Do you need this or any other assignment done for you from scratch?
We have qualified writers to help you.
We assure you a quality paper that is 100% free from plagiarism and AI.
You can choose either format of your choice ( Apa, Mla, Havard, Chicago, or any other)
NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.
NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.
Introduction
Issues concerning gender are a major source of debate in high schools especially because it is a significant stage of development in someone’s life. My narration is derived from a strange experience during my final year in high school. This experience is based on the topic of gender-bending which in the end proved to be a learning experience of, to say the least bizarre. Gender bender is used to refer to a person who goes against society’s normal roles performed by a certain gender. Some functions or roles are in different societies considered to be performed exclusively by a particular gender. Take for instance changing a vehicle’s tire, an activity considered to be masculine, and a man’s job. Another outright example of a gender bender is that of George Alan O’Dowd, a London blue-eyed soul musician who embodied both concepts of gender in being masculine and at the same time feminine.
In many ways, gender-bending is considered a sign of social activism. This is especially done to respond to overtures in assumptions and generalizations in issues related to gender. Some people and especially feminist activists feel that societal norms generalize roles played by either males or females. These roles according to society are assigned automatically by the virtue of one being born either as a female or a male. They therefore more or less seek to prove to society that those boundaries set by particular communities can be overcome with much ease should the community take them as ‘normal’. The gender bender’s activities though are not taken as normal occurrences in most societies and are usually an issue of public awe and debate. Gender benders feel that roles assigned to them by their respective societies are not only limiting but also inaccurate and give an incomplete and biased description of them. Some assume a transsexual nature and go further to change their ‘gender’ or sex through surgery or hormone therapy. Some may identify themselves as two-spirit, a characteristic mainly found in Native Americans who assume mixed gender roles such as doing the work of both female and male genders. Whereas some are born intersexual, others identify themselves as the third gender. This term is used to refer to people who are considered to be neither male nor female. They are capable of swapping their genders comfortably between male and female.
Gender-bending in high school
As I had indicated earlier, I was involved in an activity that may rightly be considered as a case of gender-bending. I am a male of five foot nine who many would consider having a very masculine and heavy built. I have always deemed some roles that are assigned by society to different genders as not only misplaced and misleading but also limiting. Gender roles and functions sometimes greatly defer from one society to another. This may be about race, ethnic community, religion among other world group generalizations. For instance, among the east African Maasai people, homes or houses are built by women. Construction work among other communities is usually an activity restricted to the male gender. Among the Masaai, men erecting houses is not only considered strange but also bizarre. Doesn’t this mean that societies limit themselves to what this or the other gender might do or is capable of doing? If Nigerians or Muslims can wear robes or dress-like attire, why can’t westerners do the same and see nothing strange in that? This may in a way have prompted me to become a cheerleader of the football team. My familiar role was not as a cheerleader but an active role in football as a quarterback or another position in the team owing to my masculine built.
I would ask myself before I decided to join the cheerleading squad why there isn’t a parallel to this kind of group that involves the males. I also wondered why the cheerleaders are exclusively female. Maybe they ought to be a combination of both males and females. One unique aspect of this cheerleading affair is that people like them because of the spectacle they display owing to their beauty and dressing mode. It was intriguing to me why the male counterparts cannot take this role even though they are well capable of displaying such spectacle and maybe doing a better job. I was well aware that my undertaking will raise debate and controversy among my peers and my family as well. It was a bold move that even I was wary about and sometimes thought in deep about the need or relevance of doing so. I however embarked on it mainly because of the adventure I thought I would derive from my gender-bending escapade.
Initially, I never told anyone what I planned to do. The first person to know was my clothes designer who I directed to make my cheerleading costume which of course had to be a bit different from the normal girls’ costume. This may appear as shy of gender bending activity since I was supposed to wear a normal girls’ cheerleading costume. Anyway, I went ahead and ordered the designer to make my costume according to my specifications. The first impression taken by the designer was that of a bad joke and he started to chuckle only later to let out a full outburst maybe after his reflection of me in a cheerleading team dawned on him. He gave me this bizarre look after he realized I was serious and it took quite a moment to convince him to go ahead and design my costume.
When I informed the teacher in charge of cheerleading that I wanted to join her team, she too thought of this as a joke and gladly welcomed me. I watched the cheerleaders in action fervently and learned all their moves and dances. I practiced all the moves at home and thought that I was good enough or even better than some of them. Up to this moment, nobody knew of my bold plan apart from the designer who until that particular moment was only making my costume solely because I had paid for it. I timed my debut in the cheerleading arena to coincide with a very important game against the local high school arch-rival. When the day came I went to the teacher in charge of the cheerleading team and showed her my costume and told her I was serious about what I had told her. I cannot correctly describe the impression that was written all over her face. She kept silent for about three minutes and later started probing me on my motive, capability, and whether I was aware of the consequences of my weird undertaking. I told her not to worry because everything will be okay.
I had a fair share of popularity among the girls in the cheerleading team and they were very excited when the teacher told them that I wanted to join them. The reaction on the football field was a mixture of awe, outright outburst, sneer, and a variety of other responses. I didn’t miss a single move and this I think led to a certain degree of admiration from the girls as well as my friends. I enjoyed the cheerleading immensely and wished I had done it all my life. I however did not do any other cheerleading after that game. What I learned though from this experience is never to limit myself from doing some things simply because society does not consider them to be meant for a certain gender.
Do you need this or any other assignment done for you from scratch?
We have qualified writers to help you.
We assure you a quality paper that is 100% free from plagiarism and AI.
You can choose either format of your choice ( Apa, Mla, Havard, Chicago, or any other)
NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.
NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.