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Masculinity and femininity in society
Masculinity and femininity in society
Masculinity and femininity in society
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Halberstam investigates how the construction of masculinity is embodied in individuals not privileged to “explore a queer subject position that can successfully challenge hegemonic models of gender conformity.” Those interested in gender history question, “what is female?” and “what is male?” Similarly, Halberstam questions why is it that what is not female is considered male and what is not male is considered female. As a result, gender and sex are constructed in ways that place them in normative binaries. To demonstrate this point, she discusses the what she calls the “bathroom problem,” a problem that persists in our contemporary moment. The bathroom is a sphere that is constructed with the determination “to protect women from male predation”
In every walk of life, people seek refuge from the judgmental perception of their contemporaries. Thus, many people live in secrecy. For them, secrecy is an absolute necessity in dodging undesired scrutiny and maintaining normalcy in public. When it comes to gender and the expression of it, lines are often blurred. While some hide, others brazenly parade their sexuality in public and their alternative perspectives on gender roles. In “The Bowery as Haven and Spectacle” from Gay New York, by George Chauncey, explores the emergence of the Bowery “fairy” bars, and how they became a sanctuary for the queer and working-class of New York City. He discusses in great length the tension that arises between the middle-class and working-class, the bars as a spectacle and a place to be entertained, the solicitation of sex work, and the makings of gay culture in the bar scene. The lines of gender were blurred when men took up cross dressing and the mannerisms normally associated with women. On the other hand, Merril Mushroom, writer of "How to Engage in Courting Rituals 1950's Butch-Style in the Bar", complies a laundry list of rules for butch lesbians on methods of attracting other women. Here, females cross gender boundaries and take on masculine personas. With this said, both pieces show the development of alternative gender identities. However, this switch in gender roles seldom occur outside the bar scene. Despite the semi-public gender blurring, those who identify with this lifestyle still feel the need to express themselves in an environment most accommodating to their blatant disregard of gender norms. The aforementioned pieces answer questions in regards to why one must live in secrecy, and how this secrecy gives way to the developme...
In Gail Bederman’s Manliness and Civilization, she aims to describe the concepts of manliness and masculinity at the turn of the century. Bederman explains that the concept of what it means to be a man is ever changing as a result of the ideology of the time as well as the material actions of the men. During the Progressive Era, many forces were at work that put pressure on the supremacy of white, middle class men. Some of these forces included the growing move toward empowered women, the unionization of the working class, and the move from self-employment to big, corporate business. She delves into the way that both racism and sexism were used to build up the concept of masculinity and the turn of the century discourse on civilization.
“Boys will be boys, and girls will be girls”: few of our cultural mythologies seem as natural as this one. But in this exploration of the gender signals that traditionally tell what a “boy” or “girl” is supposed to look and act like, Aaron Devor shows how these signals are not “natural” at all but instead are cultural constructs. While the classic cues of masculinity—aggressive posture, self-confidence, a tough appearance—and the traditional signs of femininity—gentleness, passivity, strong nurturing instincts—are often considered “normal,” Devor explains that they are by no means biological or psychological necessities. Indeed, he suggests, they can be richly mixed and varied, or to paraphrase the old Kinks song “Lola,” “Boys can be girls and girls can be boys.” Devor is dean of social sciences at the University of Victoria and author of Gender Blending: Confronting the Limits of Duality (1989), from which this selection is excerpted, and FTM: Female-to-Male Transsexuals in Society (1997).
From the moment a woman is born, she is automatically expected many things from her. Wear a dress, have no body hair, be with a man, don’t be too loud, etc. The list of “norms” that a woman is anticipated to uphold to goes on for days. And often times, women that decide to branch out from those “norms” are viewed as less valuable or obscene. In Robyn Ochs essay, “Bisexuality, Feminism, Men and Me”, she discusses the revolutionary moment when she realizes that living up to the assumptions of what it means to be a woman systemically limits us from our true potential. As presented in the movie “Frida”, a brilliant artist is often times overshadowed by her promiscuous relationships with women and men. A woman’s life does not dwindle down to the
In their publication, “Doing Gender, ” Candance West and Don H. Zimmerman put forward their theory of gender as an accomplishment; through, the daily social interactions of a man or woman which categorize them as either masculine or feminine. From a sociological perspective the hetero-normative categories of just sex as biological and gender as socially constructed, are blurred as a middle ground is embedded into these fundamental roots of nature or nurture.To further their ideology West and Zimmerman also draw upon an ethnomethodological case study of a transsexual person to show the embodiment of sex category and gender as learned behaviours which are socially constructed.Therefore, the focus of this essay will analyze three ideas: sex, sex
The gender binary of Western culture dichotomizes disgendered females and males, categorizing women and men as opposing beings and excluding all other people. Former professor of Gender Studies Walter Lee Williams argues that gender binarism “ignores the great diversity of human existence,” (191) and is “an artifact of our society’s rigid sex-roles” (197). This social structure has proved detrimental to a plethora of people who fall outside the Western gender dichotomy. And while this gender-exclusive system is an unyielding element of present day North American culture, it only came to be upon European arrival to the Americas. As explained by Judith Lorber in her essay “Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender”, “gender is so pervasive in our society we assume it is bred into our genes” (356). Lorber goes on to explain that gender, like culture, is a human production that requires constant participation (358).
