Below is a link to a Tide commercial reiterates the theme of gender as a social construct in our culture. In this video, a so-called “normal” mom is upset because her young daughter is not adhering to the standards that define a “typical” young girl. The little girl in the video enjoys playing with blocks, getting dirty, and wearing loose, baggy clothing- traits usually assumed of young boys. The mother is obviously distraught at her daughter’s perceived deviance from normal behavior, lamenting that the laundry detergent could keep her daughter’s clothes clean, but that it cannot change her perceived atypical behavior.
However, this brings into question the idea of what is “normal” and “not normal” behavior for male and female children. Just because one’s biological sex is determined as one thing, does not mean society should determine the roles for that person’s gender based on his or her sex. Who are we to determine that a little girl who is a tomboy is any more or less of a female than a girl who is extremely feminine, without any input from the girl herself? But too often, our culture creates binary divisions between genders in order to simplify the complexity of our lives. It is easier to confine people to specific roles based on their physical characteristics rather than to deal with the uncertainty of not knowing what one’s role should be. Unfortunately, people are not two-dimensional, but three. In classifying our roles into two oversimplified divisions, we restrict people from being comfortable with who they really are because they would rather conform to the norms of gender that our society has created.
No comments:
Post a Comment