After reading the beginning few
thoughts of both Sexing the Body and A Billion Wicked Thoughts, I have to say
that I thoroughly enjoyed reading one and slowly clawed my way through the
other. Although I consider myself a science-liking person, I had a hard time
reading A Billion Wicked Thoughts.
I
particularly liked the layout and flow of Sexing the Body, and the content was
very intriguing. Instead of jumping into the investigation of what excites and
makes the different genders tick, the initial dispute of what makes a “gender” and
I liked that approach very much.
The idea that the ability to check a box next to either male or female is
sometimes impossible, is a little new to me. The “grey area” between the two
traditional genders is fascinating and I never really had thought much about it
before. While reading Sexing the Body, the idea of historian Michel Foucault
grabbed my attention. He talked about a divided power over living bodies
consisting of the individual body and the biopolitics of a population.
The
idea then came to me that maybe there are more than a few gender roles, but
rather billions. Maybe each individual human being is their own gender and it
is wrong of society to group people based on seemingly similar characteristics and
behavior. Behavior is indeed influenced by society’s gender role norms, but
when in the privacy of one’s own home, is each person their own gender? The idea presented in the opening of
Sexing the Body, with the olympic competitor sparked interest for me. The “male”
didn’t even know “her” own sex, but “she” knew “her” gender. Being raised as a
female and truly believing that she is a woman should be more than enough to be
labeled as a female-based gender, but what about her sex? I don’t even know how
officials would go about testing and screening individuals before entry to the
games, but I think it should be definitely be taken into consideration of what
gender they feel they are and how they are built physically.
I also thought the idea of "grey area" was really interesting. Marking my gender on any form has always seemed like a formality, just like filling out my name. But, to some people that "gender" question could be problematic, and cause them some stress. I feel like more and more on forms now a days there is the option of "prefer not to answer" or something like that so people that are confused about their gender can disclose that information. This makes me think that for some people, does it make a difference whether the question says "gender" or "sex" because for some, that could be two different answers.
ReplyDeleteI agree that behavior is influenced by societies gender role norms. I would think that when alone, people are their own gender and act more like themselves, kind of like a front stage/back stage presentation. How people present themselves in public (front stage) could be very different than how they act at home (back stage) due to societal norms and the need to fit into society, even if they are not being their true selves.