Making sense of sex, gender, and sexuality was one of the
issues that were brought up in this week’s reading and lecture. What really stuck out to me was the concept
of sex and gender. The definition of sex
that we were giving is that sex is the biological distinction between females
and males. What I got from this definition
is that sex is based on rather you have the necessary reproductive parts to be
considered a female or male. The
definition for gender is the personal traits and social positions that members
of a society attach to being female or male.
I make this definition out to be that gender is what society sees as being
female or male (e.g. pants vs skirts, long vs short hair, etc.). Based on these definitions, we humans are
socially constructed to act a certain way toward others based on their sex and gender. This makes it uncomfortable to act according
to the norms of society if you aren’t sure if a person is male or female. The SNL skit involving the character Pat that
we saw in class portrays this really well. Pat’s friends have a hard time interacting with
Pat due to not knowing what gender Pat was, thus often creating awkward moments. Although intended to be a funny skit, the
reality is that this kinds of incident does occur. Just think about how you act towards your
male friends and your female friends. Do
you act differently when you’re around one of the two? In my case, I’ll have to say yes. So if I were to happen to meet someone like
Pat I wouldn’t know how to act either, and it’ll eventually turn into the SNL
skit. I saw this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYixpEA5iWY)
a while back, and it’s about the experience of two friends using a unisex
bathroom for the very first time. Since
it’s not norm for men and women to share a public bathroom, things can get a
little awkward just like the Pat issue.
Interesting video, but I think such a personal thing as using the bathroom can be uncomfortable no matter who is watching or there because it is such a personal act, which makes it the subject of humor. I know there is a trend toward unisex bathrooms to help reduce categories. I have seen nicely decorated bathrooms with benches and a lot of pretty extras. When I came out I asked my husband if his was as nice and oddly enough his is often very plain. Maybe they will have to come up with another idea for non-segregated restrooms, something that gives you a choice and still affords for privacy. I think the norm you speak of, which is just what the largest number of people believe at any given time, can be changed easier than we think. History proves that, what was a norm of each decade is laughed at by the next. It will be interesting to see what educated minds can come up with to decrease gender stereotyping. I believe it starts with education and people brave enough to do something not "normal" because it is the right thing to do.
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