Lorber (1994) states that gender has become so pervasive in our society that we perform gender in our everyday lives without pausing to consider the reason for our actions. As females, we wake up in the morning, wanting to look a certain way before we step out. We carefully choose our clothes and brush our hair, wear makeup, and walk in certain ways. Reading Judith Lorber’s Social Construction of Gender reminds me of my life as a female growing up among boys. Phrases like “as a lady, you have to do this or that” were common in our home as my parents never ceased reminding me of my gender. Many years after I left home, I still behave in ways that my mother wanted me to without thinking about it because it has become a part of me.
Society determines how we
speak, dress, and even walk according to our ascribed genders. As a lady, you
have to choose your words carefully, walk in a particular way, and adorn
yourself with certain clothing types. If we did not ascribe to these gender
roles, why are our closets filled with clothes socially assumed to belong to
women? Lorber (1994) argues that in our daily social interactions, we “learn
what is expected, see what is expected, act and react in expected ways” (p.
130). By acting according to social constructs, we help to maintain the gender
order.
The YouTube video above explains Judith Butler’s Gender Performativity theory and stresses how the patriarchal society has constructed gender
roles that seek to differentiate males from females.
I walked into my uncle’s office, and he offered me a chair to sit on. Before my back will touch the chair , I heard “Stand up and sit like a woman!” This was a veteran military officer. He stood up and mimicked how a girl is supposed to sit down, especially when she is in a school uniform. He said my haircut looked like that of a boy, and my shoes were not feminine. He went on and on chronicling how a typical female looks like (apart from my school uniform, nothing on my body or mannerism looked feminine so far as he was concerned). The family never allowed any female to join the military. To them, the army was for men, and women in it become too arrogant and begin to rub shoulders with men. This is how social institutions such as the military, religion, politics, and law were developed, dominated by men, and interpreted from men’s standpoint (Acker, 1992). These institutions have become gendered, leading to women’s marginalization with very few women entering and surviving in them.
I never
studied medicine as was my father’s wish because I cannot stand people
referring to me as a nurse instead of a doctor. My female cousin is a medical
doctor who works typically with male nurses. Almost every patient who enters
her office refers to her as a nurse while calling the male nurses doctors. Why? women health workers in Ghana can only be nurses, while men can only be doctors. In fact, as a
child, I thought every female health worker is a nurse, and every male health
worker is a doctor due to how people referred to them.
In Ghana, women who have worked to attain positions of
power always face backlash from their male counterparts who accuse them of
prostituting their way to the top. Women have to work twice as much as men to
be deemed fit for certain positions.
References
Acker, J. (1992). From
sex roles to gendered institutions. Contemporary sociology, 21(5), 565- 569.
Lorber, J. (1994). The
social construction of gender.
Judith Butler's Theory of Gender Performativity (2016) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoFs0ws82SM
Thank you for your post Faith. It is true, society genders us into a dichotomy before we even have the choice to choose. I assume my parents already knew that I would be a girl before I was born and prepared adequately. I realized looking at the pictures taken from the very day of my birth; they wrapped me in a pink and white blanket with light pink baby clothes and a white beanie that matched my blanket.
ReplyDeleteBy my parents dressing me up in the stereotypical female way to dress, they had already symbolically initiated gendering socialization as my first agents. Before I could even make a choice of what colors I liked or what clothes I would wear gendering had already started taking place in my life.
I am not judging this mode of gendering in anyway; however, I would suggest parents being color neutral and not connoting colors to mean certain things when they are just colors. This mode of action has become so ‘normal’ in our society around us. Lorber (1994) states that “Gender is such a familiar part of daily life that it usually takes a deliberate disruption of our expectations of how women and men are supposed to act to pay attention to how it is produced”
I have also experienced the 'sit like a lady' and 'walk like a lady' situation you stated in your blog. My take on this is that as human beings a lot of social learning takes place and part of that social learning is concentrated on ‘ideal gender representations’ people would like to be identified with, and with time through media, it has become the norm. I believe that a lot of us if not all, have experienced a certain expectation associated with being a male or a female and I hope that we can positively break the status quo when it comes to ‘gender expectations’. I love that you have shared your experience with us and I look forward to your next post.
I recommend you check out Benefsha’s post entitled "Five big wins ushered in by the landmark Beijing Platform for Action," she writes about China’s 25 years-long commitment to women that hasn't been fulfilled till date. It’s a good read.
Faith, it is interesting how gender socialization is deeply embedded in our cultures and how its policing is continuous and always present, especially when we defy or fail to perform it perfectly like you have explained with your uncle.
ReplyDeleteAs Butler's gender perfomativity argument goes, we are not our assigned gender, we become it, and others only affirm what they see through our mannerisms.
You haircut, sitting posture, ambitions and general mannerisms, for instance, failed to fit within your gender. As a result, your uncle, an agent of socialization stepped in to perform his role of policing you into your assigned gender.
It is quite unfortunate that gender policing has such adverse effects, and you can only imagine how many other girls/ women have suffered. Boys and men have also been on the receiving end as well. They, just like women, are expected to follow a series of prescribed mannerisms which when defied, they are harrassed, ridiculed and even killed. All this, makes one wonder what is so wrong with being feminine and how much control does one really have over their own bodies. It is then not surprising when there are so many transwomen deaths.
My question then becomes, is it so farfetched to say that such policing and association of women with the weak, undesirable traits have kept women in the private sphere, where they remain invisible and their participation in development minimal in the name of protecting them?
Great post; thank you for bringing this up. Before being introduced to the gender courses at OU, I have never thought about how gender roles are shaping our lives. As you mentioned, we were expected to do certain things, for example, to play with Barbie, not soccer. I do remember my male cousin, who wanted to play with Barbie with us as well, and even as children, we told him not to do so because it is a girl game.
ReplyDeleteThe video you proposed by Butler's raised several concerns in my mind; even when I am an adult now and know how these gender roles shaped me, I am still doing them. I love to do my nails and wear good, but now I am wondering is it out of passion or because society shaped me to be like this?
Like your post, gender roles go further to determine our future, what occupations should we be in, what to study, and where. It is really surprising that most of the females are supposed to be nurses in Ghana; is it the case until now? I totally agree about power positions, as it is the same in Palestine. Women are fighting to gain high positions in private and public companies, and even if they did, usually it is just for an equality appearance, but men are the ones who takes the decisions.