Gendered Woman

Gender Sidney Silver (Bass Player for The Lunatics) NYC. Picture By Annie Leibonitz Penelope Tuesdae. (Go-go dancer, Singer, Night Clubber) NYX. Gender A common misconception people have is that gender equals sex. That all men are of the male sex and al women of the female Gender.. Genetics and a combination of chromosomes is what makes a female (XX) or a male (XY). Gender on the other hand is more complex and controversial. There are nature/nurture issues connected to gender. Some say Gender is based on biological differences, others say it is a learned behavior, learned from our families and the societies in which one lives. Yet there are others who say it’s a combination of both. Gender is a way of being, it is the way we act in society. The way in which we dress, speak, walk, sit, and relate to others. Do we act out a more feminine role, or a more masculine role? How do these differences in behavior contribute to a women’s oppression in society and in their relationships with men? How do these differences contribute to the oppression of those playing a feminine role in other less traditional settings, communities and relationships, such as those of the gay and lesbian community? If we were to accept the belief that Gender is due to biology, then the treatment of men and women would have to be different. For example, men are testosterone driven, and more likely to cheat, if this is due to biology, then there should be more understanding towards men. On the other hand women who cheat should then have more sever consequences, since it is not what is natural for them. Obviously this perception of Gender is problematic in that it aids in the suppression of women. On the other hand, if we accept the argument that Gender is learned, that it is acted, and that is a result of socialization, we can then work on making it less oppressive for those who fit the female Gender. Sexuality Pat Breen (Tony's Restaurant) Houston, Texas Janet Aiello (Police Officer) Hoboken, New Jersey Sexuality The lesbian identity is on a continuum, there is a wide range of ways for one to identify as a lesbian. Not all lesbians feel comfortable with the present vocabulary for identification. Here are some of the labels that are currently being used in the lesbian community. Lesbian: A woman who loves other women, emotionally, spiritually, and physically; a woman identified woman. Butch: A butch is a woman who favors masculine style in, clothing, hair, mannerisms and interests. It is the gendered aspect of the lesbian identity. They are the “visible” lesbians. Femme: A lesbian, who fits the normal feminine role, embraces the “femme” identity and sometimes views it as separate from lesbian identity. Femme’s are sometimes accused of trying to “pass” in the straight world because they are “invisible” lesbians. These are all labels that have been placed for women to find a way to identify. These however do not correlate to who they will date. It is a myth that butch women only like femme women. It is very individual as to what type of person each is attracted to. Many butch women identify as women but for lack of better words are masculine. They are expressing a different way to be women. These labels are being used so that the “heterosexual norm” can have a way to identify people who are different. The butch-femme roles that society has placed on lesbian relationships are assuming that homosexuals have to emulate heterosexual relationships. Heterosexual roles are based on oppression, hierarchy and polarization. Basing butch-femme roles on lesbians reinforces the inequality of a binary idea. Portraying lesbians as the masculine/feminine dichotomy continues to emphasize the differences and hierarchy in a relationship that is not equal. Why do all people have to fit into one of two rigid categories? Society will continue to label and group people until we realize that each person is unique and has a particular identity all to his or her self. 1950's Bar Culture Elen DeGeneres (Comedian) Kauai, Hawaii Jennifer Miller (Performance Artist) New York NYC Rosie O'Donnell and Parker O'Donnell (Comedian and Her son) New York city The 1950’s Bar Culture The 1950’s was a time which redefined lesbianism and which brought to light the butch identity. In A Restricted Country by Joan Nestle she states that “butch-femme couples embarrassed other lesbians (and still do) because they made lesbians culturally visible, a terrifying act for the 1950’s” (Nestle, 93). At the time, the idea of butch-femme relationships was difficult for society to handle because it made visible their sexuality. The women who participated in butch-fem relationships were looked down upon because people often thought that they were just trying to imitate heterosexual relationships in which there is a feminine and a masculine. They also thought that their sexual relationship mirrored the male-powered heterosexual relationships of the time but “the commitment to please each other was totally different from that in heterosexual relationships in which the woman existed to please the man” (Nestle, 96). In articles from the 1950’s, butch women were depicted to hunt down feminine women and forcefully make them participate in lesbian relationships, “In accordance with sexist ideology, masculinity is equated with aggression, and femininity is linked to passivity, ignorance and spinelessness. Any woman who does not display ‘ideal’ feminine characteristics is defined as mannish or a ‘third sex’ and not a woman at all, and any feminine-looking woman who has sex with other women is assumed to have been seduced or tricked, rather than having acted out of free will” (Campbell, 131). She also states that “a clear distinction in made between ‘active’ lesbians, who are aggressive, and ‘mannish’ in appearance, and ‘passive’ lesbians, who are more traditionally feminine in appearance” (Campbell, 130). The article then goes on to explain that “journalists did not accept that feminine-looking women could be lesbians at all. These femme or ‘passive’ lesbians were said to be more easily ‘cured’ or restored heterosexuality than ‘mannish’ lesbians” (Campbell, 131). Women who participated in butch/fem relationships were never viewed with respect because “femme women were not seen as ‘real’ lesbians, butch women were not seen as ‘real’ women” (Campbell, 131). Why would their gender have such a large affect on the way that their sex and sexuality is identified by others? It is not acceptable that a femme woman’s sexuality is discredited because she is feminine while a butch woman’s sex is discredited simply because she is masculine. “This explains why femme lesbians were not considered ‘real’ lesbians; lesbianism was seen to be primarily about gender, rather than about sexuality” (Campbell, 131). The 1950’s was a very difficult time for gay men and lesbians. Often, men and women would seek support and a sense of community at bars and other secluded group situations because their lifestyle was incredibly taboo. There were certain ways of enforcing this homophobia as well as sexism and patriarchy such as the 3 garment rule which the police used to harass butch women “as butch-femme communities proliferated in the 1940’s and 1950’samidst a social climate of State-sanctioned homosexual intolerance, butch/femme bars and clubs were subject to police raids and butches were routinely stripped and raped by cops under the pretense of enforcing a state law requiring a female to wear at least three items of women’s clothing (Maltz, 10). Often, gender is substituted for sexuality. This is problematic for two reasons: the first being that they are not one in the same, they are actually two different entities within individuals. Gender is socially constructed and defined depending on the period in which one lives, the individual as well as the society. On the other hand sexuality is defined by the people that one prefers to have sexual and/or emotional relationships with. “A more understandable reason than effeminophobia, however, is the conceptual need of the gay movement to interrupt a long tradition of viewing gender and sexuality as continuous and collapsible categories- a tradition of assuming that anyone, male or female, who desires a man must by definition be feminine, and that anyone, male or female, who desires a woman must by the same token be masculine” (Warner, 72). This explains the second reason why this idea is problematic. This leaves no room for femme lesbians and masculine gay men to have any space in society.