Genderless, Not Sexless Feb Blog Post

Gender is a topic that has seized headlines heavily in the past couple of years. People throughout the nation have taken a stance against preconceived gender norms fighting for their right to express themselves freely. The UCLA speech given by Stacey watched in our class was a topic that has stuck with me for quite awhile now. As she talks throughout the video with emphasis on the little boys words, “she is a girl that is a man”, she puts societies cage on gender on blast. As the child stares at her confused as to whether she is a male or female she brings up the point “I wonder if he will grow up to be the man his mom thinks him to be”. Have any of us really grown up to be the exact version our parents or even ourselves expected? The real question to ask here is how have these gender norms already taken such a heavy constraint on the mind of a young child. These societal norms are very problematic as they subject a person to be one-dimensional and can lead them to life full of subordinate social roles. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy released an Feminist article touching on the many oppressive results faced when gender norms completely dictate how men and women should behave. With feminism being a hot topic throughout our class one statement from this outside article really stood out to me stating “Feminism should aim to create a “genderless (though not sexless) society, in which one's sexual anatomy is irrelevant to who one is, what one does, and with whom one makes love”. Individuals who don’t necessarily understand feminism’s ultimate goal can often place a negative connotation with the word. I really liked the the stress on how one’s anatomy is irrelevant to what they do or who they are. Why should it matter if a man is feminine and why should the word feminine only link to female? Masculinity and femininity should be gender fluid and allow people to have the versatility they want. Because these gender norms are socially produced they can be changed. All different cultures interpret bodies differently and lay norms on the bodies of their people. As we continue to fight for our freedom of expression I hope we can all stand against this socially imposed rending of the sexes and express our masculinity and femininity in any ways that we want.

Mikkola, Mari. "Feminist Perspectives on Sex and Gender." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University, 12 May 2008. Web. 01 Mar. 2017.