#antihomophobic

Homophobia is the biggest shit

ever

           It is taking courses like the one we are taking that help us wake up. Growing up, you experience things that confuse you, that make you feel uncomfortable, that make you think, “is this really how things are supposed to be?” But because you are young, a product of your environment and the parenting style you are brought up in, you don’t question it too deeply. Until you are in college, taking classes that hit you head on with a newsflash: YOUR INSTICTS WERE RIGHT ALL THOSE TIMES YOU FELT IT BACK THEN. THAT REALLY IS NOT HOW THINGS SHOULD BE. I will always recall the Human Sexuality course I took my first year of college, the beginning of my exploration of gender and sexuality. That was the first time in my life that I had ever heard the words: “GENDER. IS. NOT. REAL.”

           The moment the professor spoke those words, I felt so many memories, so many questions, and so many worries finally clicking into place. A lot in my life made more sense now, especially the astounding realization of just how much gender controls all our lives; our entire society. The realization of just how much we all are “Acting in Concert”. The Introduction to Judith Butler’s “Undoing Gender” dives deep into the question of “What does gender want?” and the notion of undoing the constraining and segregating nature that gender holds over us today. Are any of us actually “ourselves”? If gender is so ingrained in how we act, react, think, and blink, how can we truly be the authors of our own identity? It seems that we are not the owners nor sole creators of what we identify as our gender, but rather co-authors with the rest of society’s expectations and normative restrictions.