Manliness Wins Wars

In “Becoming Members of Society: Learning the Social Meanings of Gender” by Aaron H Devor,

Many researchers have been drawn to the World War Two period because demands of the wartime economy necessitated a dramatic reassessment of women’s role in life (Honey,1984 p. 1). The form of female participation found least often is the isolation individual female solider who, without gender disguise, fights amongst her male comrades (Goldstein, 2001 p. 112). The decision to introduce large number of women into the armed services during WWII constituted a radical- arguably the most radical- break within the history of gender (Elshtain and Tobias, 1990 p. 107). As difficult as it is to make a difference with how one sees women within the history of WWII women have in one way or another affected how the nature of war is seen within participation (Elshtain and

31). Gender identity can be one of those hierarchies. Those who conform to society’s gender norms are afforded many privileges, at the expense of those whose identities do not coincide with societal expectations. The genders of women and men are present in every facet in our lives, from the private sphere, to the public one. Whether one goes shopping for clothing or cosmetics, whether one fills out a survey from the privacy of their home, the divide between men and women is plainly clear, two sections, two boxes to tick. For people with characteristics that correspond to the man and woman binary, the notion that a men and women’s section in a pharmacy will sound foreign and irrelevant, or alternatively, commonsensical, for all they would need to do is go to the section they have been conditioned to, to the one that is theirs by extension of their gender. But, for someone that does not conform to the stereotypical perception of what being a man or woman entails, the issue is a real one. Wilchins (2004) recounts a day spent shopping for clothing, going between searching for men’s socks and women’s lingerie: “Every salesperson, every department, fumbled for pronouns. All of them were unsure how to treat me” (p. 137). Thus, discrimination is easy to see when you are the target. However, the

Gender is an idea that is socially constructed. The idea of gender accompanies the meaning of being a woman or a man (Ballantine and Roberts, 305). When we think of a man, we typically think of someone who likes cars or hunting, someone who provides, and someone who is built. When we think of a woman, we typically think of someone who can cook, someone who takes care of the kids, and someone who is small and fragile. Symbolic Interactionism states the idea that humans are not only creating the society we are living, but we are influenced by it (Ballantine and Roberts, 305). Gender and symbolic interactionism can be portrayed and taught through any type of media. Magazines and greeting cards specifically can tell someone a lot about gender differences. The ideas of gender and symbolic interactionism will be used in order to explain the differences in men’s and women’s magazines and greeting cards.

In the article titled, ‘Feminism, Nationalism, and Militarism after the Cold War’, by Cynthia Enloe, the links between feminism and nationalism are discussed through the analysis of the Cold War. The article makes striking comments towards the treatment of women in the context of masculine societies. War is often associated with masculinity as men are expected to take up arms and fight for nationalism. This narrative of war often excludes the narrative of the women left behind as the men in their communities are expected to take control of the nation and impending war. The way history is recorded purposefully puts men at the forefront of every story listed in a textbook or taught to students. The grave reality is that women are as big a part

Her essay deals with the conceptual presence of gender within society that functions as the primary element in expected behavioral roles. Drawing upon previous philosophic and psychoanalytic thought, Butler espouses a theory rooted in the concept of social agents that "constitute social reality through language, gesture, and all matter of symbolic social sign." (Butler 270) Butler asserts that gender is not based on an internal identity or self-definition, but rather on perceptory, reflective notions of performances. Gender itself, in its unstable temporality, is defined by Butler to be "an identity instituted through a stylized repetition of acts"--an ephemeral performance from which social constructs are formed. (Butler 270) In this analysis, Butler establishes the notion of gender as an abstracted, mass perception which is rendered concrete by the fact of its common acceptance. It is a shared reality of the public, it's existence is a consequence of society's mutual acknowledgment. In this light, Butler describes the concept as being purely temporal--the appearance and perception of gender constitutes its reality. As a result, the examination of gender construction is the examination of its performative, perception-based manifestation. Upon breaching the collective assumption of the actuality of gender, its mutual acceptability is undermined, rendered unstable, and therefore, non-existent.

