Karanvir Gill
I see gender "done" in many ways in my daily life. You can be a male or female, there are expectations. Since I am a male, I will talk about my gender is done in real life. If I do not dress nicely, then there is the perception that I am a lazy bum who does not care about proper etiquette. This is socially accepted in society because proper etiquette is associated with getting jobs. Also, big business's like banks do not have people wearing football jerseys, but suits. Gender is also seen when talking about physical activity. I am expected to be strong or fit. It is assumed that I can bench press 200 pounds and that I care about looking good, physically. I believe this is viewed positively and also ostracized in society. It is viewed positively because there is an issue of obesity in America, and 'fit' people, or people that put an effort into healthy eating which leads to good physical appearance. But this can also be viewed negatively as guys are pressured into getting the attractive 6-pack, which leads to crash dieting, and less self confidence in your body.
It's interesting how much gender affects even things like working out. I remember back in high school, to fulfill a PE requirement, I took a weight training class, and found I was one of four girls in a class of about thirty people, and the other three weren't even interested in lifting the weights; they just wanted to ogle the boys. The teacher liked sorting the students into groups by how much they could lift, but he kept grouping me with the other three "to keep the girls together," even though by then I was not only outlifting them, but also some of the less motivated guys (and those guys were not too happy when I added plates to what they had just lifted). It was that semester that I was also told that "No guy wants a girl who's got more muscle than him."
ReplyDeleteSo there's a fitness aspect as well--we're all supposed to be skinny, according to current society, but there are acceptable forms of exercise that vary depending on your gender if you want to get there via exercise. -Anna Allen