When you hear the word “gender” you generally assume it refers to that individual's biological sex. However, gender is no longer a static concept in our world. The traditional spheres of what is masculinity and femininity have become increasingly blurred as our society progresses socially and becomes more accepting. Along with this, however, social processes continue to take place to dictate what we believe a man and a woman should be, in an attempt to force people to adapt to what we consider to be a man and a woman. There are many perspectives on how gender is defined and affects us. While gender is likely a direct result of our culture, viewing it from a structural functionalist approach can show how it has aided the evolution of our society. However, these gender roles can also negatively affect others, as demonstrated by feminist and criminological thinkers, and may become less significant as we enter an era in which even our biological sex may be changed. By challenging current gender norms in my experiment, it is clear to me that gender itself is a creation of our culture. As part of my experiment with addressing normative gender images, I decided to visit the perfume counter at my local Sears and inquire about purchasing a bottle for myself instead of a woman. Although it was a minor interaction, I believed that looking for perfume was something generally only associated with women. Sears, as a store, is something that I myself have always associated with women. This belief is a direct result of a childhood where I was dragged around by my mother while she went shopping at the mall. My prediction was that the sales associate would most likely treat me differently than a typical female customer. Before......middle of the paper......ure that tells you how to define the sexes, their differences are irrelevant. Both men and women have masculine and feminine qualities, there is no pure form of either. Not only that, but how we define them is dictated by our culture and simply a social construct. We act the way we are expected to act, and if we don't, we are shunned as deviant for crossing these gender norms. The burden of attempting to meet the criteria of our designated gender role can even be harmful when we attempt to perform our gender in inappropriate contexts. The only real difference between the sexes is biological, and even in our contemporary age it is questioned so that anyone can be a man or a woman. I believe that in times to come we will see this weight of gender increasingly diminish as our cultures change, although I suspect there is a long way to go.