Principle 3: In this section General Halstead teaches first of the principle of the 360 degrees of trust (Halstead 32). Halstead taught me how a leader needs to have a strong degree of trust in every aspect of their lives. a leader needs to have trust in his or her leaders, followers, and themselves (Halstead 32). This concept, I feel, is one that every leader needs to learn before they can lead efficiently. Leaders need to be able to trust the people under them to do what they are told to do to benefit the team. At the same time, followers need to be able to trust their leaders to do the same for them. Halstead goes on to talk about the fine line between being confident and cocky (Halstead 37). This was a lesson that really spoke to me, because I sometimes struggle with being a little too confident. Halstead explains this as having confidence and being comfortable in your skin, while still being humble enough to follow and do your job without letting success go to your
In Susan Faludi’s “The Naked Citadel”, she analyzes the homosocial nature of men as she tries to discover the causes behind sexism and to find out “why men who oppose women’s progress are so angry” (Faludi, 72). The main subject of her reading is the all boys college named the Citadel and its vehement opposition to admitting a female into its ranks. The boys become aggressive and angry about the thought of an independent and unique woman becoming a part of their student body. The thought of it threatens the gendering society established within the Citadel where the boys rely on each other to establish their own gender identities. Gender identities rely a lot upon the shaky foundation of the social dominance of one sex over the other. In today’s
“Being and Doing” was Chodorow’s first published book which contained a cross-cultural examination of the socialization of Males and Females (1972). Its main focus was that sexism is political, economic, familial institutions in terms of men’s behavior toward women. Chodorow explains that “Being and Doing” located the men’s origin of male dominance in men’s dread of women and fear of their own external feminity. Surprisingly, Chodorow found that male and female bisexual identifications were asymmetrical; the man’s being more threatening. (Chodorow, 2004). The book concluded that women’s identity was based on “being” and men’s masculine identity was based on “doing.”
Arianna Stassinopoulos wrote in the 1973 book The Female Woman: "It would be futile to attempt to fit women into a masculine pattern of attitudes, skills and abilities and disastrous to force them to suppress their specifically female characteristics and abilities by keeping up the pretense that there are no differences between the sexes" (Microsoft Bookshelf). In her statement we see a cultural feminist response to the dominant liberal feminism of the 1970s.
Butler imagines a state of feminism without any gender pronouns, questioning the meaning and usefulness (and on the other hand, negative power) of such labels. Butler suggests that drag can unearth and then blur gender assumptions. Butler suggests that real transformation and freedom from repressive gender politics is possible, stating: “Genders can neither be true nor false, neither real nor apparent, neither original nor derived. As credible bearers of those attributes, however, genders can also be rendered thoroughly and radically incredible.”
owners of biologically determined female bodies) will enter and use a Women’s Room, while In gendering their users, public restrooms also segregate individuals along dominant heteronormative and patriarchal discourses (Overall 2007). In these productive ways, gender-specific restrooms are not static social structures possessing simple benign utilitarian features but rather serve as socially-restraining spaces that derive their authority from an intersection of binary-based heteronormative gender, racial, and class What signifying/social/izing work is it expected to do? If gendered spaces are locales of “stretched out social relations” (Massey 1994) meant to particularize certain identities in relation to other identities (West-Zimmerman 1987, Lorber 1994), what happens inside all-gender or gender-neutral spaces?
A prominent case of this constructionism is carried in the short story, The Friday Everything Changed, “Because the boys were stronger and sat near the back they usually got the National Geographics first, ... while us girls had to be satisfied with the Junior Red Cross News…” (Hart 1). This obviously emphasizes the domination of males among females. Due to men’s masculinity, this social construct is developed and the fight against men and women around the world consistently occurs. Certainly, men and women have different anatomy and structure, but this does not mean that they have unequal rights due to this dissimilarity. Moreover, this division between genders is apparent in the text, “The first thing, clearly evident by recess on Monday morning, was that the boys had decided not to let us girls field at softball anymore…” (Hart 3). This line classifies the boys as better than girls in softball or in any sports at all, that they had the right to ban them from playing as well. Noticeably, this is considered wrong and unjust since no one has the right to tell anyone what to do or not, despite the levels that the people have
Among the numerous theories emerges the critical theories of gender, which analyzes how a specific group prioritizes their perspectives of gender while simultaneously attempting to advance dominant dogma. A subcategory of the critical theory, the queer performative theory, assesses the traditional divisions of normal and abnormal in relation to sexuality. This theory suggests that individuals create their gender identities through expression and that these identities are not fixed. The queer performative theory touches upon the staggering of gender expression based upon a particular juncture or context within an individual 's life versus another particular juncture or context of that same