The amount of organization in our world is all I have ever known and I wonder what our world would look or be like if we had a lack of organization. What if the majority of the world was not classifiable? I would hope that we would have more acceptance of each other because we would all not be able to label and categorize everyone. Would their still be a ranking? Would men still be better, faster, stronger? I can only imagine there would be more equality for all people. But we still continue to repeat the patterns we have seen for centuries, we act the way we are suppose to because that is how it was 20 years, 50 years, 100 years ago. It is only when we change the course of repeated patterns, for example, women's suffrage, that we actually make a distinguishable change in our society. We still have a long way to go.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
The Social Construction of Gender
"Talking about gender for most people is the equivalent of fish talking about water" (pg 24) Really? Before entering into Women Studies, gender, or defining gender was not a subject I discussed. Atleast, I did not discuss how it affected issues from race, class, religion and society. The fact that we are "doing gender" does make complete sense to me. The way I act, dress, present myself, what I say and how I say it all has to do with the gender I have was assigned. Judith Lorber explains that gender roles change, but I question how much they really have changed. Even if fathers are taking care of children and girls and boys are wearing unisex clothes there is still a stereotype of how girls and boys, men and women, males and females are suppose to act. Even with the blurring that is happening in society we still need to organize what everyone is. Transgender is a blurring the lines between male and female and yet we still have to label them as transgender.
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I did not think much, or as in depth of what gender and power really meant in my society let alone another before i took the class gender and power. i did; however,think about womens rights and freedoms around the world and how that affected them and the powers that must give to the men around the world.
ReplyDeletei knew that a good percentage of men did and do believe they are the dominate gender and should be "above" women. Before i took this class i also felt that most men look at women as a piece of meat, and some women will do anything to be noticed, even if it is degrading to themselves.
I like the way you introduced your topic, of your blog and how you incorperated the ideas of gender being female, male and also transgender! it is very important to NOT forget about them. I believe that even though people do not agree with the ideas or beliefs of a transgender, it is important to allow the idea to be presented.