Blog #1 Response: Barbie Didn't Have A Choice

Corporate America taught me the following: Barbie likes pink. Barbie likes Ken. Barbie is a girl. Ken likes blue. Ken likes Barbie. Ken is a boy. As a child, I learned from my plastic dolls that, despite their grossly inaccurate anatomical features, Barbie and Ken were very different. Barbie had breasts. Ken didn’t. Barbie’s curves made her a girl. And no matter how short I cut Barbie’s hair or how many shirts she borrowed from Ken, she would always be Barbie. She would always be a girl. That’s just the way she was made. As a child, I was taught that gender was determined by the anatomical characteristics of a human being.

Now, as a young adult, I draw a distinct line between sex and gender. I have had too many experiences with people that have shaken the foundations of my gender education to ignore the differences, the exceptions. I now believe that anatomy determines sex. But the individual chooses gender, although wide social acceptance of an individual’s chosen gender is another issue in itself.

It’s true that gender stereotypes and prejudice still exist. But people are making breakthroughs everyday. Homosexuals, Heterosexuals, Bisexuals, Transsexuals are all becoming allies. They’re fighting for the same cause: equality and acceptance.

Ignorance still exists. That’s why I try not to make assumptions or judgments about a person’s gender and sexual orientation when I first meet him/her. Just because a person physically looks like a boy or a girl doesn’t mean a person wants to be identified as one. When I’m introduced to a person, I try to understand their characteristics and personality. I don’t see a boy or a girl. I see a fellow human being and I see what makes them human.

Maybe Barbie didn’t have a choice. But I do. And I choose to be a woman…I think. I am fiercely proud of my feminity. I was born this way and I’ve done pretty well for myself so far. But there are times when I wish I could be a man because of existing social pressures and gender inequalities that truthfully make a man’s life easier than a woman’s. For now, I identify myself as a woman who has embraced an enormous amount of masculine qualities for the purposes of social survival. But I’m young and I have so many chances for self-discovery ahead of me. Who’s to say my choice of gender won’t change?