Androgyny and gender roles

During last week's discussion on gender roles and our expectations, Prof. McCauliff mentioned how sometimes people get scared or bothered when we don't conform to gender roles and stereotypes. The moment she said that I immediately thought of the movie It's Pat. If you're not familiar with the film, it is based on the androgynous Saturday Night Live character Pat, whose sex is never revealed in the show or film.The film shows Pat developing a relationship with Chris, who is also androgynous.

SNL sketches that featured Pat focused on how people couldn't tell what Pat's sex was. In the film, Pat's neighbor Kyle spends way too much of his time trying to coerce Pat into revealing his/her sex. He basically creeps on Pat consistently and even steals his/her laptop diary in hopes of finding out if Pat is male or female. 

Although the film is a comedy, I think Kyle's persistent need to figure out Pat's sex speaks to how much it really can bother people when an individual doesn't conform to what is expected of their gender. Did Kyle really have to go out of his way to figure out Pat's sex? I think he would have survived and continued living his life just fine without ever knowing. Oddly, at the beginning of the movie Pat seems to be completely oblivious to other people's perceptions of him/her.

The film teases the audience by setting up scenes in a way that makes them think they'll finally know the truth. The clip below shows a few scenes that highlight how androgynous the SNL character is portrayed to be.