Gender in Society
First of all, I would just like to say that after two weeks of the semester, I’ve come to realize something about how professors like things to operate….not only should you have your game face on the first day of class, but preferably the day before. This class has been no different, and with such a complex subject matter, it has been a little bit difficult to process all of the information I have stuffed in my head these past two weeks.
The idea of gender being a socially constructed identity (separate from biological sex) is not new to me. However, I had never considered the specific factors which shape this identity. Things like education, family life, cultural rituals, etc. play a part in shaping gender. While we generally observe male and female as the only two genders, I am learning to consider that there are others that exist outside of our binary means of classification.
When studying one gender, we have to keep in mind that it is relational to the other genders. For example, how can we study the female gender without knowing the characteristics that we attribute to being female rather than male? The answer is: we can’t. I guess we have to accept this before we can be effective in studying gender as a whole. Also, it seems that our society in the U.S. has a problem separating gender from biological sex. Why is that? Why are we so unwilling to believe that a person’s gender roles can be different from sex?
In class, we discussed the case of Caster Semenya, who identifies her gender as female, though she has some biologically male characteristics. She has lived her life as a woman, and her friends and family all consider her to be female. If she weren’t such a talented runner, this information probably never would have surfaced, and she would be able to live her life in peace. While some feel that Caster should not be allowed to run in the women’s races, I completely disagree. I feel like this is discriminatory towards her. If she were taking anabolic steroids to enhance her performance, then yes, she should be penalized. But this is not the case at all. She was born this way. She is doing nothing to enhance her performance. On the contrary, her biological body - which she was born with - allows her to be a good runner. As humans, we are all different, and Caster should not be punished just because her uniqueness gives her an advantage.
Oh and by the way, if anyone is wondering, the title of my blog “Alegria de uns, Tristeza de outros” is a Brazilian proverb which literally translates to “Joy of some, Sadness of others”. I felt this would be quite fitting for the topics in this class.
