GRSJ224/gender

GENDER: A BI-PARTION; The evolution of Feminism

The Wikipedia page, “Gender: A bi-partition; The evolution of Feminism” discusses the dually constructed competitive nature of the gender binary: male vs. female. It begins by explaining Gender, and how it is a social construct, identifying its definition, and its separation from sex. It then goes deeper into explaining how our society is organized around the dualism, male and female, and how this causes inequalities. The page then investigates this comparison of male superior than female, and explaining how in our biological and historical roots, women are known to be inferior to men. It goes into some specific examples of biological precedents, that describe female processes as weaker than men, and hence the evolution of feminism: the liberation and movement towards an equal opposite. By identifying this bi-partition, and in reference to Charle Darwin’s theory of evolution, we understand this natural competition, and the evolution of feminism. It briefly discusses how women's’ history went unrecorded, and how by contradicting this dualism- and encouraging a fluid gender, where people are free to conform to their own identity and gender, we would be supporting feminism, and putting the pen that records history- into our hands.  By bringing attention to gender in gender, race, sex and justice, I really tried to explain the importance of the binary structure that is the root and creation of this competitive nature of patriarchy vs. feminism, which sometimes goes unnoticed in its contribution.

1.1 GENDER EXPLAINED:

• 1.1.1 Exploring Gender

To understand the evolution of feminism, we must first understand gender.  Gender is a social construct, normally known to fall into the binary: male and female. The most common reason for this binary, is because most people tend to equate sex with gender, as if they were one and the same thing. Gender and the gender binary serve as building blocks of society. Gender is learned by the presumption that “male” and “female” (sex) are fixed categories, and juxtapose this fixity to the often contradictory beliefs about masculinity and feminity. However, sex refers to the biological makeup of a person, and gender is a socially constructed phenomenon conceptualized by 5 elements: sex, identity, presentation, roles and experiences.

• 1.1.2 the 5 elements of Gender

Sex is usually determined by gender assignment, by determining the status of our genitalia at birth, and gender identity is the internal sense of the assigned gender. Gender presentation is how we express our identity, by what we wear, how we walk, how we talk, and how we engage. Gender presentation is almost like personification of objects to classify gender. An example of gender presentation would be hair and makeup for women, cars and sports for men. Gender roles are the behaviours, thoughts, feelings occupations and interpersonal dynamics associated with each gender. Gender roles in particular are crucial in understanding patriarchy, and the evolution of feminism. Another crucial element in understanding gender, is experiences. Experiences can sometimes be gender- specific. Some experiences are considered to be exclusive to males only, or females only, like menstruation.

• 1.1.3 Gender Constructs and Equality

Gender roles press these gender constructs through colors, objects, behaviors, professions and feelings. Gender is enforced by institutions, ideologies, and individualism. Institutions that cause the constructs are marriage, occupations, education, markets, media and family. Gender then, is this socially and culturally defined idea about what it means to be a woman and what it means to be a man. If gender is created by culture, it can be changed- its not fixed. Since our society is organized around a dualism, male and female, and this does not do justice to the complexity of human identity and expression, inequalities arise. We live in a society where we often take equalities as a given, but what does equality really mean? Equality is not an abstract, many of the equal opportunities we have today, are a result of mass struggle. For women to have the right to vote in general was a struggle, for indigenous women to have the right to vote was a separate struggle, for women to be able to drive- is still a struggle in some countries today. The representation of gender, since ever, has shown women to be weaker, and men to be stronger- this inequality is the nature of the dualism: male vs. female.

2.1 THE SCIENCE BEHIND FEMINISM

• 2.1.1 Biological science of patriarchy – Sperm > Egg, Male> Female.  

The gender binary does not do justice to the complexity of human identity and expression, this is enforced by ideologies that exist prior to institutions, dominant ideas that shape our very first understanding of the concept gender. Ideologies like women are emotional, men are rational, men are smarter, innately superior, Adam vs. Eve, and how eve was supposedly made from Adam’s rib. These ideologies existed prior to our existence. How did they evolve? How is it that there is this common notion of men being superior to women. It actually roots deeper than you can imagine, and it is still evolving in today’s society. Rooting to human biology, and society, stereotypes have always implied that female biological processes are less worthy than their male counterparts, and that women are therefore less worthy than men. While the technical “facts of biology may not always be constructed in cultural terms”, some people argue that the extent to which differences between egg and sperm are emphasized, it parallels into falsely characterizing male and female behavior. Certain specific examples include extolling the female cycle as a productive enterprise, and menstruation as a constant view of failure, until successful reproduction, assisted by the “strong sperm”. Medical texts describe menstruation as the debris of the uterine lining, and the result of regular necrosis, or death of tissue. One example of a direct biophysical comparison is “whereas the female shed only a single gamete each month, the seminiferous tubules produce hundreds of millions of sperm each day”. While female’s eggs’ are constantly described as passive, and sperm as “strong and powerful” we support the idea that eggs depend on sperm for rescue, and the whole notion that the egg will die unless recued by the sperm, makes female reproductive organs biologically interdependent, while male organs are autonomous, operating independently, and efficiently, resulting in this ideology that the female, beginning from biology, with the egg, is congenitally more dependent than the male. This idea has eventually evolved into a socially accepted phenomenon, that women are dependent on males, that like every fairy-tale in history, women are to be rescued by men, and they are secondary in nature.

• 2.1.2 The Evolution of Feminism/ Conclusion

Ever since the beginning of time, there has always been a bi-partition. Evolutionary theory first introduced by Charles Darwin, states that everything is in competition with one another, and the competition creates through the process of time and natural selection, a better human evolved over time. In the same way, the field of feminism has evolved over time. The history of women, is still ongoing, and the bi-partition between different species and within different human subgroups is still apparent. However, social sciences aim to blur the lines between the different categories of competition with one another. Gender studies would claim that the categories are defined by class, race, gender, and ability. There will always be a bi-partition apparent but it is our job as humans to create an equal playing field and blur these lines so that opportunities are given equally to everyone. Feminism is many things, and it is important in women’s liberation. There is not much recorded history of women, and this is because history was written mainly by men and about men’s activities, but today, we are contributing as activists in women’s liberation and recording our version of events. Women’s movement’s though recent, have already shaped form into three waves, these movements shaped our ability as women to be able to live freely in today’s society. We are formed to fit in this binary, when really gender is fluid, and by fighting the dualism, we are supporting feminism, an act to liberate women, and in doing so, we are writing our side of the story, we are recording our version of events, and we are slowly becoming equals.

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