BOYS DONT CRY AND GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN: THE DICHOTOMY OF MASCULINITY AND FEMININITY
The divide between the perceived notions of masculinity and femininity can be understood through a simple game of word association. ‘Masculine’ invokes images of muscular, aggressive, archetypal men; words like “strength” and “dominance”. ‘Feminine’, a phrase charged with patriarchal perceptions of womanhood, conjures words and images of passivity, subordination, fragility. No matter where a person stands on the gender spectrum-female, male, non-binary, etc. - there are rigid societal expectations as to how they should present themselves, in manner and in appearance. Patriarchy does not account or make exceptions for individuals neither female nor male; it demands a demarcation between ‘femininity’ and ‘masculinity’. Both of these concepts are merely social constructs; yet the distinction between the two permeates every aspect our lives, roots itself in our brains through the process of gender socialization. We see how archetypal ‘men’ behave and how archetypal ‘women’ behave in our families, throughout our education, in our peer groups, and in mass media. Repeated socialization leads us into a sense that we are behaving in a predisposed order rather than following a socially constructed role. Some people are comfortable in their roles, and this is positive; people do not have to change their identities to dismantle the gender binary.