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Kremer, William. "Why Did Men Stop Wearing High Heels?" BBC News. BBC, 25 Jan. 2013. Web. 24 Feb. 2021.

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TED / how to raise a child who's free from gender norms

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TED / how to raise a child who's free from gender norms

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By: Justin Tran

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The investigation of gender in visual art and culture has brought me to the conclusion that gender is a social construct. We place labels on people from birth and have these expectations of what they're supposed to be as a person based on their birth sex. Although it is understandable to put each sex into different categories, gender is a completely different matter. I think we as a society have been closed off for too long and are still closed off today to see gender for what it really is: Identifying more with certain characteristics that are considered masculine, or feminine, or neither, or both. I think if more people were to become more educated on gender and what expectations are placed on children from birth based on the sex they were born with, we could be more aware of these norms as a society and possibly become more open to creating a more neutral world with less rigid expectations on gender.

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I wanted to specifically research this topic because I wanted to learn more about gender expression and the fluidity of gender. Though I identify as she/her I had never really fit into the gender norms for girls as a child. I still do some things or enjoy some things that are considered masculine. Over the years, I have become more feminine, but as a child being looked at as strange for my likes and dislikes has always made me feel a bit out of the box. I think a lot more people go through this than what I thought as a child, many of my friends or past co-workers seem to have liked or currently like things that are considered to be masculine or feminine while they themselves are the opposite gender. I've also struggled in the past with understanding the different genders such as genderqueer, gender fluid, and nonbinary, and though I think I have become less ignorant on the topic over the years, I think this project helped me get an even better grasp on the understanding of the fluidity of gender expression.

I really do Identify with the artifact I chose. It reminds me so much about how my brother and I both liked things of the opposite gender. He always liked purses, wearing heels, and playing the board game Pretty, Pretty Princess when he was really young, probably three or four years old. I always liked playing with the Hot Wheels car sets he would get as gifts or legos. It was sad to watch my brother grow up and stop liking certain things because they weren't masculine enough and he would be made fun of. My Dad would even try to push him to be more manly telling him certain things he liked were for girls. He would say things like "Boys don't carry purses, son." I think in a way girls are freer to explore things that are geared toward men, my Dad would never tell me I couldn't like something because it was for boys. Classmates and acquaintances were a bit less forgiving and would poke fun at me sometimes, but I don't think it came close to the amount of grief my brother has gotten over the course of his life for being a bit more feminine than most guys. I think that the way society treats little boys in that way, showering them in toxic masculinity at such a young age is so harmful to them and their self-esteem and emotional state. I feel like in a way, I see my brother and I in that artifact, hiding certain characteristics because of society's gender norms.

As someone who wants to work in the psychology field, I may also encounter or treat people who have struggled with issues such as gender dysphoria or have struggled with other gender identity or expression issues. I think having some background knowledge of gender norms and their impacts as well as different gender identities will be an extremely useful tool when encounters such as these come to light. I think the more you are informed, the better you can understand people and certain situations they may be going through.

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Sex Assigned at Birth and Gender Identity: What Is The Difference?

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Sex Assigned at Birth and Gender Identity: What Is The Difference?

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Video Analysis of Gender Identity versus Sex:

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Left: Artemisia Gentileschi, ‘Samson and Delilah’, c.1630–1638 (Wiki Commons). Right: Peter Paul Rubens, ‘Samson and Delilah’, 1609-10, oil on wood (National Gallery, London) (Millington, 1)

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Artemisia Gentileschi was a 17th century artist who made paintings that went against the gender norms of men being in a position of power and control and women taking a more emotional compliant approach. She often liked to depict women as powerful and in charge and men as emotional and docile.

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This displays the religious and cultural beliefs that were held by the Ancient Greeks regarding those born with different sexual organs. A short article titled Hermaphroditus on Mythogogy.net claims that as the god of hermaphrodites and effeminates, Hermaphroditus serves as a symbol of unification and was a prominent figure in marriages as a representation of the unity of two people in a less literal sense. While some saw him as this representation of union, others unfortunately saw him as a "monstrosity."(Geller, 1)

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According to Encyclopaedia Britannica "A legend of the Hellenistic period made Hermaphroditus a beautiful youth, the son of Hermes and Aphrodite. The nymph of the fountain of Salmacis in Caria became enamoured of him and entreated the gods that she might be forever united with him. The result was the formation of a being half man, half woman." (Editors of Britannica, 1)

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Practices of Looking Defines Myth as "refer to the cultural values and beliefs that are expressed
through connotation." (Sturken & Cartwright, 30)

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Very early historical works as well as more contemporary works seem to reflect more of an openness toward different genders and gender expression. Less rigid gender constructs seemed to be prominent in art far before the mass discussion of unneeded gender norms and constructs surfaced.

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Celebrity Harry Styles makes a move towards more gender fluid expression. I think Styles made a giant leap towards the deconstruction of toxic masculinity. He is an extremely popular figure in the United States, and this magazine cover sparked a lot of debate and conversations about gender expression. I think actively talking about prominent issues is the first step to take in changing things for the better.

