Caitlynn Sandberg

Jennifer Rodrick

Queer Studies 115

10/24/2017

The Space Around Us

Just a few months ago in July of 2017 a youtube channel called WatchCut Video

published a video entitled People Guess the Sexual Orientation of Strangers. The actual video

is clocked at 7 minutes and 48 seconds and its just how it sounds. Certain people were given a

list of labels and asked to put a specific label on every individual in a group of strangers. This

sounds terrible but its something many people do subconsciously. They had their subjects

jumping, talking, dancing and answering questions to get a feel for what their sexuality might be.

At the end of the video they had the group that was labeled come out and say whether the person

was right in their labeling of them or not. Most of the people were wrong. This experiment,

although simple, teaches a very important lesson. We as a society have put labels on people of

the LGBTQ community causing the space and environment around them to have influence over

the way they choose to go about their daily lives.

From the moment we are born there are already expectations for us to follow that have

been set by society around us. There is not really a way to get around it either. Who we are or

who we are supposed to be is immediately determined by our sex. As children, our parents

treat us certain ways and teach us the correct way to act. This in turn can actually create a lot of

problems for the children who dont feel as though they fit into this image. Claire Renzetti,
professor of sociology focusing on gender and violence against women, and Daniel Curran,

professor of sociology who has coauthored many sociological books with Dr. Renzetti,

coauthored the book about gender roles and the way genders are treated from a young age

entitled Women, Men and Society. In the article they include research done by Liz Connors

tell who she is and she found that mothers of girls were more sensitive to their children, while

mothers of boys were more restrictive of their children (Curran and Renzetti 78). Parents have an

already set idea of how their children are going to act and that restricts many children from

comfortably exploring who they are as they get older. They start to feel more judged as they get

older because they are having stereotypes pushed on them and this causes them to retract and

hide. Young children dont mind playing with other gender specific toys until someone says a

comment such as thats a girl toy so you shouldnt be playing with that or vice versa. (Renzetti

and Curran 83). I do not believe that parents push the stereotype for the means of stereotyping

their children but that it has been this way for so long that not very many people try to break the

system and raise their child completely differently. They do it subconsciously. Curran and

Renzetti write, there is considerable evidence that what parents say they do and what they

actually do are frequently not the same. Many of us dont address these issues unless it applies

to us directly. The space around us has given us roles from the moment we are born and we

didnt even know it.

There are not only gender roles given to us when we are children but there are gendered

spaces once we get older. Petra Doan, professor of urban and regional planning at Florida State

University, focuses her work on gendered spaces and goes deeper into her experiences as a

transgender woman in her article entitled, The Tyranny of Gendered Spaces: Reflections from

Bey and the Gender Dichotomy. In the article Doan has written a section where she describes
situations that have happened to her in different gendered spaces. In the section entitled

Classroom, she describes how her experience as a professor changed once she was out as a

transgender woman. She was less respected and was no longer considered an expert in her field

by her students. Doan writes, Since my transition I have to work much harder to establish my

credentials and maintain control of the classroom than I did when I was perceived as a straight

man. I highly doubt that she became less intelligent after her transition. There were students in

her class that took her less seriously for multiple reasons. I believe to start that it was not only

because she was a woman but a transgender woman. Being transgender may have invalidated her

as a professor to some of the students she was teaching. On her evaluations she got many results

back that had nothing to do with how she was as a professor but instead hate comments about her

gender. Doans experience in the public restroom is also hard to hear about. One of the scariest

spaces for a person in the midst of a gender transition is a public restroom, Doan expressed. The

gender specific bathrooms generate fear in people mid transition because of the reactions they

could get from going into either restroom. The space created by society and individuals makes

people feel unsafe when they shouldnt have to.

A definite factor in whether or not people of the LGBTQ community feel safe is how

their family reacts to them coming out. Family is supposed to be where you are loved for who

you are and that is preached until something unexpected happens. In a diary entry by L. Canale

entitled, My Diary: Documented. Done, readers are able to see what was going through her

mind when her dad found out she was gay. It was a very emotional time and her dad did not

accept her. He threatened her and wants to fix her with religion. Canale writes, I dont

change, I ruin my family. I change, I ruin myself. My dads killing me, he doesnt know it, but

he is. She knows that its not her fault but she is living at home in fear of her father and what he
is going to do. She keeps writing that he found out because it was a secret she was keeping

from him. A difference is seen in Walking the Tracks, by Eric Knudsen. Knudsen has always

looked up to his brother Bryan and so right before Bryan leaves for bootcamp they go on a walk

where Bryan proceeds to tell Eric that he knows. Right after that he makes sure he tells him

that he still loves him for who he is and that gives Eric an extremely accepting environment. The

difference in these two stories is easy to see. The reaction of family is even seen in the language

used by both authors. Canale constantly uses the phrase he found out, while Knudsen uses the

phrase he knows and in context they hold such a different dynamic. He found out radiates

fear while he knows holds comfort and closeness. The amount of stress Canale was under

keeping her identity from her father is an example of what makes people want to conform. It

seems as though its easier to hide it than it is to come out.

In November of 2014 Thomas Lloyd did a TED Talk entitled Why am I so Gay? The

recurring theme of his talk was that contrary to popular belief, its easier and less damaging to

change your community than it is to change yourself. During his time at the Bronx High School

of Science his research was based around men who were exposed to HIV/AIDS. It was ironic

that most of the men he studied were statistically unlikely to identify as gay even though their

sexual behaviors were almost exclusively with men. I thought this was very interesting and it

really connects some dots in the picture. The men he studied were less likely to identify as gay so

they in turn were less likely to look for resources that may have been available to them

(TEDxTalks).
 Works Cited

Canale, L. My Diary: Documented. Done accessed on 10 October 2017

Doan, Petra Tyranny of gendered Spaces Accessed on 15 October 2017

Knudsen, Eric. Walking the Tracks accessed on 10 October 2017

People Guess the Sexual Orientation of Strangers Youtube Uploaded by WatchCut Video, 17

July 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2g0IhAuSAw

Renzetti, Claire and Curran, Daniel From WOmen MEn and Society Accessed 17 October

2017

Why am I so gay? Youtube Uploaded by TEDx Talks, 19 November 2014,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U1foLW8h54&t=778s