Time and time again one’s gender has been often associated with one’s biological sex. Though times have changed and rigid traditional gender roles are slowly disintegrating; most heterosexual people still heavily act out their gender according to societal norms. With the exception of the LGBTQ community, some will live by these roles and attribute their characteristics more with their gender rather than individual experiences or personality traits. However, this can be extremely damaging psychologically and even dangerous.
In America, to be masculine is to be unemotional, rational, assertive, strong, aggressive, dominant and heterosexual. Debby A. Philips expands on the topic of masculinity in her article “Punking and Bullying Strategies…show more content… Being a women and naturally feminine myself, I find I work twice as hard to prove my intelligence and make sure that when I go out I don’t look too attractive as it would be at the expense of safety. I have known men who weren’t traditionally masculine and have seen the torment they went through because of it, such as severe bullying and life threatening situations. I have ruined relationships because I always assumed that my previous boyfriends weren’t supposed to be too emotional and left them when they were. I had often used reversed sexism in response to sexist remarks and though I left my opponents speechless, reverse sexism ultimately makes things worse. It is because of the ideology behind masculinity that I always have a slight fear of safety in public and self doubt when it comes to my intellect. It is because of patriarchal language that every time I’m in a group of male friends, I feel left out and without a voice. If I were a man with my personality, characteristics and feminine like traits I would be scorned because I would not fit into this gender role. The notions that make up masculinity need to change drastically in order for other perceptions to be heard and for acceptance to be
