Gender Identity

The Encyclopedia Britannica defines gender identity as “an individual’s self-conception as being male or female, as distinguished from actual biological sex” (Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica 2014). This definition really made me think about my own gender identity. How would I identify myself? Feminine? Masculine?    
   
The longer that I think about this topic, the more uncertain I am. I don’t dress up very often, but I have fun doing it. I wouldn’t really consider myself to be overly masculine or overly feminine. I like babies, tall heels, and fun makeup. I also like football, driving a stick shift, and playing outside. I think my gender identity would fall somewhere between masculine and feminine, but leaning toward the more feminine side. But how do others see me? I think that everyone has a right to express who they truly are. If guys want to wear dresses, they can wear dresses. If girls want to be MMA fighters, they can do that, too. I think that gender identity is found somewhere between upraising and personality. I believe that family and friends have a huge influence on gender identity and how someone sees himself, but at the end of the day, much of a person’s personality is just engrained. 

In our gender identity, most females are taught to act feminine and most males are taught to act masculine. When a person of one sex chooses to act like the other sex, sometimes people do not understand because of our culture. This causes tension and bullying and sometimes even oppression. Males definitely get picked on more for acting feminine than females do for acting masculine. Even today males dominate society, and when a male is not like the rest, he gets severely picked on. I personally don’t care. Everyone has a right to express themselves however they feel necessary as long as they aren’t physically threatening someone else.





References

Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. (n.d.). gender identity (sexual behaviour). Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Retrieved February 21, 2014, from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/228219/gender-identity

Raising a Genderless Baby: Okay or Not?

After reading more than a couple articles on raising a gender-neutral child, I cannot help but to feel bad for the child in this situation. I think that it is courageous for the parents to help their child(ren) become more of their own identity rather than an identity constructed by society. That being said, I do not think it is being approached the correct way at all.

A Canadian couple is choosing to raise their youngest child, Storm, as gender-neutral. Only a select group of people know the children’s gender, and it is being kept a secret from the rest, even his or her grandparents. I love the idea that a child can decide how they want to be treated and how they want to act rather than being told how to by society. But, by keeping the gender a secret, I can’t help but feel like the choice is actually being taken away from the child.

The biggest point I think Storm’s parents are missing is that when, we as humans do not have something to identify with in the beginning, we can end up losing our identity rather than finding it. In an online article by ABC, the point was brought up that, “‘To raise a child not as a boy or a girl is creating, in some sense, a freak,’ said Dr. Eugene Beresin, director of training in child and adolescent psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital. ‘It sets them up for not knowing who they are.’” (Davis & James 2011).  Most of us strive daily to figure out who are better, and we have a gender identity. Without that, how can a child even know where to begin? Dr. Harold Koplewicz from the Huffington Post wrote, “Gender is a part of who we are, even if we hope that it wouldn't matter as much as it often does. Pretending it doesn't exist isn't a good message to send to a child-or an infant. It magnifies, rather than reducing, its importance” (2011). Gender identity is sometimes overbearing and ridiculous, and it can be thrown off if that is what someone wants to do. But shouldn’t THAT be Storm’s choice to do so, rather than having to make a choice of who to identify with or how to identify with others?

I think it is spectacular that these parents are allowing their children to be who they want rather than stick to gender-based things. I just don’t think that keeping a child’s gender secret is the best choice in our society. Our world could stand to lose some of the silly gender ideas, but some of the gender characteristics are innate rather than put there by society.  Let the child leave the innate and choose the rest.




References

Davis, L., & James, S. D. (2011, May 12). Home> Health Canadian Mother Raising 'Genderless' Baby, Storm, Defends Her Family's Decision. In ABC News. Retrieved February 14, 2014

Koplewicz, H. (2011, May 27). Bringing Up Baby Without Gender: A Risky Social Experiment? . In Huffington Post. Retrieved February 14, 2014

Privileges

I define a privilege as something we have that we did not have to earn, that other people do not have. Most of the time it is an advantage that we have that we did not ask for or that we do not deserve. Sometimes we do not even want the privileges that we have, but they are there and most of the time we take advantage of them. 

I am the first one to admit that I have grown up very privileged. I have never had to earn my food, my bed, my clothes, or even sometimes my spending money. I am white and I grew up in a middle-class, farming suburb. I was even privileged enough to have friends and family who look like me and like the same things that I do. I had sleepovers, birthday parties, and I even went to a private high school. Nothing about me says underprivileged at all except for maybe a fact that I am a female in the south. In class we mostly discusses privilege based upon race and gender.

All this being said, I think it is very sad that because of where I live and my skin color I am treated any better than others who are different from me. I hope that as a teacher I can get passed the different privileges and see my students for who they are rather than what they are. I want to be able to teach my students to respect people and to earn other people’s respect based purely on actions and personality. I want to treat my students without any biases based on privilege, but rather based on performance and earning. I want to learn about each of my students, instead of making assumptions based upon how they look or how they are being raised. I know that I am human and I have biases that I am not even aware of, but I hope to become aware and make my classroom a more safe, and healthy environment for each and every child I teach. I think his sums up my ideas perfectly :”Banks and Banks (2004) explain that the

chief aim of multicultural education is to achieve educational equity, ensuring that all students can attain academic success. In addition, effective multicultural pedagogy helps students cultivate the knowledge, dispositions, and attitudes needed to join with one another ‘to create a civic and moral community that works for the common good’ (p. xi)” (Flynn 2012, p. 109).

References

Flynn, J. (2012). CRITICAL PEDAGOGY WITH THE OPPRESSED AND THE OPPRESSORS: Middle School Students Discuss Racism and White Privilege. Middle Grades Research Journal, 7(2), 95-110.