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Gender and its social construction
The social construction of gender
Gender and its social construction
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The word “Queer” means “strange, unusual”, the same with word “odd”. The theory of queer gender is not a specific theory, but a comprehensive interdisciplinary discourse that come from multiple subjects such as history, society and literature. The theory of queer gender established outside of the mainstream culture: these people and their theory cannot find their position in the mainstream culture, and they do not have intention to do so. “Queer” is a appellation for a social group including people who are not conform with the mainstream society about sexual preference and gender identity, like homosexual and bisexual.
In the challenge to classify and distinguish the sex, gender and gender preference, Judith Butler `s theory about perforsmative acts in her Performative Acts and Gender Consititution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory is very important for us to understand queer. She purposed, the acts of homosexual, bisexual or heterosexual are not a settled identity; it is an act that is constantly changing like a actor. In her opinion, there is no real gender in this society. Gender is a substructure for repetitive act that is histrionic.
The “proper” and “correct” gender (the gender is suitable for a certain sex) is not exist, neither the cultural attribute for sex. Butler stated, the proper gender is merely the result;
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The white man is always in the position of watching first nation people, who are actually originally from this land. They also give them a name “Indian”, like they name the East into Orient. With the act that giving first nation a name, white man strengthen their superiority; they imagine the character of Indian, the purpose is to destroy first nation`s culture. As a Chinese, I am short of knowledge about first nation people, the only source I can touch them is through the cowboy
Living in Canada, there is a long past with the Indigenous people. The relationship between the white and First Nations community is one that is damaged because of our shameful actions in the 1800’s. Unnecessary measures were taken when the Canadian government planned to assimilate the Aboriginal people. Through the Indian Act and Residential schools the government attempted to take away their culture and “kill the Indian in the child.” The Indian Act allowed the government to take control over the people, the residential schools took away their culture and tore apart their families, and now we are left with not only a broken relationship between the First Nations people but they are trying to put back together their lives while still living with a harsh reality of their past.
Next, Butler theory suggest that bodily representation are subversive within sexual minorities. This in essence is Butler proposing that bodily representation within the queer community go against the social conventions which have been gendered by social norms. She states “Such acts, gestures, enactments, generally constructed, are performative in the sense that the essence or identity that they otherwise purport to express are fabrications manufactured and sustained through corporeal signs and other discursive means.” this points out performativity as being a key factor in social representation, the inner reality gets presented by the outer reality, although this suggests that acts and gestures are natural it too suggests that subversive
In “performative acts” Judith Butler argues gender identity a success induced by social sanction, she argues that we are not born into gender, gender is created by your performance. She always believes gender is a topic that should not be binary, the fact that gender is binary makes people think they only have two choices and thinking they don’t have their own choice to make. When the author says performance he means performance by acts of the body. Butler reflects gender as a coming from and spirit within the inside of you
In an effort to legitimize all subcategories of sexuality considered deviant of heterosexual normatively, queer theory acknowledges nontraditional sexual identities by rejecting the rigid notion of stabilized sexuality. It shares the ideals of gender theory, applying to sexuality the idea that gender is a performative adherence to capitalist structures that inform society of what it means to be male, female, gay, and straight. An individual’s conformity to sexual or gendered expectations indicates both perpetration and victimization of the systemic oppression laid down by patriarchal foundations in the interest of maintaining power within a small group of people. Seeking to deconstruct the absolute nature of binary opposition, queer theory highlights and celebrates literary examples of gray areas specifically regarding sexual orientation, and questions those which solidify heterosexuality as the “norm”, and anything outside of it as the “other”.
