Definitely something to be said about how gender isn’t “real,” but people’s perception of it is.
There’s no pattern of masculine or feminine behavior/style that is consistent across cultures and throughout history. It’s all arbitrary.
But that binary perception of masculine/feminine is nevertheless all around us, even if it’s not consistently represented.
I’d like to think that not much would change about my style or mannerisms if I had been born with different parts, and I find it odd how unnecessarily gendered so many aspects of society are. I’m just “me,” what else would I want to be? But I also need to remind myself that I only think that way because I’ve never had to worry about being seen as something other than what I am, even if I don’t feel that strongly about it. It’s easy to overlook just how much of my life experience has been colored by my effortless gender presentation.
Not everyone gets that by default, and it’s hard to put myself in those shoes because I simply can’t understand what it’s like to be viewed as the opposite gender, or why it might cause discomfort.
If I were airlifted to some other culture that viewed pants as feminine and skirts as masculine, would I toss all of my jeans to conform? I’d like to think I wouldn’t, because I like the comfort of pants and attributing a gender standard to clothes has always seemed silly to me. But if it affected the way people saw me, I just might.
Definitely something to be said about how gender isn’t “real,” but people’s perception of it is.
There’s no pattern of masculine or feminine behavior/style that is consistent across cultures and throughout history. It’s all arbitrary.
But that binary perception of masculine/feminine is nevertheless all around us, even if it’s not consistently represented.
I’d like to think that not much would change about my style or mannerisms if I had been born with different parts, and I find it odd how unnecessarily gendered so many aspects of society are. I’m just “me,” what else would I want to be? But I also need to remind myself that I only think that way because I’ve never had to worry about being seen as something other than what I am, even if I don’t feel that strongly about it. It’s easy to overlook just how much of my life experience has been colored by my effortless gender presentation.
Not everyone gets that by default, and it’s hard to put myself in those shoes because I simply can’t understand what it’s like to be viewed as the opposite gender, or why it might cause discomfort.
If I were airlifted to some other culture that viewed pants as feminine and skirts as masculine, would I toss all of my jeans to conform? I’d like to think I wouldn’t, because I like the comfort of pants and attributing a gender standard to clothes has always seemed silly to me. But if it affected the way people saw me, I just might.