Is That a Man or a Woman?

A few weeks ago when we first started the unit on gender, language and culture, Ms. Fletcher showed us video of Judith Butler. Before the video began, it was paused and all I saw was a sharp face, short cropped hair. My first thought was that the person on the screen was a man, then Ms. Fletcher said that it was a woman. I was very confused because the person looked like man from the angle that I saw him in. I said that it did not look like a woman and someone from my table asked what a woman looked like. In my head I said a woman. Mind you, all I saw was a boyish haircut and a sharp face before I made my conclusions. When hen the video started, I was able to see that Judith butler had on earrings and had a female voice. Then I said oh, she is a woman. What makes a woman a woman or a man a man? You cannot deny the fact that a man looks like a man and a woman looks like a woman. There has been so many instances where I have been confused about the gender of a person because of their appearance. I have known two little boys with long hair who could either be male or female and I thought they were both female until I found out later that they were not. I have also known girls whom I thought were boys because of the way they dressed and how they acted. Was I wrong to assume that Judith Butler was man because of the way she looked? I don’t think that I am wrong because whether we like it or not, there are certain ways that men and women look. Even if a girl has short hair, she still has the feminine look to her. I even know girls that are bald and I still wouldn’t confuse them for men. Likewise, if a man has long hair, his facial features usually gives him away as being a man. For crying out loud my hair was chopped short till I was 10 and when I first came to America and people were still able to identify me as a girl. Women have a certain look and men also have certain look. I know that I am not the only who are sometimes confused about the gender of a person because of the way they appear.