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Daniel Ziv

Professor Ditch

English 115

4 October 2017

Breaking Down Gender Boundaries

Regardless of assigned gender, everyone performs in a masculine or a feminine manner

in certain situations. In my case, when playing sports and being coached I show more feminine

qualities, but while leading in school projects or small groups I assert masculinity. While playing

soccer at Cal State Northridge for example, I always abide by my coaches commands and follow

their every order. This is due to the respect I have for my coaches as well as my trust in their

ability to make me a better player. However in small crowds with kids in my age group, I have to

dominate the conversation to ensure the project, assignment, or activity is done to the best of our

abilities. Therefore, I believe that age has a lot to do with gender performance in certain spaces.

Despite perceived social norms, the age of people around you and an awareness for others

dissolves gender boundaries in varied spaces, and therefore conformity can be abolished, leading

to a much more accepting society.

In a situation where adults dominate the space, feminine qualities are more likely to be

exhibited out of respect for ones peers. In my experience, I assert the feminine qualities while at

soccer practice. When being coached or taught, I always give in to the demand no matter the

physical sacrifice that has to be made. Trusting that a coach knows best leads to submissiveness,

and therefore gender role is flipped. However on the other hand, some players, such as the team

captains, argue with the coaches and defend their personal beliefs. This exhibits their inclined

masculinity, and how they are not respectful or intimidated by our coaches. Theses players are
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therefore more masculine since people who exhibit a manly air of toughness, confidence and

self-reliance, are seen to be exerting their inclined masculinity, (Devor 42). However taking on

the feminine role is essential to success, in sports and in life, as adults know what is necessary to

achieve full potential, since they have experience. Therefore, it should be seen as socially

acceptable for a man to take on the feminine role when in a space of learning, as this is the way

society advances, and matures. Without the adults in our lives to teach, discipline, and most

importantly guide us into the future, an immature, incapable wave of adults will uprise in the

future generations.

Aaron Devor contrasts this in his article Becoming Members of Society, when he

argues how the social hegemony of this ideology ensures that we are all raised to practice

gender roles, but I dont believe that this captures the full story (43). Our current social situation

is that women are under male hegemony. This creates a problem however, because it suppresses

females to a lower social status, and therefore its much more difficult for them to achieve

dominant roles in the system. So in order to slowly diminish this wall that women are faced with,

people must begin to understand how social conformity really works. This being that women are

brought up in the shadows of men. But, once its realized by a majority of the population, that

depending on the space, gender roles are interchangeable, women will be able to overcome the

supremacy of men, by determining the appropriate times to undertake the masculine role. Then,

they will ultimately witness a shift in power and will no longer be face to face with an

unbreakable social barricade. And, ultimately, the prolonged social conformities of gender will

come to a halt.

It is fair to say that boys are raised to become men as are girls to become women.

However, this gender assignment changes throughout each and every day, with every interaction,
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and therefore I think that its less important to focus on socially constructed gender, but rather to

examine how this assignment affects action. By doing so, it is possible to erase this conformity,

and just accept that everyone will act both in a masculine way and feminine way depending on

the circumstance. There is biological evidence that gender roles are a result of power

imbalances based on gender discrimination, as well, (Devor 43). Again though, if its taken into

realization that power itself is shifted between genders, then theres no more reason to

discriminate based on gender because its situational. And yes, although males are portrayed as

the more powerful gender overall, they too, show feminine traits at times. So in comparison, my

coaches exhibit masculine traits at practice with their flailing arms, loud voices, and overall

dominating presence, but on other occasions, such as at home with family, or in front of the dean

of the school, they are the submissive ones. Overall, conformity is just a title, and the gender

boundaries can be broken after one realizes that the gap between males and females isnt really

there, rather its a mask holding females back from taking a masculine role and becoming

leaders. But for me, its personality and age of those around me, however there are countless

reasons for each person that can only be discovered through individual analyzation of

interactions.

On the contrary, when surrounded by those in the same age group, an individual,

specifically males, act in a dominant manner, and control the space. Men often feel a desire to

get things done correctly from their viewpoint, and will do whatever they can to make that

happen. For example in my humanities class, we were assigned a group project where we had to

analyze the literal meaning of a poem. I had one male and one female in my group, and the other

male and I immediately took over the conversation. We both argued our points with strong

voices and opinions, until one finally gave into the other. The female, on the other hand, gave
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little to no input and did not question our ideas. She almost sulked in her desk as we discussed

the poem.

This ties into Judith Lorbers article, Night to his Day, where she explains how womens roles

are assigned before theyre old enough to even think for themselves. She claims the continuing

purpose of gender as a modern social institution is to construct women as a group to be the

subordinates of men as a group, which ties into my humanities group project, (30). The female

almost had no choice but to abide by our decisions, because society conformed her to do so,

similar to how men are normally perceived as the dominant gender. So whether it be consciously

or not, when in a space with people of similar ages, the males tend to dominate. This could be to

impress the girls, looking at it from a biological needs standpoint, or to just show off and fit their

socially constructed roles that they believe they must follow. Regardless, it can be seen that as

the age gap increases, the more easily the boundaries of gender roles will be broken. This is very

important as it applies to everyday life. Women can make a change if they understand that its

natural for them to take on the masculine role at times. Politically, there has been a major shift,

and women are expressing their opinions, becoming heavily involved, and creating stronger

voices for themselves. Still, since gender is such a familiar part of daily life that it usually takes

a deliberate disruption of our expectations of how women and men are supposed to act to pay

attention to how it is produced, its difficult to visualize this shift, (Lorber 20). However once

we do recognize the change, almost instantly, there is a serious decomposition of these socially

constructed boundaries. Men now look up to women, no matter the age, race, or religion of the

female. So, it can be seen that, as people become more actively aware that gender is just a label,

a balance of power occurs, as females begin taking dominant, public roles in society.
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Gender differences are socially constructed, and both men and woman can perform the

others role as soon as they learn to dismiss social norms. But if less focus is put on assigned

gender and more on how the space affects performance of each person, there will be less

controversy on the topic of gender. By analyzing each individual performance in each space,

behavior can be adjusted and predicted beforehand, and these social constructions will slowly

begin to fade. Overall, being aware of the people in a certain space, and taking into account how

each individual behaves around certain age groups, allows for a deeper understanding of why

gender is solely a social title, which will help reduce the boundaries that are abided by in todays

world.
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Works Cited

Devor, Aaron. Becoming Members of Society. Composing Gender, p. 42, 43.

Lorber, Judith. Night to His Day . Composing Gender, p. 30.