Doing Gender on a College Campus Jeff Lockhart FCRH '13 Fordham University, [email protected]
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Masthead Logo The Fordham Undergraduate Research Journal Volume 2 | Issue 1 Article 4 January 2014 Gendered Classrooms and Gendered Attire: Doing Gender on a College Campus Jeff Lockhart FCRH '13 Fordham University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://fordham.bepress.com/furj Part of the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Lockhart, Jeff CF RH '13 (2014) "Gendered Classrooms and Gendered Attire: Doing Gender on a College Campus," The Fordham Undergraduate Research Journal: Vol. 2 : Iss. 1 , Article 4. Available at: https://fordham.bepress.com/furj/vol2/iss1/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalResearch@Fordham. It has been accepted for inclusion in The orF dham Undergraduate Research Journal by an authorized editor of DigitalResearch@Fordham. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FURJ | Volume 2 | Spring 2012 www.furj.org Lockhart: Gendered Classrooms and Gendered Attire FURJ | Volume 2 | Spring 2012 Research access to this iconographic tradition during his military career, of both Soror, otherwise portrayed as an orgiast, and Neoboule, Jeff Lockhart, FCRH ’13 and finds occasion to use it only after having cast Neoboule as a whose character wavers between positive and negative. Soror’s lascivious orgiast, as he does in fragments 30W-48W. Preserving manipulation in this instance, as demonstrated above, enhances the character of Neoboule as virtuous and beautiful would have the abusive force of the epode against Neoboule and Lycambes Gendered Classrooms and Gendered Attire precluded such an inclusion and thus limited his art. and satisfies yet another sympotic goal, the vilification and bit- ter rebuke of one’s enemies. Archilochos’s invocation of Amphido Research While these discrepancies are illustrative enough on their own to Doing Gender on a College Campus both meets the second function of sympotic poetry, praise of the indicate the Lycambids were more likely literary characters than dead or those not present, and embellishes the virtue of Soror. historical figures, consideration of both the perfection in their fa- milial construction to fulfill various functions of poetry and the This, also, is impossible without manipulating Soror’s character. Gender and social identity rank as high priorities for undergraduate students, putting significant weight on their choice of apparel ridicule during symposia indicates another reasons for Archilo- For a possible attack on someone present, one need only look at and accessories. In a university, students must also navigate the pressures of academic disciplines, which have their own norms of chos to have characterized them the way he does. He thus erodes Archilochos’s inclusion of premature ejaculation. Since it is un- appearance and gender. Credibility in a discipline often hinges on one’s ability to conform to those disciplinary standards, but people their historicity all the more. In the sympotic context, we see an likely that he would imply that he himself had prematurely ejacu- whose social gender role does not match the gender of their discipline, such as womyn in the sciences or men in gender studies, will Archilochos who, attempting to maximize his anger against Lyc- lated and because such a phenomenon is a unique poetic topos find these two forces at odds. This study leverages statistical observations of clothing and accessories to examine how the gender ambes, establishes a familial construction that magnifies and mul- yet explicitly stated, that he refers to someone present to chide performances of undergraduate students are affected by the gender of their discipline of study. The results go beyond prior work and tiplies the force of his invective, while simultaneously fulfilling them for an event to which they admitted or are otherwise framed reveal a depth and complexity to the system of gender influence that challenges simplistic narratives about pressure to conform to Women’s Studies Women’s the objectives requisite of quality sympotic poetry. The combined is quite likely. The last two goals remaining, profession of erotic disciplinary gender norms. variation and contextual perfection signify manipulation of the attraction and description of sexual activity, are particularly reve- characters to meet the demands of the context. The symposium latory because they, were it not for the manipulation of the char- is not a setting in which it is hard to imagine Archilochos; in fact acters of Soror and Neoboule, would have been mutually exclu- a number of his fragments strongly suggest his participation.43 sive for Archilochos. For Archilochos to chide Lycambes with full Bowie claims that some of the major functions of poetry during force, he must debase Lycambes’s children, which he accomplishes Gender is a substantial field of study within the social sciences ness) connote “boy.” This notion that one can act out a specific symposia are: reflections of good