The readings for Tuesday touched on the many ways in which gender and sex can be classified. I found this to be the most interesting reading that we have had to do so far because I've had a slight intro into this topic in one of my other classes.
Anne Fausto-Sterling, author of Sexing the Body, starts out her first chapter with a story about one of Spain's top recruited Olympic athletes who had a hard fall from fame when she was denied the right to compete after failing a sex test. While she looked like a female, talked like a female, acted like a female, and was one hundred percent sure she was a female, she still tested positive for a Y chromosome. After fighting the IOC and trying to regain her status as the Olympic athlete she was before the test, she was finally cleared to compete as a female again, becoming the first woman to ever challenge and beat a sex test in the Olympics. Fausto-Sterling also explains the difference between sex and gender. She explains that sex is about the anatomical structure of the human body, while gender is psychological. I would have to agree with her on this one. I knew a woman who was born female, but tried to explain that she felt like a male on the inside. While she was born with the female anatomy, her true gender was male. After having a sex change, he said he had never felt so right in his life. His outward appearance finally matched what was on the inside.
In Myhre's piece, "One Bad Hair Day To Many", she talks about wanting to get rid of the feminine stereotypes. She no longer wanted to shave her legs or brush her hair, which left her getting harrassed for it out in public. She also made a bold clame stating that.. "A woman's attractiveness to men is the primary measure of her worth." I honestly feel incredibly bad for any woman who feels that this is true. Walking around Colgate it's really easy to pick out the girls that just try to hard. The ones who are orange/puke brown due to fake baking in the tanning salon, the ones with so much makeup you're not sure what they really look like underneath it all. I'm not sure whether these women change their bodies just to appeal to men, or because it is the only measure of their worth, but I do think that it has to do with the pressures that society places on women to look their best at all times.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I also thought these readings were very interesting. Fausto-Sterling describes how sex and gender are two different things despite many people in our society using them interchangeably. I would have to agree with the notion that sex refers to how one is born. In other words are they XX or XY. Gender, on the other hand, relates to how one perceives themselves. Our society makes it hard for people to be comfortable about their gender if they are not acting in a manner that fits with their corresponding sex. The norms of our society, what is and what is not male or female put too many barriers on gender. Gender should be more fluid allowing people to choose how they feel, not what others feel.
ReplyDeleteI liked how Natalie brought in Colgate to Myhre's piece because it does fit perfectly with "woman's attractiveness." I definitely agree that there are many people on our campus that are overdressed and are trying to impressive someone. However, I feel like no matter what one wears they are making a statement. This occurs because it is an inherent property of humans to label people based on what they are wearing. Can anyone honestly say they never labeled someone before they meet them based on there appearance?
Levy's chapter "from Womyn to Bois" was different, to put it simply. I never have heard people being referred to in these ways before. Many of the people Levy interviewed cited the reason why they were a bois or womyn was because of the "fluidity" involved; they don't like the labels people put on them. I found the ideas of bois and womyn to be quite weird and almost pointless, since the bois and womyn themselves don't like labels.
Along with Natalie, I too was touched by the readings as to how it moved me to rethink gender and sex. When it comes to gender and sex, we put people in two boxes: man or woman. However, as Natalie's title suggests, it 's not that simple. And she's right. What defines a man and woman? Is it their genitals? Is is it how they look or what they wear? Why is gender and sex always used as though they are the same when they are actually different? Sterling claims that identifying as a man or woman is a social decision (Sterling 2000:3). Just because someone has a penis or a vagina doesn't mean that they must identify as "man" or "woman" that society assign them. Reading Levy's chapter on bois really brought gender into a new prospective for me as well. Her we have "women" who challenge the restraints opposed by women. However, I feel as though Levy did not do them justice so to speak. It seemed as though she was simply pointing how how these women were I guess trying to be like men (?). I do agree that many of the identities that she describes could be argued as being based of of the patriarch system. However, I fear that simply looking at it from that aspect could discredit and devalue the the spectrum of identities. Yes, it a form of patriarch oppression but couldn't it also be feminist empowerment? I was confused as to what Levy was exactly trying to argue. Anyways simply put, gender is one of those things that I believe is unique to individuals. Our culture as made it so that gender is one dimensional, when in fact is encompasses a whole spectrum.
ReplyDeleteI'm torn as to how to respond to Natalie's discussion of the quote, "A woman's attractiveness to men is the primary measure of her worth." I know that some girls do try to achieve beauty to impress those around them; however, I also know that it is possible for a fake tan or new lipstick to make some girls feel good about themselves, regardless of what anyone else thinks. Is it wrong to spend hours in Sephora trying on makeup and testing skincare products if, at the end of it all, it makes me happy? Is straightening my hair really about how others will see me? I don't know the answers to these questions, but I think it's a very blurry line as to whether these actions are to feel good about one's self or to feel good about how others see you.
ReplyDelete