Color me pink

Females and males are physically different. We are two different sexes with different genitalia and body shapes.

But from the second individuals are born, their main identity is their sex, not their gender. Girls are not born with an instinct to like pink. The two separate categories are called social constructions. We are socially constructed to recognize inanimate objects as gender-specific.

Gender is not sex. Gender goes beyond just the biological. It incorporates what we are socially constructed to think is female or male.

Female is an easy-bake oven. Male is a baseball bat. Female is an apple martini. Male is a beer.

So what is it like for someone who doesn’t fit into America’s two-gender system?

Susan Stryker, a gender studies professor, is a transsexual. She went through a physical transformation from a male to female appearance.

“The ‘boying’ of me, the manning of me, always felt nonconsensual,” Stryker said. “Everybody gets gendered. And most people don’t question that.”

But Stryker did inquire about her gender and did not accept it.

“For whatever reason, as far back as I can go, I never thought I was a boy,” Stryker said. “I knew that was how I was being made to live. I knew that was how I was perceived. That’s how I was assigned. That’s how I was reared. Subjectively, internally, it was always a question. How come I don’t feel that way? ... How can I not be a boy if everyone says I’m a boy?”

Because Stryker has feminine and masculine physical attributes, people are not always sure of how to interact with her.

“If you don’t know somebody’s gender, you don’t know how to relate to them as a person,” Stryker said. “You don’t know which slot to put them in. ... To know if you are a man and a woman is to know, do I go into the same public restroom as you? Are they shopping in the right part of the store? Are you supposed to open the door for them when you are both coming in at the same time? Can I have sex with that person?”

Genders provide us with roles and pronouns. They also affect our daily social interactions, Stryker said.

But is our gender system so bad? Should girls start wearing ties and should boys begin wearing dresses?

Not quite.

The main problem is that there is a gender social hierarchy. Men on top, women on bottom, so to speak. The main problem with gender is that boys and girls are expected to fulfill different roles.

Instead, no particular sex should be expected to fit into a particular stereotype. As long as we don’t see gender based on social hierarchy, one particular way of living or appearing will not be considered better or worse than another.

“We are using a gender presentation to mean something that gets translated into a hierarchy rather than just allowing people to be the way they are,” Stryker said.
“Gender styles should be whatever works for you. It should be OK to be gendered a certain way. It shouldn’t be negative.”

Alyssa Goldman is a sophomore majoring in journalism and gender studies.