The Human Perception And Distinction Between Gender And Culture

In this paper I will begin by defining personal culture and national culture. After, I will then elaborate my own personal and national culture. I will continue to talk about the subject with the person that I have chosen for my cultural group, my mother, and I will identify her personal and national culture. Lastly, I will talk about my own personality and how it has a connection with my own natural culture; knowing this is important, it lets us know who we are, and how we act with people who are from different cultures.

My cultural identity is female. To say this is to identify myself as having personal characteristics pertaining to femininity, as oppose to masculinity. Femininity is often synonymous with sensitivity, passiveness, gentleness, nurturing, empathy, and compassion. My cultural identity as a female has influenced several aspects of my life, including family, social development, education, and health. It affects the roles I take on in my family. It affects how I socialize with other people, shaping personal relationships. It influences my education and health. For example, I was raised with the idea that women are caretakers and must be housewife material. As such, I have taken on multiple roles; I am my parents’ housekeeper, my grandparents’ chauffeur, and my cousins’ sitter. Consequently, this caretaker persona extends towards my social life. For example, I become a “mother hen” with my friends. In one particular case, my friend was drunk and incapable of taking care of herself at a party, so I looked after her until she was well enough to go home. As a woman, my caretaker persona has led to healthy relationships, based on communication and nurturance. In regards to education, I am a psychology major. Psychology is a female-dominant field in academia; this is most likely because psychologists often utilize traits common to females (e.g., compassion, sensitivity, empathy), so women tend to gravitate towards this

The 19th century was one of the most revolutionized eras in the history of the world. It is in this time period that the power shift was on a constant stir; empires falling, empires rising, and important discoveries that would change the world forever. Many Significant theories and belief systems were established, as well as the rise of some of the potent people in history. One person that is remembered for his work and celebrated for his theories is English biologist and scientist Charles Darwin. He is the sole theorists who conjured up the idea of human evolution, commonly known today as “Darwinism”. In effort to ensure this is recognized this paper continues on into the life of Charles Darwin, his story, his achievements,

Social Darwinism is by no means dead, for vestiges of it can be found in the

Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection, a scientific theory that supported the belief of evolution, was manipulated and applied to different areas of life, and thus it became the shaping force in European thought in the last half of the nineteenth century. Darwin, through observation of organisms, determined that a system of natural selection controlled the evolution of species. He found that the organisms that were most fit and assimilated to the environment would survive. They would also reproduce so that over time they would eventually dominate in numbers over the organisms with weaker characteristics. This new theory was radical and interesting to the scientific world but its effects reach far beyond this small institution of

Beginning in the late 19th century, eugenics was a social and health reform movement aimed at refining the genetic quality of the human population. Although the apparent goal of the movement was improving the human race, a desire to preserve white middle and upper class power also existed. This is evident in the policies implemented, as the unfit were confined to institutions and stringent marriage laws were established. Even more aggressive measures were applied in the Progressive Era. As immigration increased and the birthrate of Anglo-Americans declined in the 20th century, compulsory sterilization of the unfit was constructed to combat the threatened merit of society.

At the beginning of the 20th century, power and prestige was held by the majority of (if not only) White people. African Americans were living under Jim Crow laws, Native Americans were forced into reservations and all of the new immigrants were in crowded ghettos. Those that were a race other than White were at “the bottom of the social and political hierarchy.” One of the aims of the Eugenics Movement was racial purification. Using the concept of Mendelian genes, scientists would try to breed the best, smartest, most talented, most beautiful and always white individuals and breed out the worst and weakest colored individuals. Mixed race people were seen as not put together because it was a combination of the best and worst traits someone could have.” Frederick Hoffman, presented data, statistics and a theory that claimed African Americans would become extinct because of high death and disease rates that were caused by African Americans being biologically lesser than Whites. However, his analysis was flawed because it failed to mention how systematic poverty and social neglect could be affecting the health of African Americans.

