Categories Are Comfortable, I guess

Maybe it’s just a natural human thing to do, but we as a society seem to enjoy explaining and categorizing things in a binary way. Black or white, tall or short, young or old, gay or straight, man or woman, good or bad, and the list goes on and on.  In all of my readings about gender and sexuality then it is of no surprise that we have these seemingly strict guidelines and boundaries to define who we are as individuals, each with certain roles to be played out.  In particular, gender and sexuality  have some of the most strict roles out of all of these categories.

I will be the first to point out that my own personal experiences from family life to just having grown up in the south has played a major role in what my ideas of being a man or woman really means. Fortunately, as I was able to grow and experience life outside of these boundaries, I began to question these deeply traditional and embedded roles and really examine my own beliefs about what an individual could be, not defined solely by one’s biological sex. As I mentioned earlier, though, we seem to be  so prone to to define ourselves according to our biological sex and in these binary terms, like heterosexual or homosexual and man or woman. This is where social forces and institutions have been shown to play a major role. In fact, socialization at a very early age, has a significant impact on how we believe men and women should behave , and anything outside of these “norms” is usually looked down upon. Just by discussing Caster Semenya and viewing her picture on the cover of an American magazine really emphasizes our society’s ideas about how women, in particular, should be portrayed. I’m assuming Americans breathed a sigh of relief seeing Semenya on that magazine cover looking very “feminine.” Do we really have to prove our sexuality today???

As Scott’s article really pointed out, gender is a “culturally determined” term, and falling outside of these attitudes can pose problems. Regardless of these traditional roles that really define what it means to be a man or woman, I do believe that we are living in a time where these ideas are changing. Minorities are taking opportunities to really challenge these embedded roles about how a person should and should not act just based on biological sex. For instance, more women are entering the workforce,  while men are taking on more domestic roles (slowly, but surely).  My hopes lie in our culture learning to break through this binary outlook on life, especially in terms of gender and sexuality, where one is not necessarily better than the other, just different. Different ideas and beliefs are always “threatening” towards the majority, but I do believe it is our responsibility to learn to work and collaborate with others different from ourselves, whether that be in terms of sexuality, religiosity, or just simply, different beliefs in general.