Gender Roles Test Thingy

This little article is a compilation of my thoughts after taking and posting this quiz: http://www.celebritytypes.com/gender/test.php. Essentially, you get a word and you can move the slider toward agree or disagree. Here’s an image:

(Image: the word “dominant” appears above a red and green spectrum bar. A choice slider rests in the middle. The Continue button is below this bar.)

There was some discussion back and forth about the test and the results. A lot of people were upset at how much the test relies on stereotypes. Here’s what the researchers/people who built the test have to say:

Though gender stereotyping is controversial, it is important to note that Bem’s work has been tested in several countries and has repeatedly been shown to have high levels of validity and test-retest reliability. The test exclusively tests for immanent conceptions of gender (meaning that it doesn’t theorize about whether gender roles are biological, cultural, or both). Consequently, the test has been used both by feminists as an instrument of cultural criticism and by gender traditionalists who seek to confirm that gender roles are natural and heritable.

I will be honest, I read that AFTER I took the test. (Oops. Bad, tech writer, no cookie for you.) Knowing that this test is internationally used and recognized and was made by professionals doesn’t necessarily make me feel hunky-dory about the gender stereotyping, but it’s good to know.

After reading all my friends comments, I also thought about this a lot, possibly way too much. I’ve written something up with Medium because it gave me the ability to add in graphics and format things in a way that seemed easiest to read.

Standard Internet Disclaimers:

I did not read the studies mentioned on the bottom of the quiz page.
I wrote this for my friends, which is why it has a strange tone and kind of rambles. Also, there are probably swear words all over this thing. This has a targeted audience. If you’re not that audience and you enjoyed it, great. If you hate it, I don’t particularly care. If you’re going to come up on this article and say rude, hateful, sexist, and transphobic things, I’m going to delete your comments. Don’t be a dick.
I do agree that the test uses gender role stereotypes, some of which are sexist and feel kind of shitty. I ALREADY AGREE ON THIS POINT.
I do not feel like my gender identity and feelings about my gender identity line up with how the test labels traits as masculine/feminine and (the way we seem to societally understand it then) male/female. I’m genderqueer, and my gender expression and performance is kind of all over. Besides, the intersection of society and gender identity is complicated.
I’m going to repeat that. THE INTERSECTION OF SOCIETY AND GENDER IDENTITY IS COMPLICATED.

Okay! I’ve got a theory (that it’s a demon. A dancing demon no… wait, this isn’t Buffy). I’ve separated this into two parts. I keep debating which part should come first, but I’ve decided on:

PART 1: Yeah, these are stereotypes, but before we beat someone with an internet torch, let’s reimagine this.
PART 2: More or less than a person? No. Gender is just really complicated. (Or, what do I do with all this gray space?)

Part 1: Yeah, these are stereotypes,

but before we beat someone with an internet torch, lets reimagine this.

Another disclaimer? I want to add that this section is not meant to let researchers, test creators, or anyone off the hook for gender stereotypes, sexism, or BULLSHIT. Gender roles and stereotypical gender characterizations of masculinity and femininity don’t always correspond to people’s gender identity.

Just because I’m caring means I’m feminine? Just because I’m assertive means I’m masculine?

Now, consider this, we could rename those categories from masculine and feminine to:

Stone and Wool
Desk and Blanket
Work and Home
Yellow and Green
Monkey and Bunny Rabbit
Some thing and some other thing

What I’m saying is that because you know how the test is categorizing “gender” based on societal stereotypes (even if they are internationally recognized), you can recast the scales in a way that doesn’t feel so icky.

I like stone and wool. To me, the test seems to split down between hardness and softness (insert dick joke here). Per this test:

I’m 86% stone and 50% wool, and my gender identity is unscathed by the categorizations because I chose them. Now, we can explore how we feel in relation to those two numbers.

(Pick categories. Use mine. See how you feel. I can wait.)

I hope that was as good for you as it was for me. If you’re interested in my self analysis, buy me coffee or booze and we can talk about it!

PART 2: More or less than a person? No. Gender is just really complicated.

