Katiedietrich

Introduction Draft Paper 2

At the age of seven I was ridiculed for my short hair, “Jnco jeans,” and oversized fox racing sweatshirt. My mom constantly wanted to put curlers in my hair and get me some clothes that “fit me.” When the school photographers came I took my pictures with soccer balls and a snowboard instead of flowers and princess attire. I threw myself out of the binary gender that our society holds so high.
The binary gender influences everything in culture. From young ages we taught right from wrong, acceptable from not acceptable and with regards to gender- we are taught what little boys are supposed to wear, play with, do, etc. and what they are not. From the beginning, from birth- we assigned a sex and from this sex we are raised in a society that simply relies on a gender binary. Language is gendered, the way we move our bodies is gendered, our entire culture has a male identity or a female identity. There is no “in between” and anything/anyone that does fall “in between” is completely outcasted.
The problem with this gender binary is that not one person can 100% completely fall into one category; male or female. We each have aspects that fit into both categories. Thus, the gender binary serves as an unachievable “goal” to societal beings; it’s destructive and crippling and the further one falls from the “binary” line, the more societal persecution they receive.

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