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Brenden Reyes

Professor Corri Ditch

English 115

5 October 2017

How Varying Environments Effect Gender

You may not believe it, but a persons environment is a huge factor to how a person takes

on certain gender characteristics. I personally learned this when I took detailed notes on the

many interactions I had with people for a week. Through analyzing my personal experiences, I

began to notice that I too take upon the different qualities of the two genders, and notice a

pattern. Whenever I acted masculine or feminine in different spaces, it was because I believed

that behaving like a certain gender would be the most comfortable. What I can conclude is that

depending on the surroundings, a person embraces certain gender qualities that parallel how

comfortable they are in different interactions. To put it in another way, a persons gender

performance changes due to their environments social norms. To support my argument, I

condensed my interactions into three separate areas, which are the arcade, school, and my home.

All of which vary different responses to which gender characteristics I take up.

At the arcade, I had an instance where I portrayed more masculine characteristics by

acting more dominant and aggressive towards my friends. I believe the reasoning behind it is

because of the competitive atmosphere I was in and wanting to win. As Arron Devor said in his

article Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meanings of Gender, Masculinity, then,

requires of its actors that they organize themselves and their society in a hierarchical manner so

as to be able to explicitly quantify the achievement of success. The achievement of high status in
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ones social group requires competitive and aggressive behavior from those who wish to obtain

it, (42). To put it in other words, if you want to win the game and establish yourself as the best,

you have to become more masculine. That is exactly what I did in that case, because I felt that I

had to meet an expectation in order to have fun and enjoy myself, and although it sounds

restraining, my choice to be more masculine payed off as it gave me the confidence that led me

to having a memorable night.

Another instance also at the arcade is when I took on a feminine quality when I played a

specific video game with a friend. Although it may seem that I am contradicting myself to what I

said in the previous paragraph, the way I act feminine refers to the game I was playing and what

it required me to do, rather than playing games as a whole. The video game is called Dance

Dance Revolution and the goal of the game is to dance to the corresponding moves on the

screen. In my opinion, I find dancing to be a more feminine attribute because I see it more

predominately done by women, and I felt that if I was going to do well in this game, I had to

channel that dancing femininity. However, there is an overarching problem I felt when I played

that game and that would be the opinions of the people around me. Would I be less of a man if I

played this? As Devor states in his article, If a person who performs activities considered to be

appropriate for another gender, and does it well, they will be met with ridicule or scorn, (40).

The thought of being ridiculed is what prevents people from doing stuff that they enjoy, and I felt

that when I was preparing to play, but I had to commit to get the most out of the experience. In a

similar fashion, if I were to play this game with a more masculine attitude, then I would either

not play the game all together, or purposely mess up to show that I wasnt good. However, being

able to have a friend that also wanted to play as well reassured me that I should have fun and not

care what others think.

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Similar to the arcade, I also displayed both feminine and masculine characteristics when I

was at my school; specifically, at a small event where a majority of the schools clubs gathered

in order to bring so that they can recruit new members. When I first arrived I was very nervous to

engage with any of the clubs there because I was by myself and surrounded by people I dont

know. However, that soon changed when Monica, a representative of the Vietnamese club,

approached me to talk about her club. She informed me on all the cool stuff that her club does,

why I should join, and was very welcoming and kind throughout. Although she was talking to

me in an ecstatic way, I still acted passively and was listening more rather than talking. I

consider that to be more feminine since it resulted me to being more dependent and submissive

(Devor 39). To put it in another way, I relied heavily on her carrying the conversation because I

was too shy to engage in any questions, thus leading to an informative one-sided conversation.

However, that initial conversation led me to be more masculine in turn, because it gave me more

assurance with the environment and allowed me to seek more clubs optimistically. I found other

clubs such as Filipino Club, Archery Club, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Club, and spoke to the

representatives with more engagement on my end as I directed more of the conversation. As

Devor says in his article, People who attempt to control the direction of conversations seem

more masculine, (43). Not only does being more masculine show that I am genuinely interested

in the club, but it also allows me to ask more questions. With that I come out knowing more than

when I came in, and being masculine was the only way to obtain that.

At home I displayed a masculine characteristic by bringing up heavy groceries for my

grandparents. In my house there is a flight of stairs you have to go up to in order to reach my

living room and kitchen. I felt that for them at their age to carry heavy stuff up would be a

burden, so I took it upon myself to bring it up for them. As Judith Lorber says in her article
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Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender, In almost every encounter, human

beings produce gender, behaving in ways they learned were appropriate for their gender status,

or resisting or rebelling against these norms, (28). Because I am male I am expected to be

strong, and the only way I would be able to help my grandparents was to follow that stereotype.

Since I was doing it for the benefit of my family I had no problem showing that gender quality.

Another time I displayed a masculine characteristic in my home was when I convinced

my mom to trust me in dealing with my commute. Around that time, I was still figuring out the

right way to commute from my house to Cal State Northridge. My mom was worried because up

until that point I have never really traveled such a distance by myself, not to also mention daily.

However, I felt that as a college student this was my chance to show my newfound

independence, and the only way to prove that was to portray myself in a masculine demeanor, as

taking on the male characteristics of assertive and confident helps allude my point. To support

this even further, Devor again states that body postures, speech patterns, and styles of dress

which demonstrates and support the assumption of dominance and authority convey an

impression of masculinity, (42). Being able to practice this style of masculinity in the comfort

of my home helps me a lot because I am able to work on it without any pressure. With that I am

able to persuade my mom to trust me in solving this problem all on my own as a new college

student.

In conclusion, being able to look back on my past experiences and notice these gender

qualities I take on cements my opinion on how gender is formed. That a persons comfort can

take on through the environment that they are in. If they dont feel comfortable they just adjust,

and take on the characteristics that match that moment. It applies to everyone, and no one is

either just masculine or feminine.

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Works Cited

Groner, Rachel, and John F. OHara. Composing Gender: a Bedford spotlight reader.

Bedford/St. Martins, 2014.