According to feminists and advocates for social justice, biological essentialism is pseudoscience operating under the pretense of rigorous scientific research. Rather than contribute to our scientific understanding in important issues, such as race and gender, critics believe that instead it serves to validate past and current social arrangements, and undermine social justice efforts. Biological essentialism argues that there are fundamental differences between groups of people, mediated and dictated by biological and genetic differences. Controversy arises because a corollary of this theory is that instantiations of inequality might not be due to social factors but rather by immutable characteristics. Any ideas that support and emphasize innate group differences, are diametrically opposed to the General Social Science Model (GSSM) espoused by social justice advocates. John Locke’s theory of “tabula rasa,” the idea that people are born as a “blank state” ready to be filled by external environmental …show more content…
But what has not changed and what she says the argument results in is upheld social conditions: “Conventional sex roles, gender divisions of labour, and inequalities of power…” She criticizes the varying biological mechanisms appealed to in biological essentialism, seemingly implying that shifts in emphasize underlie a lack of certainty, appearing more as an effort in propping up convenient excuses to justify their worldview. Differences of reproductive strategy, for example, a theory in “evolutionary psychology,” contained in “some of the more toxic literature…pseudo-biological justifications of rape” and research in brain differences led to “bizarre ideas about boys’ fixed brain-based “learning
Throughout my reading of Deborah Blum’s, “The Gender Blur: Where Does Biology End and Society Take Over?” I have to admit that I had some mixed feelings. My initial reaction upon first glance, was that the essay was very intriguing. The title was inviting, the topic was argumentative, and the opening was captivating. However, after reading further and analyzing it from a rhetorical perspective, I admit that I was disappointed. Although Blum did indeed demonstrate examples of each ethos, pathos, and logos appeals, filling her writing with facts after facts, the overall writing was not well put together.
Women’s Brains deals with the abuse of scientific data in order to “prove” negative social analyses with prejudiced groups such as women, blacks, and poor people. Evolutionary biologist Stephen Gould points out the flaws in the scientific methods of various scientists and correctly asserts that many scientists incorrectly used anthropometric data to support social analyses that degrade prejudiced groups.
Anthropologists, who study humans and their origins, generally accept that the human species can be categorized into races based on physical and genetic makeup. For example, many slaves had physical differences from their counterpart white race, such as dark skin and wiry hair. Throughout history, the study of Sociology has had a significant impacted the `nature versus nurture' debate. Social Darwinism based its theory on genetic determinism and natural selection, advocating a capitalist economy, promoting racism and the inherent inequality of such as society. Karl Marx, also an advocate for capitalism and slavery, applied the Marxist philosophy to the practice of science, emphasizing environmental influences determined behavior. Max Weber is known his ...
First, he breaks down the idea of race as a biologically constructed fact. He argues that race as a biological construction was used to set up a system of oppression that benefitted whites. He counters this construction by claiming that race can be constructed many different ways. Tommy Lott’s article "Du Bois and Locke on the Scientific Study of the Negro” further deconstructs the idea of race as a solely biological construction and establishes that race can be biologically, socially, and culturally constructed. Lott explains how each construction further perpetuates a racial caste, but he explains that the social and cultural construction of race, although false in its ideology about races, is how society is able to allocate a status of superiority or inferiority. Societal statuses are accompanied with privilege and economic advantages. Furthermore, Du Bois explains that white society clings to the established constructions of race because of its ability to create a caste system that affords whites with exclusive economic privileges.
As opposed to each other, both sides demonstrate the idea of how gender behavior is socially constructed. However one side, Devor, focuses primary on the idea that societal expectations are the major contribution as to how one should act based on their gender. On the other hand, Blum, focuses on how the scheme behind gender identity is based on biological relations, but she doesn’t completely disagree with Devor’s point to a certain extent. It’s proven that it takes both biology as well as society to determine an individual’s societal gender role, which results to a qualification of Blum’s argument overpowering Devor’s.
...ignificant evidence for my research argument indicates that the nature of gender/sex consists of a wide consensus. The latter is significant to original sex differences in brain structure and the organized role through sex differential prenatal hormone exposures through the term used in the article as (the ‘hardwiring’ paradigm). The article is limited to scientific shortcoming that presents neuroscientific research on sex and gender for it lacks an analysis that goes beyond the observed results. The article is based on neuroscience studies and how it approached gender, yet the article suggests that gender should be examined through social, culture studies, ethnicity and race. This article will not form the foundation of my research but will be used a secondary material. The neuroscience evidences will be used to support my argument and will be used as an example.
The stark expectations surrounding gender and sex of today’s society stem largely from a need to seek use of exclusionary language. Jacques Derrida, one of the many source contributors from which Judith Butler sought out to formulate Queer Theory as we know it today, pegged the idea that language is exclusionary in and of itself. His most commonly used example is that of “chair” versus “not chair”; how do you define a chair? If you were to look at a bench, a couch, a table, a swing, a bed- these things are “not chair”. Similar to this example is the situation that society forces every individual born into it to face- “male” and “not male”, or “female” and “not female”. Fausto-Sterling approaches this issue from a unique perspective that utilizes both her knowledge as biologist (looking towards the cellular basis of “sex”) paired with her self-proclaimed feminist perspective. Her perspective on a more sensible system of sex was initial...
