Gender is a Social Construct

From the moment we are born and wrapped in a blanket at the hospital, we are assaulted with gender norms and begin to develop a gender identity because society forced it upon us. Girls are given pink blankets and boys are given blue ones…but why? It is important to know the difference between gender and sex. This article explains it best, but to summarize it, “Sex refers to the natural biological differences between men and women, for example, the differences in the organs related to reproduction. Gender refers to the cultural, socially-constructed differences between the two sexes. It refers to the way a society encourages and teaches the two sexes to behave in different ways through socialization.”

You heard that right! Gender is 100% a social construct. Because gender identity was created by society, a person’s gender can be easily changed. In some cases, people refer to themselves as non-binary (this essentially means that they do not identify with either gender. These people typically prefer the pronoun “they”), while others experiment with their gender identity. Clothing and makeup is still heavily gendered today and geared towards women, which is why there is still somewhat of a stigma towards drag queens (male entertainers who pose as females) today, despite the popularity of shows like Rupaul’s Drag Race. More than just clothing and makeup is gendered, however. We gender nearly everything in our everyday life. Women and men should not be forced to like certain things just because society tells them they should (IE. men should like sports, women should like shopping).

I sat down with Kelly Balaban,23, to discuss gender roles and she had a lot to say. I will be posting that video below. But I want to end this post with an interesting thought: If children were born and not influenced in any way by society’s gender norms and stereotypes, how would they eventually identify and act? It’s definitely something to think about. A child could grow up without any pre-conceived notions of how to act, what toys to play with, what clothes to wear, etc. They would be completely open to identifying how they want to without the pressure of society telling them what they should and shouldn’t like.

Sexism in Gaming Culture, According to Gamers

Earlier this year, I wrote a blog post about sexism in video games and video game culture. I wanted to touch on that subject more because it is important to me and although it isn’t necessarily a serious issue, it is a problem in our culture. I figured the best sources for this type of research would be self-proclaimed gamers, so that is who I contacted. I was able to sit down with Anthony Mendicino, 21, and Stephanie Toner, 18, to get their opinion on sexism in games. Both Stephanie and Anthony were in agreement that games feature very few female characters, and when females are present in games, they are poorly portrayed. I think the most powerful moment in the interview was when neither person could identify more than two or three female video game characters. How’s that for representation?

Results from a survey on feminism

A few weeks ago I created a survey titled, “What does feminism mean to you?” I posted the survey on Facebook and it garnered 82 responses from people all over the world. Aside from those in the U.S. who took the survey, I also received responses from people in England, Canada, and Bulgaria. The overall goal of the survey was to identify who considers themselves a feminist and what being a feminist means to them. I asked a wide range of questions about current issues in popular culture, such as the lack of female representation in movies, TV, and video games, as well as questions concerning the existence of gender discrimination in the workplace.

Of the 82 people who responded to the survey, 60 were female, 21 were male, and one person identified as non-binary. I also asked for the participants’ ages. Although I am not including a chart of this, the majority (67%) said they were between the ages of 21 and 29.

Next, I asked whether or not they identified as a feminist. The majority of those who answered the survey said that yes, they do consider themselves a feminist. This is a refreshing thing to see, for sure! I am very happy with these results, to say the least.

The next results were interesting, in my opinion. I asked whether or not the participants’ believe society views women as equal to men. 88% said they do not believe society views women as equal to men, while 12% said that they do think men and women are equal in society.

Now let’s look at the numbers in the last two questions outside of percentages: 60 people said they consider themselves a feminist, while 22 said that they do not. 72 people said that they do not think society views women as equal to men, while 10 said that they do think society views woman as equal to men. Only 60 people said they consider themselves a feminist, but 72 people said that they do not think society views woman as equal with men. So despite 72 people believing sexism in society is real, not all of them consider themselves feminists. This is a great example of the stigma that comes with identifying as a feminist, and why some women and men choose to not identify as feminists despite sharing ideals with the feminist movement.

Finally, I asked about equal pay in the survey. The majority agreed that in most cases, women are not paid the same amount as their male counterparts despite working the same jobs.

Overall, I am very pleased with the results from this survey. The majority of people agree that there is still a lot of work to be done before women are seen as equal with men in all aspects of society. These statistics are also absolutely eye-opening in a lot of ways, too. The stigma of being a feminist is very real and it is a problem. No one should feel embarrassed or ashamed to identify as a feminist, because at its core feminism fights for equal opportunity and rights for all people.

A Welcome Letter, Of Sorts

Hello, new readers! My name is Mia and I am fairly new to the blog scene, but I hope I can get in the swing of things and run this blog appropriately. This post will act of an introduction of sorts for this blog to let you know what you can expect to see from me here.

As both a journalist and a fan of all things popular culture, I often follow developments in film, television, video games and the like. I believe it is important to look at pop culture from a feminist perspective, as women are still hugely underrepresented in all forms of media. From hereon out, I will be blogging about this representation and what can be done to fix this problem in our society. I plan to try and keep most of my topics timely and post as new developments in film, television, etc. occur. Thank you for reading, and I hope you find this blog to be both educational and enjoying!