initial summary

The first reading "Doing Gender" by Candace West explains how gender is formed through natural processes that are carried through and brought on by social interactions, experiences, and the culture in which you live. A person does not simply decide whether they want to be male, female, or any other gender. She explains how gender is situational meaning that the gender one identifies themselves with is influenced by the situation they are in. Around the age of five a person usually has a gender with which they identify themselves and this identity impacts their actions, personality, and way of life. The actions of others and interactions with others also determines ones gender.
The second reading "Gender Outlaw" by Kate Bornstein focuses on a set of eight "gender rules". The eight rules are based on the idea that gender is fixed and there are only two, male and female. She goes on to explain how these "rules" were once used to explain gender but are now irrelevant. She suggests ways to "break the rules". She explains the idea of gender ambiguity, which is the refusal to fall within a pre-set gender role, and the idea of gender fluidity, which is freely moving from one gender to another. She says, "A fluid identity, incidentally, is one way to solve problems with boundaries. As a person's identity keeps shifting, so do individual borders and boundaries. It's hard to cross a boundary that keeps moving!" (Bornstein p.52) Ambiguity and fluidity of her own gender brought her to her gender transformation.