The Word Gender-queer

On my first post of this blog I talked about gender-queers. As promised, I asked some friends what they thought the word met and if they were a gender-queer or not. The first person I asked was my boyfriend and right away he said "does that mean I am gay, because I think you know the answer to that". After explaining it to him we decided he was not a gender-queer because most things he does would be thought of as "masculine". The Second person I asked was my mom, her reaction was "Would that mean I do not know if I am a male or female?". It was a great topic to share with my mom, she would be considered a gender-queer and that is probably why I am too. She always dressed me in dresses but when I came to be able to do things myself I would sometimes tend to do things others might classify as "masculine". My twin brother is a gender-queer but I could not get him to realize it. He dresses in a way other males might think "feminine", and also is a lot more in tune with fashion than I have ever been. He is not afraid to express himself differently then others but said he does not like the word because it has queer attached to it. Other people that I talked to also thought it had to do with being gay or a lesbian. It just goes to show you that people who do not take the time to understand what a word mean can tie a stigma to it. I think being gender-queer is not something someone should be afraid of saying. With everything I am learning in my Women's Studies class, I feel as if the world is changing even if it is at a slow pace. Although people might get attacked for being gender-queer, hopefully in the future people will just learn to accept everyone for who they are. The days of being just masculine or just feminine are coming to a close, there are many people who are a mix of both. So what is wrong with the word gender-queer??

This is a site I found that deals with everyone having a masculine and feminine side. Thought it was a different approach and I found it interesting

finding your masculine and feminine side

What about LOVE?

In class the other day we talked about Women wanting to marry someone of the same level of education as them. We also discussed how if a women does not find that person then they are likely to not get married. My thoughts on this; people are too focused on money and not on what will make the relationship last...LOVE. I know a lot of people who say money buys happiness but I would disagree. Money does buy you things you want but it cannot buy love. I feel that if people are too focused on matching education levels then a person might never be truly happy. My boyfriend is not going to college but he makes me truly happy and supports me in everything I do. I feel that whether or not I make more money than he does, we will be happy and the chances of us not working are slim. I just don't understand why it is such a big deal to find someone who is of the same education as you. I meet people all the time that are not of my education level but are very knowledgeable in a lot of areas. On the flip side we talked about how men don't mind what education level their partner is at. Is that because they want to be the sole provider? I am not sure. Some of the guys said they want to have the higher paying job but then that goes right back to my point that people are too focused on money and not finding someone whom they love. I am not sure if I am the only person who feels this way but for me finding someone to share my life with starts with love not money.

Gender-queer

So about a week ago in my Women's Studies class we talked about a word I have never heard before. The word: Gender-queer. From our class discussion, I learned that a gender-queer is someone who mixes feminism and masculinity. When I did a little research on the topic, it seems that gender-queers or someone who claims to be a gender-queer is put into the Gay or Lesbian category. There are people who take gender-queer to the extreme but in my opinion as well as my professor's, there are a lot more gender-queer people out there that don't realize they are gender-queer. When thinking about the meaning of gender-queer; I would put myself into that category. On somedays I can be aggressive and competitive which could be categorized as masculine and somedays I am family oriented and sensitive which could be feminine. Why does it really matter? People should be able to be who they want to be and express their self  in a way they want. Males who are gender-queer seem to be at the brunt of the subject but males should be able to allowed to act "feminine" if they want. Is it because the world puts masculinity above feminism and thats why a women acting a little masculine is o.k. but a male acting feminine is not? I think so but with more people realizing what a gender-queer really is,  maybe more people will be accepting of it, or at least I hope so. So my plan is to ask some of my friends if they are gender-queer and see their reaction. then I will explain it to them and see if they change their mind. I think because queer is attached to the word some people might have the wrong idea about the word actually means. We shall see. 

This is a link to a website I found that shows a story book that was written to explain to children about homosexuals. It also has postings of people who are gender-queer. I think its great to see all the different types of people that use gender-queer as a way to represent themselves.

http://genderqueer.tumblr.com/