This was the prompt: "Do something that you think constitutes a violation of gender norms. Pay attention to others' reactions. How do you feel? Embarrassed? Proud? Write a short description of your gender violation and yours and others' reactions to it."
I ended up painting my toenails and this was what I wrote about it:
"After leaving class and learning about this assignment, I began thinking about what I could do that would constitute a gender violation. Almost immediately, I settled upon painting my toenails. It was definitely a gender violation and after a day I could wash the paint off or wear close toed shoes. So, Friday night, my friend came over to my room and she painted my nails a garish purple and green, while watching “Titanic.”
I would not say I felt embarrassed or proud. I probably felt excited more than anything else. Also, as a side note, I have gross toenails, so I was hoping that it would make them look better. I had never done something like this before and I was interested to see how people would react.
If I was looking for a reaction, I was disappointed by it. Either people did not notice or chose not to comment. People only commented if I pointed it out to them. For instance, when I ran into a girl from my hall and I asked her what she thought, she said, “Beautiful!” This was not in a sarcastic matter either, which I think is important to point out, but in a genuine way. My friends complimented me on them too, though one of them said the colors did not go together.
Even at the Activities Fair, where there was a large amount of people, nobody commented. Though, to be fair, it could have been because people won’t looking down at people’s feet, but instead the booths.
There was one occasion where I thought that people were noticing, but it turns out I was wrong. I was in Peirce getting dinner, when a table stood up and started applauding. I was confused at first, but then a couple of minutes later I remembered my purple and green toenails. It made sense to me that this was the reason for their applause. Later that night, however, I ran into the same group and I asked them why they were applauding. It turns out that they liked my “Doctor Who” shirt a lot and that was their reason. I did ask them if they liked my toenails and they agreed that they were wonderful.
When I was explaining to my roommate the assignment and how people need to know gender and they get confused when they cannot assign gender, he simply said to me, “I’m not confused by your gender.” Though, he also knows me fairly well, and would most likely not be confused by my gender.
Overall, I would say that the reactions of my peers and friends were openminded and nonjudgmental. What I thought would be a gender violation ended up being completely fine with everyone, which I think speaks highly about this institution. Perhaps, at other institutions, there would be more negative reactions. I would be very interested to try doing a gender violation at another college."
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