Have you ever been tempted to disguise yourself as the
other gender, as this girl did? What
can her experience tell us about how boys and girls are socialised? Would America and Slovakia be better places
to live if we allowed girls to be more masculine and boys to be more feminine?
This comment is from Dominik Bolerac:
ReplyDeleteI have chosen this article, because I experienced something similar as Rosa. Since the 6th grade, I have had long hair. People started to make fun of me and I was given different nicknames such as "Tarzan" or "Barbie". Fun was made mostly by older mates who were "cool", as they all had short hair or the middle of hair was stood up while the fringe was greased to the right or left side. Even though, in the beginning it was really hard, as the pressure was big, I still stood strong or ignored them. After a period of time, it was not fun anymore and they were eventually fed up with it, because they stopped.
When I started attending GJH, the story repeated and some people made fun of me again. However, when I had my hair cut, I supposed that nobody would make fun, but I was given nicknames like "barancek" or even some nasty words. As in the previous story, they stopped, and they now make fun only occasionally, almost never. There were times when people did not know if they should call me "boy" or "girl" just like in Rosa's story. Fortunately, nobody does that mistake nowadays.
Even though I had a similar problem as Rosa, I have never been given a name of a girl nor asked a question of being "genderqueer". However, Rosa had her cut like that just by mistake (or it was a decision of the hairdresser of hers) in that new hair salon. My long hair was just my decision. I do not know why, but it is somehow natural to people with "normal" haircut to make fun of us, people with an unordinary haircut for male or female.
Rosa was made fun of really much. Even though, she got into the situation by herself, as she had decided to become a boy by wearing cargos and shorts instead of swimwear for women. In my opinion, she did not deserve to be a subject for making fun.
I do not think that Slovakia would be a better place to live if we allowed girls to be more masculine and boys to be more feminine. Personally, I do not like when girls have visible sixpack. It is a bit disgusting for me. I prefer when girls have a slim belly, even mascular but the six pack is too much. And as for the boys, we can see many of boys with some women´s features or their habits. These boys make me feel uncomfortable.
Rosa, as well as me, has overcome the peer pressure and now she is proud of it. However, I would never get any of those nicknames embossed as she did. I do not really get why people have the necessity to make fun of people who are a bit different, for instance, different hair. Not everybody has to fit in the society in which boys should have short hair and girls should have long hair. I am happy somebody has opened up and written this piece, at least I know I am not the only one.