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Joseph Jones

Professor Ditch

English 115

04 October 2017

Conforming to Gendered Spaces

Gendered spaces are not just a social construct. With gendered spaces is based off how

you perform when being out of your original space. Why should we treat different gendered

spaces with gender constructs? People enter a different gendered space every day. There are

various ways you can perform gender in different spaces. Such as, acting masculine or feminine

in the right spaces. Also teaching our bodies how to relate with feminine performance and

actions. Men and women see themselves as objects, although when reality of your performance

changes people may realize youre masculine or feminine. When people are out of their original

space they tend to act different and not comfortable as usual. Gender Spaces has no capacity

anyone can enter that space, it all depends on how you act or do you demonstrate gender

masculinity or femininity. Although some people struggle to conform to societal standards, most

members of society conform to gender constructs.

Therefore, when males are in their gendered space theyre going to give those masculine

vibes. Especially when doing a masculine sport or being in a masculine environment such as a

barbershop , 9 times out of 10 most men are going to definitely act masculine and talk in

masculinity way . Additionally, when men are going to dress in a masculine way some may

dress different but most tend to go out with tank tops to show muscles, and wear shoes than
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sandals. Depending on how you grew up playing toys also can show what you were more into.

Some males when growing up played with trucks and hot wheels etc , or you probably played an

instrument to past time when being young. In the reading from From Women, Men, and society

Composing Gender by (Renzetti 80 and Curran 80) it states toys not only entertain children ,

they also teach them particular skills as a result that tells the reader that young boys tend to

learn from little things such as toys and other electronics to show their masculinity instead of

playing with dolls.

Now a in a woman's perspective they would see things in a different view. Such as, when

females go shopping they usually go into females stores. Now when they have a guest with

them such as a boyfriend, that boyfriend is going to feel weird about going into the female store

with his significant other. This would be where his gender performance would be exposed. Now

as a man there is no right or wrong to this situation, itll show how you react with being in a

space that youre not usually in. Being a male and having feminine ways isnt bad or wrong at

all, it just being a part of society. In article Night to his Day: The Social Construction of

Gender by Judith Lorber quoted on page 19 Gender is so pervasive that in our society we

assume it is bred into our genes. You can still be masculine and have your feminine tendencies.

My experience with performing gender in a different space is when I went dress shopping

for my aunt's wedding. I felt weird only because it wasnt anything to entertain me or pay my

attention towards. The feelings when being in type of space was a little awkward, the reason why

it was awkward because I was only guy with being around a group of females. My performance

changed because of my mood being that environment. I didn't want to express my feminine ways

because I just felt like it would look weird and acting like that around females. Im used to being
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around men so for me to act feminine would feel weird to voluntarily express those actions

around females. Now that Im more mature I understand more about gender spaces. It doesn't

matter what you identify yourself as, you can still demonstrate your ways with gender spaces.

All this info is very helpful for the future reference. This all reveals that while being out of your

comfort zone, your true colors start to come out and show who you really are. Me as an 18-year-

old male I go through different phases. I believe I perform masculinity more than femininity.

Growing up I have always demonstrated my masculine ways. I played football since I was 9

years old. Football is a very physical sport and mainly a man's favorite sport to watch. Now not

saying a female cant play football or watch it, itll just show the masculinity in them when being

in the gender space. Gender space is uni-sex both sides of the sexes can to relate to gender

performances. In article Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender by (Lorber 27)

the quote stated Gender differences are socially constructed , all men and all women can enact

the behavior of the other, because they know the others social script. When being in a space

that's not your comfort zone your true colors usually come out. Me as a mature male conforms

towards the gender construct because I know how to perform when being out of my gender

space. For instance, when I go to my girlfriend to get her nails done, I sit and wait for her inside

the shop. Even though that place is filled with females and the females speak on femininity

conversation, me as a male know how to either join the conversation or just sit back and listen. I

just tend to keep my cool about everything and just be me when being out of my comfort zone.

Although gender spaces are a social construct, people fail to realize that women and men

are the society. Women most importantly, reason why theyre the main factor cause we all come

from a female, either male or female or another significant gender theyre important. Now
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everything is based on sex biology with men and women. In article Composing Gender From

Women, Men and society (Renzetti ,Curran 76) it stated Although there are few physiological

or behavioral differences between males and females at birth, parents to respond differently to

newborns on the basis of sex. Overall the people of the society fail to realize the important

things about men and women. Additionally, with being a significant gender transgender, male

and female we all can expose our masculinity and femininity even being in different spaces.

Composing gender is based on your reactions and how you can handle the different

gender spaces. Also, how you feel when being in another space that youre not usually in. I feel

like people see more masculine than feminine, only because Ive done masculine activities or go

to masculine events. Composing gender is a social construct but you have to see the various

routes you can take to get the information or meaning of the Gender spaces and the biology of

men and women etc. This topic is important because some people dont know the importance of

gendered spaces. Being in significant gendered spaces are important because not everyone will

know how you perform when being in an environment or even if you dont know how to act, you

can go and see for yourself and see how you feel about being in another space. Some people

would probably be more comfortable maybe taking you out or more or hanging with you .Some

may or may not fit into the form of the construct but some will learn the importance of gender

construct.

Work cited

Claire Renzetti and Daniel Curran From Women, Men, and Society: composing gender
A Bedford Spotlight Reader book 08 Nov 2013

Judith Lorber Night to his day: The Social Construction of Gender A Bedford spotlight
Reader book 08 Nov 2013
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Claire Renzetti and Daniel Curran From Women , Men, and society: Composing Gender A
Bedford Spotlight Reader book 08 Nov 2013