Socialist Feminists' Conception of a Socially Influenced Human Nature
Socialist Feminists’ conception of a socially influenced human nature. Though most of us like to think of ourselves as independent minded, that belief is false. Since early childhood, values, judgments, and standards of society have been engraved in our minds. So much so that it is nearly impossible to know any other way of thought and behavior. As a child we know that it’s okay if mommy cries at a movie, but daddy isn’t really supposed to. We learn how to speak in syllables and recognize good from bad. We are told how to interact with people and whom to interact with. As we grow away from mom and dad, we have friends and co-workers whom we depend upon for feedback and acceptance. Our thoughts even form from what somebody did, said, or looked like. We must live up to our role models or maybe just the model in the magazine because that is acceptable in our society now. Either way, we are certainly not autonomous agents making decisions independent of our environment. This is sometimes a difficult realization to come to. Socialization is not superficial. It is so deep inside every one of us that it is hard to discriminate between what just IS and what we have been told just IS all of our life. For example, our sex roles are not simply how nature created us. They are a conditioning that has matured over many generations in the United States. Other cultures may find our identification with gender ridiculous and ignorant, just as we may think the same of theirs. It’s all a matter of social values. We depend upon each other so much for ideas, how to act, what to wear, and what to dream. This is the huge influence society has over human nature.
I also agree with the idea that women are alienated as sexual beings from their mind and body. I grew up with a subscription to Seventeen magazine. This, I think, is the most detrimental experience for a teenage girl. Every page has someone’s silky hair, or long smooth legs, or flat stomach, or pouty red lips. The stories are about the latest diets, how to put on your makeup, and the poor “fat girl” who got made fun of at school. But it’s not just teen magazines. Every magazine, book, TV program, and movie creates this illusion of an ideal woman that all women should strive to be like.
Gender began as a big part of society many years ago. Feminist scholars have shown how gender is a central component of social and political life. As well as class, race, and sexuality, gender is now understood as one of the essential aspects which shape our lives and determines the distribution of power in our society.
However, there are conservative groups, such as Focus on the Family, that disclaim that a woman’s body is her own. With that being said, I would like to mention the purity ball that was briefly cited in Filipovic’s essay and then further recapped in Jessica Valenti’s Purely Rape: The Myth of Sexual Purity and How It Reinforces Rape Culture. I found this practice interesting because it encourages young girls to vow to their fathers that they will remain a virgin until he hands her over to her future husband. This reiterates how a girl does not have autonomy of her own body; rather, it is a secret garden that must be protected and later passed on from father to husband. Somehow this is supposed to benefit girls by teaching them that “sexuality defines how ‘good’ women are, and that women’s moral compasses are inextricable from their bodies...(Valenti 299).” What it comes down to is this: Women cannot be sexual but must possess some sex appeal. When the statistics show that “ninety-seven percent of Americans will have sex before marriage (Filipovic 17),” does this mean that the majority of women should walk around with the word “dirty” stamped on their forehead? This becomes a problem when women are gang-rapped or young girls are molested and they do not speak up about their experience. Would you want to when you know society is going to permanently label you for something you had no control
Gender by many scholars is deemed to be socially constructed although there is much debate to whether this is actually the case. Simone De Beauvoir (1973: 301) famously claimed that ‘One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman’. In this undisputed text de Beauvoir argues that women are not born a woman. Instead they have to develop feminine behaviours and traits in order to become a woman implying they were not always a woman. It is not the case that nature causes women to be feminine and men to act in a masculine way. Society has constructed it to be this way. Kate Millet also takes a gender socialisation view. Arguing that one’s gender has nothing to do with their biological makeup instead it depends on their culture
However, there is still and will always be debating points stating that gender socialization either doesn’t occur or doesn’t pose a problem. This can be refuted using multiple examples that trace back to one main topic: sexism. Sexism essentially has been the byproduct of gender socialization in the sense that it is based off the notion that ‘one sex isn’t
In the American culture today, women are becoming more sexualized at a younger age due to the influences of the corporate media. Corporate media and society form the perfect idealistic body that women should have and is constantly being promoted making younger girls start to compare themselves to them at a young age. Certain shows and movies, such as Disney, influence young children and teenagers through their characters as to how a woman is supposed to be accepted. The way the corporate media and society make this body image they want women to have starts in a very early stage in a woman's life without them knowing. There are these childhood movies, such as Disney, Barbie and Ken dolls, programs such as Netflix, teen magazines, and the most common source of them all, the internet.
As if women are not objectified enough beauty is now classified as to how sexy and revealing you look. A large portion of people believe that women should have sculpted bodies and perky breast to be beautiful. A women’s beauty is being measured by how prefect and revealing her body can be. In some ways women have lost respect for themselves fighting for the attention of men and became sexual objects in the process. Being judge solely on a women’s sex appeal and failing to see that there is a difference between being sexy and beautiful. This behavior is forcing young women to conform to unrealistic habits of trying to be sexy in order to be seen as
Feminist Theory is an aspect of considering feminism as having been based on socio-phenomenon issues rather than biological or scientific. It appreciates gender inequality, analyzes the societal roles played by feminists in a bid to promote the interests, issues and rights of women in the society. It is also based on the assumption that women play subsidiary roles in the society. The whole idea of feminism has however experienced hurdles in the form of stereotyping by the wider society. This paper tries to examine some of the effects of stereotypes that feminism goes through, what other philosophers say and the way forward towards ending stereotyping.