In their publication, “Doing Gender, ” Candance West and Don H. Zimmerman put forward their theory of gender as an accomplishment; through, the daily social interactions of a man or woman which categorize them as either masculine or feminine. From a sociological perspective the hetero-normative categories of just sex as biological and gender as socially constructed, are blurred as a middle ground is embedded into these fundamental roots of nature or nurture.To further their ideology West and Zimmerman also draw upon an ethnomethodological case study of a transsexual person to show the embodiment of sex category and gender as learned behaviours which are socially constructed.Therefore, the focus of this essay will analyze three ideas: sex, sex
Stereotypes have become a socially accepted phenomena in today’s society. So socially acceptable, in fact, they have made it onto advertising billboards and into our daily language. We do not think twice as they pass our tongues, and we do tilt our heads in concern or questioning as they pass into our ears. In Judith Butler’s essay “Besides Oneself: On the Limits of Sexual Autonomy”, stereotypes are exposed and explored. Especially stereotypes pertaining to sexual orientation. Butler explains how stereotypes are unacceptable. She does this in a way which allows her to concurrently explore what it means to be human, and also what humans do or need to make Earth a livable place for ourselves. When examining Butler’s essay, one could say, and
In pursuit of uncovering an ethic with regards to nomenclature of gender identity and sexual orientation, two very personal axes of identity interwoven and yet distinct, I looked towards the texts of Butler and Lorde. Specifically, I found that Judith Butler’s “Doing Justice to Someone: Sex Reassignment and Allegories of Trannsexuality” and Audre Lorde’s “The Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power” reveal a key tension in this question. That is, in discussing these matters, will our final goal be moving towards a society without these constrictive labels or will our end goal be more that we create new, more inclusive and personalized labels? Does the burden of these historical legacies on our language regarding sex and gender hinder our ways
Gender, in society today, is clarified as either being male which embodies traits of masculinity or on the other hand being female embodying traits of femininity. However the embodiment of these traits are just actions, decisions, or expressions rather than sexual anatomical features we are born and constrained by. Gender depictions are less a consequence of our "essential sexual natures" than interactional portrayals of what we would like to convey about sexual natures, using conventionalized gestures. (West, Zimmerman p.130) This excerpt reinforces the idea that society should view gender not as a absolute but rather a work in progress during your day to day routine. This capability to accept that gender is something you do rather than something that is leads opens up the tolerance to realize the implications that traditional gender views have impacted
In Alice in Wonderland, queer meant to be odd or strange to the late 1800s readers; there was no other meaning for the word for their generation. Time skip to the early 1900s, where queer was beginning to be used to address a person’s sexuality as being gay or lesbian. It didn’t start out as referring to homosexuality, but due to the amount of times the word queer was used in articles, newspapers and even among people about gay clubs or homosexuals, the word stuck. One notable example was the Los Angeles Times describing a gay club as “composed of the ‘queer’ people” (“Queer”). Queer was frequently used as a negative slur in the 1950s against homosexuals up till the 1980s, where the younger LGBT (the group name for people who fall under lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender) members started to use the word queer to identify themselves as a way of self-reassurance and to fight against rising homophobia and the AID crisis (even calling themselves “Queer Nation”). The 1990 New York pride march was when LGBT members decided to “reclaim the word as their own” (Marusic). Queer is still debated among the LGBT community as being offensive, but most members consider it a neutral term (“queer”). Queer has even widened its audience over the past few years as it’s developed less to refer to someone as gay or lesbian but to anyone who doesn’t fit the “norm” regarding gender or sexuality (Ogle). Due to the many forms of queer over the years, Alice in Wonderland’s queer has ambiguity to present day readers. When people of today’s culture see the word queer, they immediately think of gays and lesbians; because of the complexity of the definition of the word, people from 2016 and those of the late 1800s have different denotations and connotations (negative and positive), leaving a sense of confusion over the
Gender is a performance according to Judith Butler . All bodies, she claims, are gendered from birth; sometimes even earlier now we can determine sex in the womb . For Butler society dictates ones gender and the individual reinforces that gender through performance . “The deeds make the doer” in Butler’s words; there is no subject prior to performance. Butler’s concept of gender, however, leads us to question: what of those who are incapable of performing the gender ascribed to them? If one is unable to perform are they left genderless, lacking subjectivity and social identity? If no human is without gender , as Butler claims, then where does this leave her theory? Either gender is more than simply performance or one can exist without gender.
