Out of Class Connection

Today was a beautiful day, and I knew it was going to be. So in what has become a small tradition of mine, I wore a skirt. However, as I have been wearing nothing but hoodies since October, I have noticed a pattern today. I am got extra attention, and people were being extra nice. And by people I mean presumably straight men. I had at least three men go out of their way to hold a door open for me. The reason this stood out to me is because since October, I have had doors literally slam in face. Almost no one held doors for me, and certainly did not go out of their way to do so. This got me thinking back to when we covered Peggy Orenstein. More specifically, our in-class concern about long hair, and how hair has become a symbol of femininity and beauty. Today I may be wearing my hair up, but I am still performing my gender in a way that society considers "pretty" and because of that I am being rewarded. I think that this proves in many ways that gender is culturally constructed, and that girls are taught through dress and treatment how to become what society has deemed the correct way to be a girl.