Cultural Role About Gender Breaking

¶ … Cultural Role About Gender

Breaking the Gender Role through Dress and Appearance

Gender is a very tricky but prevalent part to modern society. In order to fully understand how deep the idea of gender is within our psyche, one must experience what it is to break one's assigned role in the gender dichotomy; "Gender is such a familiar part of daily life that it is usually takes a deliberate disruption of our expectations of how women and men are supposed to act and pay attention to how it is produced," (Lorber 1994). By breaking a common practice associated to my female gender, I got an idea of exactly how prevalent gender rules are in American society, and how disapproving our culture can be if we break those rules. Recently, I attended an event at a local club known for being seen looking your most fabulous. I went to this location dressed in baggy clothing, hiding any female physical features, and without wearing any make up. The reaction of the club goers was overwhelmingly negative compared to the next night, when I went to the same club in a tight dress and fully made up. By ignoring the notions allocated to my gender, in this case wearing make up and "female" clothing, I found myself basically ignored by the rest of the people in attendance.

Gender is not a physiological feature, "Both gender and sex are not equivalent, and gender as a social construction does not flow from genetalia and reproductive organs," (Lorber 1994). The physical differences between male and female are not responsible for the way we consciously assign character attributes to the male and female bodies. There are limitations to studying an individual brought up without notions of gender, but it is still clear that physical characteristics are not the main culprit in formulating gender identity. Transsexuals and transvestites are prime examples of how gender does not coincide with physical reproductive features. Although certain sex, these individuals are drawn towards a different gender.

Gender is instead instilled within our consciousness through our interactions within the society we were born into, "As a social institution, gender is a process of creating distinguishable social statuses for the assignments of rights and responsibilities," (Lorber 1994). Gender, therefore, defines individual human beings as either man or woman. Gender is one of the many ways we as humans classify and order ourselves. Other ways include financial status, race, and age. Like ones financial status in the world gender is instilled within us as young children, "By the time slum children are six or seven they have usually absorbed the basic values and attitudes f their subculture and are not physiologically geared to take full advantage of changing conditions or increased opportunities which may occur n their lifetime," (Lewis).

Despite the modern idea that gender prejudice is a thing of the past, it is obvious through breaking gender roles that the rules of behavior associated with male and female are still very much alive. One of the most obvious tacit gender allocations is adapting one's physical appearance to better suit society's idea of how each gender should look. Men use facial hair as a way to differentiate themselves from their female counterparts. Women, however, spend the most time and effort in perfecting their image to fit their assigned gender roles. The removal of body hair, choice of revealing clothing, and application of make up are some efforts women dedicate themselves to in response to society's vision of what we are supposed to look like. Even in a field such as the armed forces, which one would think would be one of the most androgynous parts of society, have certain regulations and expectations of how women are supposed to look and present themselves, "Women recruits of the United States Marine Corps are required to wear make up [...] and they have to take classes in make up, hair care, poise, and etiquette," (Lorber 1994).

So, I decided to use this expectation as a way to show just how prevalent gender associations are in a social setting. One night I attended a local club in a much different way than how I normally go out. Rather than wearing a dress or skirt with heals and make up, I went out this night in baggy Dickey shorts, borrowed from a friend, and no make up whatsoever. I chose this cultural role as a way to show just how much physical appearance was a part of how we assigned gender identity. I had previously thought that this was an important part of gender, due to the extreme actions many people take in order to adapt their physical appearance to their gender role. Various plastic surgery procedures, such breast augmentation, liposuction, silicon implants, and even full sex changes, show just how far many people are willing to go to meet the cultural criteria of a male or female. What I did not expect, however, was how people would respond to an individual intentionally breaking those conventions in a location which is normally known for upholding them.

I was not dressed in a way which denote that I was completely careless about my appearance, I was not wearing sweatpants or anything which could be thought of as over casual attire; I wore Dickies' kaki pants with a nice, but oversized men's dress shirt and no make up. I made sure not to break the enforced dress code, but rather to simply adhere to the men's version of the dress code. What I experienced was surprising in that, not only did I receive rarely any attention from the men in the club, but both sexes were also negative when they did react to me. I had expected this of the men, but I was surprised in the amount of women who reacted harshly to my disregard of the gender norm which ruled that establishment. No men offered to buy me a drink or even be polite while passing by my spot at the bar. The female bartender made it a point to show how long she was taking to make my drink, despite my continuous tip with every order. It was strange to encounter such a reaction from both sexes.