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Gender Ideologies are beliefs individuals hold regarding their views on how one should act based on traditional gender roles.  This can reflect any behaviors expected from a societal standpoint based upon gender such as women should cross their legs and avoid "man-spreading," men should be expected to work, while women clean the house and take care of any children, and women should be quiet, polite, and submissive, while men should be decisive, assertive, and dominant. This can even go as far as how a person should feel based on their gender. For example, men are expected not to be emotional or think too deeply into things, often when they do, they are told to "man up." Women, on the other hand, are expected to disregard certain flaws or behaviors men have that could hurt them emotionally, because "boys will be boys" and "boys are only mean when they like you." I think this strongly relates to the Piece Sparkle Unicorns And Fart Ninjas: What Parents Can Do About Gendered Toys because these ideologies also impact children and what they are supposed to like or what they aren't supposed to like simply based on gender.

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Ideology is defined in the book, Practices of Looking as, "(T)he broad but indispensable shared sets of values and beliefs through which individuals live out their complex relations in a range of social networks" (Sturken & Cartwright, 38)

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Guanyin Of The Southern Sea

According to an article written by Drury-Springfield

this art piece was made during the "Liao (907-1125) or Jin Dynasty (1115-1234), China." (Drury-Springfield, 1) The special thing about this piece is that Guanyin is an extremely loved figure representing "mercy and compassion." (Drury-Springfield, 1) Guanyin is also gender fluid, considering the time this was made, I think this shows a lot about the consistency of gender fluidity and the development of new and different gender norms over time.

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In the same article as mentioned in the above post,

Here’s Why it All Changed: Pink Used to be a Boy’s Color & Blue For Girls, the past history of dresses was briefly touched on. Up until around the ages of six or seven years old, both young boys and girls would wear dresses. This occurred up until the early 20th century.

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As reported by Khadija Bilal in her article,

Here’s Why it All Changed: Pink Used to be a Boy’s Color & Blue For Girls, pink used to be considered a more masculine color, while blue was considered more feminine up until after World War II. Pink was manly because it's related to the color red while blue was associated with Mary from the Bible, who is a very feminine and motherly figure. Similarly to today, it seemed gender stereotypes placed on  children played a significant role in the expectations of parents. Bilal states "it was common for mothers to be told that boys should be dressed in a masculine color like pink in order to grow into a more manly individual later in life, while girls should be dressed in a more feminine alternative like blue." (Bilal, 1)

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According to an article by William Kremer from BBC, high heels were originally made for men as "riding footwear." Persian soldiers would use them to strengthen their stance when firing a bow. Then this trend spread throughout Europe, once the lower class men started wearing heels the aristocrats would start to heighten their heels. Finally, after women had adopted wearing them, after a while, men stopped wearing them altogether. (Kremer, 1)

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It's Never too Late to Have a Happy Childhood

In this piece, Perry's art reflects his own life and childhood and some of the grievances he faced. The image which appears to be him in a dress in the middle of the vase says a lot about how what he wears makes him feel. He seems to be very happy and confident, this depiction of himself is also is what stands out to me the most in this piece.

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Grayson Perry, a well-versed artist whose work often reflects many social issues reflecting social norms and class, was born on March 24th in 1960. Perry is one of the most prominent artists fighting gender norms and stereotypes. He identifies himself as “gender rigid” and it appears his pronouns are he/him. He started dressing in women's clothing in his teens and now often embeds his alter ego “Claire” in many of his works. In an article written by Janet Moredock she states Perry will often appear in public as Claire with his wife and daughter. (Moredock, 1) Though I feel we are still in a very gendered era, I believe his growing up in the 60’s and 70’s makes his fight against these norms all the more powerful.

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Sex is often confused with gender. Sex is related to the biological anatomy a person has, while gender is much more fluid, relating to the social constructs around how society expects you to behave. Sociology of Gender, an article by Dr. Zuleyka Zevallos, regarding gender constructs gives a great description of the differences between sex and gender identity. She describes gender as, "a concept that describes how societies determine and manage sex categories; the cultural meanings attached to men and women’s roles; and how individuals understand their identities including, but not limited to, being a man, woman, transgender, intersex, gender queer and other gender positions." (Zevallos 1)

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Sparkle Unicorns And Fart Ninjas: What Parents Can Do About Gendered Toys

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Sparkle Unicorns And Fart Ninjas: What Parents Can Do About Gendered Toys

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The below image by Ran Zheng was used as an illustration for a podcast regarding sexism in toys. It does a great job of interpreting the struggle many children face when they like toys that are geared towards the opposite gender. The boy seems to be hiding the doll behind his back in order to hide this display of "femininity" which boys are often criticized very harshly for. The girl seems less ashamed in this illustration, but girls are often given the label of being a tomboy if they enjoy playing with things such as the robot she is holding. Toys have been gendered for decades. Boys are "supposed" to like little toy cars and action figures while girls are "supposed" to like barbies, dolls, and stuffed animals. But why is that? How were these norms constructed over time?