Wing's Gender Bio

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) (=

Gender Bio

Throughout my childhood, I have participated in many different sports and activities.  When I was younger, my parents tried not to push me in any specific direction concerning sports and activities.  However, they did make available a number of activities including: soccer, softball, girl scouts, basketball, dance, and several others.  During elementary school, I voluntarily chose more masculine activities—I disliked dance and preferred soccer, softball, basketball.  I refused to do girl scouts until a later age.  By the time I was in middle school I even ended up playing ice hockey and by high school I joined the throwing team in track.  At this point, I would say that I had, primarily, chosen more masculine activities.  By the end of my freshman year of high school I stopped doing most of the sports I did when I was younger and took up cheerleading.  Although my childhood was filled with various activities I would conclude that these activities had more masculine characteristics than those activities I participated in during high school (cheerleading, national charity league, etc.).  I am still in the process of discovering how my parents’ involvement in my life has affected my take on gender roles in society.

BLOG ASSIGNMENT

Hello all,

Thanks for signing onto the blog-and thank you to the two of you who have blogged already. But for the rest of you hold off until I post my sample gender bio and the assignment. I will get it up there tomorrow so that you have the weekend to do it.

Thanks!
Ericka

Jiachen Zhou's Bio

As a child I was encouraged by my parents to play some kind of sports(eg. soccer, basketball). However, they didn't like some kind of what is so called "boy games",such as jumping down from high places or fighting with others. It can be said that they didn't force me to be a man or masculine. But, there are some other things really affected me to be a man. First one was the Japanese animation called "Slam Dunk", it showed a group of student fighting on basketball ,their friendship,their life. It really encouraged our Chinese boys , taught us how to be men, how to set and maintain friendship, how to be hardworking when you have a target. Second one was also a Japanese animation called "Saint Seiya ", which showed us how to persist in doing something you wanna do, also how to be a "true man". These two things really shaped into a man.
Jiachen Zhou

Response #1

As a child my parents always encouraged me to play sports, so like it or not I played soccer and baseball. It should have seemed clear that these kinds of activities did not appeal to me as I would much rather have been playing with my Sailor Moon dolls (yes, I had them) or playing make-believe games with my best friend (He tells people to this day that I always wanted to play female characters). Though they encouraged me to play sports, my parents never made it about being a man or masculine.

Tuesday Sections

Thanks for your contributions in today's sections, I am really looking forward to this semester. I will post my sample "gender biography" blog ASAP and then I will send you all a reminder for you to post yours. Please feel free to email me or post to the blog any questions that you might have. In the meantime, please feel free to post any relevant articles, images, ect. that you think might be applicable to the class or section. I will start out by posting a link to a what seems to me to be a very relevant issue for our class-the genetic testing of Olympic athlete Caster Semenya to determine whether she is genetically male or female: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/20/sports/20runner.html

What are your reactions to this story? In particular, I would like for you to think about the ways that we determine gender-in other words-what makes someone a woman or a man? Is it their DNA? their physical attributes? their social role? Just food for thought...you don't have to respond to this but I will be stoked if you do!

SWMS 210gm

Welcome to the blog for students of SWMS 210. Scroll to the bottom of the page and you will see the section syllabus as well as the map to my office at the Shrine. Please remember to check this blog frequently as this is the way I will communicate with you outside of class and section.