Monday, August 31, 2009
Glenn Ryan Gender Bio 2
After talking with my parents this weekend I realize that my sisters also were given the opportunity to do many "masculine" activities such as Karate, Baseball, Basketball, Soccer, and more. Still, they became anything but masculine and they would eventually put down their soccer ball and pick up barbies. I attribute their lack of enthusiasm towards society maybe even more so than my parents. Just like Professor Messner talked about today, even when the parents encourage a child to do something that doesn't necessarily fit their gender role, society (such as other kids in their classes) will eventually set them straight. A great example was how Professor Messner went and bought his son a Barbie doll who then brought it to school. Immediately he was made fun of, and quickly claimed he never even enjoyed it. It's interesting to think how my own opinions are actually formed. Did I have a natural tendency to like certain things, or did my parents and society show and tell me what to like. Take basketball for instance. I love the game, but maybe that's just because I've been exposed to it my whole life- and it has been highly encouraged. Who knows, maybe I would've like dancing ballet even more. I certainly never tried it- but who knows! I think that we are presented opportunities to enjoy certain things based on our gender, and limited so by society. Then, we choose what we have a natural tendency towards. I guess a simple question would be "how and why do people get enjoyment out of certain things?" Maybe it's different for different people, maybe it's socially created, or maybe it's natural.
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Your contrasting basketball and ballet is an example of how we as a society institutionalize structures of gender. Basketball is seen as a "male" sport while ballet as a "female" sport because they exemplify the definition of what it means to be masculine or feminine. To be masculine, you would have to be rough and able to take the pain when you get hurt during a basketball game. Ballet, however, is a more delicate "sport" (some people don't even consider it a sport) where one has to be very poised and technical and everything is choreographed to be perfect, its not seen as a competition in the way basketball is.
ReplyDeleteWhen my brother did ballet, he didn't understand that it was seen as a feminine activity. He enjoyed it even though some family members and friends made fun of him. People couldn't believe that he was doing ballet while I did boxing. I think it was just our personalities that led us to choose what activity we preferred, and our parents accepting our "unusual" choices. As he got older, of course, he told people he did ballet "for the ladies" (He's in the military now, so there would be no way for him to speak freely about enjoying ballet without being harassed).