Through inspecting the protagonists in Giovanni’s Room and Stone Butch Blues with the same lens used by Judith Butler in “Imitation and Gender Insubordination”, difference in reaction to oppression via compulsory heterosexuality are revealed. In Butler’s essay, she analyzes how and why gender is performative in nature while revealing that although people commit themselves to compulsory performances, or imitations, of gender, there is no “original” or “true” gender, even though the notion of imitation seems to imply that there is. Butler uses the example of drag (which she proposes as presenting oneself as a gender one does not ascribe to) to explain that it, “…is not the putting on of a gender that belongs properly to some other group… that
Judith Butlers book entitled ‘Bodies that Matter’ examines and questions the belief that certain male-female behaviors are natural within our society. The behaviors that Dr. Butler has distinguished between in this book are femininity and masculinity. She believes that through our learned perception of these gendered behaviors this is an act or performance. She implies that this is brought to us by normative heterosexuality depicted in our timeline. In which, takes on the role of our language and accustomed normalization of society. Butler offers many ideas to prove some of her more radical idea’s such as examples from other philosophers, performativity, and worldwide examples on gender/sex. Some philosophers that seem to be of relevance to her fighting cause are Michel Foucault, Edmund Husserl, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and George Herbert Mead. Her use of the doctrine of constitution takes ‘the social agent as an object rather than the subject of constitutive acts” (Performative). In other words, Dr. Butler will question the extent to which we as a human race assume the given individualism between one another. She has said that “this will constitute him-or herself” (Butler 13). She also wonders to what extent our acts are reputable for us, rather, by our place within dialect and convention. Dr. Butlers followings being of a postmodernist and poststructuralist practice, decides to use the term “subject” rather than “individual” or “person” in order to underline the linguistic nature of her position. This approach should be of credit to philosopher Jacques Lacan because symbolic order gives the system and signs of convention that determines our perception of what we see as reality.
“Heteronormativity is the ’globalization’ of the idea that ‘sexing’ entails a binary way of becoming gendered, which should lead to heterosexuality on the part of people gendered as ‘men’ and as ‘women’. This globalization means that heterosexuality is ‘naturalized’ and other ways of linking becoming gendered to sexuality are ‘pathologized’” (ref to lecturer). In laymen’s terms heteronormativity refers to the
Gender and sexuality can be comprehended through social science. Social science is “the study of human society and of individual relationships in and to society” (free dictionary, 2009). The study of social science deals with different aspects of society such as politics, economics, and the social aspects of society. Gender identity is closely interlinked with social science as it is based on an identity of an individual in the society. Sexuality is “the condition of being characterized and distinguished by sex” (free dictionary, 2009). There are different gender identities such as male, female, gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual that exists all around the world. There is inequality in gender identities and dominance of a male regardless of which sexuality they fall under. The males are superior over the females and gays superior over the lesbians, however it different depending on the place and circumstances. This paper will look at the gender roles and stereotypes, social policy, and homosexuality from a modern and a traditional society perspective. The three different areas will be compared by the two different societies to understand how much changes has occurred and whether or not anything has really changed. In general a traditional society is more conservative where as a modern society is fundamentally liberal. This is to say that a traditional society lists certain roles depending on the gender and there are stereotypes that are connected with the genders. One must obey the one that is dominant and make decisions. On the other hand, a modern society is lenient, It accepts the individual’s identity and sexuality. There is no inequality and everyone in the society is to be seen as individuals not a part of a family unit...
Gender binaries, male and female, were seen as social constructs that were influenced by ideas and values. With the rise of modernist values encouraging this fluidity, the previous definition of gender became less tangible and the desires of the individual surpassed those of the group. Although a person may be born with female sex organs, they may identify with males in a social construct. The terms ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ split off and developed different definitions entirely. Sex referred to a person’s physical attributes and gender referred to a person’s socially-constructed roles, which may not be the same. ‘Male’ and ‘female’ describes sex while ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ describes gender. Although ‘queer theory’ did not exist until the 1990s, these challenges to socially constructed gender identities allowed for those outside society’s definitions of an ideal citizen to be able to have a