Brighton Pride!

I spent a wonderful few days in Brighton, giving me a chance to experience the incredible festival that is Brighton Pride. Hotel prices were ridiculous, and we nearly didn’t have a campsite either! Luckily, a group of us managed to get in one tent.

As a group, we were a little varied: lesbian, straight and gay; cis gendered and trans gendered.

This gave me a unique opportunity to study people. In fact, I gave up the opportunity of over indulging so that I could just watch.

Why was I looking? Gender is a social construction, so I was questioning whether such a diverse group was breaking down this construction. And so it appears. It was wonderful: women that looked like men; men that looked like women. In fact, there were one or two people that I remain unsure about.

The most glamorous dress I saw all weekend was a silver evening gown. It was magnificent and flowing over six feet down from the shoulders of a man. It was perhaps one of the more extreme gender expressions, but there were others. I loved the women who had gone for the traditional smart casual male look – straight shirts tucked into belted trousers. Short well kept hair. But that is my type of woman. Then there were those of us who went for leggings and feminine tops, added makeup and styled long hair.

These gender roles set out so clearly how we are supposed to appear based on our genitals. The clothes we should wear and the way in which we should present to the world. Each of us different and by seeing so many of us refusing to accept the gender expression required for our assigned sex or to conforming to any stereotype, we are breaking down those gender boundaries.

Of course, it is not just about clothing, but about all the other aspects of how we are supposed to act as set out by these socially constructed gender roles. Aspects that we could, perhaps, call masculine or feminine. Some aspects were simple to identify, such as masculinity requires aggressiveness and femininity requires passiveness. Even these features were being transgressed. The way people moved and the body language they displayed.

It is important to realise that just because someone took on a masculine appearance, they did not necessarily fully do so, nor did they necessarily adopt other male gender role traits. In fact, more important than anything was the mixing of these traits.

I lost sense of the gender divide. Finally I had seen how it is possible for these gender roles to be deconstructed and reconstructed into personal gender roles: that is a role that suites the individual rather than one that suites society.