Happy Halloween!

Submitted by Mirra Watkins

     Halloween….  Known as a day of masquerading for children to trick or treat.  I have always known it to be such a day, to dress up and be whomever or whatever you admire and love: Captain Jack Sparrow, Princess Peach, Batman, Spiderman, etc.  However, due to most of us “doing gender,” I don’t think many realize how Halloween has contributed to the reinforcement of gender socialization (see how our society makes distinct differences in how children should dress for Halloween in the pictures below).  One mother’s decision in 2010 shook up this notion.

     Sarah Manley’s five-year-old son, Boo, decided to dress up as Daphne from Scooby Doo for his preschool Halloween party in 2010.  Much to my and his mother's surprise, it started an uproar.  To add more shock, the controversy did not start because of Boo’s fellow preschoolers teasing him for wearing, what many would assume, a "girl’s costume," which Boo (and I upon hearing the story) expected.  No, it wasn’t his friends who criticized him.  In fact, the children enjoyed his get-up.  The disgust and disapproval came from none other than the children’s parents.  Manley, retelling the incident on her blog, stated that “Two mothers went wide-eyed and made faces as if they smelled decomp…And Mom A says in disgust, ‘Did he ask to be that?!’…Mom B mostly just stood there in shock and dismay.”  Another mother found the audacity to tell Manley how Manley “should never have allowed this” and that she would have to put her foot down in years to come.  Sarah Manley received much backlash not only from the mothers at her son’s preschool but online as well after she vented about the issue on her blog.  In the New York Times online blog, Manley discussed how she “received some pretty terrible comments and name-calling about [her] 5-year-old that [she] couldn’t reprint.”  One individual went as far as tweeting Manley's husband’s police department in order to have her children taken away.

     What’s upsetting to me about this controversy is the hypocrisy of our society and their unrelenting ways to commit everyone to their very specific and limiting gender roles…even on a holiday made for dressing up and being someone that you're not!  What’s even sadder about this situation was the many negative comments Manley received about her son being gay or that she ‘outed’ Boo.  Despite the fact that young 5-year old Boo, as his mother said, has "no sexual conscious choice."  The negative comments further support the social belief that, as quoted in Sociology Matters, “men and women who deviate from traditional expectations about gender roles are often presumed to be gay."  Manley’s son, Boo, was expected to dress up as someone "masculine" for Halloween (most likely similar to the costumes above).  Because he didn't, he and his mother were chastised.  Far as our society’s homophobia and standards of gender roles goes, a boy dressing up as Daphne, Snow White, Storm, a Powerpuff Girl, or any other female character is a huge NO-NO and should be frowned upon and stopped.

     Many fail to realize and to understand that at such a young age, children do not know or understand sexual identity or sexual preference.  According to MSNBC, experts say that it is not unusual for boys under five to dress up in clothing or costumes usually associated with girls.  Not only that, however, many girls dress up as boys (or what’s typically associated with boys) and our society sees no problem with that! Manley said it best in her blog that if her daughter “had dressed as Batman, no one would have thought twice about it.  No one.”  What makes a girl dressing up as a male any different than a boy dressing up as a female?  Nothing.  As children see it, they are just having fun.  However to our society, it is a stigma.  A stigma so influential that children around five years of age become aware of the "differences" between our two genders and the desire to "cross-dress" disappears.

     Sadly, this issue came into light because of one Halloween costume.  I cannot imagine the difficulty our society will have with the larger issue of parents allowing their children to causally "cross-dress."  How will our society handle our children wanting to dress in everyday clothes that are stereotypically associated with the opposite sex?  Will we reprimand and scold our children in order to mold them into society’s acceptable and restrictive gender roles?  Or will we learn to accept, making our children’s happiness our top priority rather than our society’s standards and expectations?  Will we evolve and become a nation that does not subject its children to dimorphic genders?


To read Sarah Manley’s full blog post, go to http://nerdyapple.com/my-son-is-gay/

The roles of gender and sexuality in American Society. By Ken Shaw

We have truly come a long way from the viciously intolerant times of our parents and grandparents. It wasnt even 80 years ago when expressing your true sexual preference meant you had a chance to go to jail if anyone caught you. Closeting your emotions and beliefs because of the stigma behind it. The old days when men and women alike were expected to fill the "cookie cutter" mold that society put in place. Going against the norms of the times ended in being labeled as a "freak" and excommunicated from society.

Many movements and causes shaped and truly changed our generation's views and opinions on the matter. And we truly do realize how lucky we do have it in today's times. The equality for Americans that go against the social norm still is lacking key elements such as the right to marry and all the privledges that come with the title, but 50 years ago they were'nt even considered American in society. Slowly but surely the LGBT community fought for the freedom to express your true gender and sexuality without facing the adversely negative stigma and labels that come with being LGBT. Through the cruel verbal and vicious physical lashings they took to get their message of tolerance and equality across to the masses and it was truly being recieved on open minded ears.

