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Assignment 5

C.J. Pascoe elaborates on how students and faculties within the school can impact on gender and sexuality. There are certain cultural meanings that determine what each gender can do and when challenging them, it questions your sexuality. If you do not do what you are “supposed” to do, then you are no longer considered heterosexual rather you become a homosexual. However, something to keep in mind is that these stereotypes should not matter and do not define gender and sexuality. These stereotypes come up between our peers and administrators that we do not pick up sometimes subconsciously.

People are set up to do certain things based on their genders and these are stereotypes. Most of the times gender stereotypes are perceived to be universal, but Pascoe admits that gender stereotypes are materialized locally not universal. She proves this through Butler’s Theory, which shows that people participate in activities to prove their gender without realizing it. At River High, the curriculum is set a certain way for the boys to interact. This shows that it is the administrators that is at fault for this because they contributed to the interaction of boys, which shows what they perceive this gender should do. This led to some girls going against their gender practices and participated in activities that were considered masculine.

Sometimes, differences in our genders have separated us in what activities we should participate in, who we can hang out with, what roles we should take on as we get older. Even in schools, we are taught to be a certain way without realizing because there are cases where one activity is predominately of one sex versus the other, which means there is segregation within the sexes already. Also, administrators are allowing this to take place because it is a way expressing themselves regardless, but we should encouraging diversity that it is okay to break gender practices.