Gender Binary

By: Aleisha Murrell

The Academic Room states that “gender binary is the classification of sex and gender into two distinct and disconnected forms of masculine and feminine.”[1] The PowerPoint we discussed in class describes it as a social boundary that discourages people from crossing gender roles. [2] This term is described as splitting males and females into gender roles and gender identities. Gender roles go hand and hand with gender binary. Gender binary is to divide up the sexes and organize them, to bring order. In my opinion gender binary is overrated and leaves individuals feeling pressured to fit society’s expectations, rather than having people be themselves and embracing their true character. Society puts such a huge pressure on men to be masculine and tough, meaning to be insensitive, tall, have a lot of muscles, and be the provider and to not express their feelings. That was how I was brainwashed, from my friends, family, and society telling me that that is who a real man is. But it isn’t, those qualities are superficial and meaningless to me now. My boyfriend, that I am madly in love with is 5’8, small, without an ungodly amount of muscle, and has feelings and emotions that he isn’t afraid to share with me on a regular basis. He loves to be mushy and likes to do sweet things for me, he is very smart, he is not violent and not reckless, and he carries himself as a gentleman. Now, I’m not saying all men aren’t like this, but in my younger years I would have thought he wasn’t manly enough for me, and that he acted too feminine. Watching the “Tough Guise” video really opened my eyes to just how much pressure we (society) put on men, from the video games to the movies to the commercials that we see every day. [3] Nowadays every movie that involves a man is super masculine (tall, muscular, hairy) and every commercial that I see is a new and improved way to get men’s bodies to be even more ripped. From watching the video I saw the dramatic changes in how men’s bodies have changed over the last 50 years, because there is such a high demand for men to be bigger, more tough, and macho more than ever now. These high standards that our society requires should be lowered, I have learned that from the video of “Tough guise” little boys are being burdened with this false persona at a very young age, it’s not fair to them to have to grow up feeling this way, feeling trapped and lost like they can’t show their real personality and identity. Sadly, we are influencing the younger boys, but it is also affecting the men of our society.

 

Citations:

[1]. “The Academic Room,” http://www.academicroom.com/topics/what-is-gender-binary

[2]. Moore, Crystal. “The Role of Sex and Gender in Sexual History”. Charlotte: The History of Sexuality in America from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Accessed January 14, 2014.

 [3]. “Tough Guise - Violence Media and the Crisis in Masculinity,” production date January 17, 2013, http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xwu5r3_tough-guise-violence-media-and-the-crisis-in-masculinity_tech.