Who she is: A hard-working recent graduate of Cabrini University with a Bachelor of Science with a major in biology and double-minors in environmental science and writing.
What she does: Skilled in biology, chemistry, environmental studies, TLC, GEL electrophoresis, writing, oral presentations, collecting field data, identifying plant species, bird-banding, organization, and time-management, Jamie completed several projects relating to environmental science, including grant writing for obtaining sustainable infrastructure for campus and working on an independent study regarding campus sustainability and renewable energy sources. She also, conducted and presented an independent project on how acid rain affects flora, specifically Wisconsin Fast Plants. Graduated summa cum laude (GPA: 3.92) while also playing soccer for my university’s soccer team and being involved in various clubs and activities. After being the co-editor of her university’s international literary magazine, Jamie freelances for The River Reporter in Narrowsburg, NY, when she isn’t working as a nature guide in the picturesque Poconos.
Why she does it: “I love utilizing my science background in all ways possible. I look forward to seeing what the future holds for me and my generation.”
What she thinks about being Empowered Together: Jamie on Clothing and Gender
When I was a kid, I wore the same shirt for an entire summer. Not every day, of course (it would get dirty, and my parents had to wash it for me), but whenever I could, I wore it. It was a red T-shirt with the words Old Navy scribbled across the front in blocky white lettering. I was around three years old then, and I wore it so often that my family started calling it my “uniform.” Eventually, I grew out of the shirt, but I was still extremely picky about what I liked to wear. I hated clothes growing up. Jeans were too stiff, stockings were too itchy, dresses too breezy. Finding clothing to look “presentable” in was hard for me. I would have been perfectly content wearing that Old Navy shirt for the rest of my life.
When I was 11, I dressed up as an FBI agent for Halloween. I told everyone it was because I wanted to be one when I grew up, which was partially true, but I also wanted to see what it would feel like to wear a suit. In my hometown, it would not have been acceptable for me as a young girl to wear a suit in public unless it was a costume. I remember loving how I looked in the suit, wishing I could wear it more often, but I also remember being scared it would make me feel like less of a girl. It didn’t. I was still the same person I was before putting on the suit. So, why did I think that wearing an article of clothing generally seen as masculine would diminish my femininity? The answer is binary oppositions.
Structuralist Lévi-Strauss believed that humans tend to separate the world around them into binary oppositions, meaning that we categorize ideas into sets of conflicting groups. These groups, especially regarding narrative, are often pinned against one another, such as light versus dark or good against evil. These fundamental binary oppositions are seen throughout all types of narrative, so over time, we began to take them for granted and accept them as normal. However, this behavior is not normal or natural but arises from a culture’s values and beliefs (Thomas, 32). Placing objects in distinct categories with no room for overlap can be confusing and harmful. This is certainly the case when examining the ideologies surrounding femininity and masculinity.
From infancy, we are bombarded with the idea of gender. This, of course, is different from the notion of biological sex. Biological sex is something that is assigned at birth based on physical characteristics. Gender, on the other hand, is a social construct that is often presumed to align with a person’s biological sex, although for some people, this is not the case (“Understanding Gender”). The toys we play with, the books we read, and especially the clothes we wear are separated based on gender. Boys play with trucks and wear the color blue. Girls wear pink and play with dolls. These ideas are ingrained in children from such a young age that we assume this is the natural order. We must consciously try to remember that we as a society made up this to make things neater and categorize people into separate boxes.
Eviatar Zerubavel, a professor of sociology at Rutgers University, brings forth the idea of marking and unmarking these binary oppositions. Just as there is no natural reason to split objects and concepts into binary oppositions, there is no reason to mark certain objects and leave others unmarked. In his book Taken for Granted: The Remarkable Power of the Unremarkable,
Zerubavel states, “In reality, nothing is inherently marked or unmarked. Both markedness and unmarkedness, indeed, are but products of specific and therefore nonuniversal marking conventions…” (Zerubavel, 24). Regarding binary oppositions, society tends to leave one opposition unmarked, effectively considering it normal, whereas the other opposition is intentionally marked, therefore labeling it as abnormal.
There is no instinctive reason to pin masculinity against femininity. In fact, according to a Mintel Press Office poll, as of 2020, nearly half of all Americans (46%), regardless of how they identify, view gender as a spectrum, meaning that not everyone falls neatly within the category of “male” or “female.” Similarly, around 3/10 of Americans have personally felt limited regarding the traditional gender binary model of males and females (“Gender Spectrum Mainstreams”). Understanding that gender is a spectrum allows people to explore their own gender identity, and a popular way people tend to push back against this idea of having to identify as either male or female is through fashion and clothing.
Although ideologies are starting to change, in society today, clothing is often marked depending on the identity of the person wearing it. When a woman walks down the street in a dress, it goes unnoticed. However, if a man wears that same dress, suddenly, people start to pay attention. Interestingly, if two people of the opposite sex are wearing the same outfit, such as jeans and a sweatshirt, neither sex is marked. This simply exemplifies the idea that nothing is intrinsically marked or unmarked, notably in regard to clothing.
As a society, we have the power to push back against harmful binary oppositions. Some people have already begun, but going against traditional gender norms in regard to femininity and masculinity is just the tip of the iceberg. Marking certain objects and activities while leaving others unmarked is so common within societies, it is often forgotten this is not natural. Once
people begin to consciously make an effort to not take the unmarked for granted, and remember that most binary oppositions can often be seen as a spectrum, we can finally start to move past these limiting characteristics so that society can progress as a whole.
References:
- “Gender Spectrum Mainstreams.” Mintel,-10 Dec. 2020, www.mintel.com
- Thomas, Bronwen. Narrative: The Basics. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2016. “Understanding Gender.” Gender Spectrum,
- genderspectrum.org/articles/understanding-gender. Accessed 3 Dec. 2022.
- Zerubavel, Eviatar. Taken for Granted: The Remarkable Power of the Unremarkable. Princeton University Press, 2018.