mixtapebooty wrote:
Considering sex as a special interest makes me wonder a little bit. Has anyone ever kept you from or disallowed you from pursing one of your special interests (not related to sex) because you were female, Anenome? I'm that person if there ever was one.
I'm not really able to publish in academic journals or participate in academic culture because I'm too girly. That's a work culture thing - I don't know if it counts.
I have major problems with acting culture because of how sexualized female roles are - I'd love to perform but there aren't any thug 1 or thug 2 roles for women; it's always stripper 1 or stripper 2 (I exaggerate slightly). Again, I'm too girly/nice for that sort of thing, not tough enough.
I was pushed into studying science because I was female and gifted. They wanted to improve their stats, without thought to how well we did. Some did well, some didn't. They didn't tell us we could be too girly to succeed. I guess they didn't know.
My true special interest, mythology (and by extension movies and comics) was not discouraged so much as ignored, because there was no one in my environment who could see how it applied to the real world.
I think it depends on your cultural background as much as anything whether you're prevented from following your interests or not because of your sex/gender.
Actually, now that I think of it, the one real barrier that was because of my being female was my father's lack of interest in investing in long term education for me. He wanted me to get one degree then get a job. (And I mostly paid for the degree.) If he'd been willing to help me all the way through grad school perhaps I could have done better? On the other hand, he offered to fund a bakery for my brother if he wanted (he didn't). I don't think parents realize how sexist they can be in how much they invest in their kids.
I'm sure in the thousand times that I've cried, at least once has been for you.
11 Jan 2009, 4:36 am
