After doing today's readings, I'm slightly overwhelmed. A lot of the topics discussed are things that I just do not come across in my daily life. Nonetheless, they got me thinking.
Anne Fausto-Sterling starts the first chapter of her book with the story of Maria Patino, a Spanish hurdler whom the International Olympic Committee (IOC) deemed unfit for competition because the tests they ran did not define her as a woman. How many times have most of us filled out doctors forms, college applications, etc. and checked male or female without even thinking? It doesn't generally seem like a confusing thing to distinguish. But in some cases, it can be. It's hard to judge the IOC for making the decision that they did, because allowing a man to compete among women would be unfair. Where do we draw the line between male and female? Not being able to come up with a perfect definition of what makes what male or female is actually slightly frustrating, because in many ways, it seems like one of the most basic ways to identify a person. When even science is just a construct of society, its hard to be sure of anything. This chapter kind of made me feel like there was no hope in resolving any of this, so I'm interested to continue reading Sexing the Body.
Just about every Colgate girl can probably relate to Jennifer Reid Maxcy Myhre's "One Bad Hair Day Too Many." The thought of never having to shave your legs or brush your hair doesn't sound like the worst thing in the world. She takes a drastic step and as a result, is judged for it just about everywhere she goes. I have to admit, as she was describing herself, words like "butch" and "dyke" crept into my mind. It is interesting to me, however, that doing away with by doing away with femininity she is essentially embracing masculinity. Is this not rejecting womanhood and embracing manhood? What exactly does being a woman mean? This has become an incredibly hard question to answer. She makes relatively extremist claims like, "A woman's attractiveness to men is the primary measure of her worth." I don't know that too many girls on this campus would cite their appearance as their greatest accomplishment. And regardless, don't women generally look for attractive males? I do agree with her statement that, "Women are expected to comply with standards set by society" (but then of course, aren't men as well?) but not entirely with "A woman's value is gauged according to her appearance." It's a pretty bold statement. Women are absolutely gauged by other things. Nancy Pelosi is not speaker of the house because she's attractive.
I struggled to find Ariel Levy's point in the chapter "Womyn to Bois." I personally have never heard the term "bois" so I'm unsure as to how prevalent this culture is, but I guess I will give Levy the benefit of the doubt here. Out of the entire chapter, what struck me the most was: "The confusing thing, of course, is why somebody would need serious surgery and testosterone to modify their gender if gneder is supposed to be so fluid in the first place." This doesn't quite make sense to me. If people want to be accepted as transgendered, then why are they trying so hard to fit the mold? Is it simply because people DON'T accept transgendered people? Are they taking the path of least resistance?
I shared similar uneasy sentiments after reading the assignments for this class. As Missy discusses in her post, gender is one of the fundamental ways in which we define ourselves, and the concept of gender fluidity can at first be a bit hard to understand, especially for someone like myself, because I can so easily define myself as a woman. These articles got me thinking about the notion that gender is certainly on a spectrum, and though most of us have little confusion about our gender, there certainly are some people who are born, or chose to define themselves in an androgynous manner. I certainly see unabashed bravery of Jennifer Reid Maxcy Myhre's story of her finding feminism by rejecting femininity. I did however feel a certain sense of criticism about women who she says are "slaves to their appearance". It seems that she is suggesting women like myself who choose to spend more than one minute on their appearance in the morning are sustaining the patriarchal system, which I don't necessarily believe. Men just as much as women are confined to certain gender specific stereotypes as well. If Myhre is so beyond physical appearances then why must she harshly judge those who do take care and perhaps enjoy embracing long-held notions of what femininity should look like?
ReplyDeleteGender is definitely only a spectrum. But I've always strongly believed that. It is crazy to think that in our culture, there can only be two kinds of humans, female and male. Gender fluidity is something that most people cannot really grasp, like Emily said, because they identify so easily with their sex, but for many that line is blurred or uncertain. it is an experience that I can't imagine going through partially because most of society does not support you but criticizes and judges you for not picking one side or the other according to your genitals.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, Jennifers story about feminism, and how women who take care of themselves live within their own cage and appearance, is not true. I think this is a little harsh. While yes, it would be great for all women to burn their bras, and not wear make up and walk around wearing flats all day, I dont think I'd like to do that. First off, I want to wear a bra because if I decide to run at any point, my boobs are gonna hurt. Secondly, I like wearing makeup! It eccentuates features and is fun to play around with. And third, as far as dressing is concerned, yes I have fallen prey to dressing a certain way when I go out at night to the bars, but now I have been way more apt to dress coservatively and confortably then more willingly to dress scantily clad.
I feel Missy brought up a bunch of good points about the readings, but I would like to comment on her question, "It is interesting to me, however, that doing away with by doing away with femininity she is essentially embracing masculinity." This idea connotes the notion that there are only two genders and if you are not one, you are the other. I wish that our society could accept a third gender or allow people to exist in a gender neutral space. Since almost all of our actions are performances of gender, it is difficult to escape this. I talked about this a lot in the Yes Means Yes Series and Heather noted that some people refer to themselves as "zee" instead of He or She. To address the binary gender system, I think we should start using zee for all individuals.
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