In order to discuss Sullivan’s thoughts on transfiguring gender, we have to, first, accept what our habits are. As upheld, in different forms, by the Philosophers we’ve discussed this semester: habits are who we are. Our habits constitute who we are, how we interact with others, and who we are seen as. This is why when someone acts against their habits, against what we know them to be, we are shocked or feel betrayed. I talked in my long James paper about how gender norms are habitual, so to quote myself in an effort of brevity: “[Habits are] essentially just mechanical reflexes based on the continually pushed binary that is reflected to us so much in our impressionable years that it creates perhaps the deepest physiological pathway.  But that doesn’t mean we have to wallow in our ‘stuckness’ and stick to only what we are told we should. We can change the way we act, alter our habits, or acquire new ones that benefit not only us individually, but society as a whole.” This is a look at habits as understood by James, so it looks slightly different from Dewey’s conception of habit. Dewey sees habits as the way in which we interact with our environment. It’s seen as a way we mold ourselves to navigate the world around us. As for gender as a habit, it is the way in which we mold ourselves to navigate the cultural constructs that surround us. Sullivan gives the example of smiling as one habit. For women, this is something we do to be seen as less threatening and hostile, but it isn’t a conscious decision to smile, in fact, when I realize that I am doing it, that I’m conforming to these prescribed notions of how I should act, I stop myself. An example for men might be the need for excessive exercise and “bulking” to appear more manly and masculine. From a woman’s perspective, it seems like a habit that has been formed in the aspiration of achieving this picturesque version of what it “looks like to be a manly man.” The examples are countless and the division in the binary is strict and rigid; however, I think seeing gender as a Deweyan habit makes it easier to understand just how we can transform this.

Just as Sullivan describes, the transformation process is slow and even discusses briefly the complex web of habits that make up an individual and society: “Just as an individual constitutes a complex web of habits that individually may be rigid but that can generate friction when they come into contact with one another, so too is a society made up of institutions and customs that may be rigid but that can challenge each other when they come into conflict.” (107) What I get out of this quote is to, essentially, start with the person in the mirror. If I am actively working on myself and my own habits, bringing awareness and knowledge to my community and others around me about “bad habits”, I just might be shaking the foundation of others’ habits to set them up for reconfiguring their own habits, and so on. I think this goes hand in hand with what Sullivan says prior, “Educating instead means helping the young to form the habit of questioning, rethinking, and rebodying their own and their cultures’ gender habits.” (104) Our first step is to see the habits, get others to see the habits, and then really consider what these habits really are, what they’re for, who they are serving (a higher good). Before taking Feminist Theory last semester, I had never thought of my gender in such a way, and now I think of it and find gender ideology everywhere. Many people have never, or not yet, thought of their gender in such a way, so by modeling ways in which you “switch it up”, that is breaking the binary, you could be the catalyst to their awakening.

In closing, what do I mean by “shake it up?” What is the practical, physical take away from this? I think the takeaway is to shake foundations. Maybe we can’t break and transform the gender binary overnight, which might be easier and quicker, but we can start small. Men can start smiling more in conversation to appear less threatening, sitting with their legs closed, or walking out of their way to get out of a woman’s/person’s way. Women can stop being expected to wear heels in order to be “professional,” take up more physical space when sitting down, or even hold the door open for a group of men and insist they enter first. They’re small actions and decisions but they go a long way in altering the way we categorize gender. I think the takeaway is to first recognize the habits and the many ways we gender things and actions, then we can tackle dismantling it or reconfiguring it. So, in summary, the Deweyan concept of habit as the transaction between being and environment is an incredibly helpful way to think of gender. It allows a better understanding of how to navigate a world in which we start to alter the ways we think of and have habitualized gender.