Why Are We Doing Gender?

Like many other aspects of our lives, gender is taught almost as soon as we are born. Babies are usually covered in pink or blue, depending on their sex, and small children typically stick to their assigned favorite colors for many years to follow. We get gender specific clothes, toys, chores. It seems simple to think the way our parents or significant others taught us to behave is how we are likely to behave as we mature. While our experiences and changes in society may let us expand on our ideas as we go through adolescence and adulthood, there are basic rules that were established before we even knew why.

Quite frankly, I still don’t understand why these rules are in place. Would society be to chaotic if certain male/female expectations were no longer in place? The text states that these gender rules are very good in maintaining social control, because people police themselves in the ways they behave as a result of what has been deemed “good” and “bad”.

Without sounding too conspiracy theory-ish, maintaining control over people seems to be the most useful reason for gender. If the rules were so important, why are they changing so much? People demand change, and there is change. In high-risk situations, I doubt lines could be crossed and erased so easily. Why is gender different based on race-ethnicity, religion, or class?Who keeps power with gender roles in place?  All the nuances seem to point out that gender is obviously a social construction, but who's? And why does society keep perpetuating it?