Silly Putty Gender: An analysis of Gender Formation in the American Binary System and Its Impact on the Collective

Abstract

Gender formation is a subset of identity formation, which must be developed over time through exposure to a multiplicity of deterministic variables throughout adolescence and the formative years. These variables play upon the mind in a manner that is wildly complex, incalculable, and often so unintuitive that it begins to fringe on the nonsensical. This paper synthesizes a wealth of research in order to assert these claims and examine a great many of the “key players” among variables in addition to describing the manners in which those that are markedly more subtle if not wholly unobservable can have a major impact on both personality and gender formation. This paper also establishes personality and identity as socially constructed entities, examines the connection between personality formation and gender formation, and details the relationship between these things, including an analysis of the impact of the contemporary American gender binary and the manner in which patriarchal thought impacts the contemporary American binary understanding of gender. Ultimately, this understanding severely limits both the experience and network of potentialities of the contemporary American and her society as a whole.