bashoGWSS1

Performing gender is something we do on a day-to-day basis, without deliberately thinking about it. It is unconsciously choosing to behave in certain ways around certain kinds of people. For example, I have many male friends who feel compelled to “act like men� around their male friends, but behave completely differently around myself and other females (it probably should be noted that I am talking about heterosexual males, for it may be a little different for homosexual/transsexual males). The point is that there are expectations that we are supposed to adhere to in order to live successfully in today’s society.

Gender may be inauthentic, but the very real social situations we find ourselves in stem from the ways gender is displayed. If gender didn’t exist, life would be entirely different. There wouldn’t be categories and labels for people. There probably wouldn’t be discrimination against homosexuals, transsexuals, bisexuals, etc. But I think we really need to have categories in place so that everyone has a place in society. The problem is that not everyone does have a place; the “others� of the world are kind of lost.

The ways in which we present ourselves definitely impacts the way we are treated by others. For example, if a person is believed to be a female, people may ask her about her hair/nails/clothes, and if a person is believed to be a male, people may try to converse with him about sports/video games. Changing the way we “do� gender would be a very slow and difficult task, but if it could be done, I think the world would be a better place.