I believe the objectification of women’s bodies has not only a huge effect on women and their self-esteem, but our society as well. By objectifying women we are not only teaching all young females that they are only as good as their bodies. We are teaching all of our young men that women deserve no respect, no peace of mind, and that we are nothing more than objects to use and to look at. As Jean Killbourne said, “turning a human being into a thing is almost always the first step toward justifying violence against that person” (Delaney, 2010). This can be seen in the media advertisements thrust into our faces on a daily basis. The effects of this are also very clear if you know what you are looking for. “Although biology may create some behavioral
In “Gender as a Social Structure: Theory Wrestling with Activism”, the author Barbara Risman explains her theory to readers about how gender should be thought of as a social structure. Thinking of it as such would allow people to examine how gender is ingrained in almost every part of society, thus putting gender on an equal level of importance with economics and politics. In society, gender dictates many of the opportunities and limitations that an individual may face in his or her lifetime. Barbara Risman points out the three aspects of the gender structure that happen at an individual, interactional, and institutional level (Risman, pg. 446). First, gender contributes to how a person will develop themselves in life. This is the “individual level”. At an interactional level, men and women face different expectations that are set by society. The individual and interactional level are linked because sometimes, changes to one level can affect the other. The third level, the institutional level, notes that gender is affected by laws, rules, and organizational practices that dictate what
Media has been filled with exaggerated scrutinies and trashed with unreasonable criticisms. It deserves a break. This is the generation of Information Technology. Danger is just around the corner, where a click from a mouse or a remote control and all sex-related garbage can pop out of the monitor. Truly, a vulnerable teenager can easily get lost to temptations. As an adolescent, I can empathize how these sweet girls feel about how horrible their body shapes are, how ugly their face is, and how brands in fashion seem to be worth more than anything in the world. Fashion labels, tiny bodies, and sexual activities are all characterized in Sex and the City. From th...
Feminist political ideology focuses on understanding and changing political philosophies for the betterment of women. Studying how the philosophies are constructed and what makes them unjust, this field constantly generates new ideas on how these philosophies need to be fundamentally reconstructed. Liberal feminism, for example, was built around promoting economic and political equality for women. By arguing the older concepts of the split between public and private realms as a way to politically protect male domination of women as “natural”, and ideas about a women’s place in the household, came evidence that supported legal cases leading “to the criminalization in the United States of spousal rape” (qtd. in McAfee). Another completely different approach is radical feminism, which advocates a separation from the whole system, perceiving that the sexual relations between male and female as the basis of gender inequality and female subordination (qtd. in McAfee). Democratic femin...
In western society males are taught what it means to be masculine and females are taught what it means to be feminine. Lorber (1994:57) states “Individuals are born sexed but not gendered, and they have to be taught to be masculine or feminine.” As we grow older we are taught what is expected of us on the basis of what gender were identify as and/or what gender other people perceive us as. For instance, a woman is expected to cook, clean, and have occupations such as a nurse, or secretary. A man is expected to have be either have top jobs such as a surgeon or have a tough labor jobs, and be the bread winners. Western society expects each gender to stay within their gender role. Lorber (1994:61) argues “As, a structure, gender divides work in the home and in economic production…” Once an individual goes outside these expectations breaking they are out casted. Gender is a process that creates what is man and what woman based off of what other perceive what is expected of and should be expressed by each gender, making gender socially constructed. Lorber (1994:60) argues “As a process, gender creates the social differences that define ‘women’ and ‘man.’ In social interaction throughout their lives, individuals learn what is expected, and see what is expected act and
You can see in the media in almost all occasions women being sexualized. From beer to burger commercials women in the media are portrayed as sexual beings. If they are thin and meet society’s standards of beautiful they are considered marketable. Over the...
Society plays a vital role on how gender, sex, gender identity is viewed and it also influence gender norms and gender development. Society learn their culture through enculturation. Enculturation is the process where an individual learn their group culture either through experience, observation or as we know from history through force. The intriguing aspects of enculturation is how we humans learn or acquire knowledge. Society creates their norms and if you don’t follow them you become a castaway or outcast. Gender is the range of characteristics/behaviors that society or cultures portray as masculine or feminine. Gender has nothing to do with your sexual organ which is your sex, your chromosomes, or your
The most important thing I learned in this class is that gender is a social construct. Social construction shows that “as a society we create standards to identify and categorize normal behavior from deviant behavior” (Sosa’s gender and biology lecture). This can be seen in children before they can walk by categorizing genders and dressing females in pink and boys in blue. Social construct can be as simple as labeling and categorizing eggs, bacon, and toast as a breakfast meal and a hamburger as a lunch or dinner meal. As discussed in Asbell’s lecture social construct is reinforced through many types of discourses. For example, females are often described or implied to be the weaker sex, gentle, and sensitive in contrast to men which are described