Pilar did a post on “My Sins Against Gender-Stereotypes”, in response to a challenge from a blog friend of hers. I can't call it a sin, though, so I'm going to call it "Celebrating Breaking the Gender Rules".
Here's what I do that breaks the rules:
- Let my chin hairs grow! At 53, I've got quite a few. Each semester, I carefully cut them off with scissors before my first class, so I won't scare my students. Then I let them grow. Right now they're longer than they've ever been, due to my sabbatical year.
- Wear men's pants when they fit better (often), and men's fitted button downs (European fit) to fit my long arms.
- Neglect my clothes.
- Speak my mind.
- Love math.
- Hate shopping.
- Eat what I want.
- I don't cook much. (Which is why I love Three Stone Hearth for allowing me to eat healthy food.)
Anyone care to join this party?
Posts
I think I told you my story about a math olympiad coach who never took girls to the country level. He could not leave me out, because I was about 2x faster in the prelims than the boy who got the second regional place (and who the coach wanted to take), and also because my mom was a part of the circles overseeing competitions. I got the only first prize on the team. That was at 13.
ReplyDeleteI cross-dressed purposefully from about 7 to about 12, till I started dating boys. I was very physically active and loved climbing, and this was a way to make it socially acceptable. "Tomboy" is a definite role people could pigeonhole you into and be done.
I bought my daughter boy clothes and toys as a baby, and many took her for a boy. We always shopped for clothes together: she would point since the age of four months or so, to things I held in front of her for selection. I took her to boy isles and girl isles. She had her "pinkness" time from four to six years, barbies and all. She's pretty balanced now.
I feel like paying attention to gender only when something gets out of whack: I am being passed for a team, not allowed to climb roofs... This has not happened much for the last fifteen years or so. But I can be very oblivious to what people TRY to do "to me" as long as I can still do what I want.
I don't quite know how to describe this idea, but there are traits in me that override gender as pretexts for discrimination, if people want any. I am extremely geeky, I am a gamer, I am chaotic neutral (a D&D term) with all this entails for time and task management, I have lived in places that identify me as "an alien with an accent" since 16, starting from Moscow, I am frequently Kohlberg's Stage 6, etc. Trying to do my projects from all these minority positions makes me forget about gender issues: those other factors play more powerful roles in my daily life.
Awesome list, especially the "love math" part! That stereotype is soooooo sad... :(
ReplyDelete