In my life, I've seen gender "done" a lot. When it really comes to my attention is when, as the book describes, it's situational; I understand that a lot of things can constitute as someone doing gender, but it stands out the most when it conflicts with the person in other ways (to me, at least). I had a friend in high school, a girl, who would act passive and ignorant around men when she wanted them to sexualize her (and only sexualize her). In other areas (including when she was with a boyfriend who she had been with for a long time), she was more strong-willed an opinionated, "did gender" as a strong female voice rather than the air-headed, simpering sex object. Men's reactions to these personas usually favored the high-pitched voiced, ignorant version to the intelligent, witty, and blunt version of her.
Another example that sticks out in my mind was of a gay boy I had gone to school with, and was friends with for a while. He dressed in tight clothes, had a lot of piercings, wore makeup on occasion, and usually wore his hair long. Sometimes, people would say that they couldn't tell if he was a boy or a girl—that would lead them to be disturbed or sometimes even angered by him. But many of the things that he did, what he wore, and so on, reflected both his gender as a gay male and from his subculture (he was what the kids would call "emo," and his clothes reflected that of a typical "emo" boy). Although people gave him a chance later on, initial reactions to the way he expressed his gender were overwhelmingly negative, and, as I said, people seemed almost angry when they couldn't tell at first glance what gender he identified as.
-Alexandrien Garcia
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