Answering a few of the questions...

What is the purpose of gender?

As we all know, this is a loaded question! In class, we briefly discusses the purpose of gender, and Sam talked about how placing people into categories, or boxes, makes things easier for her to identify as being "A, or not A". Whitney expressed the dangers of this, however--she didn't want to be placed in one of these boxes by someone else because what if that wasn't the box she placed herself in? Someone else (Madi?) offered a compromise: having an "open box." People can still be categorized, but we have to leave room for certain notions to be added or removed from the box as our ideas of gender (and other labels) progress.

Honestly, I think the true purpose of gender is little more than cues to aid procreation. For some reason, in our culture we feel this need to categorize and label everything and everyone around us. In the Genderspeak chapter "Choosing and Using Gendered Language", Ivy/Backlund says, ". . . People (at least in American culture) can hardly function without knowing the sex of a person. If they aren't told the sex, they generally assign one based on stereotypes." Biologically there are only two options for which sex we are (three if you consider transgendered). But how many people honestly feel they act 100% "feminine" or 100% "masculine"--in terms of what is expected of those genders--all the time? Personally, I love to dress up, wear make up and go shopping (things usually distinguished as feminine behaviors)... but I also love to play video games, and my sense of humor often leans towards the more 'crude' side (typically masculine behaviors).

The only true purpose I can see for gender that aids our evolution as human beings is, bluntly put, so we know who we can make babies with. Any other so-called purpose of gender is akin to stating there is a purpose in labeling someone a certain race--there really IS no purpose other than to satisfy our own human nature (or borderline-OCD tendencies) to organize and categorize everything in our world. But through gendered divisions, it becomes easier to assign roles to individuals based on their label. Common roles assigned to women would be cooking, cleaning and childcare, while a role for males would be "bringing home the bacon."

These roles help to enforce who has power in our society, and who does not. In many ways, I believe that gender could be considered an institution of structural violence. On the flipside, sometimes the structures of society can determine what gender a person is. In Night to His Day, I found it interesting that in some non-western societies, three genders exist. One of the third-type genders discussed was "manly hearted women" or "female women," who Lorber explains are "biological females who work, marry and parent as men." She goes on to say that these female men don't dress or behave like men, but simply have the same social responsibilities and privileges that men have . . . because they are wealthy enough to buy themselves a wife. So in those societies, it isn't necessarily the biological sex that defines the gender (as is mostly the case in our own society), but the amount of wealth (read: POWER) that determines what gender these women are expected to portray.


In what ways do you perform gender? How does your performance of gender shift depending on your social situation? To what extent is it learned/genetic?

In class, we discussed that the social construction of gender prevents many people from expressing their true natures--like tomboys and "feminine" male children. Although we decided that it was easier in society for a female to act like a male and it was less acceptable for a boy to be feminine, I think that this is only true to a point. There are CERTAIN male-centric behaviors that women are "allowed" to have--such as playing or enjoying sports--and then there are other behaviors which are less accepted. An example would be one of my best friends, Jenny. She lives in San Francisco, CA, which is usually thought of as one of the most liberal and accepting cities in the US. She recently styled her hair into a mohawk (with the sides shaved and everything) and although she loved the style, she couldn't help but notice the looks of disapproval and even disgust as people would see her mohawk--including her own parents. Her parents told her that it made her look too much like a boy or a lesbian (her parents also disapprove of her tattoos because she is a girl and "girls shouldn't have tattoos").

Because of this negative response to her hair style, Jenny expressed to me that she felt it was necessary to over-compensate for her feminism in other ways. She began wearing more jewelry, noticeable make-up and more feminine clothing. She would even accent her mohawk with barrettes in an attempt to, in her words, "look less butch." However, this was only when she went out or was visiting her parents--if she was just hanging out with people that she was comfortable with, it wasn't an issue. I think that this is an example of someone trying to "perform" their gender depending on the social setting. Although Jenny didn't necessarily act any different, she felt the need to portray her appearance in a more feminine way if she was around people that might not understand or might misconstrue her mohawk as meaning something more than simply a style that she liked.

In the reading The Dangers of Playing Dress-up: Popular Representations of Jessica Lynch and the Controversy Regarding Women in Combat (whew), I found one of main theories presented is that women in the military, regardless of whether they display masculine or feminine qualities, are ultimately held back. If they display feminine characteristics, they are criticized and devalued within the male culture for not being "manly" enough for the tasks of soldier, and if they display masculine characteristics, they are still shut out of certain positions and denied participation in combat. I think that this also relates to Jenny's position because although she isn't in the military, she is expected to appear in a certain, FEMALE way--and even if she attempts to comply in every other aspect, it will never be enough for society and she will continue to be held in disdain because her tattoos and hairstyle mark her as something outside the "normal" female gender.

As for whether behaviors between genders are learned or genetic..it's like the classic argument of Nature vs. Nurture. In gender, I find that both are factors. In class, some of the students discussed children's awareness of gender. Brian talked about how, even as a child growing up around several brothers, they acted more masculine while he felt more feminine. Angela talked about her nephew's doll, and how he hid it under his bed when other boys would come to play because it was a "girl's toy". Her nephew's actions display the learned nature of gender distinction, while Brian's own childhood shows the apparent biological nature of his own gender--despite growing up around "masculine" brothers, he did not "learn" to act more masculine. For me personally as a child, I loved to play dress up or with dolls in my room. My older sister, on the other hand preferred to race on her Big Wheel with the neighborhood boys. Any activities we did together were decidedly nuetral--playing board games, reading, or putting puzzles together. I don't recall my parents ever pushing us in one way or the other...we just naturally gravitated towards different types of play (mine being more "feminine" and her's more "masculine"). This shows that, despite being raised in the same household, our gendered tendencies were likely influenced by biologic factors as well as learned.

However, I find that as I grow older, because I look and dress very femininely, people around me expect that I should act extremely feminine. In response to those situations, I often do feel pressured to make my feminine qualities more pronounced than they normally would be--even if I'm not feeling especially feminine at the moment. This is a learned behavior on my part, and is similar to the "tough guise" we learned about in the Tough Guise documentary. Males in American culture are often pressured to wear a kind of mask in order to appear strong, independent, physical and deserving of respect. A more specific example of this would be the "Black Cool Pose" that wannabe "gangstas" of all ethnicities have adopted to inspire respect and fear in those that surround them.

(Eek, I'll address some of the other questions later! Now I have to go to class!)