I've never really thought about it but in retrospect, it seems that there were several things that contributed to shaping my gender. (Maybe it affected me on a subconscious level so I was never aware of it!)
Anyways, I remember this one time at Chinese School, other than learning Chinese, they had these extracurricular activities we could participate it. Only, the gave us two choices - ballet or taekwondo. Obviously, it was basically separated to girls and boys (I never really understood why that is). So that day being the first day I was attending Chinese School, I didn't know what I wanted to do. By the way, I have a little brother that went to Chinese School with me. So anyways, we were separated as I was lead into another room with a couple girls doing ballet. My brother went to the taekwondo session. I had no prior experience in ballet, or any type of dance for that matter. So I stood at the side of the room watching all these girls doing whatever they do, I don't even know what it's called. When they run (or leap) diagonally from one corner of the room to the other. I remember the instructor asked me to try, but I politely declined. I wouldn't know what I was doing anyways! (And of course, I didn't want to make a fool of myself.)
Moving on... the next day at Chinese School, I decided to stick with my brother and go to the taekwondo session instead. I was completely shocked though. I don't know whether it was because there were so many people in the room (almost 3 times more than the girls doing ballet, since there were only like 10 girls doing ballet) or whether it was because I saw girls doing taekwondo with the guys. I was standing at the side of the room with my brother and a couple other kids who didn't know how to do taekwondo. It was exciting watching them practice their forms and everything, and probably more exciting to see girls not doing ballet! That was probably the first time I remember seeing distinct activities that were assumed to be for different genders.
Growing up, I was always involved in sports. It started off with basketball and moved onto cross country and track. These sports aren't really directed at a certain gender because both genders participate in these 3 sports. Other than that, sports weren't a really big impact of "gender" for me. Though there was this one time in 5th grade, during recess, where I wanted to play basketball, but the only people playing basketball were guys. I remember when I asked to play, they just laughed at me because they thought I couldn't play. Good thing my friend was also playing and he convinced his friends to let me play with them. Clearly, they still looked down on me and indeed, they underestimated my playing ability. I made a great shot from the 3-point line and they didn't know what else to say after that.
That's probably just two of the several events that contributed to shaping my gender. I mean, growing up, my parents were always working so I was either home alone or I was home with my younger brother. Obviously, I was the one in charge and I took care of him. It was probably these several years and times that I took care of my brother that I became so caring and "motherly". It was probably all the time we spent together that brought us closer together! (We're a really close family).
There are so many other things that I can keep writing about, but I think I'll save that for my paper (since I can) (=
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Hey : )
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to see how in the 90s sports were still more gender related than it is today. I used to take ballet lessons too, and there were three boys in my class (they were the sons of the owner of the ballet studio). I remember them dancing halfheartedly in their black tight pants and white tops with faces flushed with embarrassment. I remember how my friends and I could not stop wondering how on earth they got there and how they got the courage to join our all-girls class. It was all very strange to me.
However, I think times are changing and sports today have become less gender-related. It has become more acceptable for women to play sports such as taekwondo, golf, basketball etc. and men to join cheerleading or dancing. Otherwise there would be no Michelle Wie winning the U.S. open or Justin Timberlake dancing to the beat.
Although I still think it's impossible to make all sports co-ed or to conduct a completely fair sports game with a man against a woman, and I know it's hard to change the paradigm that certain sports are reserved for a certain gender, but I think it's great that now women and men can do more variety of sports without having to feel humiliated or having to sacrifice their femininity or masculinity.