Post class response(been trying to figure out photo-thanks Josiah)
I liked the discussion about language near the end of last class. Since language constructs our realities— it is interesting that the english language has strategically separated gender into the binary “man” and “woman.” While many other cultures and languages have accepted the REALITY that gender is not a binary. Our linguistic constructions can be dangerous and a total “prison house” that Butler and other poststructuralists are interested in complicating. It’s interesting to think that the language we have been taught to use in formal education is violent in many ways.
Sweden’s gender neutral schools seem like a great way to start deconstructing oppressive language. But what do we do now? Especially where we are. I still gender people and it feels deeply programmed in me.
Over summer I was looking at photos from childhood. In most of the photos I look like a dirty little boy with a dress on and a bow on top of my head. My mom forced them onto my body. I remember this day specifically. It was my birthday and my mom forced me to wear a pink dress and a bow. I was pissed:
It’s so easy to automatically gender people. I get stuck in doing it all the time, but I’m going through an active process of not letting myself do that. A lot of other Western cultures are finally realizing that it isn’t a binary, thankfully, and I’ve even seen it happen here. A lot of celebrities are raising their children in a gender neutral way, letting them pick how they would like to present. I love that concept, but also can’t help but feel like these families have the privilege of doing that because they’re part of a socioeconomic class and live in a region that’s likely more accepting of gender fluidity. Here’s hoping it becomes a more wide spread change in parenting, rather than pushing a certain gender presentation onto a child.
ReplyDelete