Activity: Sorting Traits
Let's play a game!
Activity: Sorting Traits
Below is a list of traits, characteristics, and adjectives that the gender binary tends to separate as either masculine OR feminine.
Go through the list and mark the ones you think the gender binary trains us to see as feminine 🩷 and the ones it says are masculine 🔵 — not the ones YOU think are feminine or masculine, but the ones that society has put into those boxes.
- Inept
- Gossipy
- Leaders
- Hierarchy
- Indecisive
- Doting
- Articulate
- Insecure
- Communal
- Guarded
- Collaborative
- Soft
- Confident
- Attracted to men
- Vulnerable
- Emotional labour
- Submissive
- Attracted to women
- Athletic
- Level-headed
- Followers
- Temperamental
- Vanity
- Analytical
- Panicky
- Passive
- Serious
- Male
- Irrational
- Muscular
- Powerful
- Assertive
- Attractive
- Delicate
- Men
- Competent
- Competitive
- Logical
- Independent
- Unathletic
- Weak
- Authoritative
- Practical
- Aggressive
- Artistic
- Enthusiastic
- Strong
- High maintenance
- Decisive
- Hard
- Compassionate
- Excitable
- Serving others
- Relationality
- Frivolous
- Serving
- Impractical
- Hard skills
- Credible
- Dependent
- Subject
- Object
- Emotional
- Dramatic
- Dominant
- Deceptive
- Female
- Demure
- Soft skills
- Scattered
- Rational
- Stoic
- Silly
- Women
The Gender Binary: …It's Not Just Divided
Okay, what did you notice as you went through the list? Did you notice a pattern with the traits seen as feminine versus masculine?
Perhaps you noticed that many of the masculine traits are `seen as positive, or things all people should want or value (like being a leader, practical, competent), while feminine traits are commonly seen as negative, or at least less worthy or less inspiring than those that are masculine (like dramatic, passive, emotional).
This is because the gender binary isn't divided equally: it's not just about masculine/feminine, it's also about what we value as a society.
Men and masculinity are placed on top, where they're seen as "better," and women and femininity on the bottom, where they're seen as "worse" (or "less than") (Hoskin, 2020).
Hierarchy
A way of ordering things or people/groups where those placed higher in the order are seen as more superior and have more power than those placed at the bottom.
The gender binary isn't just divided, it's also a hierarchy.
In other words, gender isn't just "this versus that" — boy versus girl, man versus woman, or masculine versus feminine. The gender binary is also ranked, resulting in boys, men, and masculinity being seen as BETTER than girls, women, and femininity.
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