In the article, “Everybody’s Doing It” Jean Newton gives an overview of eugenics and shares his experience with the principals that are used to discriminate himself. He begins by explaining hoe eugenics was first used for the breeding of animals and plants in order to achieve higher quality products. However, the meaning was manipulated by people and used for a reason to use it as a rubric for human beings. White males being at the top while other minorities being at the lowest of the chart. Newton sees eugenics as unfair to the immigrant or minority community for the reason that they are seen as animals and are not able to get the support from government officials. He presents a man named Walt Mason who was sent to prison for thirty days for

Blackmon was a young girl when one day, social workers came to the home which she lived and forced her illiterate grandmother to sign papers. They used threats like cancelling welfare if she did not consent to the signings. Little did she know, she was signing papers to consent doctors to sterilize her granddaughter. The incident took place in North Carolina, when eugenics was fading, but still a practice. Blackmon only found out she had been sterilized when she, years later, wanted to start a family with her husband but could not. When she went to the doctor about her concern, tests showed that she was infertile. Her research then led her to find that she had been sterilized when she was

a need is being creating where no problem existed before, namely the desirability of a

Forced sterilization is seen at a tool of repression by some even though official records indicate that the most of the women had requested the procedure, there is no way to tell how many of these had been coerced by their family or their social workers into making that decision, or if the record was falsified (Kaelber, 2014). Later it was discovered that it was not uncommon for African American women to be sterilized during other medical procedures without their consent or knowledge (Kevels, 1995). In reality, most people subjected to these sterilizations had little to no choice, and because the program was run by the government, they had little chance of escaping the procedure. Herein lies the largest controversy regarding eugenics – coercion. “The right to reproduce without interference from third parties is one of the fundamental freedoms recognized by international law and moral theories from a host of ethical traditions” (Caplan, McGee, & Magnus, 1999). During its brief history, the practice of eugenics had sought to limit the bodily self-determination of American citizens and to increase the power inequities present at the

Darwin’s theories and discoveries caused much controversy to the world and still does today. These controversies occur more in

Evolutionary theory has been used to also provide scientific justification for the oppression of women. Even Darwin himself commented in The Descent of Man that males have much stronger physical and thinking abilities than do women (Darwin 504). Furthermore, when one actually looks at the demographics of the scientific community, it is heavily male. This discipline has always been male dominated and has shown and expressed many sexist attitudes towards women, which influenced many scientific findings throughout research. Darwin and other intellectuals of the time believed that the evolutionary theory, “ like Genesis, demanded women’s subservice to men and total devotion to maternity” (Hamlin 3). While freethink feminists utilized science to their own advantages to rid religion from the feminist movement, they neglected the staunch sexism that was present in Darwinian

Darwin and Evolution are inextricably linked in the minds of most people who have had the opportunity to study them in basic biology. However, Darwin's theories of selection and survival of the fittest have been applied to moral, economic, political, and other cultural aspects of society. Dennett briefly touched on some of the political and social ramifications of Darwin's theories in the final chapter of Darwin's Dangerous Idea. Other philosophers and thinkers have also adapted Darwin's evolutionary ideas, in order to apply them in a societal or cultural context. One great example of this adaptation of the biological concept of evolution, is the appearance of Social Darwinism during the 19th century.

Social Darwinism was a sociological theory that merged Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection and the work of Herbert Spencer, Malthus, and other scientific and sociological theorists to justify imperialism, racism, and conservative economic policies. The overall acceptance of the power of nature in defining human beings developed during the 18th century Enlightenment. Europe’s exploration not only brought about immense economic and agricultural growth, but also exposed them to “human behavior and life patterns within environments and under circumstances dramatically different than their own” (4). The most popular catch phrases of Darwinism, “struggle for existence” and “survival of the fittest”, when applied to the life of man in society, suggested that nature would provide that the best competitors in a competitive situation would win, and that this process would lead to continuing improvement” (6. Hoft). This misinterpreted sense of superiority engulfed much of society at the time and was used to justify the logistics behind certain actions regarding capitalism, racism, and imperialism. Furthermore, it served as the backbone of some of the most heinous acts imaginable including the genocide and sterilization of certain groups of people.