“And whereas biological sex varies very little, gender varies enormously. What it means to possess the anatomical configuration of male or female means very different things depending on where you are, who you are, and when you are living” (Kimmel, 3). We are living in a time with continuous change, where people have a large scale of knowledge and opinions on sex and gender. There are people who believe you must identify with the anatomical configuration you were born with. Although this is not the case, I have come across these people frequently in my life, from my home to my school. In Michael Kimmel’s book, The Gendered Society, the views of others identify similarly with those in my community. I come from a family where I have two older
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When I wouldn’t wear the dress, my mother saw me as being to masculine of a woman and that put fear in her mind that I would be one-day homosexual. Just as my mother thought gender performance and gender attire should be and how many see it, “whereas masculine men’s and feminine women’s gender- conforming behavior leads other to expect them to be heterosexual” (Kimmel, 90). By wearing the dress, as Kimmel states, makes me a more feminine woman therefore bound to be a heterosexual. I feel my parents felt a lot of pressure in encouraging me to be more feminine. It was believed through the Freudian theories of gender development, “if gender identity and sexual orientation were accomplished, not inherit in the individual, then it was the parents’ fault if things didn’t turn out “right”” (Kimmel, 91). Thus, my parents felt this barrier within me to protect me from what they came to know as a harmful …show more content…
Kimmel’s book, The Gendered Society has made connections to personal, real life experiences in which I have been punished for my gender performance. The way in which others associate how a certain person should act can greatly influence your life especially if you look back and really analyze different situations in which you have experienced. We are living in a time of continuous change and I hope one day we will see a greater change in the people of our surrounding
When I wouldn’t wear the dress, my mother saw me as being to masculine of a woman and that put fear in her mind that I would be one-day homosexual. Just as my mother thought gender performance and gender attire should be and how many see it, “whereas masculine men’s and feminine women’s gender- conforming behavior leads other to expect them to be heterosexual” (Kimmel, 90). By wearing the dress, as Kimmel states, makes me a more feminine woman therefore bound to be a heterosexual. I feel my parents felt a lot of pressure in encouraging me to be more feminine. It was believed through the Freudian theories of gender development, “if gender identity and sexual orientation were accomplished, not inherit in the individual, then it was the parents’ fault if things didn’t turn out “right”” (Kimmel, 91). Thus, my parents felt this barrier within me to protect me from what they came to know as a harmful …show more content…
Kimmel’s book, The Gendered Society has made connections to personal, real life experiences in which I have been punished for my gender performance. The way in which others associate how a certain person should act can greatly influence your life especially if you look back and really analyze different situations in which you have experienced. We are living in a time of continuous change and I hope one day we will see a greater change in the people of our surrounding