Gender

My Gender Experience

There are two worlds created for children however these two worlds separate children into two different categories of personal identity. The categories I am referring to are the identities of gender roles for both boys and girls. These roles include dress code, behaviors, sports, and amusements, which sadly do not allow children to interact equally but differently. As an only girl in my grandmother’s house with nine boys, I experienced inequality due to the gender roles my family assigned to me at a very young age. However, I always found myself challenging such gender roles which included acting like a lady, wearing only dresses or skirts and participating in activities like ballet, or piano lessons; forbidden to play sports. I learned to challenge my grandmother’s gender role expectations by disobeying; participating and playing in sports like soccer with my male cousins outside of her view. These decisions lead to harsh punishments, causing me to experience a fear in any male associated activity. In this essay, I’ll be discussing the beginning of my fear of sports living in my grandmother’s house. Secondly, I’ll be discussing my fears of participating in any male associated sport in middle school and high school. Finally, I’ll discuss my perception on women in sports and my perceptions of a so-called female dress code.

Growing up in my native country El Salvador was not always easy because females don’t have much power in a household, or place in society. In my home I was only surrounded by boys my age, which made it very natural and tempting for me to act outside my ascribed gender role. As a young girl, I was assigned a typical girl gender role my expected behavior was to behave like a lady, play only with girls and only surround myself with female influences, never to associate or interact with boys. To my grandmother any girl who played sports, with boys or dressed in pants was considered a tomboy. It was difficult to keep up my...