Blog Entry #2

In my last blog entry I ended it by stating that it is up to the men inside and not outside to decide his masculinity. Judith Lorber's reading has got me thinking though, isn't masculinity molded in the outside world? There is a certain way you are supposed to dress,act etc. Ten years ago though I don't think anyone would think that men would have their eyebrows shaped to look good and yet they do it today. The world is always changing and to have certain expectations shoved down someone's throat does not make that much sense to me for example: If you are a male your expected to play some sort of sport. Now to what point do genes play a role in your gender? In Fausto's reading he states that the embryonic primordium is a indifferent fetal gonad which can give rise to the testis or the ovary but I agree with Lorber when he says that individuals are sexed but not gendered. A bit of an eye opener really because whenever someone would ridicule me I would always reply with I have a pair of balls so that makes me a man, and in a man's world that's what it's all about who has the biggest pair of balls is the bigger man. When you think of a men the last thing in your mind would be a transvestite. Transvestites are people who cross dress but masculine man will never cross dress because it's not socially acceptable but the way I see it I don't think a actor playing a woman is a cross dresser and I don't think a man wearing a kilt is a cross dresser and I surely wouldn't call Mulan a cross dresser (maybe not the most relevant example). There are those who go against the norm and do what they want or so called rebels but the word seems to have a negative connotation behind it. What makes a person a rebel? Only because they don't go along with what is the typical and expected that makes them a rebel or a bad person because they won't do what they are supposed to do.

When people talk about gender it is either you are a male or a female no in between: it seems to be such a concrete thing, something you can grasp with your hands but you can't. Gender is nothing but a word, a label to describe someone and what they are supposed to be like.