In today's society, it can be argued that the choice to be male or female depends more on others than on you. A child's appearance, beliefs, and emotions are controlled until he or she has fully understood what he or she was "born to be." In the article Learning to Be Gendered, Penelope Eckert and Sally McConnell-Ginet talk about how we are influenced to differentiate ourselves through gender. It starts with our parents, who create our appearance, our names and our behaviors and distinguish them into something masculine or feminine. Eventually, we grow up to continue this action ourselves by observing our peers. From personal experience, a child cannot freely choose the gender that suits him best unless our society approves of it. Penelope and Sally introduced this