Blog #3

bell hooks (Ch. 3)
1c. An idea that does not make sense to me is when bell hooks talks about paternal sadism, “…paternal sadism is the natural outcome of patriarch values”. I know that sadism is a form of emotional starvation not given to children when they are infants/little. Does she mean paternal sadism is it the emotional care that a father does not give to his son and this somehow leads to the patriarchy values? But, I do not agree with this entirely because there are plenty of men that were raised my single mother, and never had a father figure and they were raised by patriarchal principles. I do not think it is necessary, that just males or father figures that enforce patriarchal values I think women also do as well.

C.J Pascoe (Ch. 1)
1b. An I idea that was very meaningful to me from this part of the reading was when Pascoe is going over the ideas that lay the foundation of the book. Pascoe talks about sexuality, gender, bodies, and she describes gender the best way I have heard so far. “…gender is accomplished through day-to-day interactions”. I had been having trouble exactly grasping this whole idea of how people “do gender”, but, the author through this made it clear that you “do gender” by what you do everyday how you communicate, how you talk, how you present, and overall how you present yourself. Now, I better understand how I personally show my gender or “do my gender”.

C.J Pascoe (Ch. 2)
2a. Something that Pascoe points out in this chapter is the idea that I can relate to my own experience is this idea that heterosexuality is institutionalizes, that all these ideas and practices that surround heterosexuality are taught and shown in school. I see the example that she gives in the chapter and those are some of the same everyday things that I experienced growing up. It is so expected school that boys should be fathers, girls should be mothers and they should all get married, have kids and repeat the cycle all over again. School is the primary source where boy are taught to act like boys, and girls are taught to act like girls. Because most of the time children have different personalities at home then they do at school. At school they must perform their assigned gender and at home they are safe and can be who they desire.

C.J Pascoe (Ch. 3)
1a. A new perceptive that I agree with is the idea that Pascoe points out the idea of radicalizing the fag. This is a new perspective to me, it is something that I was aware of but never really put a lot of thought into. This is something that I really notice especially in my high school years this identification of what is masculine for white and men of color is completely different. The definition of masculinity various tremendously among each race, Pascoe points out the one about black men and how it was a “necessity” and “a must for” black men to know how to dance, that through dance, they are able to show strength, and bravery. While on the other hand, dancing for white men represents as sissy and gay like. In my high school most of the men on the dance teach were men of color either, African American or Asian, there were no white males. Also when the men’s dance team would practice during lunch, many white males walked by, and often questioned or made gestures expressing their disapproval for this type of performance. For white men masculinity is defined in many other ways.

C.J Pascoe (Ch. 4)
2a. “boys…repeatedly enforce definitions of masculinity that included male control over female bodies through symbolic or physical violence.” This quote is something that I can relate to especially in my past life experiences. What Pascoe says about men performing masculinity through controlling the female is so true. I have been in many personal situations when I was younger where I have experienced men doing this. I believe men do this because usually women are weaker physically and men know that they can dominate them and win all the fights/confrontations. Also through this domination they can show that that they can concur what masculinity fights most which is femininity, by dominating a female (the live representation of femininity) physically they show that they are in control they can control their emotions as well as a female and they are performing themselves as they should very macho like and most importantly very manly.

Blog 1

1a. A new and different perspective that I agree with is something that Lorder and Moore point out in Gendered Bodies: Feminist Perspectives. They point out that men and women try to shape all aspects of their lives for example body, style, and posture into whatever their corresponding assigned gender. They try to show femininity or masculinity through their body, for example women try to be thin and curvy and men try to be tall, muscular. I never made the connection that people did this because we think it was our gender is supposed to look like. But in reality that is the only reason we change ourselves is because of our ideas of what our gender is suppose to look like.

1b. Something that was really meaningful to myself was what Lorber points out in “Night to His Day” The Social Construction of Gender . She says how human females can become husbands and vise versa without a surgery just as human infants can become reign as kings or queens. This statement is so meaningful because many men and women do this subconscience there are my single mothers and fathers that have to play both roles with their children. The comparison that is made with infants and kings and queens is good because playing both mother and father is not planed it is just assigned without a choice just as kings and queens are assigned.

2a. Something that I can really relate with my own life experiences is what Wichins points out in A Continuous Nonverbal Communication when she says that gender is primarily a system of symbols and meanings with are rules and privileges and punishments pertaining to masculinity and femininity. I notice these punishments and discrimination within my own family, for example, I have women in my family who are looked down a pond on because they have had many relationships, also because they do not correspond that cookie-cutter persona that their gender should look like.