I didn’t identify with being a girl until my mother put a dress on me. Before then, I probably rolled around in my onesie on the dirty floor of the daycare center, with barely any hair like every other baby around me. However, I gravitated towards the dolls rather than the red fire trucks, the tea sets, not the action figures. No one told me to play with these things, but I just felt inclined to and that they were more appealing. There was always that one boy who enjoyed the makeup more, or that one girl who wanted Ken over Barbie. But we were babies.
You wear your gender on your sleeve from the time you are born. But it’s when you reach puberty that your sex truly begins to matter. Biological changes and desires take you on an emotional roller coaster that will affect how you perceive yourself for years to come. Your gender does not define you, however in the workplace, at home, at school; it can determine many aspects of your life. For girls, being female means you are given the vessel to have babies, which means you are expected (socially by society) to have children. Society expects men to be masculine, women to be feminine. When these rules are broken, sometimes people have an “off” reaction.
I pee sitting down. I wear bras. I dress like a girl. I’ll never leave the house in sweatpants, wear makeup everyday, and I am a shopoholic. However, there shouldn’t be a classification of what it means to be a “girl” or a “boy” because my best friend and favorite shopping companion is a male. For most of us, we naturally go one way, however that’s not always the case (he is gay). Gender is b.s. in this day in age. There’s no black and white with gender. We’re not just male or just female. I do things that most people would say only “men” do, such as scream at the TV during sports games, and my male friend likes to shop. But all in all I’m happy being a girl; so long as I am still allowed to do some things that men do.
Well, I don't understand football at all, but I love to shop! :) As a class, I'd like to consider how we learn how to perform certain gender identities (even if we don't remember that process!!). I'd also like for us to consider what else we pick up in these seemingly unmotivated and innocent lessons (i.e., ideas about class, race, etc).
ReplyDeleteI like what you're saying about physically being a girl but acting like a man. I feel that contradiction on a daily basis. I look like a girl and dress like one. But sometimes, it's more fun to act like a man. That's because of social and cultural pressures. Do you think society will ever create a "word" or a category to define someone that associates with both female and male characteristics? Because all we have to work with right now is "boy" and "girl", "he" and "she". I'm on the look-out for word that can define the "in-between".
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