‘Instructor’s Name’
What it means to be gendered me
In her article, ‘What It Means to Be Gendered Me: Life on the Boundaries of a Dichotomous Gender System’, Betsy Lucal explicates the insinuations of living in a gendered society, which recognizes only two genders. Lucal is a woman who is often mistaken to be a male, and in this essay she uses these experiences to analyze the construction of gender. She delineates the negative consequences that might arise, when people exhibit gender behaviors that does not confirm with the normal accepted behavior of that gender, and how to respond to these difficulties.
In the initial part of her article, she clear distinguishes the concept of sex and gender. She further explains that gender is actually a process, and it is ‘omnirelevant’ as all social interactions are based on gender. She adds how it always falls on the women to outwardly express signs of their gender, and mark themselves as the other, while men do not have to go through much difficulty in asserting their gender. A person in his/her everyday life display many attributes aimed at demonstrating his/her gender, like dressing in a particular way, choice of hairstyle and cosmetics, exhibition of a particular body language etc.
This process of showcasing one gender, which the author calls ‘doing gender’, poses a unique problem for people, who do not display appropriate gendered behavior, as their identity is put under scrutiny and doubt. Such a gender non-conformist is faced with two set of predicaments: first is to establish their own identity to others, and secondly deal with the challenges posed by others to their identity.
Lucal explains that since our society is so deep rooted on gender divisions, there is no way to escape from doing gender. Sometimes a person exhibits deliberate displays of gender, like a woman athlete participating in a masculine sport growing long hair. And sometimes one exhibits unintentional displays, like a woman taking lesser space than a man in a bus seat. In our own way, each of us exhibits a variety of gendered actions in our day to day life.
So when a person displays traits that do not fit into these two categories, they are not placed in a third separate category, but instead are grouped under the gender to which they closely fit. There any many consequences such a person has to suffer. Lucal throws light on them using her personal experiences. For example, she says how since, she is tall, large boned, and does not exhibit usual feminine behavior, she is addressed as sir, and her credit cards are double checked when she pays her bills. She also draws strange looks and confrontation when she uses public restrooms for women, as she is mistook for a man.
Lucal also talks about how she deals with the situation. She grew long hairs and nails, when she was looking for a job, and she stopped using public restrooms most of the times. She always carries a photo identity, and she clarifies that the credit card is indeed hers to any doubting clerk. To sum up her response she ignores the reaction as far as possible, unless there is a pressing necessity to establish that she is a female.
She goes on to say, how women who do not exhibit the usual feminine characteristics are subjected to brutality and harassments. Lucal says she found that, sometimes it is better to allow people to think she was a man, rather than to be labeled a deviant woman. She adds that, she believed her non-confirming to traditional gender roles might be her opportunity, to subvert the rules of the patriarchal society. However later she realized that, gender blending and crossing the boundaries of gender roles, do not dissolve the gender system. Instead, the person exhibiting an inappropriate gender behavior would simply be grouped under, one of the two gender systems where he/she loosely fits.
According to Lucal, the present gender system, which was originally devised for assigning each group its roles and responsibilities in the society, has ended up putting women in a devalued position, subservient to men. She advocates that, the gender system in its current form do not have a place for people like her, who are willingly transgressing the gender line. She says, she does not find the divisions of gender problematic, but she has problems with the assignment of roles to the genders.
Works Cited
Lucal, Betsy. "WHAT IT MEANS TO BE GENDERED ME: Life on the Boundaries of a Dichotomous Gender System." Gender & Society (1999): 781-797. Print.
