Podcast Analysis Essay on Nature, Nurture, And Our Evolving Debates About Gender

The podcast talks about nature, nurture the debates that we often get entangled in about gender. The podcast tries to settle the discussion on what entails to be a male or a female and what causes the differences in the line of categorization. The podcast attempts to venture into the impact of biology on what we are or eventually become (Saldivia et al., 2017). The podcast still pursues what the environment and culture are capable of shaping who we are. The question of what gender is undoubtedly tackled to a significant effect. The podcast involves interviews with neurosurgeons and Jamie Shupes to help expound on the issue of gender.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Following an internal memo released by Google regarding the roles of males and females and their capabilities, the discussion has become heated on the correctness of the notice. Some feel that the memo was true while others think that the memo was trying to be chauvinistic. The world is surely torn into two. One neurosurgeon in the podcast attempted to explain that there is a huge distinction between males and females biologically (Saldivia et al., 2017). She argued that no matter how hard we try to run away from the truth, it will always catch up with as. For instance, she claimed that females and males are different in both biology and physiology. The difference between the reproductive parts, masculinity, and strengths are enough to prove the differences.

Professor Rosalind Franklin thinks that the differences we accord to the gender are all vague as the environment and culture bring the differences. For instances, she observed that the male and female brains are same and capable of doing equally strong roles, but when programmed to do so. She argues that clothing is an aspect that trade and marketing brought up to sell more, while at the same time brought about the gender difference. She explains that males and females are similar in every aspect when it comes to ability. She produced the evidence that the Harpers' corpus of both males and females being the same. The conclusion being that the environment and culture are the main determinants of what one perceives himself to be regarding gender.

Why did you choose this topic? What interested you about the topic?

I chose this topic because it talks about the very basic thing that has emerged to be a major world crisis. Debates of male, female equality have taken center stage in most conversations and governments. Gay rights talk has also filled the atmospheres. This topic is interesting as it is trying to address the issue of gender and how we should perceive the same. The thesis addresses much on making us understand what defines who we are in the gender question and how it matters in our lives.

What is one new/interesting/surprising idea you learned from this podcast? Why do you feel it is new/interesting/surprising?

This podcast has no doubt revealed many things about the stereotypes and misconceptions about gender. From this podcast, I have particularly caught up with a new idea on the influence of culture and environment defining who we are. The clothes we wear, the roles we are assigned to do and how we are treated determines who we become. I feel this very interesting as I had always clung to the old concept that biology is everything and gender is actually in our DNA and hormones. I have found out that our physiological and biological differences may have very little to do with who we become concerning gender.

What is something you think about differently after having listened to this podcast and why?

After listening to the interview with Jamie Shupes, I have come to see that it is possible to live without belonging to either gender. Amid the challenges, one needs to set their minds and settle on what they want. I have long thought that nature declares that one should belong to at least a group in the gender category. One thing that comes up in the background is that culture and environment could also fail to determine what we become anyways. Shupes, for instance, has not been changed by the environment into becoming a gender-neutral person.

What is one question you still have after listening to this podcast? Why do you think the podcast did not address your question?

The podcast fails to fully explain the other factors that could influence who we are regarding gender. In the case of Jamie Shupes, who does not belong to either gender, what other factors came in play that did not shape Shupes and fit him in any of the categories of gender? Fair enough, Shupes was exposed to the culture that other children are part. Shupes even exists in the same environment where one must belong to a particular gender. The surprising thing is that Shupes does not conform to any of the pressure into getting into a category. So, despite biology, culture, and environment, undoubtedly, other factors come into play regarding the feeling about gender.

The Reputable Source

Lai, M. C., Lombardo, M. V., Auyeung, B., Chakrabarti, B., & Baron-Cohen, S. (2015). Sex/gender differences and autism: setting the scene for future research. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 54(1), 11-24.

What clues do you have to this being a reputable source?

The source talks so much about the development of children to the age of puberty, which is the age that most people make gender-based decisions to belong to a gender. The journal is produced by one of the greatest neurosurgeons and a psychologist at Michigan University. Besides, more than two million people have read this journal as per the records on it (Lai et al., 2015).

Briefly summarize your findings from the source - focusing on how it has answered your question from the podcast

The journal has helped me answer the question of other factors that could influence who we are different than biology, culture, and environment. The truth according to this journal is that in as much as the environment may shape someone initially, as time goes by, they become more knowledgeable on what is around them and what they want for themselves. The decisions that we make are more thought about and are to our best interests (Saldivia Et Al., 2017). That is why someone would grow up being a male and finally decides to do transgender surgery. The decisions we make could be very independent of the environment we grow.

References

Saldivia, G., Vedantam, S., Schmidt, J., Boyle, T., Cohen, R., Klahr, R., & Shah, P. (2017). NPR Choice page. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2017/10/09/556116385/nature-nurture-and-our-evolving-debates-about-gender

Lai, M. C., Lombardo, M. V., Auyeung, B., Chakrabarti, B., & Baron-Cohen, S. (2015). Sex/gender differences and autism: setting the scene for future research. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 54(1), 11-24.