Breaking a Gender Norm Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Breaking a Gender Norm - Essay Example Since culture defines expectations of a man, a man wearing a dress goes against the norm and is viewed as feminine because of wearing a dress; although, men in west Africa wear overall dresses in official and unofficial occasions (jewa6961, 2011). College shows double standards between men and women because men feel the desire to exercise dominance for them to be accepted in society. Although I found it easy to violate the male norm of dressing, the feelings of violating the dressing norm in men in a public place is quite uncomfortable regardless of the fact that women are proud of their appearance. I felt the need to act in a way that would conceal my feelings in an attempt to avoid consequences associated with violation of the norm. I had a feeling of fear regarding the way the people around would receive the gender deviant behavior because I knew there would be social penalties because I was behaving in way that is incongruent to the norm regarding male dressing. Due to preferred male dominance in the country, dressing like a woman exposed me to the double standards in violating the male dressing norms; moreover, acting in this way made me feel like I managed to break away from standards set out by the society. By wearing a dress evoked stereotype judgment aimed at me due to the violation of expected genders norms associated with men dressing because dressing in men is essential in showing their masculinity. However, to a certain extent I felt that people could be embracing actions of deviance aimed at gender norms because some people showed signs of comfort even when I broke norms of men dressing. However, traits related to gender can vary in accordance with culture, gender norms being what is considered socially acceptable in all genders advocates strict adherence to the norms in each gender. By violating the dressing norm in men I developed feelings of being socially unpredictable, confusion regarding norms, undermined trust regarding