Relationship Between Female And Female

Due to primary socialisation, the children in the family would then be socialised into their gender roles so then when their time comes to marry and have children, this family structure will continue: the male has the instrumental role and the woman has the expressive role. To contradict with this view from Parsons’, the feminist theory would challenge this view when considering the inequality which comes of this. One argument made by feminists is to do with the oppression which women have dealt with for many years due to their somewhat, ascribed role of being inferior to men, up until around the 1960’s.

In the excerpt “Why Do We Make So Much of Gender?”, from his 1997 book The Gender Knot: Unraveling Our Patriarchal Legacy, Allan Johnson argues gender through identity and culture. Johnson starts out by expressing opposition on how women are looked at through a patriarchal society and not the biology from which they came. He mentions the feminist argument that women in a patriarchal society are “oppressed” and that this comes from social order (545). He goes on to point out, the focus should be on raising children to adulthood rather than worrying about reproduction. Although, I agree with Johnson’s arguments, there are things in this world that cannot and should not be changed.

This critical textual analysis will examine feminine identity and the essentialistic ideas of the late nineteenth century between men and women as elaborated by Kaplan and Rogers in “Essentialisms, Determinisms. It will include an analysis of theories regarding dichotomies of biological determinism and cranial classification. Essentialism argues that there are categories of objects and genres that have essential characteristics, notwithstanding individual variation, and that these essential characteristics define the objects and genres to an extent that they reveal truth (Kaplan and Rogers 27). Determinism is a theory or in some cases a doctrine. “Nature” has been the historical burden women have faced. It is not the only such burden, but it has been the largest and the heaviest. Psychological and social implications of essentialist beliefs create gender segregation, inequality, and is often used to excuse gender-based biases in society. These types of ideas are often used as a justification for misogynistic and essentialistic systems in society.

Gender roles have played a major part in society. According to the book “The Psyche of Feminism” “A gender role is a theoretical construct in the social sciences that refers to a set of social and behavioral norms that are considered to be socially appropriate

Since humanity began, the men are always considered as the protectors, the winners, and the leaders of the world. How about women? Does the woman have to cook, clean and raise the children? Can a woman join the military or have a hard-working job? Nowadays, notwithstanding earning many achievements in various spheres, some people still have the prejudice that a woman has to belong to the kitchen! To illustrate what society thinks of a woman and what ideas should be changed, Lynn Peril published her argument, “Pink Think.” By arguing on all sides, she built “Pink Think” to become an effective essay, which would go into my heart and my mind for a long time.

Female to Male as Nature is to Culture Gender relations form an integral part of human social interactions and are of great interest to anthropologists. Since the feminist movement in the late 1960s, one question that has been discussed is to what extent the opposition between women and men can be thought of in terms of the dichotomy between nature and culture and what implications this has for the position of women in society. This structuralist perspective was first formulated by Ortner (1974), drawing on Levi-Strauss and de Beauvoir, but has since been criticised for being simplistic and ethnocentric. I will delineate Ortner’s argument and look at its application to male and female roles in

Sandra Bem’s book, The Lenses of Gender, discusses the three lenses of gender: androcentrism, gender polarization and biological essentialism. The first sense of gender Sandra touches on is androcentrism, which is the idea that men create the standard for society and females do not meet the standard. The most important concept in this reading is the idea that women are naturally given the caregiver role because they bear children. This is important because men are given the responsibility of defending the family and collecting food, “because they were bigger and stronger and also because they did not have their mobility limited by the continuous presence of children” (Bem, 1993, p. 31). The significance of this is that it seems to be the biggest

The Lenses of Gender by Sandra Bem begins by introducing the three lenses that will be discussed in the book: androcentrism, gender polarization, and biological essentialism. The most significant aspect to this reading was the concept of females being an addition to males or the ‘other’. Specifically, this idea is derived from a biblical view. When taking a look at the creation of man and the story of Adam of Eve, “Adam is explicitly given the power to name--that is, define--every single creature on earth, including women… Adam is unambiguously said to be created in God’s image. Eve, in contrast, is an inferior departure from this godly standard,” (Bem, 1993, p. 46) This perception of females being below the male standard carries out throughout

