In The Social Construction of Gender by Judith Lorber, many important concepts were brought up including how gender is done, and that society shaped who we are and how we act by our gender from the day we were all born. The concept of "doing gender" is an important concept to consider and understand, and this was the first time I have been introduced to it. As said in the reading gender is routine, taken-for-granted assumptions, similar to how no one thinks about the sun coming up tomorrow. Well, Judith Lorber hit that right on the head. I've never questioned gender. Boy things, or girls things is just how everything is separated and I never thought or wondered why that was. In our lives gender is constantly being done. Lorber gives a great example when she writes, "As they started to leave the train, the father put a Yankee baseball cap on the child's head. Ah, a boy I thought. Then I noticed the gleam of tiny earrings in the child's ears, and as they got off, I saw the little flowered sneakers and lace-trimmed socks. Not a boy after all. Gender done." We have all witnessed such an observation or took part in gendering. When I was born, I was born with a full set of hair and the first thing my father did was run to Walmart and buy tiny hair clips to place in my hair so everyone would know I was a girl. By that simple gesture in the first moments of my life I was labeled a girl. And those barrettes and the screaming point "I'm a girl" that was tied to them stayed with me in my hair from day one to my elementary days. My hair clips were the beginning of the process of gender construction. From there it would move on to clothes and accessories, and then being treated differently based on what gender you were would make you respond a certain way, which would form the way you behave creating two separate genders. This leads to different experiences that produce different kinds of feelings, furthering you into your social destiny of a man or a woman. Gender is a social institution, and important concept that Lorber expressed in great detail. Human beings like organization and predictability and by labeling and creating a set of rules for each gender gives us just that, which is probably one of the major reasons why we let it happen.
After the explained process of gender construction, and some examples of from history Lorber says, "It is produced and maintained by identifiable social processes and built into the general social structure and individual identities deliberately and purposefully." Note the strong words that make up this statement: produced, maintained, process, built, identities, deliberately, purposefully. This vocabulary is not used to explain a light or flimsy concept; these words show how deeply embedded the construction of gender is within societies. This way of living, labeling and creating genders, is strongly rooted globally in our history and most all cultures. Breaking out of the norm and taking a step to change the gender construction process is a challenging concept Feminism is going to face.
Our class discussions are focused on equal rights between genders and one line in this text poses the possible problem behind it all. "I contend, therefore, that the continuing purpose of gender as a modern social institution is to construct women as a group to be the subordinates of men as a group" Now this thought shocked me. All along, we, part of society have been creating the problem of sexism and inequality between men and women by allowing "gendering" to take place. Gendering sets up limits and boundaries for each gender and by being born into it, not knowing any other way, we go along with it. Feminism could be the first movement to break the social institution of gender and create societies where a child wearing blue and plays baseball is not dominant over a child wearing lace socks or barrettes. A key way of changing this could be a way that was mentioned in chapter four of bell hook's book, Feminism is for Everybody. When bell hooks explains what resources and actions we need to take to continue to educate the world on feminism so everybody from all ages and societies can learn feminist ways, she mentions how powerful a Feminism Network would be. A Feminism Network would allow cultures globally to learn feminist ways of living. This network would also be a step in the right direction to start to eliminate social construction of gender.
The Social Construction of Gender brought many thoughts to mind as well as questions, some of which were, "If I were born into a society that did not place you as "boy" or "girl" how different would I be today? Would I still have the same likes and dislikes? What clothes would my closet be full of? Gender is so socially constructed, how do transvestites or transsexuals go against the "norm" and break the social institutions of the accepted genders? Have they been ahead of "brainwashed" boys and girls who think and act the way they do because thats what society wants from us?
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