When I was a little kid, I was told by my mother that I looked like a little boy. One, because she could never do my hair because I was tender headed and I would cry if she even had to comb in her hand. Two because I refused to let her do my hair with a gurgling cry to the heavens above or a WWE smack down. However, I still understood that I was a little girl with the baseball caps I wore with my dresses.
Gender and sex was the initially considered the same thing to me. It is funny what a person can learn on a daily basis. It is week two in this Gender, Image and Rhetoric class and I have already learned a different perspective on gender roles (not that I confine myself to any of them).
I learned that somebody’s sex does not determine his or her identity. Most likely, the gender aspect is the contributing factor to how somebody treats a person and by gender; I mean a persons physical characteristics. Such as how a person walks, (like a man or a women), talk (soft spoken or demanding) and wardrobe (like a man or a women).
In the Article written by Lorber, she states that“Everyone “does” gender” without even knowing it and for example, she used the well-groomed man taking care of his baby in public. People silently praised him because it was noticeable and not normal. Nevertheless, a father taking care of his child, in which is a “mother’s role” is becoming more normal. I wonder if society would accept this and understand that it is beneficial to the upcoming of a child to understand that man and women both have an equal role in the development of a child and the notion that women and men are equal is important to eliminating social stereotypes in the future.
I really had to stop and think about how everyone does “gender”. I did not like that statement but I do understand that people do have preconceived notions on how a man and a woman should be. In class, we discussed some of the words to describe men based on society for example tough, working, and sexy and for women: fragile, soft-spoken and homemaker. We also discussed how some of the descriptions could be interchangeable.
I am a woman I am also straight, As a Christian I was taught to love thy Neighbor and not to condemn. My mother is a Christian as well but it quick to condemn people for their preferences and shortcomings, I think it is because she was born in 1935 and she is stuck their. My wardrobe can be soft but I prefer the rugged hard but sexy I think look and sometimes I do not care at all what I look like because my personal appearance does not consume me I could careless what people think. I would be considered a deviant. My mother says I look a quote “dike”. It is hard to explain to her that times are changing. If you look in the magazines, shorter hairstyles for women are becoming more accepted and less deviant. It is thought as exotic and sexy for instance Rhianna a pop diva with a shaved head and is rough in her music videos.
I understand that in today’s time gender roles are what defines a person and when a person dares to be different; they are persecuted because people are afraid of what is foreign. But I hope to learn in this class the solution to end social stereotypes. I also hope that I can be strong enough to live as an example that I am a human being and I can be who ever I would like to be and not confined to the social idea of who I should be.
Monday, August 30, 2010
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