Day 6- Reading Response

The class today I felt mainly looked as women with relation to their sex. It talked about how as a culture were so used to placing men and women into gender specific categories that we forget who the person really is. The three texts that we read for the class today really talked about the role that many women are put into.

The text called Women’s Sexuality, which came from the book Challenging Sex/Gender Binaries talked about how women and men aren’t born into their specific roles, but as a society we shape what our children become. I thought that this outlook was really interesting because I didn’t even really realize that that went on. I guess even before a child is born they are placed into the categories that their parents want them to be in. Many times they will be given the “gender appropriate” things such as a fire truck or a ballerina costume, even if that is not truly who the child is. The article talked about how there has been a new push to break out of these gender roles and I found that whole notion really interesting. I guess that I never looked at it in that way.

The article, Night to His Day, looked into the idea of gender specific roles also. It talked about how the clothing that we wear down to the way that we brush our hair are all gender traits that we individually pick up. It talked about how the clothes we wear hides out sex, yet at the same time gives us a gender. I thought that this was a really interesting way of looking at things. The way that we dress and the way that we carry ourselves does tell a lot about us with out really showing who we are. However, at the same time, I think that it can really hide who a person is at the same time.

The final article, Introduction to the Second Sex, I found a bit more difficult to read. It talked about how everything is really relative. What I found most interesting in this article was how they compared “eternal feminine” to “Jim Crow”. As a woman I had never thought of myself as being oppressed in such a way but now, looking back I realize that women were treated just as poorly but it was hidden from outsiders.

The articles today were really interesting because I never had thought of things in that light. I realized that we make ourselves what we want to be, and we are shaped by what our parents feel is best.