Gender policing is the imposition or enforcement of normative gender expressions. Gender policing primarily affects transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals. According to Judith Butler, rejection of individuals who are non-normatively gendered is a component of creating one's own gender identity.
It is common for normative gender performances of gender to be encouraged and rewarded, while non-normative performances are discouraged through punishment or generally negative reactions. Policing of non-normative performances ranges in intensity from relatively minor discouraging comments to brutal acts of violence. Tactics of gender policing also vary widely, depending in part on the perceived gender of the individual target.
Gender policing is little-explored at the international level. In the United States, there are ethnographic studies of gender policing in the context of school bullying, but its role in the family relationship remains poorly studied.Robinson B. A., Stone A. L. Trans family systems framework: Theorizing families' gender investments and divestments in cisnormativity // Journal of Marriage and Family. – 2024.
Heteronormativity, cisnormativity and the gender binary
Gender policing aims to keep gender roles rigid and aligned according to the gender binary. Gender binary is the concept that gender can exist only in the forms of man or woman. Heteronormativity is an extension of this belief that posits that heterosexuality is the preferred or normal sexual orientation. This functionalism of biology rises from the idea that male and female genitalia only serve the purpose of procreation, giving sexuality a specific biological purpose within society.
Gayle Rubin's writing in "The Traffic in Women" links the creation of the gender binary to the subordination of women in western society. Rubin studied the works of Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, and Claude Lévi-Strauss to gain a better understanding of the creation of the "sex/gender system". Rubin found that "woman" was a role created in opposition to "man" and served the purpose of building power, trade relationships, and mutual aid through the exchange of women by marriage. These Kinship systems necessitated rules, which had to be policed to ensure their continued survival. These rules crystallized into heteronormativity, culturally instilling the rules for accepted sexuality in western society.
The gender binary in western society was formalized from the interpretations of men and women during the hunter-gatherer ages. During this Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age in North-West Europe, hunting and gathering food was a prominent survival strategy. Early interpretations of these survival techniques is one of the main reasons for the current idea of the gender binary within western society. In his review of the ethnography of gathering shellfish, Clive Bonsall incorrectly presumed that women and children were primarily gatherers and men were the hunters due to their stronger skill set. These assumptions of past societies shaped the current structure of western society into the beliefs that men are the providers and women are the supporters. Additionally in the idea of heterosexual marriage as the societal norm came from the analysis of the interactions between different Mesolithic populations.
Another mentality that strengthens the idea of binary gender within western society is the warrior-breeder relationship. In this mentality, masculinity is characterized by the traits of the model warrior: strong and fearless, yet disposable. Meanwhile, femininity and womanhood revolve around reproduction. In this relationship, there are only two types of people; therefore, two genders. This dichotomy is valued because it keeps society safe in times of war. The warriors fight and protect while the breeders replace the fallen warriors.
From the works of LGBTQ activism groups during the late 1980s to 1990s, Queer theory was created along with the influential work of Michel Foucault and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick. Queer theory creates a space outside the gender binary. This theory deconstructs and discredits the idea of a gender binary. Disregarding the gender binary caused fears within the western society, ultimately leading to gender policing in order to maintain the idea of binary gender.
Man and woman as categories can not exist without the other to enforce what they are and are not. The same can be said of heterosexuality and homosexuality. These categories are created out of their opposition, forming power dynamics. Michel Foucault referred to this creation of identities, through creating discourse surrounding the ideal, as reverse discourse. This antagonistic relationship between identities is the basis for gender policing. Deviation from normative expression, of either gender or sexuality, is often met with varying degrees of violence.Spargo, Tamsin. Post Modern Encounters Foucault and Queer Theory. New York: Totem, 1999. Print.
Gender policing also serves to reinforce cisnormativity. Aspects of the enforcement of cisnormativity through gender policing are under-researched internationally, as research focusing on cisgender queer people has long ignored the experiences of transgender youth.
Patriarchy and hegemonic masculinity Patriarchal societies perpetuate masculine dominance in all aspects of life. Patriarchy privileges masculine thought and expression creating a gender hierarchy where women and the feminine are subordinated. The concept of hegemonic masculinity describes a hierarchy even within masculinity itself. Hegemonic masculinity allows for the terms and expression of masculinity to be renegotiated according to time, culture, and class status, allowing for the rationalization of its continued dominance.
