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.
The term gender queer is extremely misunderstood. There is such a large group of individuals that could fit into this category, including transgender, transexual, butch lesbian, femme homosexuals, etc. In my opinion, almost everyone could fit into this category in some way, and if the term was better understood there would be much less discrimination on those who chose to identify as gender queer. I also like your point about how women that choose to be more masculine are accepted in our society, but men who choose to express themselves as more feminine are not as openly accepted and often called gay. This goes back to the whole issue of men being dominant over women, therefore it is ok for women to strive to be like men. Because women are considered lesser than men, a man showing feminine qualities is seen as less than man and looked down on.
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