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Reymundo Martinez

English 115

Professor Ditch

17 September 2017

Gender Performance: Adaptation to an Ever-Changing World

Society is a funny thing: it constructs how humans behave and act within the world; yet

those behaviors are limited because we are constantly told that we must live in the performance

of a single gender category. However, those ideals become more complex as one grows and

interacts with different people; and it is these interactions that broaden the question of what is the

normal behavior or personality that society attributes ones gender, separate from sex, the

biology and anatomy of the human body. This brings into light the understanding of gender

construction, showing masculine or feminine characteristics, and how culture attributes those

behaviors to a specific gender. For me, gender performance occurs in my social interactions and

attempts to effectively communicate with those around me, and it changes depending on the

people Im around based on their profession, age, and knowledge about me, meaning that my

gender behavior changes in order to adapt and fit in with ones surroundings, and that it affects

ones social communication based on what they try to receive out of the interaction. This idea of

gender varies across different cultures, experiences, and social perception; and while some may

see this as a boundary to social understanding and advancement, there are many ways it can act

as quite the contrary.

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In adapting to my natural society, I take on different forms of gender behavior depending

upon the age of the people I am around in order to effectively interact within their social circle.

In Aaron Devors Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meanings of Gender, he claims

that the mankinds ability to construct to certain gender behaviors is a lifelong process. More so,

the amount of time I spend with people of specific ages affects my interaction with them.

Growing up in a large Hispanic family, I have many little cousins that Id have to entertain at

parties, and I would have to switch roles of expressing a courageous male persona to a feminine

construct of weakness (Devor 35). Whether it be playing with dolls or yelling in pain while being

beaten by plastic swords, its always a feminine persona the kids expect me to take.

More so, in Judith Lorbers Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender

illustrates that social interactions of gender conformity is constantly recreated out of our daily

interactions as our need to adapt to the everyday responsibilities of human beings. Here, Lorber

gives the example of a man carrying his infant child on a public bus; a behavior more commonly

seen only by women (Lorber 19), which constitutes an ever-evolving understanding of gender

normality in the modern age. A few weeks ago, I had gone home to visit my family for the

weekend after my first week of college where my little sister dragged me by the arm up to her

room for the much-missed time from playing with stuffed animals and My Little Pony dolls.

As we played, she asked that I make a high-pitched sound with my voice as I pretended to be the

female ponies, and if I got it wrong, she would throw me an evil look as a warning to get the

voices right. Here, I would change the roles of a masculine college student into a feminine

behavior, where the fear of what would occur for making my sister mad demonstrates male

construction views as seeing high-pitched voices as being tainted by feminine interaction, yet it

is necessary for my adaptation into the society of my sisters room (Devor 26-27).
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Historically, many societies have measured the demeanor of males as an equivalency of

testosterone, suggesting that weaker males were in some way tainted by social interactions with

women, and that high-pitched voices and speech that was passive in nature as a feminine

characteristic (Devor 41, 42).

This perception can also affect the self-esteem of young children and their social

interaction. For me, such traits were a sign of weakness for my gender and others exploited it

from me at a young age. I was the polite kid in school, and it made me an easy target of

manipulation as I was dis-included from a lot of activities with other kids who told me no, and

I wouldnt stand up for myself, for I lacked a masculine characteristics of confidence and took on

a feminine role of obedience. These interactions as a child made me become distant with people

my own age and to become more comfortable with adults as I grew into my teenage years.

However, such affects also gives me traits of social awkwardness and forces me to adapt

to a new behavior much different than the one I used around children, especially when it comes

to the hegemony of college students and life (Devor 28).

Throughout my teenage years, I have spent most of my time around kids or adults,

whether it be at home, school, or family gatherings, but very little with people my own age.

Going into college, I knew that it would be a huge change for me to be living in an environment

dominated by millennials; it is a society that I am still adapting to, causing me to express social

traits of fear and timidity; traits that some cultures would attribute as feminine.

In my social interactions, not only am I shy because of the age group I am constantly

around, but also because of traits inherited from parental influences as well. As a child, my father

worked long hours as an aero-mechanic and I grew up always being around my mother. This

made me form my views of what was considered masculine or feminine based on my interaction
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with one parent more than the other (Lorber 28). This makes me associate certain traits of strong,

masculine characteristics with people who are similar to my father, and gentler, feminine

characteristics to those that I see like my mother, and I behave in a specific way around others

with similar traits because it is a way for me to feel comfortable when interacting with them.

Yet, when high school finished, I knew that I would have to adapt to being around people

my own age more often than adults. Entering college, I chose to try and break out of the timid

shell that Ive held onto for years and, and eventually I became more confident with the people

Ive met and I have gained a joy of socializing more, a trait that would almost appear feminine.

However, despite my success in communicating with people my own age, I am now ironically

showing more of a feminine demeanor when communicating with faculty on campus. However,

the new empowerment that I feel of being able to feel more socially involved with my peers have

now made me feel more timid and feminine in my interactions with the faculty on campus.

Here at California State University Northridge, I notice this change in behavior at the

Disability Resources and Educational Services (DRES) Office where I can go from a masculine

demeanor to being less assertive and much more timid around the faculty there; a characteristic

thats the result of different roles placed into society from jobs to social events, and it changes

my behavior towards adults within this new millennial dominant society (Lorber 20-21).

My gender conformity is the result of adaptation to the unfamiliar, attempting to fit in

within new social circles, and is fostered by my social interactions from the past. These

adaptations force me to construct new perspectives on my own gender behavior and what is

defined as the gender norm for my society and people everywhere. Rather than let it

demotivate me, it can guide me to better interacting with the diverse world around me and open

my eyed to the diverse understanding of gender normality all across the globe.
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Work Cited

Lorber, Judith. Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender. (1994): n. pag. Print.

Devor, Aaron. Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meanings of Gender. (1989): n.

pag. Print