Perpetuating the Cycle of a Gendered World by Tiffany Trieu

Being Born Sexed, Not Gendered

ttrie005 — 2024-05-19 20:26:26 UTC

This picture showcases an innocent newborn baby, one that has yet to be exposed to society’s constrictive gender norms and expectations. As opposed to the common misconception, gender and sex are not the same thing; gender is a social construction that develops overtime, whereas sex is based on biological characteristics (Lorber 1994). The image of this baby symbolizes the distinction between the two terms. While the baby’s sex was assigned to be male based upon its reproductive genitalia, its dual-colored blanket challenges the belief that sex is directly correlated to one’s gender expression. Wrapped in a pink and blue blanket – colors socially and culturally associated with female (pink) and male (blue) – this baby was not born as either gender. Though the baby was assigned a sex, new to the world, it is still sheltered from being socialized into the gender that society perceives to be appropriate.

The Subjection to Gendered Clothing Norms

ttrie005 — 2024-05-19 20:27:19 UTC

The baby would eventually be named Jared – a name stereotypically considered to be a male name. Evident in the name, Jared, now a toddler, has gradually been exposed to societals constructions of gender. As Lorber states, “[a] sex category becomes a gender status through naming, dress, and the use of other gender markers” (1994). This selected image portrays the gender marker of clothing, showcasing the image of what a boy is expected to wear compared to what a girl is expected to wear. Clothing plays a significant role in how people express themselves and their gender identity to the world. With some men and women choosing to conform to gender norms through what they wear – such as a man choosing a suit or a woman choosing a dress – others may choose to express themselves by deviating from these gender norms by wearing the opposite of what they are expected to wear. In Jared’s case, being forced into wearing the action-driven, masculine Dragon-Ball Z t-shirt instead of the girl-icon, feminine Barbie doll dress, Jared is effectively becoming socialized into male gendered clothing norms from a very young age. Overall, this image demonstrates how clothing relates to societal construction of gender as it plays a role in perpetuating gendered clothing norms.

The Fear of Deviating from Norms of Masculinity

ttrie005 — 2024-05-19 20:27:47 UTC

In this image, Jared is seen playing Fortnite, while opting to play using a girl-skin (a girl character). This image depicts Jared participating in a heteronormative activity, one that deviates from societal gender norms – that girls should only play games using feminine characters, while boys should only play using masculine characters. As a result, Jared’s male friends called him a “fag,” making fun of his choice because it deviated from the stereotypical masculine behavior. Pascoe notes that the term “fag” is “enough that boys police their behavior out of fear of having the fag identity permanently adhere and definitive enough so that boys recognize a fag behavior and strive to avoid it” (2011). As a result of this gendered homophobic behavior exercised by the male friends, their belittling led to Jared vowing to never play any games using a girl character ever again. Moving forward, Jared would participate in the same gendered homophobic behavior, making fun of any boys that behaved femininely or in a way that defied gender norms for men. In doing so, Jared plays into the social construction of gender, teasing and calling others “fags” to assert his dominance and masculinity – a type of behavior that forms his gender identity as a boy.

The Scientific Validation of Stereotypical Gender Roles

ttrie005 — 2024-05-19 20:28:26 UTC

This image depicts Jared’s biological textbook, detailing the concept of pregnancies and the process of fertilization. Within textbooks such as this one, the scientific language used to describe women’s eggs versus men’s sperm are highly distinctive – with eggs being described as behaving in a weak and feminine manner that requires rescuing from the sperm, while sperm being described as behaving strongly and in a masculine manner to save the egg (Martin 1991). As Jared reads this textbook for his biology class, his predispositions about traditional gender roles and expectations become reinforced. Learning that eggs are supposed to be passive and nurturing aligns with stereotypical notions about femininity and women – that they are supposed to be submissive to men – Jared ends up internalizing this lesson. This will influence his interactions and attitudes with women and belief for how they should behave. Conversely, his book’s scientific depiction of sperm as active and assertive aligns with stereotypical notions about masculinity and men. Internalizing the idea that men are supposed to be dominant, competitive, and aggressive, this will also influence his behavior as a male and his attitudes and beliefs about how men should behave. As a result of the poor gendered scientific language used in Jared’s textbook, it perpetuated societal expectations regarding gender and caused him to further conform to the social construction of masculinity.

The Maintenance of Society's Gender Distinctions

ttrie005 — 2024-05-19 20:29:19 UTC

Throughout Jared’s exposure to societal and cultural norms and expectations of gender, the image showcases how Jared now signs off his emails using (he/him) pronouns. This act is a way Jared "does gender.” “Doing gender” means the establishment of socially constructed differences between women and men in a way that makes differences in gender seem inherently biological, even though they aren’t (West and Zimmerman 1978). By signing off with (he/him) pronouns, Jared is partaking in the social practice of distinguishing between men and women. Distinctively, the shade of blue in all the pictures (aside from the first picture) has gradually intensified and deepened, with the last picture being the most vibrant blue. To further illustrate, it started off with the non-blue filtered picture of the newborn – because the baby has not been exposed to social and cultural norms and expectations for gender – and ends with the vibrant blue picture of Jared’s email – because the individual has now become exposed to the social constructions of gender. This color gradation of blue represents the process of how individuals become gendered overtime in society. Being socialized into gender, the baby that was once sexed (but not gendered), is now doing masculinity and continuing the cycle of a gendered world.