The Masculine Hetero

From: Alaina

I chose to focus on gender schema and the affects it has on straight people who do not act or dress accordingly. Gender schema tells women that they should be sensitive mothers and men should be domineering fathers. We feed into this by actively trying to fit within the socially acceptable bounds of femininity or masculinity (Rudman, 60). Men wear baggy pants and looser tops focusing less on their body shape to appease the female gaze, yet women wear short crop tops and tight leggings with perfectly curled lashes and artificial sun kissed glow attracting the male gaze. Men lift weights and train for hypertrophy while women run on treadmills and do quick fix ab workouts. Only in the case of homosexuality would there be crossover between the genders. Or at least that’s how society makes us feel.

            What happens when a man wants to wear a crop top, or a woman wants to dress in non-form fitting clothes? What if a man wants to curl his lashes and achieve a faux rosy cheek? And what if a woman wants to lift heavy weights for hypertrophy and feels like a fraud covering her face in makeup? C. J. Pascoe points out in the case of the boyfriends that working out and tearing off their miniskirts “shed their …possibly homosexual identities” (Pascoe, 47). When we feed into the notion that we can tell how a person aligns sexually by the way they dress, we further the internalized warfare over self-expression versus conformity.

            One creative technique used in this picture is lighting/color. I wanted a gloomy tone to the picture to represent the internal despair of this girl. She feels in the dark navigating being a straight woman who identifies with masculine appearance. The use of face was important to express the emotions she feels while trying to convince herself to wear a more feminine outfit. Her face proves this effort is in vain and exemplifies the disappointment she feels that she cannot will herself to be comfortable wearing the dress. Another technique featured in this piece is background. The makeup sprawled behind her as well as the heels to accompany the dress show that she has in the past succumb to the pressure to spend money on the ingredients to femininity. Even with all the correct tools, something is still not right.

Works Cited

Pascoe, C.J. “Making Masculinity: Adolescence, Identity, and High School.” Introduction to Women’s,      Gender & Sexuality Studies: Interdisciplinary and Intersectional Approaches, edited by L. Ayu       Saraswati, Barbara Shaw, and Heather Relihan, Oxford Press, 2018, pp. 43-52.

Rudman, Laura A., et al. “The Two Cultures of Childhood.” The Social Psychology of Gender: How Power and Intimacy Shape Gender Relations. The Guildford Press, 2015, 59-63.