Gender Roles & Stereotypes (from the mouth of a lesbian)

“The history of gender in America is of a social institution that both constrains and produces womanhood and manhood throughout the centuries.  Women are not only manipulated by gender norms: they create, negotiate, and transform those norms as well.  The norms are racialized and linked to class status, and women, even though  engaged in producing them, do not control either the economic structures or the  meaning-making apparatuses that signify their power.  Thus, for all their complicity with making gender, women are also disadvantaged  by its operation. The specificity of that disadvantage is not stable, but its  effects are enduring.”

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/gender-and-gender-roles#ixzz1QCCMOElX

Listening to a morning radio show today (The Hawk & Tom Show 93.7 Greenville, SC), Hawk and Tom were discussing how they viewed women with short hair.  They said “Halle Berry is hot” and can “pull off short hair” because “she was hot before”, but how most women cannot pull off short hair.  They went on to talk about Kiera Knightley’s new haircut, which they called a “boy-cut” and said she “looks like Justin Bieber” and “used to be hot, now she’s just ‘cute’.”  They went on to tell a female co-dj about seeing a picture of her when she had short hair, and how she looked really bad in comparison to how she looks now that she has long hair.

There are a few reasons why all of this pisses me off, but let’s look at the first and probably most important reason as far as modern society goes.

A study in Britain has shown that girls between the ages of 10-14 are at higher risk for suicide, and that at least half of the suicides of young people are due to bullying. I believe that gender stereotypes plays a significant role in this.  You’ve seen it.  The boy wearing a pink shirt is called a faggot by his peers.  The girl with a shaved head is called a dyke by a guy who won’t give her the time of day.  Throughout history there have been images in the media, descriptions in books, and real-life roles that men and women have taken on that create what people view as “manly” or “feminine”… or what a boy “should” look like or girl “should look like”.

I’m sure you’ve heard stories told by people in the LGBT community about their childhood.  A female to male transgender discussing his mother’s disapproval when he wouldn’t wear a dress to church as a child, or his father’s disapproval when he wanted short hair.  I have a male to female transgender friend who discussed in a newspaper interview the memory of a camping trip with her father and brother.  She talked about how her father and brother liked horseplay and throwing rocks, not understanding why she didn’t enjoy those things and prefered collecting leaves and admiring the different colors.

Let’s look at these alarming numbers:

In a 2003 study, it was reported that for every completed suicide by a young person, 100 to 200 attempts are made.

In a 2009 study, it was reported that adolescence who were rejected by their families for being LGBT were 8.4 times more likely to report having attempted suicide.

I believe that we (my generation) need to chip away at these stereotypes that constrict genders.  Women with short hair need to stand up stay, “I am not less feminine because of the length of my hair, and I do not style my hair for the purpose of satisfying a man’s sexual appetite – I DO IT FOR ME!”

We need to show the younger generation that colors are not associated with sexual identity or preference, that being a stay-at-home parent is not a thing that only women do, that there are well-qualified women in careers deserving of the same salaries as their male equals, that hobbies/likes/dislikes/preferences have nothing to do with your sexuality.

Boys and girls should not go to school worried that they cannot display who they are through personal style choices out of fear of bullying.  Boys and girls should not go to school feeling that their sexual identity and/or preference make them inferior.

The time for this all to stop is NOW.

And to officials in the state of Tennessee: outlawing the use of the word “gay” or any discussion of homosexuality in public schools is doing nothing but outcasting and ostracising these children more, making them feel trapped and unaccepted like they are second-class citizens.  How dare you?!