Final Post: 4th and Congress

 Final Trip: 4th and Congress

For my last visit to downtown I decided to spend a little bit more time than usual. This gave me some time to ponder how my gender identity affects how I interact with my surrounding landscape and how it affects my interactions with other people. After a few moments of thought it occurred to me that during my three trips to this particular intersection I had never really interacted with anything or anyone. I mean of course there was the occasional "Excuse me" and I obviously had to get to my location somehow (Walking mostly), but I wouldn't count those as real interactions. The landscape was there but I never really did anything with it other than sit down and observe. This is partially because the particular spot I chose to do my observations was an intersection. As most of you may know, there is not really much to do at an intersection other than crossing the street. So, without any interaction going on it was hard to say how my gender identity would affect anything. For a moment my lack of interaction really deterred me from completing the assignment. Instead of letting my lack on interaction hinder me, I began to think about how my gender identity would affect my interaction with the landscape and the people of downtown as a whole.The things that I typically do to interact with the downtown landscape are running, casually strolling the streets, driving, visiting bars, visiting the occasional store and various shows. My interactions with the landscape are not really confined to one gender identity. In fact, it is very likely that both sexes and people of different gender identities do the things I like to do. So it is really safe to say that my interaction with the landscape doesn't really affect my gender identity. The things I like to do in and with the landscape are gender neutral so there is really no net affect or change on what I think. However, on the other hand, the people that I interact with in this landscape do affect my gender identity. Most of my time spent downtown is either spent going to bars or going to shows. In most cases when I do these things I go with my guy friends. Don't get me wrong, I bring my girlfriend on occasion, but its just not the same. When you are hanging out with your guy friends it is "man time". You go to the bar and have a few beers and talk about sports or politics or whatever. Going downtown with my guy friends strengthens and cements my gender identity as a male. On occasion I will meet someone I don't know (usually a friend of a friend). Normally it is another guy because we are having "man time". So it is safe to say that most of my interactions with people downtown are usually with people I know, primarily my close friends. These interactions, in my opinion, strengthen my gender identity and make me more of a man.