Or what do I do with all this gray space?

The numbers don’t really add up though. I got 86% and 50%. Some people got 4% and 55%. As a friend of mine said, “With this thread, all I can think is — Percentages: I do not think it means what you think it means.”

I don’t think the numbers need to add up, and I don’t think adding was the intention of the person who made the test, but who knows. Anyway, take a look at this:

(Image: TSER’s Gender Unicorn Example. Please visit: http://www.transstudent.org/gender to learn more about this image.)

This is TSER’s Gender Unicorn. You can see that the gender unicorn lists masculine, feminine, other under gender performance and expression. These things are often seen through society’s gaze, whether society’s gaze is good or bad, right or wrong. Remember, you can re-cast those if you want to.

You could present or express a little or a lot of any of those categories and they, individually go from 0 to 100 (none to a whole bunch). This means you can be totally masculine and totally feminine. Maybe you feel both genders equally 100% (some people are over-achievers). I like this because it doesn’t paint masculinity and femininity as a binary dichotomy that stand in opposition of each other.

That being said, here’s a graphic I made that might make those numbers feel a little less like they should add up to 100:

(Image: One long rectangle is split down the middle. The left half is labeled stone, the right half is labeled wool. The line down the middle is labeled as 0. The lower left and right corners are labeled 100.)

On this scale, the gendered boxes (or characteristic categories) are a continuum. The space you occupy on both sides from 0 to 100 is you (supposedly). You may feel you own or occupy that space outside the box too. Maybe we can call this space, “the space society expects you to inhabit”. Or, you can call it your “societally understood gender expression/performance”. It could be called your “gender zone”. It could be your “hardness/softness index” (dick joke again). Here’s mine:

That purple area is my results. It is how I occupy both of those categories. That’s my “performative gender zone”. The stuff outside it might be things I just don’t fit into. It could be stuff I don’t know how to categorize or stuff society wouldn’t know how to categorize about me. Although, maybe that feels more like this:

I feel like in that whitespace is a whole bunch of expectations about gendered performance or expression that I don’t fit into (and I’m cool with that). You can choose what feels comfortable to you. This is, after all, an internet quiz (which I’ve already spent WAAAAAAAAAAY too much time thinking about).

Part 3: What’s Your Point, Sam?

What? Part 3? This wasn’t mentioned above.

Okay, so this is bad. I’ve added in a part I didn’t mention above. I got down to this bit and decided three parts was better than 2, and then I thought that title/subtitle was funny. #sorrynotsorry

My point is that we can use this test as a framework to do a little self-exploration about gender identity and expression while still recognizing that maybe our societal categorizations of gender performance are narrow and a bit sexist. You don’t have to throw the baby out with the bathwater (which is such a weird phrase). You can be annoyed at the structure of the test and the results while still using them to enhance your understanding of your gender identity, expression, performance, or how you feel about any of those things. You could also take the time to see how society’s gendering of those things makes you feel. You could write a weirdly long, wordy, swear-y think piece for your friends about an internet test you OVER ANALYZED because you’re brain isn’t going to let this go, and at this point you’ve come so far that you might as well keep going. I hope someone finds this interesting, Sam, because otherwise you’ve wasted like two-fucking-holy-crap-what’s-wrong-with-you hours of your time…

(image: Text above gif reads “If you have anxiety, take deep breaths in sync with this.” Below the text is a gif of an line that expands to an octagon and then folds back down into a line.)

So, in summation, the numbers don’t add up because gender is a complicated spectrum or set of spectrums that you have to look at from various lenses because gender identity, presentation, expression, and understanding can be constructed from different pieces of your own understanding, society’s pressures, and cultural norms. Also, sexism and transphobia sucks monkey ass, and I’ve got too much time on my hands apparently.

BONUS GRAPHIC

Here’s an extra graphic I made that was meant to go along with an analogy about being handed a big sack of characteristics and choosing which boxes they go in, because no one knows your gender identity better than you. Don’t let anyone fucking tell you otherwise.

(Image: three boxes. From left to right, they are labeled, “Masculine”, “?”, and “Feminine”.