Karla Cuevas

If i were born of the opposite sex my life would be different. I am a
female and as a female I am expected to act a certain way. The way i
dressed and who i was able to hang out with was gender socialization
since I was young. Growing up I had and older sister and older brother
therefor, I already had a female role model, but I was always more
drawn to my brother. I would play football, basketball, marbles, and
any other games my brother would play. I remember getting lectured
many times by my mother telling me I was a girl and how i should not
be out there with the boys that i should play inside. Growing up I was
thought how to cook because if my mom was at work I had to do the
cooking for the guys. Even when it came to choosing a career my dad
would push me to be a nurse or a teacher because it was a "girl job."
As a female I have encountered gender stereotyping in the work field
because I am a female i should ask for help when lifting something
heavy. I get customers who tell me "Where are the guys to help lift
this?" or my favorite "You are going to lift this by yourself?" I have
always liked education and the idea of being a teacher was something
that I did want to do. Now if I were a male things would be different.
I would be expected to be strong and manly. The pressure of my parents
would be there to move out and start a family. To go to school and
become a cop or lawyer. If I were a guy my views would probably still
be same. As a male I would not care what people would say about me. I
think typically as a female we care more about what people say about
us and we tend to care more about our appearance than guys and I think
that has a lot to do with society. Just like it would be okay for a
male to have a few beers with his friends outside in a porch, but it
would not be okay for females to do the same if they did they would
probably be stereotyped.

During my interview I asked my interviewee how would her life be if
she was born of the opposite sex and she was quick to tell me that her
views would probably remain the same but she would be less bitter. She
does believe that being a female sucks and that religion does not
offer anything good for females. As a mother she believes she was
stuck playing the house wife because that was expected of her, but
when I asked if she were a male what would be her role or what would
she do knowing she was going to be a father. She stated that she would
take full responsibility of the child but she would not stick around
just because she had a child.