Today I started my day like any other, got up, went about my normal morning routine, which included doing my makeup, hair, and picking out an outfit- the things that categorically make me a girl. This got me thinking about gender. What is gender? What does it mean to be a gender?
The concept of gender is consistently reinforced through the simplest things. From day one, our parents have associated our gender identity with our biological identity (unless you're baby Storm of course), babies are wrapped up in colours of blue or pink, and given toys based on their biological gender. Then as we get older, we are treated a certain way based on this gender that that was determined for us- it effects our peer groups, our jobs, our everyday tasks.
I got to thinking about gender development and the gender socialization theory. The gender socialization theory focuses on how one's environment shapes their gender identity and teaches social expectations. Talcott Parsons reinforces this by emphasizing how a child is like a pebble thrown into the social pond- essentially saying that gender is something enforced by society right from the get go.
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One of the biggest problems I have with today’s society is the default pronoun of “he”. Male becomes the default gender. Society has given both gender particular norms, which conflicts with certain aspects of everyday life. A primary example of this is with professions, there are things like “male nurse”, or “male model”- in situations where the male default is challenged, there must be a readjustment. If a female participates in something that fits the male norm, then she would get “tomboy”- and it’s perfectly acceptable, but in reversed situations it becomes a problem. That’s just the beginning of a much larger issue.
Gender is a spectrum, it is not something we are born with, it’s just something that we participate in. In our society, gender is a way of individually constructing ourselves and others and plays a large part in our day to day activities. Gender is a lifelong performance, I just hope one day our society will be accepting of characters that are more than just “male” or “female".