THE GENDER TRAP
Two Little Boys - By the Numbers Blog - NYTimes.com
What stands out about this chart is not simply a reflection of homophobic attitudes but the ways in which gender identities are such a toxic trap. I just finished wrapping up a section on gender inequality in my class and one of the things I tried to stress to my students is that the ways in which we conventionally deal with gender expectations is that the masculine and feminine are seen as completely separate identities there is an acute anxiety over any overlap between them.
People understand that, especially when you ask them for examples of how this works...what isn't as clear is WHY we see gender identities as such separate spheres. What is the rational logic? It makes sense as a way to maintain unequal relations between the sexes but it serves no beneficial purpose to insist that our boys "act like boys" and our girls to "act like girls." We (and by "we", I'm also including myself) conform to these behaviors largely out of ingrained practice, especially since the rules around them are deeply entrenched that we've forgotten why we established them to begin with (let alone why we continue to invest in them).
Such unnecessary tragedies - and alas, far too common.
<< Home