bashoGWSS1

I find the terminology of saying that gender is “getting done� to be rather confusing, more per say than gender as a performance. I heard it at first and really did not understand what the phrase meant, but as I thought about it more and through our class discussions I started to comprehend that “getting gender� done is just a further, more specific extension of gender as a performance.
Getting gender done seems to focus on the aspect of how people act out their gender on a daily basis to create an image for themselves in order to gain power. Getting gender done on a daily basis is about learning the limits that exist and how to work around them. I think this is where Frye’s “Oppression� comes into play and what he was trying to say. He talks about how when a person gets gender done, there are limits they must stay within otherwise they will face limits if they do not conform to sexual norms. The reading also points out that limits effect people differently and brings up other concepts like daily life and systems.
Within the systems is the fact that all people are implicated in the constant cycle of “getting gender done.� In class we discussed the important concept of us all being implicated and being in the birdcage metaphor that Frye brought up. I thought that the birdcage metaphor was very good because it gave a physical image of how we are all trapped in getting gender done and watching how others get gender done. Because it’s like we all understand that being in the birdcage may not be fun and rather overwhelming but majority of us understand that it maybe better or at least easier to stay inside the cage rather than locked out.