On a Sex Role

By Justin Mih, Staff Writer
Taken from the Highlander the student newspaper of the
University of California, Riverside, December 3, 1996

It wasn't coming-out-of-the-closet week. Alter sociology students set aside their pride and violated gender norms, they were convinced that all the world's a stage.

Something happens when you don't play your part. "They gave me the evil eye," said sophomore Eric Chan. "And two security guards wrote me down as a suspicious character."

The audience becomes unstrung. Some give you dirty looks, others of glances of bewilderment. Most leave the scene. It's not everyday you see a student dressed in pink pajamas and a red embroidered lace top strutting through the mall.

Reactions to this and other "sexually deviant" behavior was the highlight of Introduction to Sociology this quarter.

"This was purely for the students," said Professor Alexandria Maryanski, who gave the assignment. "I wanted them to become aware of society's gender roles. We take them for granted, but they're very real."

Chan was convinced.

"We operate under different gender norms," he said. "But it doesn't strike you until you feel it: being different sucks."

Classmate Eric Lorico also clad himself in feminine attire. He received quite a few compliments.

"The girls loved my hair. One of them even wanted my dress," he said. "But most people didn't want to be seen with me. I felt like I had a big mark on my face."

Perhaps a drag queen would have found his niche at Berkeley. But this is Riverside.

"We're too conservative. We're afraid of something different," Lorico said. "A few on the rebellious side let loose and accepted you. But most stare you down.

The audience tends to be more forgiving when women cross the gender gap.

"One girl was smoking a cigar but had no reaction," said sociology graduate student Jami Brown. "Another changed her flat tire by herself and nobody came to help. She came off as a confident person who could handle any situation."

Maryanski explains this phenomenon.

"When two cultures come together, people adapt to the more dominant one," she said, referring to men. "So as females move up in the economic system, so do their acceptable roles."

Still, barriers exist. Sophomore Crissy Feickert got the cold shoulder when she pretended to be a worker at Chief Auto Parts.

"People shouldn't generalize that women can't do certain things," she said.

If society continues to blur gender distinctions as it has in recent history, this shouldn't be a problem.

According to Maryanski, "we've seen a shift in segregated gender roles to overlapping ones in recent history."

But how far should this blurring of distinctions go?

"Without gender norms, life would be chaotic," Chan said. "I wouldn't want to live in this world if everyone had their own ideas of how men and women should behave. What if people started acting like Dennis Rodman and created their own norms?"

But like it or not, it's a possibility. Gender norms aren't static.

"They're socially invented and they're constantly changing," Maryanski said.

There may in fact already he more than two gender norms, if you count homosexuality, as two students concluded.

"People looked at me like I was gay," said sophomore Chung Shen, who also cross-dressed at the mall. "But I don't believe they were being prejudice. I was just a strange sight"

In the cosmetics department at Nordstrom's, his partner Hoi Chan took a seat at the makeup counter.

"The saleslady thought I was gay. After hearing my conversation, she realized I was straight and she backed off," he said. "Nowadays, people are used to homosexuals. Once they figure out that you're gay, they treat you like a normal person."