Gender is not sex- it is not about your sex parts or chromosomes, but rather is about the rules, beliefs and meaning cultures construct around what sex a person is. These rules and beliefs impact what we wear, what jobs we think are most suited to each sex, etc. Gender also weaves in ideas about orientation. Again, think about what you believe it means to be a man/woman/inter-sexed individual.

Age often influences what things we think about and are important to us. This often influences how we see the world and how we view people of different ages. Our culture offers great privilege to youth, for example and tends to infantilize the elderly.

Finally, belief- this is not just your spiritual beliefs, but your values and ideas about what it means to be you (such as personality theories, talents, etc.)

Your job is to write a 5 page paper about who you are that reflects on the above mentioned 5 components of paradigm. I encourage you to write this as a first person, reflective- somewhat casual paper. It is essential that we know who we are before we try to understand other cultures. If you look under the Assignment link of the menu, you will find the link for Safe Assignment and the link to the Paradigm paper.