Why?

[Patrica Gil]

When a woman does something that men normally do their being assertive. When a male decides he wants to do what women normally do he's considered queer, odd, or just gay. I enjoy being the gurl that is me. My lover enjoys our time together, and in the morning, I put on my dress again and make breakfast for us. That is just part of caring for another person other than yourself. Thoughts?

[FrancineS]

That's the way I would look at it, caring for someone who is special to you. Its that unmentioned double standard.

[Katey888]

Is this another of those 'gross generalization' points...? :)

Society develops norms because it's easier for the muggles (almost everyone) to have two genders, largely related to two physical sexes, who generally feel a physical attraction for the opposite sex/gender. Bingo! 95% of the world is happy, content and feel like they understand the universe and everything that matters in it.

Throw into that: men that dress like women... people with spikey purple hair, tattoos and metalwork in their soft tissues... people who think they are a chihuahua... et cetera.. (hopefully you get the idea...) Society - in general - abhors misfits. It's too hard for them to try to understand why, so mostly the misfits get simply categorized in a convenient category and the vanilla world continues onward, free of complexities and the difficulty of understanding another sub-normal para-group... :D

Anyway - who in the heck is complaining about you wearing a dress for making breakfast...? Or did I miss something... :thinking:

Katey x

[Nadine Spirit]

I know that these stereotypes exist, but I think they exist far more within media than they do in real life. I hear people talking about it, I read people passing along these so called "facts" as well known obvious stuff. But in my personal life, I don't really see it. What I experience in life is that people generally are of the opinion of, 1 - if it makes you happy then fine, and 2 - it doesn't hurt anyone else so then fine.

I simply point this out as when I first started beginning to accept this part of myself I was SO terrified of what society was going to say or do to me if I ever let anyone know the slightest thing. But then I pushed myself out that front door and I realized that the vast majority of society really does not care. So then why the fear within me? And the key to it, was that the fear was within ME. Nobody external to me was saying these things, but I was hearing them nonetheless. I heard them because the voices came from within my own head. Sure I was repeating what I had heard from media sources, but as is normally the case with media sources everything was vastly exaggerated.

Once I understood that what I was hearing was coming from within my own head I began to able to hear what other people were actually saying and 99.99% of what others say to me is nothing but support.

Just my 2 cents.

[Tracii G]

Well said Nadine.

[Kate Simmons]

Most of it is because "society" still feels that men need to be active and women need to be passive. Therefore if you are a genetic man, you are supposed to be a "mover and shaker" and rugged not a home maker and pretty.They say we are a modern and progressive society but the gender stereotypes still hold sway in every day life for the most part. :)

[cheryl reeves]

ive never fitted into societies rules. even in guy mode i do alot of stuff women normally do and not many say anything about it. see i helped with the kids,cooking,shopping,cleaning house,etc. ive only had one person who thinks im a wimp because i dress,but he has never acted on the urge to hit me,he seems to know im holding back because of my sister.
p.s. im about as rough as sandpapet

[Beverley Sims]

Gilda,

I blame it all on the parents and upbringing.

After all they formed and moulded our minds years ago to think like this.

[kimdl93]

Oh, I think that more than a few GGs will be justifiably annoyed by your assertion that they are considered 'assertive' if they do something masculine...whatever that is. Think of the derogatory terms often applied to assertive women.

My guess is that people who use perforations to describe males exhibiting what you call feminine behavior will be similarly derogatory in the way they describe women.

[MelanieAnne]

If men who wear dresses are crossdressing, then women who wear pantsuits are crossdressing! Life isn't fair.