Do clothes make the person? or how we feel by what we wear

When I was growing up I believed that boys only like things that can be violent or have people fighting and hurting each other like in sports or movies while girls only watched movies and shows that supported being friends and being nice and loving and sharing is the greatest thing in the world.  Now I realize that that’s not the case anymore, boys can watch shows that support love and sharing too if they want and some girls actually like seeing an action movie where a guy can just walk into a room and kill everyone in there. In Katrin Benhold’s article toys start the gender rift “Girls’ toys are often about beauty and the home, while toys for boys are mostly about being active, building things and having adventures,” I believed that and I followed that form of understanding and it turns out that boys can play with toys that deal with being at home and girls play with toys that deal with having adventures.

                Some boys also like to wear girl’s clothing too which is great because they are not segregating themselves based on their genders they are exploring the realm of the other gender, just like how some girls like to cut their hair shorter and wear t shirts and jeans and not wear a dress or a skirt every day.  When I was a child boys had their own lifestyles and girls had their own lifestyles and both were relatively different from each other. I went to school and wore more dark shades of blue, red, green, and black and mine had pictures of things I enjoyed like Spongebob and TMNT, while girls wore bright colors like pink, purple and yellow dresses with skirts and had flowers and ponies on them. Kids are now trying out new things that their gender doesn’t regularly do in Jan Hoffman’s can a boy wear a skirt to school? States that “a gay male student at a Los Angeles high school was crowned prom queen” which proves that it’s ok for someone to be different even if it’s not the standard way of things.

There is now a new group of boys to teenage adults who watch my little pony, they are called bronies. Bronies is a new growing fad that’s been causing more boys and teens to break the gender barrier, I know from experience I know at least 2 people who are self-proclaimed bronies. When I first found out one of my friends was a brony I was astonished that it hit so close to home. I was ok with it to the extent that they didn’t try to get me to watch the show which they didn’t. While guys are watching my little pony girls are expanding their horizons by reading comics, watching horror movies for the single purpose of seeing their favorite murderous villain kill people. My brother’s girlfriend enjoys horror movies for that exact reason.

Guys and girls are each exploring the activities, hobbies, and fashion styles of the opposite gender. Some guys and some girls feel that they should be the other gender so they get sex change operations and truly explore the other gender’s lifestyles. That’s for the people who go to the most extreme measures to truly feel happy and live a fulfilling lifestyle that appeals to them and those that feel just like them.  As a child I felt that my gender was part of who I am and my identity, now though it’s just a word, I am a boy but I like what I like although none of it happens to be associated with the female gender like when I was 8 I used to play with army men, star wars and superhero action figures and now I still do like star wars and superheroes but for other people it means a lot more to them.

In Benhold’s toys start the gender rift she explains that at a young age we are taught that boys have their own clothes and their own hobbies and girls have their own activities, and throughout the rest of our childhood and adolescence that perspective grows and becomes normal to us, and some stores like Hamleys in London have begun to peel back the gender segregation, and have their floors and their employees refer to the formerly labeled the boys department as the blue floor and the floor formerly known as the girls department is now the pink floor. It also explores how gender segregation expands into adulthood and shapes modern society in the areas of occupation and until a few decades ago rights. Benhold believes that if men take up careers in more women dominated areas then the salary for those jobs will surely be brought up to support the men in that career. Before reading the article I didn’t give it a second thought but now as I read it more and more I realize that she is onto something and may very well be right.

In Hoffman’s can a boy wear a skirt to school? She talks about how over the past few years teenagers have been either breaking through or at least pushing the boundaries of the standard perception of genders. I used to believe there was no point in challenging the boundaries because I was happy with the way I was living but more recently I have seen several of my friends challenge those norms they wear clothes that are more on the feminine side and are not excluded or exiled from the social groups as I had originally thought. I used to believe that boys would and should only wear pants or jeans or shorts but now it has become apparent that they can in fact wear skirts dresses or whatever feminine believed clothing that they choose for the sole purpose that it makes them feel happy and like their true selves.