Under Construction Journal Issue 6.1 UNDER CONSTRUCTION JOURNAL 6.1 | Page 69

from what is perceived of your gender, you become an outsider, ostracized from your own society by your
masculinity or femininity. Gender has no substance or material value, its existence depends upon our
actions and words, upon our social rituals and barriers. Therefore, although gender may have very little
influence upon your individual identity, the impact it has lies in the way you are perceived by society and
those perceptions sculpt the life you will go on to lead and the traits you will adapt. Someone who is
included in the Matrix will most likely have less awareness of feeling segregation( or perhaps they are
aware of the matrix, but as they are unaffected by it, they see no need for it to change - may not have the
desire to fight against the system as they will more likely receive fair opportunities and, willingly or
otherwise, this will affect the people they become.
Conclusion
Gender is an outdated classification within society, gender serves no purpose but to limit and restrict the
way people live their lives. It is the leftovers of a formerly constrained society, who needed laborious
strength and careful nurturing to coexist. Yet, now we live in a community where the major population of
adults spends their lives behind a desk, men and women side by side, completing the same tasks in the
same environment. In that same world, we act prejudicially against males for being too emotive or
wanting to wear a skirt (Stavrakopoulou 2014). However, this is not to say that I think gender will continue
to be as important for our identity as it is right now. Current discussions in the media and even within
politics have seen the discussion and acceptance of the idea of gender neutrality and if we explored the
idea of gender in other countries, religions, and continents, we are met with a plethora of different and
sometimes opposing ideas that are susceptible to change and evolution. For example, the Berdaches in
Native American culture are people in their communities who fulfil a traditional third-gender ceremonial
role in their cultures-i.e. they are neither “male” or “female”. A “typical” male, however, can marry a
member of the Berdache community without being classed or labelled as Homosexual. If gender is part
of our actual construction, then how can a completely new type of gender exist in only one culture? This
can be much more easily explained if we view gender socially, for that would mean that the Berdache
community have just been given a different name or classification by their society, rather than the
Berdache existing as some sort of separate metaphysical variation of people. This suggests that as a non-
concrete element of social existence that is, over time, becoming less strict with its classifications gender
may one day become obsolete: both to our personal identities and our social existence? But for now,
gender remains one of the most important, contingent aspects of our identity.
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