Gender Sociology

In going through the course descriptions of classes that sounded interesting....Gender Sociology was at the forefront.  What I thought was going to be a class on how men and women think and act in any given situation....turned out to be a study on how we learn about the gender we were born into.  Our course text book was written by a man who had a sex change then later regretted the process because he wanted to be gender free...meaning not considered a man or a woman, just a person.

After the second week in this class, I came to realize why my friend Denise smiled at me with a curious smirk when I told of my course selections.  Well I can tell you that my Puritan-like demeanor was in for a shock.  The class was filled with young men and women practicing gender bending.  At first the shock was overwhelming, because my classmates felt so free with their intimate sharing in class discussions. 

Witnessing same sex couples kissing in class became the norm.  I remember back in the day when we were in school, we were worried about our slip showing....with this class their sexuality was out there for everyone to see, as evidenced not only by the way they dressed, but by their actions and beingness.

There was one exercise I remember fondly.  We were randomly paired with another person and the assignment was pre-wedding discussions about the important stuff....children, lifestyle, breadwinner for the family, duties....you get the drift. 

Well I was paired with a woman in her early twenties.  First topic....who would bear the child.  Well, at my age that was physically impossible.  Second topic....who would be the breadwinner of the family, because she wanted to finish college.  I shared that I was on a fixed income of Social Security benefits and was living a retired lifestyle.  Well, needless to say the marriage was off.  But it was such great fun to share with the class the jist of our conversation.  Even the instructor laughed....I guess they don't get very many retired people signing up for this class.....Silly me!

In the end, I came away with a huge understanding of gender biased thoughts and the harm that accompanies that way of thinking.  I congratulate the new version of what we used to refer to as "flower power.".  A lot of us balked at their long hair, their lifestyle and clothing back then....now comes a new generation, a new cause, a new way of thinking and hallelujah, a new kind of freedom!