i) Gender Binaries
While learning about normative narrative’s this semester it has given me a deeper understanding of the preconceived perceptions in our communities. These perceptions are inflicted on our everyday environments, that would go otherwise unnoticed unless you do not identify with the blue or pink binary. As outlined in my colleague, Halle Fannon’s story titled “Sparkly Pink Dress” she noticed the separation between genders amongst the clothing sections in the store, a clear boys side and a clear girls side but no unisex section in between. This story supported the fact that gendering has always been very prominent in our society. There are extremely normalized ideas of what clothing, colours, and interests are “suitable” for a boy or a girl as demonstrated by Halle when she said “The sparkly pink dress was what made me realize my gender.” Along with interests, clothing and colours, sports is a very widely known interest that is commonly separated by this gender binary. As noted in my story, football is one such sport that there is one prominent gender and does not accommodate females or other genders. I found that the discovery of my self identity was funded through “girlier” clothing, and feel as if this was also the same for many people who identify as a boy or as a girl. This self story also left me wondering, if we all had the chance to chose our clothes without prompt from an early onset age, would there still be as many people on the pink or blue side of the binary?
With football being a very male dominated sport, it contributes to the stereotype that men and boys are the only ones that are able to participate. This narrative is similar to the one addressed in Kacie Reimer’s story titled “Gender Identification” when she speaks of the teachers needing boys to help lift or carry things because they are “strong” or “tough”. This demonstrates the labels that are put upon men in relation to their bodies that shows physical dominance over women and isolates the image of what it means to be a heterosexual male in Canadian culture. This isolating image of men also negatively affects women by inflicting the polar opposite labels of what is expected of females to fit into the image of a woman. I found that my “Football” story went hand in hand with Kacie’s story after reading the line “I still hear that I should be ‘in the kitchen, cleaning or making a man their sandwich” or “My peers told me countless times that I should’ve played with barbies or playing with nail polish.” These comments resonate with me and are extremely similar to many I received during my football career. Kacie also speaks about proving others wrong by breaking through these gender norms, very alike to Khol’s story that is to come. Having the courage and fearlessness to break these norms, I feel is an extremely important attitude for all future educators to have towards creating an all inclusive environment for all genders within our society.
ii) Disrupting Normative Narratives
As we live in a evolving world, it is stated in the course reading, “celebrate the idea of naming a baby girl James,’ for instance, as an attempt to upset gender expectations by showing that girls can take on traits that are traditionally perceived as masculine.” This statement provides enhancement to the disruption of the gender norm many people abide by in their lives, by naming their children typically male names if they are born female. This upcoming way of naming children may also come as a bit of a shock to the baby boomers who were mentioned to have been “raised with wearing the two colours.” Although it is a very traditional way of naming babies, I believe that with the disruption of this normative narrative it can take out an abundance of unnecessary gendering within the everyday life for the child. In my colleague Khol’s story “Colonialism and Gender” he makes a very strong statement supporting and putting emphasis on how important it is that we continue to fight to disrupt this pink and blue narrative. “Women deserve rights, deserve to feel safe, underage children need to be safe, they need to stop being seen as less than just because they are different gender.” I believe my hopes to create an all inclusive community aligns with Khol’s statement, because we need to begin by viewing each other as equal, starting with becoming advocates to eliminate gender division amongst all people of all ages.
I found that Khol’s story really put some old fashioned normative narratives into a different light for myself the same way that Halle’s story did for me. They both mention cooking and cleaning, as a woman’s job which put things into perspective for me. I always thought about the specific norm of cooking and cleaning to be paired with the man going to work, but I had never brought myself to pair the thought of the jobs being flipped. I hadn’t thought of putting the male into the cooking and cleaning spot, until reading my peer’s stories bringing notice to a few things. 1. We as a community of young pre-teachers are working extremely hard to disrupt these narratives, but only to our new knowledge. 2. We need to be applying our gained knowledge and skills of how to disrupt these norms to our preconceived understandings in order to cancel them out for the future generations.
This self analysis helped me further my teaching philosophy of striving to achieve a safe and open community for all of my students no matter what age. Along with the fact that it is my everlasting job to protect and advocate for the students that need a safe, supportive space and adult role in their life.
“The loss of neutral clothing is something that people should think more about. And there is a growing demand for neutral clothing for babies and toddlers now, too”
Hartmann, The history of pink for Girls, blue for boys 2013
Hartmann, M. (2013, June 19). The history of pink for Girls, blue for boys. Retrieved April 11, 2021, from https://jezebel.com/the-history-of-pink-for-girls-blue-for-boys-5790638
Pinsker, J. (2018, September 12). Why Some Parents Turn Boys’ Names Into Girls’ Names. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/09/girls-names-for-baby-boys/569962/?surface=meter_limit_reached&article_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theatlantic.com%2Ffamily%2Farchive%2F2018%2F09%2Fgirls-names-for-baby-boys%2F569962%2F