Sociologist Raewyn Connell created the theory of hegemonic masculinity in order to explain the relationships between men and women and between the class of men within a patriarchal system. This theory is based on Antonio Gramsci's concept of hegemony––conformity or subordination of one group which creates class-based domination. Connell's theory explains the ways in which ideal or normalized masculine traits have the highest values in western society. These masculine attributes include wealth, control over resources, fertility, attractiveness, heterosexuality, physical strength, and emotional detachment. Demetrakis Z. Demetriou further divided hegemonic masculinity into two types: external and internal. External hegemonic masculinity refers to the subordination of women under men. Internal hegemonic masculinity is the spectrum of masculinity seen within men. This spectrum is defined by the amount of power and masculinity a man holds. The patriarchy needs hegemonic masculinity in order to maintain power. In order to keep this power, men must be policed and women must be dominated. Since the ideal form of masculinity is seen by patriarchal power, men that fit in this norm are seen as what a human should embody.
The gender hierarchy created by patriarchy and hegemonic masculinity creates competition for dominance resulting in the policing of gender and sexuality. Policing of masculinity in a heteronormative society reinforces the gender binary. Individuals seeking to reaffirm their position in a masculine hierarchy seek out and police individuals performing inadequately. Sexual minority men are more likely to be identified as gender nonconforming than heterosexual men and may be more vulnerable to societal messages intended to pressure men to behave in ways that are traditionally masculine. Those performing inadequately must either conform to the accepted forms of gender and sexual expression or risk violence and ostracism.
Fathers are more likely than mothers to enforce gender boundaries, or police the gendered expressions of their children. Second, both fathers and mothers enforce gender boundaries more frequently with sons than with daughters. Research on the topic of parental gender policing has shown that female children who display traditionally masculine traits or behaviors receive more social and parental acceptance than male children who exhibit traditionally feminine tendencies. Many scholars on the subject argue that this is due to the greater value assigned to "masculine" traits or behaviors compared to "feminine" ones, and/or beliefs that "tomboyism" is temporary. At least one study indicates that parents across various social locations celebrate and encourage their preschool age daughters to engage in gender nonconformity, such as wearing sports-themed clothing and participating in traditionally male activities. However, other research indicates that in part due to peer and parental pressures, "tomboys", or female children with "masculine" traits or behavioral tendencies, frequently either abandon these tendencies in adolescence, or adopt a more feminine performance but retain many masculine skills and traits. Pressures to conform to gender norms increase with age, and often manifest in these children being "instructed or shamed to conform to traditional femininity – in dress, appearance, posture, manner, interests, and dating."
Femmephobia According to R. A. Hoskin, femmephobia, a type of discrimination and oppression towards people with feminine gender expression, often functions as gender policing. Femmephobia lays down narrow rules for women of an "ideal femininity", which in any case, however, will be seen as inferior to masculinity.Rhea Ashley Hoskin. Femmephobia // The SAGE encyclopedia of trans studies. – Sage Publications, 2021.
Psychoanalysis
Fields of knowledge that claim to be universal are still created within societal frameworks that have their own rules and biases. A patriarchal society gives privilege to masculine thought and excludes other points of view and histories. All discourse created in a patriarchal society can be said to acquiesce to hegemonic masculinity.
Michel Foucault viewed psychoanalysis as a secular confession concerned with finding our natural sexual selves. The problem, Foucault argued, is that sexuality is cultural and any narrative created around it gives the subject the illusion of identity rather than experience. Psychoanalysis conducted in a hetero-normative society would view any deviation as a failing to achieve that ideal. Rather than someone being seen as performing an act, they would be seen as embodying that which society deemed inadequate.
Gayle Rubin wrote about Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory in "The Traffic In Women". Rubin states that Jacques Lacan's analysis of Freud views the Oedipus complex as the crisis experienced by a child when internalizing kinship rules. The child becomes aware of the sex/gender system and organizes itself accordingly. Neurosis is seen as having an understanding of this system yet failing to adapt to it. Lacan's separation of the Phallus from the physical penis elucidates societies privileging of the masculine and gender's separation from biology. In Rubin's view psychiatry further policed accepted gender and sexual expression by deeming non normative behavior as mentally and emotionally stunted. Rubin also saw that this system of internalizing norms privileged heterosexual masculinity while outlining the psychic oppression society inflicts on women and femininity.
Intersectionality