Response #1

The Miller commercial in which William Sea's opinion piece talked of, engages in gender policing. Gender policing is a form of discrimination against the physical or thought-based being of opposite sex. It is always going on around us and you may not even know it. Policing comes in many forms, whether it is against ethnic groups, religious believers, lesbians, or gay men. The policing have numerous disadvantages and to some, have several advantages.

All policing prolongs stereotypes and discrimination. People pass their beliefs onto their children and their children's children which in turn, creates problems for the future. This is the main disadvantage to policing. With stereotypes and discrimination, how is it that we can all someday get along with one another? When young boys are punished or ridiculed for playing with barbies it sticks with them. It becomes a scar, an unstable support beam in their youth. Some people believe the gender policing to be an advantage in that it keeps people they despise off the streets and out of their sight.

Policing occurs in ethnic groups when people cross the street to avoid any contact with a person of different ethnicity, with lesbians and gay men it is seen all over the news when these people are revoked marriage because of their sexual beliefs and with religious beliefs, people are looked down upon if they do not attend church or if they are of a different religion such as Muslims.

Policing in any way is harmful. It can be psychologically damaging as seen in Sea's article where men cannot find the true definition of manliness when it is being stretched in so many different directions, or it can be physically damaging in that men and women are becoming transgendered or that parents are punishing children for trying things that are in opposition to society's definition of gender right and wrongs.