Week Two
Gender is a performance…I believe that we do act the way we are “supposed� to act in front of others. If we act among others the way we act among our friends, then some might be repelled to how we act. Girls in front of their friends and guys in front of their friends will act way different in front of group of guys and girls, or just one’s close group of friends as opposed to one’s professors and family friends. For example, one of my friends always burps in front of us, but she would never do that in front of her grandparents or other respectable people. According to some people on my floor, women are expected to smell good and be nice whereas it is acceptable for men to be smelly and rude to others. We perform to uphold the standards of society. While gender is inauthentic, it also produces the very real social conditions we live in. It makes life “real� because everyone does it and that’s what we’ve grown up knowing—we know nothing else. It is an understood bias that we act differently in front of others to make good impressions upon others. Gender performance is connected to social actions; I believe that the way we present ourselves to others impacts the way others treat us. If we treat people like dirt, we shouldn’t expect to be treated any nicer. It’s like the golden rule “treat others as we would want to be treated�. If we act like “white trash�, expect to be treated like white trash right back. If you act nice to others and treat them with respect, you should be treated with respect right back. If we change the way we “do� gender, I don’t think it would change the knowledge we have about gender. People act so differently on such a wide spectrum that I don’t think anything knew would “shock� us anymore, we’re just used to it by now.