Discussion Blog Four

Shaw and Lee discuss in their article The Social Construction of Gender, how “gender is constantly created and re-created out of human interaction, out of social life, and is the texture and order of that social life” and how everyone is constantly “doing gender”. An example of this was shown as the men on the bus were stared at and smiled at approvingly for taking care of their children. Is this because society does not expect as much out of men as it does women, when it comes to child rearing? Who are the people that are making these judgments, men, women, or both? How can women join together to fight for equality of the sexes when so many are “awed” by the fact that a man is taking responsibility for his own children?

Notions of masculinity and femininity become well established throughout a persons young life, when s/he begins to associate things like strength and ability with men and emotional and dependent with women. WVFV discusses masculinity and femininity. It also touches on the difficultly of buying a child gender neutral gifts and raising a child without a bias towards either gender in “X: A Fabulous Child’s Story.”