Gender Identification #4

Being a woman is challenging in many different ways. Some individuals expect us to act a certain way or do things a certain way, and it can be not very pleasant. I remember times in elementary school when teachers would say something along the lines of “I need a strong boy to help me carry this” and stuff like that, but even when I was a child, I found that so annoying and hurtful. Whenever the teachers asked the “strong boys” for help carrying, lifting or moving something, I was usually the first one up and ready to help show everyone that I, as a female, could do it. Growing up, I lived on an acreage about 15-20 minutes out of town. Because of that, I was always outside playing, climbing the trees, riding the quads around in the mud or swimming in the frog infested slough that was at the end of our very long driveway. My siblings and I were out for hours playing in the mud and climbing or pushing down any tree we saw, and we were always getting in trouble because we would be dragging the mud inside. Due to my falling out of one of the trees, I have a pretty noticeable scar on my arm, and some people started to ask me what happened when I went to school. After telling people, I fell from the tree because my hands were slippery from the wet mud that still covered must of my hands, I was receiving all kinds of comments. I was asked why I was playing in the mud, why I was doing something dangerous like climbing a tree and all sorts of offensive things like that. When I asked my peers what else I should be doing in my free time, they told me playing with dolls, they told me playing in the mud might “ruin my precious hair” or playing in trees could cause me to “break a nail”. Thinking back at it now, I find it disturbing how sexist my peers were at such a young age. They most likely did not know how hurtful and wrong those words were, but they still annoyed me because I grew up doing all that “manly” activities. My peers told me countless times that I should’ve played with barbies or playing with nail polish. Although I loved playing outside, whenever I was inside, I was doing those things, I had a large collection of barbies to play with, but I always preferred to be outside. The sexist comments never went away. To this day, I still hear that I should be ‘in the kitchen, cleaning or making a man their sandwich. The best part about experiencing this is proving them wrong and proving I’m better than that, and those activities shouldn’t be associated with women.