Lorraine O'Connell-- Activity #6

Lorraine O’Connell
March 19, 2010
Urban Studies
Assignment #5- sexualized, gendered, queer spaces

My neighborhood of Rego Park is a quite area with very little to offer to it’s residents. There are day care programs and after-school programs within the bordering neighborhood of Forest Hills but none of the programs reside in Rego Park. When it comes to evening clinics there are virtually none. The resources and convenience of these two neighborhoods is ridiculous. I go to school everyday from 8am until 2pm and then go straight on the train to work in Forest Hills at a Junior High School where I teach. I get out of work at 7pm and walk home, but as I walk home I have very little opportunities to take advantage of the little the community provides to its residents. Although the community does not provide the greatest of services it provides its residents with a lot of streets and an extensive amount of people, Jane Jacobs would’ve been pleased. So from as far as I know and I have seen there are very little places that provide the people with child care and or clinical help.
From my neighborhood the male and female designated places are very close to one another which I found very odd and to be something I never realized. The designated women’s place would be the nail salons, laundry mats, church, food shopping center and others. But these are the ones I found to be most densely populated by prominently women, which wasn’t so much of a surprise. But what shocked me is the location and closeness of the two gendered areas. I didn’t expect them to be so closely placed together. Like the one street was divided clearly by males and females but the breakdown of it was very odd. It was the laundry mat on the corner(women), then a barber shop(males), then a pizza shop(both), then a nail salon(women), then a bar(males), and then a tea shop(women). They alternated in how the stores or places would be gendered. I found that similar to a lot of the places I saw. Even in the park there was genderfication, I sat in the park to watch people and the females tended to stick together in a certain area while the males spread out. These areas are all known to be women or male spaces because they are prominently encompassed with the designated gender for the spot.
The park was an interesting spot to sit because not only did I see the gender issue arise I also got a taste of both the queer/gay and privatized activities being displayed. It was interesting to see and it shocked me at first. Because in my neighborhood you do not see many gay people and if you do it does a shock, due to the uptightness of the people inhabit the area. But regardless I knew it occurred but unaware of where and when. But I figured that out when I sat in the park for lunch that day, and I see a gay couple indulging in each other, so right there it became a queer and sexualized place. The people are what make the area a certain title, it is not the area that holds purpose. But another sexualized place that is known to all neighbors is the motel by my house. It is the definition of Sexualized for our neighborhood. Prostitutes, gay sex and so much more goes on in there and everyone knows about it, the neighborhood strongly hates it but feels they can do nothing to rid themselves of this “disgrace.”
When looking up a map of gay New York you get a lot of pictures of drag queens and also maps that break the city up by the bars and clubs. I found specifically interesting because I honestly didn’t think that there were that many gay bars and clubs. They aren’t as advertised and are not openly there. That’s an interesting discovery and glad I now know where a lot of the gay clubs and bars are. There’s to bad there are none in my neighborhood it would give the uptight neighbors a reason to really get upset because knowing them that would send them over the edge.
But regardless of all the findings of my exploration of my neighborhood I found out stuff about the way neighborhoods work in general. They usually are made for who the majority of the people are and what their desires and needs are. Whoever holds importance in the neighborhood gets what they want and that’s the only people who matter and get a say.