Bourdieu considers that, as race, gender is socially constructed (Bourdieu, 1982). Moreover, gender is also discursively constructed. According to Bucholtz, and Hall (2005), social gender is assigned every time that a speaker assign a social gender to other human being. These authors say: “ It is the constant iteration of such practices that cumulatively produces not only each individual's gender identity, but gender itself as a socially meaningful system” (p. 590). In this vein, Bourdieu (1982) posits that utterances are not just signs to be deciphered; rather, they are symbolic representations of signs of wealth and authority that are “meant to be believed and obeyed” (p. 68). Thus, the construction of the female as gender relies in a set

What does it mean to be a woman or man? Whether we a man or a woman, in today’s society it is not determined just by our sex organs. Our gender includes a complex mix of beliefs, behaviors, and characteristics. How do you act, talk, and behave like a woman or man? Are you feminine or masculine, both, or neither? These are questions that help us get to the core of our gender and gender identity. Gender identity is how we feel about and express our gender and gender roles: clothing, behavior, and personal appearance. It is a feeling that we have as early as age two or three. In the article, “Becoming Members of Society: Learning the Social Meaning of Gender,” the author, Aaron Devor, is trying to persuade his readers that gender shapes how we behave because of the expectation from us and relate to one another. He does this by using an educational approach, describing gender stereotypes, and making cultural references. He gets readers to reflect on how “Children’s developing concepts of themselves as individuals are necessarily bound up …to understand the expectations of the society which they are a part of” (389). Growing up, from being a child to an adult is where most of us try to find ourselves. We tend to struggle during this transition period, people around us tell us what to be and not to be, Jamaica Kincaidt in her short story, “Girl” tells just that, the setting is presented as a set of life instructions to a girl by her mother to live properly. The mother soberly

In the book Gender, Sex, and the Postnational Defense Annica Kronsell is “interested in exploring the potential defense and its gender implications” (3). Looking at cases in the European Union and Sweden through a constructivist approach to gender she challenges the mainstream perspectives of masculinity and militarism. In questioning “whether the broader recognition of human security, and in particular gender and security, has influenced the way defense and military is organized” and “ to what extent gender relations have been transformed in the postnational security and defense context” (4-5) Kronsell challenged the assumptions of the status quo of male and female depicted roles in military organizations and the assumption that gender parity is not realistically achievable.

Gender is used to refer to “the attitudes, feelings, and behaviors that a given culture associates with

Through this written piece of work, I want to examine the ways in which the dominant ideas of gender and war, from a Feminist perspective. I will be contributing an understanding to the role of the Kurdish female fighters in the field of war and politics, that have broken the taboos of gender roles within the community, and the national movement. The concept of gender, war, and conflict has lightened the issue of women in war. The image of war is associated to masculinity, and in many cases women are not welcomes in the field of war, as “she is exposed as a victim of war by drawing the idea of women being helpless (Sjoberg, 2014, p. 10).” Laura Sjoberg; Gender, War, and Conflict, states that “war-making and war-fighting have been traditionally

Cynthia Enloe’s concepts in Masculinity as a Foreign Policy Issue highlight a deeper problem reflecting the systematic separation of sexes and its’ impact on international affairs. Enloe claims that “Stalling progress towards bringing feminist analyses into foreign policy decision-making processes has been the conventionally naïve belief that international affairs – trade, immigration, high tech weapons dales – have nothing to do with gender. They do.” Feminist movement in 70’s and 80’s have had a profound impact on formulating final decisions regarding our involvement in wars in Southeast Asia for instance, so deeming international affairs as gender exclusive is a conscious choice which is only hindering peace prospects on global scale.

and its definition in society. They bring forth the idea that gender is a result of actions and

178). Representations are construction in text, thus have a constructive effect in shaping understandings of world, identity and gender (Sunderland, 2011, p. 5). Sunderland notes, and partially supports, claims that representations constructed by discourses that stress differences could play significantly into naturalising and legitimating traditional ideas of gender.

According to the Ann Oakley (1972), “Gender is a matter of Culture, it refers the classification of men and women into masculine and feminine.’’