 I honestly dont know much about the LGBT community and their trials and tribulations that came with the fight. But I truly commend the people that constantly fight and rally behind obtaining equal rights. The ones that marched and lobbied to government officials to at least grant them the right to marry a partner wether man or woman that they truly love and live out their version of this so-called "American Dream". So I leave you ( my fellow classmates) with this:"Could you truly thive in a country that did'nt consider you a equal because of your true expression of sexuality and gender"? 

Robots in Training

By Amanda Knoll

From the time we start socializing, we see the differences between girls and boys....and also what is expected from each gender.  If you're a boy you should be outside riding your bike, catching bugs, and getting dirty. If you're a girl you should be playing with barbies, having a tea party, and painting your nails.  If you go against these norms, you're usually just being a carefree kid, but sometimes if you show too much interest in the other side, then you're labeled and judged and stereotyped pretty quickly.

I personally grew up doing both girly girl things and some tom-boy type things too.  I took ballet class, but also fought my brother to mow the lawn barefooted on the weekends.  I could dress up with bows in my hair, but loved to walk through the creek in our back yard looking for cray fish.  I didn't ever really get judged, because I was young.  Now a days I'm not out in the woods exploring because I'm older and I don't really get the chance to often, but I love when I date a guy and we go hiking or cliff jumping or fishing. It brings back that tom-boy little kid in me that I think balances out my being.

My last example would be my brother. He is a gay man, so whenever I converse with his friends now they kind of hint and prod that he probably was such a feminine little boy.  But my brother was just the opposite.  He constantly was outside doing outdoorsy little boy things, playing with snakes and animals, climbing rocks, burning stuff, etc.  And he still does to this day.

So, as you can see, I believe a balance between feminine and masculine is ok and actually preferable.  It shouldn't be frowned upon and honestly to me the extreme of either can just be kind of overwhelming. A manly man is nice, but every man needs that little hint of feminine softness to them; and vise versa with a woman needing a little touch of tough rugged spirit when its needed.

A lot of the stereotypes you can see just by watching tv for 5 or 10 minutes.  There are beer commercials that only really show men drinking beer. Like in the commercial below: they keep saying "Mr....." this and that, only targeting men as the consumers of beer.  Funny, because I know many many women including myself that enjoy beer. But beer is seen as something that mainly men drink. It just exemplifies how strong stereotypes of genders are in our society.

The stereotypes of gender roles are so wrong in my eyes. We all need a little bit of both sides of the spectrum to balance our lives, our experiences, our senses, and our wisdom in my belief.  I think a lot of the gender stereotypes and norms that so many people live by and base a large majority of their judgements on just rests on the problem of too many closed minds.

Gender Police taking their job way too seriously?

submitted by Nicole VanDerzee:

When we’re in school, we are constantly criticized for being too girly or too masculine or not girly enough and not masculine enough. A girl that is a little boyish may be told to “stop dressing like a dude” or called names like “dyke” or “lesbian”. A boy who doesn’t strut around like a “macho man” may be referred to as “gay” or a “fag”. These tactics are used to make a boy “man up” or make a girl become a woman.

Children subconsciously do this not knowing the long term effect of their actions. They are not aware that what they are doing is potentially scarring these people for life, straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered. Often these children carry these tactics to adulthood. In many cases this behavior evolves and becomes an agent in vicious hate crimes. A person’s gender and sexuality become a threat to their well being. In addition to brutal hate crimes there are many suicides among the LGBT community due to bullying and gender policing. Some are taking the idea of gender policing far too seriously, you would think they were earning a wage. Gender and sexuality will always be an issue in this world. Old school heterosexual mentalities will always get in the way of the freedom of LGBT people. Dad’s always going to push his son to be athletic and Mom is always going to encourage her daughter to wear a dress and they will always be criticized if they don’t comply. 

What do Roles have to do with it?

 Submitted by J. Wright

              Taking a look at Gender roles in history we've always seen that separation was the key. Men have their roles to play, women have theirs. Men were strong, fighters, the breadwinners and ones who made the majority of decisions. while women always had the roles of Mothers, attendants to the men and children, homemakers etc. These roles have existed for a long time. Even back in the stone age the men would gather, while the women would stay home, and take care of the kids fashion calenders etc. These roles followed us pretty much throughout history. Recently however times have changed, Women have entered the workforce, the emergence of the stay home dad has become a popular trend, and some couples stand on even ground in a relationship. Now may believe these gender roles to be a "box" so to speak, something that keeps us contained in society, something that takes aways our freedom, and that children are "fed" gender roles and that they are too constraining, and that we should "break" the norms. ( i.e. video below )

                Taking a in to account a much bigger picture of these things and how they work together. We see that gender roles have indeed been in effect since the beginning of time, and they've always been a constant throughout history, and even though the roles themselves have changed, they're still there. We are all born with a sex, either male or female, and for those genders we've given people a predetermined path.... that they can choose to follow. I personally feel that gender roles simply give us a guideline in life. With all the things one has to think about in life, what bathroom you use shouldn't be on the list. Many like to use the word "conformity" believing that people are stifled to one way of thinking, though history will also show us that man is capable of great things and gender Doesn't play a part in that. Men and Women have all accomplished great things throughout history. We've seen great new ideas come from people who so called "conformed" but still were free to do what they wanted. I believe that if anything is "conforming" its the growing trend of people who believe that to be free means to begin accepting there ideals of "not conforming" or being "oppressed" by social structures. Everyone wants to be an "individual" and express themselves by coloring their hair or not being tied to one sexual orientation or not marrying, But this is my question is with homosexuality and "not conforming to gender roles", are you really expressing individuality or are you just taking yourself out of one box and jumping into another?

