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the spectrum

I think that your point here about choosing our gender just by getting dressed is very interesting. I agree that the way our gender is perceived changes drastically with the way we look (our clothes, hair, makeup...). People talk about this idea of a "spectrum" instead of a gender binary but I find this perspective problematic as-well. For some reason (maybe the physical science background ) I can only picture a spectrum as being linear, and if we see gender as a linear 'spectrum' then people tend to place the gender binaries female and male (woman and man) on either end. So this model may allow for people to stand anywhere on the scale but it doesn't get rid of gendered perceptions based off of the binary system. So someone may see someone else as being not female or male but instead as somewhere else on a scale of femininity and masculinity. These are social/cultural trends of gender perception that I have noticed. The reason this popped into my head was because I was thinking about getting dressed and the perceptions of gender culture makes of us based off of image. When I get dressed I do feel like my choice of clothes (or image) effects how I am perceived just like you said, and then the simple action of wearing clothes becomes stressful because it influences how other people define me consciously or subconsciously. I really hate the idea of having a 'feminine' and/or 'masculine' identity and/or image because I feel like I am defined differently than (separated from) other people on these terms but they have no meaning to me. I guess this goes along with what we were talking about last week with categories, I really think they have to go all together and can't even be included on the "spectrum." I believe that the connection Orter made between gender identity and bodies is valid but I believe that we can transcend images and bodies because they are superficial representations of us, especially of our gender... well maybe the bodies part could be debated.

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