Barbara J. Risman (1998:2) defines gender essentialism as “the assumption that basic differences in orientation and personality between men and women are rooted in biology and nature.” Gender essentialism is found in many different aspects of western culture or more specifically American culture. One way gender essentialism subtly sneaks its way into our culture is through music. An example of this occurrence would be the song “God Made Girls” by RaeLynn.

While these two ideas seem very different the things that bonds them together is the way that society shapes and forms specific characteristics of gender individualism that is predetermined by the surrounding culture they grow with. “They explain that it is society which shapes women’s lives, but that women’s oppression is a universal characteristic of society ____a view which one might describe as sort of ‘cultural essentialism” (Cornwall), explains Andrea Cornwall. Subsequently, culture shapes social gender characteristics by influencing a specific ideology that can be manipulated through force. Through coercion women have been accustomed to oppression in the form of a necessity, a cultural bond all women adhere to in order to survive. While these aspects have a determining factor in the way we idolize our own position in a social hierarchy, this effect favors

Again, as Chris Knight mentioned, “the relationship reciprocity which is the basis of marriage is not established between men and women, but between men by means of women” in which women had no active role to play. Gender inequalities therefore existed; women were often essentialized to perform passive roles and their expected duties.

When contemplating the topic of gender role and its impact on identity one cannot help but realise that these gender roles have a huge part to play on a person’s identity. As gender is a combination of male and female it gives way for a number of characteristics to accompany each sex making them different from each other. This has an important position to play on identity which Kath Woodward stated in her book “Questioning Identity: Gender, Class, Nation” where she said “Without difference there would not be such thing as identity”. (Woodward, 2000, pp.51) Unfortunately, however, with these differences there are inequalities. In this essay I would like to elaborate on this further by looking at the meaning of gender and how it impacts

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

Biologically speaking, De Beauvoir notes that the sexes are defined in opposition to each other; for example, man is not woman and woman is not man. Their differences are, however, unidentifiable at the most basic of cellular levels. Therefore, the main differentiation of the two genders is demonstrated through sexuality. De Beauvoir goes on to argue that woman’s passive role in procreation reflects her passive role in society, and that society trains women to become subjugated from the very day of their birth. Further, despite the two sexes’ cooperative role in creating new members of the species, men are regarded as those who provide “the stimuli needed for evoking new life” (13) and women who simply enable the new life “to become lodged in a stable organism.” (13) This reinforces stereotypical notions of the virile male and the passive female, notions that are reflected in society as woman takes a

Juliet Mitchell concurs with Butler's view in her critique; Psycho-analysis and Feminism (1974), where she attempts to show that "gender is constructed rather than biologically necessitated" and sees importance be place upon identifying the "precise developmental moments of that construction in the history of gendered subjects." This is similar to Butlers demand for a genealogical inquiry into gender construction. Butler draws on Jean Paul Sartre's essentialism; "existence precedes essence", and Simone de Beauvoir's concept that "One is not born, but rather becomes a woman." Judith Sargent Murray argues that when born we are "tabula rasa"; a blank slate, therefore concurs with the idea that one is not born a woman; our gender is constructed. Donna Haraway adopts Murray's concept later, suggesting we rid of our cultural baggage and accept our identity's as hybrid. In her feminist discourse Butler maintains this idea that a sense of `womanness' is not prescribed at birth, but is in fact constructed by society through experience and life. Gender is not something you are but something you do; "gender, sexuality and the self do not exist before they are performed in a social context." Butler's `Gender Trouble' seeks to discover, however if there is "some commonality among "women."..independent of their subordination by hegemonic, masculinist cultures?" Butler questions if there are, perhaps certain natural elements that are "specifically