Ever since I have taken the course Schooling and Sexual Identities, I have completely changed how I understand and view gender constructs within society. In this university class, we were asked to question and reflect on what we saw in our day to day lives. How were different things gendered? How did our society promote heteronormativity?
Here is an example of one of my reflections:
SI – Creative Process – Feb 15
When working with students or children at the program, I am very conscious of how gender and sexuality are understood in my classroom. I do my very best to ensure that all beings feel safe in the classroom environment. For example, one day a child came to the program upset because he had been bullied for wearing a kilt. “All my classmates called me a girl because I was wearing a skirt”. This broke my heart as the child had worn the kilt in spirit of a school-wide dress up day, where students dressed up as who they wanted to be when they grew up. He had wanted to share with his friends and classmates his Scottish heritage and was so excited at the beginning of the day. Now, he was crying into a beanbag chair, completely disheartened.
In that moment, I was incredibly frustrated with how society shoehorns children into such finite gender constructs, restricting their passion, creativity, and individuality. However, I tried to use my frustration to fuel words of encouragement. I said to the child, “Do you feel happy when you wear your kilt?” He nodded, his face still hidden. “Well, then you should wear it because it makes you happy. Try not to let what the other children say, change how happy and proud you feel when you wear your kilt”. I then shared with him how I wore boys shirts all the time because I found them more comfortable and they made me feel more confident. We also talked about his Scottish heritage as I tried to rekindle the pride he had exuded earlier that day.
Now, what inspired me to write this post about gender constructs is my friend Zee Zoo. He is a pink, fluffy stuffed monster. When I bought him, I had only intended to have him act a class friend (kind of like Q Bear!). But now, he has become my own miniature social experiment. You see, when I bought Zee Zoo I decided it would be a boy (it could be argued that giving a gender to a stuffed animal is silly – but that’s a completely different argument). However, after introducing him to the class I found all of the children calling Zee Zoo a girl, using the pronouns “she” and “her”. I found this quite intriguing as they had immediately assumed that since the stuffy was pink, it was, therefore, a girl. I had even corrected the same children repeatedly to see if they began referring to Zee Zoo as a “he”, but soon after they had returned to the default of “she”.
It is crazy to me how quickly children have been taught these gender binaries and it saddens me how strictly they follow them. Although, there is only one month of school left, my hope is with Zee Zoo in my pocket, I can begin to tear away at these constructs. With this effort, maybe more children can feel comfortable being whoever they want to be…. boy or girl … blue or pink.
jessicamariehenrion 