Performing Gender

http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2009/09/12/semenyas-makeover-gender-as-performance/

People in our society are continually labelling and judging people based on their physically appearance and persona. Whether you are male or female, black or white we are continually basing our judgement of one’s social identity by the way we perform and present ourselves physically.  The way we observe and perform are largely apart of how we see and perceive ourselves and others in society. Many people in our society perform various genders whether it is there anatomical makeup or the gender that they acquire to be ( Brock, 61). Gender is determined mainly at the first glance of a person when you then decide is this person male or female? Have you ever sat there and thought I wonder if that’s a boy or a girl? I will guarantee you that many people have been in that awkward position before. We ask ourselves these questions everyday based on the observations made of the gender they are performing.

Gender performativity, as explained in the text “Power and Everyday Practices,” explains gender to be socially constructed. This being said one would assume then that gender is performative. Gender is labelled by the way you present yourself physically and the way you act whether it is masculine or feminine. Gender as a performative gives great examples that masculinity and femininity are not constant therefore we can make the assumption that gender isn’t biologically based (Brock, 72)

Gender is performed in many different ways. Transgendered, transsexual, cross dressing or drag are a couple examples of how gender is performed. Transgendered is a great example of this because the girl you are seeing on the street by the way you recognize them may in fact be mistaken and be biologically a girl. The most socially built aspect of gender performativity is most apparent in drag performances. Drag performances offer an understanding of gender binaries on the way we perform our gender. Drag is one of many where you actually are given the chance to get up on stage and strut the gender you would like to be. It’s an experience where you can finally be connected with your inner masculinity or femininity.

Cross dressers, are another great example of how gender performativity. Something as simple as using the bathroom of their own biological sex can put people at risk for judgement based on how society perceives their gender. This can cause tensions and many aspects because people may think there is a man in the washroom with me, but may actually be using the bathroom of their own biological sex. This raised problems for transgendered people because they have to deal with the stresses of being scrutinized for simply going to the bathroom.

Performing ones gender is also reflected by the way we act and present our selves. Children at a very young age are taught particular mannerisms of the way they are suppose to act according to their gender or sex. Girls for example are taught at a young age to sit with their legs crossed while wear a short skirt also boys normally sit with a wider stance with their legs opened. All of these examples help illustrate and depict what gender you are performing. Everything you do in your life is a performance of your gender even as simple walking down the street if a woman is slouching and walking with a really manly strut one might assume that girls manly. Many people don’t realize just how much gender is performed in everyday life.

Gender perfomativity is a large part of my everyday life.  I am constantly performing gender norms based on my biological sex by using cultural norms. When I wake up in the morning the first thing I do is shower, then put on my makeup for the day. I was raised in a family where allot of attention was put on femininity because my mom is a cosmetician and a hairdresser. The media helps introduce teens early on that you are suppose to wear form fitted clothing and to always look put together. When categorizing a gender as female you have to produce a feminine persona, that being very delicate, well put together and most of the time caring and nice.

Performing gender is apparent in everyday life and by adopting certain gender norms we perform or gender accordingly. Beauty norms and aesthetics also help with our physical persona of maleness or femaleness. Gender is a part of every society and is based on the way we present ourselves physically not our biological makeup or sex.