A Thousand Voices :: Thousand Voices Essays

A Thousand Voices I cannot speak for the rest of the world, consisting of girly girls and manly men, but I can speak for myself. Virginia Woolf is right on target in saying that every human being has a male half and a female half-I believe this because I am a living example; I think we all are. Julie always gives me scornful looks when I come to lunch from from gym with a red face, and an exhausted yet satisfied expression. "You've been playing floor hockey again, haven't you!?" she belligerently but playfully accuses. I then proceed to disgust her with my tales of how I almost scored a goal, got hit in the ribs by a speeding puck (and boy was it great!), knocked over a guy, stopped the puck mid-air. She rolls her eyes for two reasons: one, because I actually participate in gym period, and two, because floor hockey is generally a "guy thing." Now, before I go any further, I want to cover myself. I'm not saying that the aggression and rough and tumble of floor hockey is an exclusively masculine trait, and that I , a girl, would be exploring my "male half" by partaking in the game. It is society that chooses which qualities may be dubbed male and which are female, and it is society that makes Julie and most of my other friends, and even the other guys down at the gym think it strange for a woman to enjoy such a brute sport. Virginia Woolf may be forced to call things either male or female in order to speak society's language. I think she's on to something in that there is a little everything residing in all of us-it's just a matter of whether or not we choose to embrace it all. I'm not a brute force all the time (although some would beg to differ), but I bring that side of me out whenever I go for the puck, or whenever I spar in martial arts. Maybe it's not "the man" in me, it's just the fighter; maybe Virginia Woolf says male and female half when she really means all-encompassing human whole. Another conflict that results from this manifestation of all human qualities within me also deals with male and female stereotypes.