and bad conduct, praise directed through the description of Neoboule. However, this affects his op- 1 at those not present, declaration of one’s own likes and dislikes tions both sympotically and abusively: he cannot, if Neoboule is (frequently, gender and womyn’s studies even have their own de- gender relies upon an understanding of gender as socially con- pronunciations of erotic attraction, descriptions of erotic experi- base, profess sexual attraction or activity since it would drag him partments), and the field owes much of its prowess to the theories structed rather than innate or biologically determined. In Butler’s ence, criticism of those present, and vilification of enemies.44 Each down and destroy the potency of his diatribe. Furthermore, it of social construction and performativity. Central to theories of words, “gender is performative[,] a certain kind of enactment,” but of these rhetorical goals is met singly by the “Cologne Epode”—the eliminates the invective possibility of the implication of abscond- social construction is that norms of what is masculine or femi- “the ‘appearance’ of gender is often mistaken as a sign of its inter- starkest example of character variation for the sake of increased ing with the pure. Archilochos resolves this problem in Soror, nine are determined socially rather than biologically. Further, nal or inherent truth” (2009, p. i). Sociologist Michael Messner verbal assault in the Archilochean corpus. Soror’s comparison who creates the possibility of sexual attraction, completing his following Judith Butler (2009), performativity involves the idea (2000) explains how structural segregation of sexes, social pres- with Neoboule is a prime example of the first function, moral obligation to sympotic function, and enhances his derisive abili- that gender is a performance (a set of actions and choices people sure to conform from peers and superiors, cultural messages in reflection, and the third, expression of one’s likes and dislikes. ties against both Neoboule by means of comparison, and against make) that either conforms with or breaks those social norms. A the media, and one’s sense of self-identity interact to provide the However, this is impossible without manipulating the characters Lycambes by means of straightforward insult. central feature of gender performances involves a person’s choice conditions in which people make gendered choices throughout of apparel; for example, dressing according to the masculine norm their lives. is a way to perform masculinity. The social norms of gender gov- As numerous authors note,2 clothing is a major locus for gender Notes ern not only what appears as which gender, but also who should performance. Infant garments are gender segregated into pink and 1 M.L. West, Studies in Greek Elegy and Iambus (New York: Walter de 16 Ibid., 53. 36 Eustathius on Homer, Iliad. 25.775 (iv.836.1 V.d. Valk). appear each way, and people whose gender performances do not Gruyter & Co., 1974), 22. blue from birth. Even fantasy and role-playing costumes such as 17 37 conform are said to transgress gender boundaries. Ibid 53ff. Archilochus, frag. 207 West, Iambi et Elegi. those worn on Halloween are gendered not only by character, but 2 Ibid. 18 Neoboule’s sister refers to only one other in her house prepared to 38 Ibid., frag. 208. Many studies of gender issues have focused on students and by wearer (Nelson, 2000). Moreover, clothing can be an important 3 Aristotle. Aristotle in 23 Volumes. vol. 23, trans. by W.H. Fyfe (Cam- be married (“Cologne Epode,” 196aW). 39 bridge, MA: Harvard University Press) 1448b. Ibid., frag. 209. schools, and it has been widely recognized that some disciplines and conscious part of identity construction, as Mary Bucholtz’ 19 Ibid. 40 are gendered feminine (e.g. language and humanities) and oth- (1999) work on high school nerd girl culture demonstrates. Raine 4 Theodore Waitz, Aristotelis Organon Graece, vol. 2. (1846, repr., Hesychius, Lexicon. 20 Lipsiae) 407. Ibid., 36-38. ers masculine (e.g. mathematics and sciences). There has been Dozier (2005) provides a broader overview of the trends that these 41 Archilochus, frag. 23 and 126 West, Iambi et Elegi: both fragments 23 21 5 Ralph M. Rosen, “Hipponax, Boupalos, and the Conventions of the Ibid., 10-11. and 126 make it very clear that Archilochos wielded his bitter words considerable work on the way a discipline’s gender affects student case studies examine. For her, bodies are treated and interpreted Psogos,” Transactions of the American Philological Association 118 proudly. 22 Archilochus, frag. 38 West, Iambi et Elegi. participation and scores (Steele, 1999), however, there has been as ongoing projects of gender performance; people are constantly (1988): 29-41. 42 M.L. West, “Some Oriental Motifs in Archilochus,” Zeitschrift für surprisingly little work on the way the gender of a discipline af- “doing gender” by making choices about how to appear and what 23 West, Studies in Greek, 123. 6 Ibid., 30. Papyrologie und Epigraphik 102 (1994): 1–5. fects students’ gender performance.