Opnions and Ramblings

I’m an actor

happyalexx

“I call myself an actor, not an actress, because I don’t want to be defined by my gender.” This is what my Drama teacher said today in class. I have always been aware of the struggles people have on identifying their gender in society, but I have never personally been ‘confused.’ Yet, what my Drama teacher said today really got me thinking – what even is gender?

So one day someone decided that if you have girl bits your a girl, congratulations make babies, and if you have boy bits your a boy, congratulations that dangling bit of skin you have gives you all the privileges in the world. Gender is essentially a way that Biologists (etc.) compare the slight variations of the human species BUT I DO NOT SEE HOW THIS IMPACTS US PSYCHOLOGICALLY IN ANYWAY. Just because you have two feeding lumps, does not mean you have to use them. Just because you have a, you know, does not mean you have to stick it in everything ‘female’ and now you are all powerful. We have essentially created gender, we have essentially created the woman and man – I promise you if 2000 years ago, we had created different gender barriers, where women went to war, and men looked after the children, our society would be so different. The way your body looks should not define you in anyway – the only person who knows who you truly are is you. Ignore gender, it’s stupid. Stop putting people into boxes and let people be people. I don’t understand why saying ‘actress’ instead of ‘actor’ is necessary, I don’t understand why the biology of your body has to come into acting. Why do a need to let everyone know in the theater that I am a ‘girl’?  Does it impact my acting skills? No. Does it impact the characters I can play? No. (Right now I play an 18 year old boy) I enjoy doing ‘feminine’  things, I am happy to paint my nails and do my make up, I LOVE IT, but who decided what was feminine and masculine? The sooner we stop using these terms, the sooner sexism stops – because at the moment it’s built into every brain on the globe. Break down the barriers and let people do what they want. I am an actor and I will not be defined by gender.

 

Okay. That was a little more aggressive than I was intending. Please leave your thoughts down below on this subject, I love hearing from you as always. I will try to post once more tonight, but I am extremely busy so I don’t know how everything will pan out. If you haven’t already, please take a look at my last post here, which is all about creating a safe environment on the Internet.

Thank you so much for reading,

Alex

 

(Hello, it’s me again! I have  teleported from the future to tell you, dear reader, that I have  expanded on this post,  because I’ve now realized what I was saying was extremely problematic and mostly wrong, in my opinion, click here to read the new post! Thanks!)

27 thoughts on “I’m an actor”

  1. YES this is perfect! I feel like everything in my life right now is about gender norms and stereotypes and expectations and EVERYTHING because I am in the middle of two projects (for english and history) on gender and it’s a topic I care about… So thank you for your thoughts because I totally agree with them. In doing research on gender norms and stuff like that I’ve found that a lot of what we associate with gender today is different than what it was, say, 50 years ago. For example pink and blue. Today, we associate the color pink with girls, and often dress baby girls in pink onesies and dresses. Boys we dress in blue. But before World War II (I believe), it was the opposite– Boys wore pink (it was considered a lighter hue of red, a very “masculine” color, and so girls wore blue (a lighter, more dainty and “feminine” color). Also, President Theodore Roosevelt (in the US), around 1900, introduced baby dolls as a way to revive the maternal instinct of white girls (I won’t go into race now) in the US when birth rates were starting to lessen. So yeah. A little history for you… I hate how gender is such an “issue” in the world today. I mean, I have a lot more to say but it’s way too much for a comment… But thank you for this post!

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    1. I could talk about gender for hours. Thanks for the history (that was not
      sarcastic) I really find social history interesting and I’m glad you liked the post! I feel like it is something that only a small percentage of people are picking up on, when it is such an important topic. Anyway, I’ll shush but thank you for comment again much love xx

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    1. Thank you so much! I am glad my point got across because I feel like I sort of just rambled incoherent blabble, just spotted like 32058358 grammar mistakes e.g. “The only person who are is you” great… I am glad we’re all clear on that one Alex.

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  4. This is so deep! THANK YOU SO MUCH I COMPLETELY AGREE!!!! I’m sick and tired of hearing my Aunty brainwash my cousins into what they ‘should’ and ‘shouldn’t’ wear!! Preach it! Lovin’ your blog 🙂 ❤

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      1. You’re very welcome! THANK YOU! Omgosh almost everyone I know at school disagrees with us, it’s ridiculous! I’m so glad I found your post and your blog 🙂 ❤

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  5. I totally agree. The more we try to sort ourselves into categories, the more divided we become as a world. We see ourselves as a world that is all scientifically advanced and everything, but who gives one about living on Mars, if we cannot live on Earth without sexism and racism and hatred of others because of their differences. You would have thought that we would have got over our differences by now..I mean there have been women and men for a lonnnnnng time.
    “Feminism is the radical notion that women are human beings.”
    ― Cheris Kramarae
    I thought this quote was so good and so true. We live in such a patriarcal society where in 2014, female full-time workers made only 79 cents for every dollar earned by men, a gender wage gap of 21 percent. Women are misrepresented in the media, and are turned into little more than a sex appeal. Girls grow up, constantly being told that to belong in our society they have to be super skinny and look like a model. It is not right and it is not fair and I’m fed up of it!

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    1. Thank you so much for your comment! It really inspires me that you are so passionate, I enjoyed reading what you has to say so much (I’m fed up of it too!) Please write my next post for me – you put everything into words so well

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      1. Aww this has made my week! I wouldn’t have commented if I hadn’t thought that your post was super amazing and inspiring!! 🙂 x

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  6. This post is amazing! I couldn’t agree with you more. All these different labels based on gender shouldn’t dictate a person’s way of living or behaviour. The actor/actress example is so true, these different categories based on being a girl or boy creates divisions and influences a person’s expectation of how the person may perform which shouldn’t be the case.

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  7. Yes this is so true! Like just the other day I was thinking the same thing. Me and my mum were walking down the main road and there were a group of ladies (probably going to a party) in short skirts. Then some guys went past in a car and shouted out the window and honked their horns. And my mum and I were like, mate, no that’s not okay. If a car full of ladies drove past some guys in shorts, would they toot their horns? I don’t think so somehow. It’s so wrong that society works this way. A woman should be proud of her body. She can wear short skirts if she wants, but it’s not some sort of monument for guys to look at. xx

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    1. Yes you are so right! I hate people who honk their horns at ladies, like what’s so exciting? Those women should wear short skirts for themselves, not for you. Your body is yours and not anyone else’s. Those men acted like that because they were women, and they saw them as objects. I think it’s gross how the word ‘women’ means only ‘sex’ to some. Being a woman should not define anyone.

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