Week Two Blog
I believe that gender performs the stereotypes that have been placed upon men and women in today’s society for ages. Throughout time people have expected men and women to act a certain way in order to fulfill their gender roles so that they may accomplish goals in life such as getting a job, earning an education, or finding a significant other. Within each of these goals are standards that allow people to be respected by others. These standards are basically the stereotypes people expect of men and women and this is what gender helps accomplish. An example would be that a women is supposed to find a man and get married and in order to do so, she has to be attractive, sweet, and especially feminine to attract a man. So when a girl dresses up and possibly pretends to be slightly dim-witted, this is just a moment when gender is a performance of trying to encompass a stereotype.
This also shows how gender produces the social conditions we live. In a way it can be said that society creates ideas for people to follow. Feminists believe that everyone is born with a sex, but they learn gender from norms that are imposed on them by society. The way that some men and women act proves that the feminist theory is partially right. I do not believe that the theory is completely right, but it makes sense in many respects. Mostly I gather that gender is something that is part of everyday life and varies from situation and individual expectations a person comes in contact with. Everyone changes the way they act, or “do gender� each day because how we present ourselves changes for every social condition. Because how we act affects how we will be treated by others.
In a platonic example it is as simple as boys acting tough when they are together in a masculine situation such as a locker room. If a boy wanted to sit there and just tell his teammates about how overwhelmed he is with school or how he feels uncomfortable with his girlfriends pressing attempts to make their relationship more physical, he would be laughed at or ignored by everyone out of bewilderment. How a person acts as a man or women is taken into regard by everyone, and the minute a person steps out of their gender “norm,� their peers think less of them and are appalled by the unknown. Therefore if society would allow men and women to be thought of as individuals and not base their worth or like off of how well they do gender, I think life would be much different and more enjoyable.