![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Gender is a flavor in the mind
Thursday, May 31st, 2007 06:51 pmGender is a flavor in the mind.
When I read a story containing male pronouns, the story has a different mental flavor than it does with the pronouns changed to female ones. Even though the content of the sentences is the same, they taste different.
He had an interesting day. In the morning, a friend gave him a most unexpected gift, and he spent the rest of the day pondering it.
She had an interesting day. In the morning, a friend gave her a most unexpected gift, and she spent the rest of the day pondering it.
In this case, the female pronouns feel more... light and fruity. The male ones feel more straight-forward and drab. Depending on the actual story, the different pronouns would probably engender other tastes in my mind.
If it were just a matter of light-and-fruity versus straight-forward-and-drab, I might prefer light-and-fruity. But gender flavors are much more complex than that, and can be situational too. Age also factors into it. "Old woman" is a different flavor than "lady" or "girl", and "old man" is a different flavor than "gentleman" or "boy", etc.
When I think of how my own gender tastes, it doesn't taste solely male or female to me. Sometimes it feels more like one or the other; most of the time it is tasteless. When I think about how I taste to other people (how they perceive my gender), I don't want them to taste me as female or male, because I don't feel either or those is my flavor. I want them to perceive my flavor, as the same flavor I taste of myself.
And yet, everyone has their own tastes. Other people's tastes are different than mine. How they perceive male and female flavors is no doubt somewhat different than how I perceive them.
Based on someone's perceived sex, you assign a flavor to them in your own mind. That person's flavor to you will eventually be modified and enhanced based on your other perceptions of them, but that stereotypical gender-flavor will usually still be there, giving them a different underlying/overlying/fringe flavor than if you perceived them as a different sex, even if everything else about them remained the same.
When you are told, or led to believe, that something is strawberry-flavored, even when it isn't, that changes your perception of its flavor somewhat. If you are given a dish of pink vanilla ice cream, it will taste differently than yellow vanilla ice cream does, based on your experiences of pink strawberry ice-cream. Even when you *know* that it is vanilla ice-cream, it still tastes somewhat different. The flavor isn't just based on the actual taste, it is also based on the appearance, and your own stereotypes based on that appearance.
It is difficult to override the flavors your mind assigns to other people based on their perceived sex, even when you want to do so.
Even when I look in the mirror at myself, my mind sometimes assigns a flavor to me, which does not coincide with the flavor I *feel*.
Even when I think about myself, my mind sometimes assigns a flavor to me, which does not match the flavor I *prefer*.... I feel I taste better with a different flavor... I like myself more when I taste myself as a certain flavor.
When I read a story containing male pronouns, the story has a different mental flavor than it does with the pronouns changed to female ones. Even though the content of the sentences is the same, they taste different.
He had an interesting day. In the morning, a friend gave him a most unexpected gift, and he spent the rest of the day pondering it.
She had an interesting day. In the morning, a friend gave her a most unexpected gift, and she spent the rest of the day pondering it.
In this case, the female pronouns feel more... light and fruity. The male ones feel more straight-forward and drab. Depending on the actual story, the different pronouns would probably engender other tastes in my mind.
If it were just a matter of light-and-fruity versus straight-forward-and-drab, I might prefer light-and-fruity. But gender flavors are much more complex than that, and can be situational too. Age also factors into it. "Old woman" is a different flavor than "lady" or "girl", and "old man" is a different flavor than "gentleman" or "boy", etc.
When I think of how my own gender tastes, it doesn't taste solely male or female to me. Sometimes it feels more like one or the other; most of the time it is tasteless. When I think about how I taste to other people (how they perceive my gender), I don't want them to taste me as female or male, because I don't feel either or those is my flavor. I want them to perceive my flavor, as the same flavor I taste of myself.
And yet, everyone has their own tastes. Other people's tastes are different than mine. How they perceive male and female flavors is no doubt somewhat different than how I perceive them.
Based on someone's perceived sex, you assign a flavor to them in your own mind. That person's flavor to you will eventually be modified and enhanced based on your other perceptions of them, but that stereotypical gender-flavor will usually still be there, giving them a different underlying/overlying/fringe flavor than if you perceived them as a different sex, even if everything else about them remained the same.
When you are told, or led to believe, that something is strawberry-flavored, even when it isn't, that changes your perception of its flavor somewhat. If you are given a dish of pink vanilla ice cream, it will taste differently than yellow vanilla ice cream does, based on your experiences of pink strawberry ice-cream. Even when you *know* that it is vanilla ice-cream, it still tastes somewhat different. The flavor isn't just based on the actual taste, it is also based on the appearance, and your own stereotypes based on that appearance.
It is difficult to override the flavors your mind assigns to other people based on their perceived sex, even when you want to do so.
Even when I look in the mirror at myself, my mind sometimes assigns a flavor to me, which does not coincide with the flavor I *feel*.
Even when I think about myself, my mind sometimes assigns a flavor to me, which does not match the flavor I *prefer*.... I feel I taste better with a different flavor... I like myself more when I taste myself as a certain flavor.