What Makes Her Masculine.

We all grow up one of two sexes, with biological characteristics that identify us as being male or female. From the minute we are born we’re automatically part of a culture that differentiates our gender into social and cultural aspects of being one of either sexes. Gender socialization, which is the process where people learn the norms related to their sex and gender, happens to every single baby. Even as really young groups, gender socialization automatically splits girls and boys as two separate groups. According to any sociologist, all these differences that we see between men and women aren’t natural, but are all socialized or socially constructed.

As a female who grew up in a Palestinian, Arabic culture, I most definitely was socialized into a specific category, femininity. All my physical, behavioral, mental and emotional traits characterize me as a female. I wear dresses, skirts, and jewelry. I cross my legs when I sit. I cry quite often and I’m not embarrassed to say that I do. I try not to use foul language, because that is “not how a lady acts.” That is one of the things I hear my parents and family say every once in a while, that a lady isn’t supposed to use foul language, talk and laugh loudly in public and talk in a very rough manner. At least in my culture, a girl is supposed to be and act like a lady because in my religion many different lines from the Quran and sayings by the Prophet, PBUH, exemplifies a lady as a pearl or diamond, that is so delicate. For me to be that pearl or diamond, I can’t do many things in public, especially in front of men.

It’s considered deviance in my culture for a woman to smoke. Women get negatively sanctioned if they have a cigarette in their hand or if they smoke a hookah.


Smoking is considered to be a masculine habit, which automatically gives off a manly image. Many women smoke in public regardless of these cultural sanctions. This gives women power in such a culture, where women are said to be powerless. This could be considered to be a very masculine form of power based on domination and control, by simply holding a cigarette and going against all these negative sanctions. According to Sutherland, this form of power, which in a sociological perspective is called “power-over,” could be problematic because it’s abusive. So, smoking among women could influence other women to do it only to receive that kind of power as well, regardless off all the obvious health risks.