What It Means To Be Gendered Me Analysis

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Our society is dealing with constant changes in gender norms because both, men and women, widen their curiosities and actions. In her article, What it Means to be Gendered Me, Betsy Lucal pointed out how: “It is now widely accepted that gender is a social construction, that sex and gender are distinct, and that gender is something all of us 'do'.” Even though Exchanging and practicing each other’s gender norms is becoming world-widely accepted, certain gender norm violations will remain common. Raised as 'daddies little princes' I never imagined myself violating those typical, socially and culturally ascribed gender norms that I was taught and reminded of too many times throughout my life. However, growing up as a girl, and becoming a mature …show more content…

Violating those norms ascribed to each gender brings up many negative reactions in our society such as rejection, criticism, disgust, disappointment, and other rarely positive effects. In order to violate gender norms an individual has to expect more negative than positive feedback from others since the society we live in was, and still is, forming according to those specific norms. After doing this experiment I realized how every little change in our socially expected behavior will be noticed and judged regardless to what gender category we belong to. It was hard for me to understand why some men have more privilege in expressing themselves in the ways they do, or why women have more freedom than men in wearing pink clothes. My personal experience within this experiment confirmed West and Zimmerman arguments and answered most of my questions regarding gender and its practices. West and Zimmerman believe how gender is performed or “done” in an ongoing manner; hence our gender behaviors are clearly based on our interaction and communication with others. For example they claimed how: “Women can be seen as unfeminine, but that does not make them “unfemale”. Even though while doing this experiment I tried to look and act masculine, the fact that I intentionally avoiding femininity did not mean anything to people who were still seeing me as a female. West and Zimmerman pointed out how: “Doing gender means creating differences between girls and boys and women and men, differences that are not natural, essential, or biological”. Depending on our gender we always do certain things in order to make our sex visible to others with intentions of creating and securing respectful positions for ourselves in our society. We are not born with the knowledge about specific

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