Geographies of Gender

As usual, this is my place to reemphasize, and hopefully clarify aspects of class discussion. In Wednesday's class, I attempted to outline how I see the construction of gender in the US and many other Western societies. That's when I put forth that gender in the US is binary, mutually exclusive, ascribed and static.

 Many of you rightly noted the role of self-identity and variation on gender roles based on people you know from your own experience. Those are important facets of gender (and culture in general) since all individuals and groups internalize and express culture in partly idiosyncratic ways.


 I'm a big fan of metaphors to help explain and understand concepts. Taking an idea from one domain of experience to another can at times, facilitate the establishment of connections that might be unclear otherwise. Here, I think the metaphor of a map is helpful. Maps try depict spatial information by simplifying. That's what I was trying to do with gender. What's the basic gender road map that folks use in US culture? While people can and do go "off road," their path is more difficult than those following the pre-established paths. And, in many ways, their particular route is defined largely by its deviation from the major road. I hope that helps some.