow the stereotypes.