Jordan Alcasas
Social Media Editor
A lecture Wednesday titled “Gender Identity and Sexism” looked to help students contextualize and explore their struggles with gender roles and societal expectations.
About 20 University and community members attended the talk by Daniel Loera, the University’s director of multicultural affairs, in the Ludwick Center.
It was the latest installment in the Belongingness lecture series.
After the half-hour talk, there was discussion and break-out groups.
One of the main points of the lecture was the struggle between expectations related to gender, and individual reality.
“Sometimes we have these breakouts, it is not unusual to do gender as a separate process,” Loera said. “The focus of it is different, focusing on who we should be growing up. Perhaps what the rules and expectations were, and who you should be, in terms of your gender identity.”
Loera opened the floor for discussion with questions for students about their relationship with gender roles and struggles with sexism. One of the main talking points came back to the messaging people are given throughout their lives regarding gender roles and what is expected of them.
“We give messages now to others about what they should be,” Loera said. “A lot of the time we do it in terms of their gender.”
Regarding messaging, Loera asked students to consider the messages they give out to others based on their gender identity and how they align with that gender identity in terms of masculine or feminine traits.
One point of consensus was that based on gender, a lot of students feel that they are supposed to give out the messaging society expects of them. There was also a sentiment that college can almost act as a timeline, with expectations for where someone should be in their life and how that should align with their gender’s expectations.
“Our group, we were talking about the pressure for women to be mothers,” Brooke Goode, an undeclared freshman, said. “Even if they do want kids, we still feel the pressure of what society wants us to do with all of the challenges of pregnancy and motherhood, and all these stigmas that come with it.
“I grew up very Christian, so one of the main things with women was being mothers, raising a family at a certain age and other things like that. It was very important growing up.”
Students agreed with this sentiment, and that defying gender roles was incredibly important when it came to knowing their own identity. In contrast to the idea of motherhood and nurturing traits being expected of women, some of the men felt the opposite pressure, where they sought to be those things in resistance to the expectation that men should be them.
“I think for me, being caring, empathetic, or tender– all those things that are seen as ‘not good’ for men– is very important,” Loera said. “In my life, I think all those things are good, but particularly for men to identify with because I did not get that messaging when I was growing up. I think it is important to be that, to share that in my life.”
Other men felt that there was an expectation for them to follow traditionally masculine pursuits, such as sports instead of the arts.
“One thing that, in our dialogue is kind of a shared experience, is the notion or acknowledgement of the fact that, as men, there is a duality,” Stacey Strickland, an adjunct professor at the University said. “I shared that even in my upbringing, being gay in my own way and growing up in the black community, it varies between cultures.
“Growing up, it was being hypermasculine, machismo, and now showing emotion. For me there was always that part that was always outside that norm in dance. There wasn’t masculine or feminine, it was just us existing in the space of the art form.”
Some people don’t resonate with what is typically expected of their gender, and to encourage that different side of themselves can be as freeing as it can be scary. Regardless, students in the larger discussion agreed that it was worthwhile to explore those pursuits even with the struggles that may come with them.
Jordan Alcasas can be reached at jordan.alacasas@laverne.edu.
Jordan Alcasas is a sophomore journalism major with a concentration in print and online journalism. He is the news editor for the Campus Times, and previously served as social media editor and a staff writer.
Thatiana Gibbs is a senior journalism major with a concentration in print-online journalism. She is a photographer for the Campus Times and La Verne Magazine. Her enthusiasm lies in research, writing, and effectively delivering captivating information to the public eye. She has previously been an assistant editor and staff writer for the Campus Times, and a staff writer for La Verne Magazine.
