

Gender Norm Violation Essay

892 words - 4 pages

Bette Davis says, “When a man gives his opinion, he's a man. When a woman gives her opinion, she's a bitch.” There are so many stereotypes when it comes to women. Women are supposed to be behind the superior male. Women are supposed to be ladylike and gentle. The crazy thing is that when a woman goes outside of that typical stereotype; it is considered wrong and unjust. Men have stereotypes as well. They are meant to be macho and have the upper hand. They have to smell and act like the guys in the Old Spice commercials. But as it seems, we all have a certain role to attend to. According to Michael Kimmel, “gender refers to cultural definitions of masculinity and femininity – the meanings of maleness or femaleness” (Kimmel, 2014). This is how society differentiates between what men or women should be. According to, “the overt expression of attitudes that indicate to others the degree of your maleness or femaleness” (, 2014). The main point here is that society tells and guides people how to act and how to be a man or woman. For this paper, I will go outside the stereotype of how a woman should act in public.
To begin with, I decided to invite my mother, Gwen, and girlfriend, Nikki, out on a public dinner date. I took them out to an Italian restaurant and decided to press my luck with going outside the gender norms. My mother is what you call an “original” woman. She is usually wearing make-up, heels, and known to never have raised her voice above soprano octave. My girlfriend is the typical butch girlfriend. She wears men’s clothing and carries herself like a man. My first step was to not show up to the dinner as a woman. I went to the dinner wearing boy clothes and no makeup. Usually when I go out; I always dress up. So I was hoping that would raise suspicion at the dinner. At the dinner, I was acting unruly by not completing answers to the questions she asked. I was chewing with my mouth open. Talking about things that should not be discussed at the table like sex and politics. The witnesses to my violation of stereotypes were my mom and girlfriend.
The witness’s reaction was exactly what I expected. Both said they were outraged by my actions, but they later calm down when I told them it was for a class paper. My mother, Gwen, said she was embarrassed before I sat down with her at dinner because of the way I dressed. She also said that she did not raise her daughter to be...

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