Answering A Question

Jumprope Gender Line: Society's Response To What's Different

            Modern American society is strict in its idea of what is considered feminine or masculine, seen throughout the culture as a whole; women in advertising are wearing makeup and frilly clothing, while men in movies are tough and aggressive to the point of emotionless violence. Gender expression, if not within these bounds of normalcy, is not accepted as appropriate, and that separation has harmful effects. Rigid gender stereotyping is a practice that effectively cripples childhood gender variance, queer representation in the media, and fair distribution of cultural gender expectations.

            The determination of gender norms begins early in life; differences in the behaviors for each sex are mostly biological, and most children can be generally be described as masculine or feminine. However, there are children that don't fit completely in either category, and are considered 'gender variant'. According to the Children's National Medical Center, gender variance refers to "interests and behaviors that are outside of typical cultural norms for each of the genders", and children with this variance often hold these attitudes persistently through childhood (1). This can refer to young girls acting more masculine by refusing to wear dresses or skirts, and playing primarily with boys, or young boys acting more feminine by trying on their mother's makeup and learning to dance ballet. These activities are led by biological influences, and they are not the product of specific parenting habits or unfortunate circumstances, nor can they be removed by similar behavior-modifying means.

            With the understanding that gender non-conformity is not a decision, and instead a biological impulse, arguments about the treatment of children with these traits are highly controversial in a society that focuses on normalcy and peer acceptance. Self-esteem and a healthy personal identity are crucial to childhood development, so effective parenting tactics need to be utilized to make sure a child with gender-variance is well-rounded and psychologically sound. Yet in today's culture, not many parents are accepting of children who act differently, where social stigmas mixed with hostile behavior can cause low self-esteem, reduced self-confidence, and feelings of shame in children (CNMC 4-6). These issues carry into adulthood, creating unhealthy and psychologically unbalanced adults that are consistently forced by the culture to appear and behave what is deemed acceptably normal.

            What is considered acceptable gender expression is a small section in the large spectrum of gender and gender identity, especially if you consider those in the queer community. Lesbians, gays, and bisexuals have been appearing on television, in media, and throughout movies more often today, but only if they fit certain criteria. For gay and lesbian people, the majority of viewers like gays to be well-dressed and flamboyant about their sexuality, and lesbians to be girly and stereotypically attractive to heterosexual males. Queer means 'strange or odd', but there are boundaries for what is considered normal for those that fall into that category. Transgender people in specific are largely underrepresented in the media, due to the fact that they violate both the gender-role and queer-role normalcy; they are people who are mentally a male or female, but are physically the opposite sex. Additionally, transgender people may not fit gender stereotypes mentally either, as a transgender male who is physically female may get male-assignment surgery but still have certain behaviors that are not typically masculine.

            Poor queer representation in the media, brought on by these strict definitions, is no surprise. Take the recent anti-discriminatory law passed by California, which stated that transgender students may use whichever facilities match their gender identity, and how media outlets reacted to the news. Fox News was a topic of controversy with it's anti-transgender coverage of the legislation when Sean Hannity stated, "Forget the 99 percent, this accommodation goes to the .0001 percent" (Hannity). In addition, he also commented on having naked 'boys' in locker rooms with younger girls; this both ignores the gender identity of transgender students, but also implies that males must conform to cultural norms and behave with aggression or sexual deviance when confronted with females. Such commentary not only minimizes transgender students and incorrectly identities their gender, but also uses the culture's gender stereotypes to perpetuate the idea that males are only masculine and aggressive, actions that cripple those with variant behaviors.

            Specified and assumed roles and stereotypes for men and women aren't new; as a historically agrarian society, the needs in the household and in the field were different, thus men are generally physically stronger then women. This led to the division of field labor and home chores, and eventually the assumption that men were supposed to work and women were expected to take care of the children and the home; despite being a modern society, today we still have not moved away from those ideas. Once women were more involved with the working world, however, they now were expected to take jobs fitting of a woman and also take care of the home while the men took on more 'serious' professions. Salem Press found that "The jobs of secretary, nurse, social worker, and hairdresser were seen as more fitting for girls, and the jobs of electrician and engineer as more suitable for boys" (Piotrowski 828). Besides increasing the inequality of gendered professions, that fact also acts as an example of further suppression of variance and expression; were a man to go to school to be a hairdresser, he would first be laughed at for being 'girly' and then accused of being gay. If a woman were to seek employment as an electrician, she would constantly have to prove to the men she worked with that she knew what she was doing, and that she could do it well.

            What these gender norms in the employment world do is show how the current society thinks of gender at any point in time. A lack of understanding and acceptance for gender-variant people in the work force further lengthens the distribution of cultural expectations. If a woman has a career, she not only has to pick one that fits the feminine role, but she also has to make time for children and the house, and men are expected to work a masculine job and longer hours and make all the money for the family. In any culture, a set of ideas or behaviors that persists for a length of time becomes widely accepted as "normal", and anyone that deviates from them is unwelcome. American society, then, sets a clear example of this by keeping the idea that gender roles not only are necessary in the household, but also in the job field, both of which further perpetuate the roles and attitudes that are against gender variance. Once adults are put into each category of 'masculine' or 'feminine', they unconsciously impress those roles on their children, beginning the cycle of repressed gender expression.

           In today's world where most people find themselves predominantly either masculine or feminine, there are those who don't conform to the gender stereotype that is expected of them. Strict dictation of what is considered appropriate for a gender and gender behaviors, and social pressure to conform to such rules, both add to a culture that stifles the expression of those with gender-variant traits. In children, non-conformist behaviors are responded to with parental disappointment, and in adults, it lessens media representation and equal expectations, socially, for those who do not fit the gender-role mold. American culture, in response, needs to make more allowances for those with variant gender expression, in order to have a less restricting society for all people.


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Works Cited:


Hannity. Perf. Sean Hannity, Dana Loesch, and Leslie Marshall. Fox. FNC, New York, 13 August 2013. Television.


If You Are Concerned About Your Child's Gender Behaviors. Washington D.C.: Children's National Medical Center, 2000. Print.


Piotrowski, Nancy, ed. Psychology & Mental Health. Pasadena: Salem Health, 2009. Print.