Catharine Mackinnon Summary

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Section I: MacKinnon Using your own words, explain Catharine MacKinnon’s account of gender. Is this account convincing? Why or why not? Catharine MacKinnon presents a convincing sexuality-based theory of gender that interrogates the idea of heteronormativity as a foundation of gender dynamics. MacKinnon defines heterosexuality as the eroticization of dominance and submission, and gender as the result of socialization under this eroticization. She asserts that the female gender stereotype is inherently sexual because societal notions of femininity, such as passivity, softness, domesticity, infantilization, and masochism, are understood as qualities of the “submissive” in a heteronormative society. Therefore, according to MacKinnon, femininity …show more content…

The line between normal and deviant sexual behaviors is still ambiguous due to gender inequality, but heterosexuality is not inherently problematic. Furthermore, MacKinnon asserts that lesbians are effectively not considered women because they violate heteronormative female gender stereotypes. This claim can be interpreted as too broad and untrue due to the prominent presence of feminine women in the lesbian community, representing a conception of femininity removed from the lens of male sexual desire. If femininity is defined only in light of heteronormativity, some might argue, then traditional femininity should not be observed in lesbian relationships. Furthermore, there often exists a dynamic of dominant and submissive actors in same-sex relationships, presenting in alignment with traditional gender stereotypes. Many lesbian women are just as feminine, if not more, than their heterosexual counterparts, which challenges MacKinnon’s notion of femininity constructed by male sexual desire. Such critiques of MacKinnon’s theory of gender as created by sexuality are valid, but address a version of MacKinnon’s claim that lacks nuance.

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