Defining Gender and Power

As a group we (Sierra, Stephanie, Dustin, Candace and I) came up with some ways we would define Gender and Power.

Gender:

• "more of how you see yourself"
  
• "how you portray yourself"
  
• "how you fit into societies roles"
  
• "society makes certain rules you consciously or subconsciously follow"
  
• "sex is biological"
  
• "reflecting or rebelling against society"
  
• "a label you buy into in society"
  

-femininity and masculinity  

Power: 

• "judgement"
  
• "strength" 
  
• "constantly judging each other and worried about being judged"
  
• "being outspoken no matter if you are right or wrong"
  
• "power of masculinity and femininity"
  
• "changing the way others think"
  
• "being confident"
  
• "holding yourself in a strong way"
  
• "doing things for yourself vs doing it for others"
  
• "only can have power if you have followers"
  

These are just some of the thoughts that came to us when we were discussing our definitions.  From my perspective Gender is a role that society has made rules for such as what males and females wear, act, present themselves, occupations and more. Since society has set these rules, people are suppose to follow the "gender" or their sex.  But there are still many questions that come up such as being gay, straight, bisexual or transgendered.  These positions in society do not seem to have rules and so the gender position is blurred. 

Power is being in control and to have control their comes strength, judgement, confidence and outspokenness. Again this definition also comes with questions like What is strength?  How do we define it?