In Anderson and Collins’, chapter on “Why race, class, and gender still maters” encourage readers to think about the world in their framework of race, class, and gender. They argued that even though society has change and there is a wide range of diversity; race, class and gender still matters. Anderson and Collins stated, “Race, class, and gender matter because they remain the foundation for system of power and inequality that, despite our nation’s diversity, continue to be among the most significant social facts of peoples lives.” (Anderson and Collins, 2010) When I was a little girl, I never knew that people were classified in to groups such as race, class, gender. I knew there were people that had a different color of skin than my color of skin. I knew that there were rich people and poor people, and that there were girls and boys. I saw everyone as being human beings, as being the same and not classified as something. As I was growing up, I started to see the differences in classifications in groups. It was not because I just woke up knowing that there were different classifications, but because I was taught about them in school and society. Anderson and Collins stated, “Race, class and gender shape the experiences of all people in the United States. (2010) This means that experiences that we have gone through in life are formed from a race, class, and gender view.
First; comes, the notion of nature. West and Zimmerman term this as sex, referring to a person’s biological makeup through genitalia, having a penis or vagina, or simply chromosomal pairing of XY or XX (29). Although there is no escape or control an individual has, if their foetal tissues formed into a penis or vagina, biology does play an underlying role in an individual’s identity and personality formation which is socially constructed. What is the correlation between biology and socially constructed gender then? The case study West and Zimmerman present of “Agnes, a transsexual person who was born (31), ” and raised a boy, but went through sex reassignment surgery, and identifies as a female, shows that although biology may result in a certain genitalia, an individual’s response to that may be one that is conforming or opposing to it. By the terms conforming and opposing I mean to say that Agnes could have either continued to
"In dismantling the notion that sex and gender are innate, first the two must be defined. Sex is described as the interaction between genes, hormones, behavior, and the environment. The adjectives female, male, or intersex is used when referring to sex. Gender is the social status, legal
The text "Dueling Dualism" by Anne Fausto-Sterling claim is that sex and gender are constructed. Scientist construct gender and sex through their research and studies and this creates the way society views sex and gender. Sterling writes, "... human sexuality created by scholars in general and by biologists, in particular, are one component of political, social, and moral struggles about our cultures... At the same time... incorporated into our very physiological being... Biologists...in turn refashion our cultural environment"(Sterling,5). Sterling, sure enough, realizes how sexuality is viewed by biologist but also how it can change the perspectives of sexuality in a society. Biologist have "refashion our cultural environment" and are reshaping
Reflecting directly on the cultural attitudes and sociocultural messages explained throughout this course, it is clear that race, gender, and sexuality are all socially constructed in one way or another. Contrary to popular belief, race is actually almost completely socially constructed, it is not biological. Further, a human’s DNA does not differentiate at all to create any specific race. However, society has categorized certain things, such as skin color, to determine the race of individuals. In simpler terms, there are not specific genes that parents pass on to their offspring that determine their race; society categorizes people into specific races when they are born based on their
With this week’s readings, many interesting articles were discussed but the one that struck me the most would be Christine Delphy’s article, “Rethinking sex and gender.” This specific article brought about points and perspectives that I had never experienced before prior to the reading. What was even more shocking, however, was when I discovered that some of the fallacies that Delphy had mentioned in the article were already ingrained in myself. For example, within Delphy’s first examination she points out that there is a hidden assumption that sex precedes gender since it is a biologically derived characteristic and this was an assumption that I found to make myself. Even though I thought that this article would just be another simple read for me, it turned out that it was quite the enlightening experience as it provided insight into how gender roles and classification developed as well as providing a lot of interesting arguments. However, what I connected with most would be the later part of the article that specifically focuses on the topics of hierarchy and division.
On the other hand, cultural feminists such as Stassinopoulos claimed that women's unique perspective and talents must be valued, intentionally emphasizing the differences between men and women. A third type of feminism, post-modernism, is represented in Sexing the Body by Anne Fausto-Sterling. Post-modern feminism questions the very origins of gender, sexuality, and bodies. According to post-modernism, the emphasis or de-emphasis of difference by cultural and liberal feminists is meaningless, because the difference itself and the categories difference creates are social constructions. Fausto-Sterling's post-modernism, however, depicts this social construction in a unique manner; she attempts to illustrate the role of science in the construction of gender, sex, and bodies. In doing so she discusses three main ways in which science aids in the social construction of sex: first, new surgical technology allows doctors to literally construct genitalia; second, socially accepted biases affect the way scientists design, carry out, and analyze ex...
Grosz, Elizabeth. Sexual Difference and the Problem of Essentialism. From The Essential Difference. Ed. Naomi Schar and Elizabeth Weed. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1994.