Maybe I'M crazy

[Danni Bear]

Or is it a little nuts.

Does anybody else ever notice that when we talk about activities we try to place them in gender roles. This seems a little silly at times.

Maybe it's something ingrained in our subconsious that as a male we like certain activities and female other ones. Then as we mature those stereotypes slowly lessen till they merge. I know certain activities will always be more dominated by male or female participants, but that shouldn't stop us from doing them or enjoying them. What a waste of time if when in fem mode you are afraid of doing something you enjoy while in male mode and vice versa.

Anyways thats my :2c: worth today

:hugs:
Danni

[linnea]

Most of that is just social-cultural construction. Sometimes it's for convenience, an easy way of talking about things. Mostly it's sexist and doesn't really have any valid gender-basis. One example that seems to have a hard time going away is the use of "lady" in reference girls/women's athletic teams: Lady Broncos, Lady Seahawks. Nobody refers to boys/men's teams as the Gentleman Broncos, etc. It's silly.

[Maryesther M.]

Observing my totally innocent grandchildren, of whom three are male, the other three being girls, of course.....

The boys are into model planes/trains/cars, and the girls are all into dolls, wendyhouses, dollshouses and dressing up as fairies. These seem to be gender-specific.

Shared activities are boating/canoeing, playground swings/slides/climbing frames, biking & skating outdoors, colouring/drawing/art, card&board games, & music making indoors.

Their grandfather is heavily into boats, trains, cars &c. too, but he also likes dressing up as his own private fantasy-girl....Gender specific?

[Steph.TS]

I think it makes alot of sense, alot of us (myself included) are afraid to dress as a woman outside I mean it's not like it'll hurt us (I mean the dressing itself) but we are told good girls do this and good boys do that, and it's frowned apon when boys what to do what girls do, but Society can but doesn't always frown what a girls does the opposite...

another side is once we start dressing outside we start seeing this as a chance to try new things, and of course nothing is exclusively a 'girl' hobby or a 'boy' hobby so we may find that those girly activities are new interests...

I really wish I could walk outside today with a frilly skirt/dress and not worry about what others think...

[NathalieX66]

Does anybody else ever notice that when we talk about activities we try to place them in gender roles. This seems a little silly at times.


My family is about as traditional Catholic as they come.
My maternal grandfather was about as dominating and chavinistic as they get.....Yet, he did all the cooking ,and he loved gardening and planting flowers. My mom was a tomboy who enjoyed playing touch football with the guys and hated girly-girl things like her sister. She claims my grandfather wanted a boy, not a girl.

I never felt precisely what a gender role is. I like feminine things, my sexuality is oriented towards women, and I like doing things women do, and I like dressing as a woman. I like going to MAC and getting a makeover. I also like getting my knuckles bloody working on an old Ford 312 engine block too. :battingeyelashes:

[AKAMichelle]

You have read my mind. That's why I enjoy doing everything including the ordinary things en femme.

[LitaKelley]

I like growing flowers.. well, growing anything and everything, but flowers for some reason I consider as feminine, but I like it and do it for me and could care less if some macho testosterone dude thought it was "girly" of me

[KlaireLarnia]

As a society we have a conscious need to categorize things and place them in boxes to make us feel safe and comfortable. As males where traditionally the hunters/providers and it was (as with a lot of animals) a case of the strongest survives or gets the most opportunities to reproduce - we have grow a society based around this. So we have built roles based on this where the stronger, more athletic activities are often male based due to these original roots - where as most other things became female based due to them traditionally being the child carers / cooks and home carers.

While society has come a long way even from 100 years ago, I personally feel it is the female side of society which sets these gender rules - as they are more social and therefore can spread ideas / mindsets easier. It is also them that will normally set the mindsets and initial thoughts of children in the early years due to normally having more contact on a daily basis. Women have over the years sought equality for them, without allowing the male side of society to encroach on their own space and encouraging males to still be strong and powerful and not show a feminine side . All the while they (females) have managed to make it acceptable to also be strong and powerful, move into areas like being soldiers and even playing FPS games etc. Thus encroach onto traditionally male areas. Yet men who move into female areas (hairdressing, dress making, child care etc) are often seen with a slightly less favorable light or have question marks placed against (normally) their sexual preference so that society can categorize what is seen as abnormal preference for men.

I hope that makes sense. I am not trying to sound nasty or pick on any area of society. I just feel that while men THINK they are in charge, it is only because women let them as it is they who really pull the strings and dictate what society does and finds acceptable - and hence we have gender specific roles as mentioned above. Men see it as odd because we cannot move into female roles often, but women do not see it as odd as they view it as protecting their original place in society.

Klaire