Monday, February 1, 2016
Gender Bender (or not so much)
"Learning to Be Gendered" by Penelope Eckert and Sally McConnell-Ginet is an all too real essay to read. Gender norms are real. When kids are little, their parents dress them according to their gender. An example of this is when the essay read, "Overalls for a girl may be OK (though they are 'best' if pink of flowered or in some other way marked 'feminine') but gender liberalism goes only so far." I remember when I was growing up, I couldn't wear what I wanted to wear. I couldn't dress in sweatpants or jeans and a t-shirt because it wasn't "lady like". That's how my older brother was supposed to dress because he's a boy. My mom would put me in dresses, put ribbons in my hair and shoes with buckles on them to go to church every Sunday. She'd dress my brother in nice slacks and a dress shirt with a tie and dress shoes, with his hair slicked back. We weren't asked if we wanted to wear this or that, we just did because that's what girls and boys wore. I agree with the statement that "children play a very active role in their own development" because I can remember times where I'd look at other girls and see their dresses and see the boys in their slacks and remember that that's the way it's supposed to be. Boys and girls are supposed to be different from one another. In time they'll find out what their true gender identity is. Maybe that boy doesn't feel like a boy on the inside, and wants to be a girl. Or vice versa. And that's the great thing about most of our generation nowadays, you can do that and so many people will support you at the end of the day. Gender norms are real when we're kids, but as we grow up you because who you are meant to be.
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Everything said above is so true. I never left my house without a hair-bow that matched my outfit when I was a young girl. It is so crazy how we are conformed and what a big role our parents do play in the gender role of their children. It is crazy to me that we are born a certain sex and then for lack of better terminology, made into the gender that society says that we are based off of our sex. I think you make a very valid point when you talk about, "remembering that the way things are supposed to be is that girls wear dresses and boys wear slacks." Although, I agree with everything you said I do kind of see where things do get messed up though. No matter how many times my mom tells me to do one thing, I will always do the other. Now, I am totally straight but I am just trying to make it clear that it is easy to understand that no matter who our parents shape us to be due to what society says, we will always have a choice when we get older whether or not we want to do what society states is the norm.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was reading the essay, there were points where the author would really piss me off because I felt like we do have a "gender identity" inside of ourselves. The author was just making it seem like we are some mindless robots that will take in anything it receives … (I really didn’t know how else to put that). Orrr, in other words I mean, he is very one sided to the fact that we can be fluent with our gender in today’s society, because I feel like we do have a “true identity” within ourselves; whether people/parents are telling us to be a boy or girl, that kid knows who they are inside. When we are first born, like it has been said, gender norms are automatically forced upon us. But as you grow up, you end up finding your true identity. And that where the author just didn’t talk about, so I feel he didn’t prove his point. I agree with Netalie and Marissa, I don’t think gender norms are a problem to society, because there is a reason we are different, it’s almost instinctive throughout most species for the male to a dominant. Im not saying we shouldn’t be equal, but that doesn’t mean have we have to do everything the same.
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