Serendipity, Cixous

Cixous describes some people as being "bisexual". Not in the sexual sense, but regarding the characteristics of their personality, what is "masculine" and "feminine". I have taken several gender related courses, and what immediately came to mind is how these notions are completely constructed by society and by culture. The fact that a girl gets a pink blanket at the hospital when she is born and a boy gets a blue blanket seems like second nature to us but in reality (whatever that is) it is completely arbitrary. This continues on with women being portrayed as weaker, not very athletic, sweet, interested in their looks etc. Men are portrayed (mainstream) as stoic, strong, determined, and unemotional. This type of thinking spills over onto our lives everyday, especially in the media. All of these notions are being regurgitated to us in billboards, movies, and magazines daily. It is all an image, just like the beautiful photoshopped people in these forms of media. This goes along with the PostModern idea of "what is real?" and it seems like it is fairly obvious that gender stereotypes are a harsh reality in our society but are not in fact true. This also spills over into many cultural problems such as the belief that women should be objectified because it is their role. This also is portrayed in many pornographic materials, and therefore conditions men to associate sex with violence and domination. A person should be considered human first, instead of such a stress being put on "male" and "female" attributes. It is a silly creation of culture, and just like many of the things portrayed to us through the media, is not real.