Gender Performance

The process of learning the expected behaviour associated with your sex in the culture one lives in is known as gender socialization. This particular type of socialization occurs at a very young age, with many agents of socialization such as school, family, peers and media contributing towards this prominent trend. The reason why gender socialization is regarded as such a powerful phenomenon is because each and every one of us has, in some way or another, been defined by this behavioural tyrant.

As mentioned above, gender socialization starts at a young age, when little boys and little girls start learning how to behave appropriately in accordance with their sex. This gender socialization affects us for the rest of our lives, becoming more of a repetition in behaviour rather than a conscious decision on how to act. This is partly why we are able to observe adults at any stage of their lives performing gender roles. The two locations I chose to observe were very similar in setting bar one major distinction. My first location was an upmarket restaurant/bar lounge, the other an upscale gay bar/lounge. I found that while both locations served the same purpose in terms of socialization, the gay bar offered a different dynamic to the way people felt they needed to act.

One of the most obvious and profound forms of gender socialization in restaurants is who pays the bill, therefore I feel this subject needs to be addressed right off the bat. In the straight bar men paid the bill around 80-90% of the time. This was regardless of whether a couple sat down to eat at a table, or sat at the bar area for a couple of drinks. On a few occasions, when it came time to pay, some of the women gestured towards their wallets as if to pay, but this attempt was swiftly counteracted by the male. This, interestingly, only occurred with younger looking couples, which perhaps implies that they were either in the very early stages of dating or not married. The older the couple, the