{"id":21478,"date":"2021-09-17T10:04:56","date_gmt":"2021-09-17T17:04:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=21478"},"modified":"2021-09-17T10:04:56","modified_gmt":"2021-09-17T17:04:56","slug":"lets-talk-2-0-gender-constructs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2021\/09\/17\/lets-talk-2-0-gender-constructs\/","title":{"rendered":"Let’s Talk 2.0<\/em>: Gender constructs"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’re all familiar with the phrase \u201cgender is just a construct,\u201d it being the 21st century and all. That said, this phrase is something that a lot of people will still eye-roll at. Gender roles have dominated our society for hundreds of years. We\u2019re used to traditional ideas like how high heels are for girls and girls only, and it’s only recently that kids have started dabbling in things not suited to their gender\u2026 right?<\/p>\n

Nope.<\/p>\n

High heels were first created for men in the 10th century. The first sets of heels were created for Persian soldiers to use in horseback riding, but heels became vastly popular in the 17th century. Male European nobles immediately adopted them because they made them look taller and more formidable.<\/p>\n

The truth is, many items people use every day were originally used by or made for a different gender. Before bra clasps were used for bras, they were used in place of a belt on men\u2019s pants (and none other than Mark Twain is the person to thank for that one). Ugg boots were originally worn by male surfers, not women. When they first came out, wristwatches were worn mainly by women, who didn\u2019t have pockets for pocket watches. Leggings used to be a men\u2019s clothing item… I think you get the idea here.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Let’s Talk 2.0<\/em> is a column exploring feminist issues (graphic by Celina Lessard\/Nexus<\/em>).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So, when we talk about the phrase \u201cgender is just a construct,\u201d we can see that this statement does have merit. An activity or clothing item that is considered to be \u201cmasculine\u201d isn’t actually masculine. How could it be? Items, ideas, and activities don\u2019t have a specific gender attached to them. It’s like trying to tell if a car is a male or female; it has no real gender. We might name our cars and give them pronouns (for example, calling your car a \u201cshe\u201d) but at the end of the day the car is still an inanimate object with no gender. Still, we insist on gendering clothing, ideas, activities, movie or music genres, product packaging, and so much more.<\/p>\n

Gender is such a wide spectrum that completely transcends the limiting labels of \u201cmale\u201d and \u201cfemale.\u201d So yes, gender is a construct. It really means nothing at all unless you want it to. Do you prefer wearing skirts over pants? Fantastic! That has nothing to do with your gender identity. Do you like wearing makeup? Congratulations, that has nothing to do with your gender identity. Are you super into fixing up old cars? Very cool! It has nothing to do with your gender identity.<\/p>\n

As long as you\u2019re comfortable, you should be doing whatever it is that brings you the most fulfillment in life. We\u2019re here for a good time, not a long time, right? In a world with infinite possibility, I say we try out as much as we can. Try something \u201cfeminine,\u201d try something \u201cmasculine,\u201d or try something totally in between.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, what we like to wear or do in our free time doesn\u2019t define us. We get to choose our own path, and we get to define ourselves. And I think that having the opportunity to do that is pretty stellar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’re all familiar with the phrase \u201cgender is just a construct,\u201d it being the 21st century and all. That said, this phrase is something that a lot of people will still eye-roll at. Gender roles have dominated our society for hundreds of years. We\u2019re used to traditional ideas like how high heels are for girls […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20638,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-webexclusive"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21478"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21479,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21478\/revisions\/21479"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}