On gender studies

I can’t help but love it–that “foot in mouth” moment when people mock gender studies in front of me, only to learn that I’m actually totally into it. The bigger bomb is that I, in fact, am pursuing a minor in the field.

I think the reason I enjoy those moments, and am not offended by them, is because I was there once. It’s because I understand where they’re coming from. I once considered gender a rather empty academic field, certainly unworthy its own academic discipline. That sentiment, however, promptly disappeared when I took my first gender-related course, a freshman seminar entitled Gender and Society.

It was during this course that I recognized for the first time that gender is largely, in fact, a socially-constructed phenomenon. It’s not merely a matter of biology; it’s not totally bred into our genes. That said, it’s also not merely social, and it’s not totally subject to human control. That’s what makes gender so fascinating in itself, and so fascinating as a lens for further social and historical analysis.

Gender may have some roots in “nature,” but it’s largely a product of nurture–something evolutionarily and culturally manufactured. It seems to me that the complex interplay between nature and nurture, which produces the universal (yet nonetheless diverse) product of gender, more than warrants academic attention. Gender studies matters.