                  Certain things in life we can not change, our race, where we are born etc. we are sometimes limited by these things, and the sad reality is sometimes we cant escape it. Gender roles are given, yes, Is that a bad thing, in my opinion, no. A young boy who grows up playing with Barbie dolls isn't gay but, those toys aren't made for boys now are they? I feel like people are too quick to label on both sides of the fence, people just need to the best they can in life, now I'm not writing off that there are some anomalies in life such as trans genders, etc. those people will more than likely grow up having it a little harder, but nothing is really stopping them, from excelling at life. Everyone wants to be open minded, no one wants to look like they are too for one thing and too against another, but we are all people, we all face different problems in life and try to cope as best we can, we all have the potential to do great things and to have great lives were we are and being a Boy or Girl isn't going to change that.

Let’s be QUEER about some things…

Breoni Prewitt

LGBTQ, or lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender and queers, is a community of well educated students at West Chester University. Now, some people might think and even be ignorant enough to say that homosexuals couldn’t possibly make it this far in life because they are “mentally ill” or deprived of proper parenting. Well, I think I speak for the good group of gays that I know when I say…bullshit!

Two things I would like to hone in on from recent class discussions and readings are homosexual marriage and terms based around homosexuality in everyday life.

Protesters for same sex marriage in NYC

Same sex marriage has become an ongoing topic that is circulating more and more as the idea of being “gay” becomes evermore public through media and through today’s society. But even though famous people who are idolized, like Wanda Sykes, Queen Latifah and Rosie O’Donald, do it there are still people opposed to the idea.
Opponents think that such a marriage is a sacred bond ONLY between man and woman due to religious beliefs and the simple up bringing of children. Let’s stop and ask ourselves…does everyone have the SAME religion?, does every religion have the SAME vies? And most importantly DOES EVERY SINGLE PERSON WALKING THIS EARTH BELONG TO A RELIGION?? The simple answer to that question is no. Marriage holds sacred vows between the two willing to give them. These are two people who genuinely love each other to no end. This has no boundary and no limitation no matter the race no matter the sexual preference, but to the COUPLE paired by fate and bonded by happiness and hopefulness. With that being said, Religion does not hold a valid argument against same sex marriage. Beyond that is the upbringing of the children in which same sex couples may choose to bare. Just because people couple up and decide to get married or even just to be together does not mean they want to have kids, this is but another underlying thought over reason why the opposing party thinks same sex relations shouldn’t occur. But if such a couple did decide to, did the opposed ever stop to think that maybe just maybe a lesbian couple, for example, raising children could hold the same value as that of a single parent household? It is similar in that if either the couple or the single mother had a son, he would still be brought up with out a male figure in the home. In such a case that young male may have more of a chance of being in touch with his feminine side, but will he become gay? Will his female tendencies make him appear gay around others?

This brings me to the topic of the reading DUDE, YOUR A FAG? by C. J. Pascoe.

The above video shows Wanda Sykes, a proud African American lesbian woman, confronting teen boys who used the phrase gay in a joking matter to refer to their peers as stupid or dumb. The terms we use in our every day lives may be accepting to some but not to all. Calling something or some one gay can be taken into a completely different context if over heard by someone of that culture. But even when using the term “gay” to express how one feels about something can be used in different context when transitioning from a boys joking conversation to a females.

The above video shows Hilary Duff, a famous actress who supports gay rights, confronting two young ladies in a clothing store because instead of  one young lady saying the shirt didn’t fit appropriately or wasn’t cute, she decided to use the term gay.

In either case the word was used inappropriately and could be a misleading phrase to anyone who may not know what one really means to say and just as someone could take offense to one using the wrong phrase, that same person could take offense if every time someone did something stupid they described that person. This is what was talked about through out the reading and a visual sum up of how the high school boys responded to each other when jokingly calling them a fag. But why has word gay or faggot, just as in the past bitch or nigga, become so openly accepting? Were we not all taught or educated enough to know how to use proper terms when referring to different objects and people. Why is it that the gentlemen studied felt that it was ONLY inappropriate to call an actual gay male gay or a fag? 

All in all, as new generations grow homosexuality will spread so I feel it is something that should become widely accepted. If people want to have same sex marriages they should be allowed to do so because everyone deserves to be happy and should have the same opportunities appointed to people of opposite sex. They all deserve the respect of the names or titles they choose to take on to not be used in other idiotic contexts.

I mean there is a whole dictionary thesaurus and encyclopedia everyone, lets try not to be afraid to use them and how about worrying a little less about your child's or the next persons sexuality how about... EDUCATION EDUCATION EDUCATION!