Writing the Self Analysis: Gender

i) Gender. What an interesting, socially constructed narrative. It is clear that in everyday society boys are associated with the color blue, physicality, strength, and being “manly” for a lack of better terms. Girls are linked to the color pink, being dainty, petite, sweet, kind, and caring. They like sparkles and makeup. Beauty is where it’s at. These stereotypical associations with gender are not always the case though. There are many girls who do not wear makeup, who prefer their hair up in a ponytail rather than down, in long bouncing curls. Some girls would pick football or hockey over dance and gymnastics any day. The same goes for boys. Some boys prefer figure skating and ballet over hockey and rugby. When narrowing the focal lens on societal make-up, it is clear to see that the normative narrative society has constructed around gender is more often than not inaccurate. I have chosen two peer blog posts about gender, along with one of my own, to shed some light on this socially constructed idea of what it means to be a girl in comparison to a boy.

When looking at Derek Walde’s story, “Tough It Out,” it is clear to see the socially constructed norms for a boy. Derek describes a situation where he is severely injured but decides to play in the final hockey game of the series because he felt a duty to play for his team. He gets his hand splint taken off at the hospital early just so he can play. After warmup, despite being in pain, he tells his coach that he is feeling fine. His coach responds by saying, “Way to man up!” praising him for his manliness (“Tough it Out”). Derek notes, “Pain and pride explained my situation right before the game. I finally felt what it meant to be an elite male athlete.” (“Tough it Out”). It is moments like these where strength, being immune to pain, and pushing through for one’s team is celebrated and seen as being ‘manly.’ Society would not expect this from a girl who had just gotten a splint taken off her hand. In fact, the hospital may have even refused to let a girl get the splint off her hand early just to play in a big game. But for a boy, this is acceptable, and ‘normal.’

Mason Gurr also describes a similar situation in his story, “Strong Men.” Mason describes a situation where a PE teacher indirectly reinforces the assumption that boys are stronger than girls. The PE teacher enters the English classroom and exclaims, “Hey class, I’m looking for some strong young gentlemen who will come and help me carry some chairs. Do I have any volunteers?” (“Strong Men”). Mason goes on to explain how if the boys selected carried one or two chairs, teachers often joked, saying that they needed to be more manly and carry more at a time. He explains how the girls in his class were insulted by not being asked to help with the gym setup. He explains his naive realization that the girls weren’t called upon because of a lingering normative narrative about gender; a key example of societal acceptance and adoption of gender roles within a school setting. We learn this normative narrative about gender in everyday life. It appears invisible and nonexistent due to its uniform acceptance.

Both of these stories follow the same topic as my blog post, “Seriously.” In my blog post I tell a story of a male approaching me at the gym, warning me to stop lifting heavy weights. If I do not, he says that I will never be able to have children. This man tells me that men were built for physical labor and contact sport, and women were made to be at home with the kids and cook and clean. He had adopted the stereotype of maleness being associated with strength, and femaleness with fragility as factual. All three of these blog posts reiterate the normative narrative society has created around gender. They provide evidence that gender bias does exists because of the skills associated with each of the sexes. The common assumptions based on gender are often not thought about. They are often unquestioned and unchallenged because they have been accepted as normal. These myths have been socially construction over decades and generations.

ii) I have chosen Jennifer Harcourt’s story, “Super Heroes and Princesses” as the post that disrupts my chosen normative narrative. Jennifer’s post strays from the normative narrative explored above that boys are strong, and girls are weak. Her story explores the expectation that all girls wear pink and want to be like a princess with sparkly makeup and a fancy up-do. Jennifer explains that just because we personally aspire to look like stereotypical role models from our gender, it does not mean this is the same aspiration our peers have. Everyone has different interests regardless of gender. As Jennifer explains, “[t]his is not the reality.” (“Super Heroes and Princesses”). Jennifer’s story differs as it looks at the normative narrative society has created about girls such as: wanting to be a princess for Halloween, loving fairy tales, playing barbies, having a doll collection, etc. Jennifer’s story also reminds us that this stereotypical divide between masculinity and femininity is not how all people distinguish between being boy or girl. In fact, many times there are girls who prefer to dress up as a strong male character and there are boys who prefer to dress up as a more feminine character. As the Genderbread Person explores, there are many different characteristics that go into influencing gender (Killermann, 2017).

Lee Airton, author of, Gender: Your Guide, also discusses this concept of interrupting gender norms during an interview conducted in April 2019 about the book. Lee explains that, “The book is a manual to start realizing how everyone participates in the process. How we have all been affected by it [gender], in these different ways that are often restrictive. And to actually interrupt your own participation in keeping those boxes separate. It is very much a manual. It is like how to stop being part of the gender police.” (Institute for Gender and the Economy, 2019). The above stories all place gender into two clearly defined boxes: one man, and the other woman. Lee’s work is about changing this normative narrative. All four stories mentioned above place gender into one of these two boxes. But what happens when someone doesn’t fit in one of the boxes? Where do they fit into society? I really liked Jennifer’s story because it addressed a normative narrative around herself as a little girl wanting to feel and look like a princess. However, it also addressed the concept that girls might want to be superman, and boys might want to be a cat. Any way one chooses to identify should be accepted and celebrated. There is no right way to identify, and if we can change the gender based normative narratives society has so predominantly accepted— what an inclusive and accepting world we will have.

Gender. A concept we must all familiarize ourselves with… especially as we enter the teaching world. Our student’s well-being depends on it.

References:

Institute for Gender and the Economy. (2019). Lee Airton on how we all participate in the gender policing, and how we can stop [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m278SKo-NbI

Killermann, S. (2017). The Genderbread Person. Retrieved 17 November 2019, from https://www.genderbread.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Genderbread-Person-3.3-HI-RES.pdf