The brutality and ruthless insidiousness of the male dominated scientific regime can be seen in stark silhouette when one comes to understand how even theories constructed for no purpose other than to entrench male privilege and power fall victim to the ram-rod assault of Linear Progress. For example, the belief that the entire human organism in miniature form -- the homunculus -- was contained in the spermatozoa, was predicated on the assumption that the male is normative and active -- ejaculating its will and its likeness out into a passive female world. The female, in this view, served only as a nutritive field -- a convenient cuntainer in which the male-generated miniature man could grow. In some versions of the story, the father's right testicle was thought to produce male offspring, while the left [1] testicle was thought to suffer from insufficient blood flow, resulting in defective spermatozoa, producing a substandard, or female homunculus.
The fact that the scientific perspective [2] has shifted on the subject of human reproduction in no way exonerates science from its male bias. The entire scientific enterprise is at its root an expression of the universal male lust to apprehend and gain control over external reality. The masculine need to project maleness ever further out into the world hints at the motivations behind the overthrow of the homunculus as the active instrument of procreation: plausible deniability. By seeming to involve the woman as an "equal participant" and a contributor of substance to the procreative process, the universal Male Agendum (rape) can be masked behind the veil of necessary female complicity.
By this diabolical shift away from unabashed male aggressiveness, toward the illusion of sexual equality, through the subterfuge of sperm-meets-egg, Western, maledominated Science has simultaneously placated women and given men a license to rape. Given the notion that women are equal participants in the programme of heterosexual intercourse, men are free to absolve themselves of full culpability. Further, by giving women a role in the generative process that is seen (presumably at least by the men who propound the sperm-meets-egg theory) to be more invested than being merely fertile soil for sowing by men, Science has preempted the deconstruction of homunculus theory and the development of feminist and wymynyst counterparts.
penelope ann has suggested the beginnings of just such a theory in chapter 7 of her book Fixing Our Fathers [3]. ann has postulated the honuncula as the mostly-formed, diminutive proto-woman that exists within the so-called ovum.
The film Klute, directed by Alan J. Pakula attempts to subvert this theory, but ultimately proves Mulvey correct in the system of the active male and passive female, that the male controls
During the 1990’s the video games were constantly changing.this decade saw tons of innovations in the gaming industry. The creation of 32-bit games and 3D games dominated the virtual world: Contra, Battletoads, Mortal Kombat, etc. Video game genres developed and branched out, creating some of the popular genres in video games today, such Role-playing games(RPGs),
The chapter on fecundity addresses the bizarre ways that nature has evolved to ensure the continuity of a species. As the title suggests, fecundity deals with the fertility of species where Annie Dillard explores the inefficiency of fertility and the brutality of nature’s evolution. In the end, Dillard concludes that death is a part of life.
In Ruth Gilbert’s At the Border’s of the Human, she discusses society’s interest in hermaphrodites in terms of “people’s desire to examine, scrutinize, and display objects which are alien, strange and other” (6). The anomalous and bizarre spectacle of the hermaphroditic body has drawn the focus of scientists since the early sixteenth century. Hermaphrodites have long evoked a “mixture of disgust and desire, and fear and fascination”(Gilbert 150) that has led to their position as objects of scientific scrutiny. As defined by Random House Webster’s College Dictionary, a hermaphrodite is “an individual in which reproductive organs of both sexes are present”. Besides hermaphrodites challenging society’s physical norms, they challenge and have recently changed its cultural norms as well.
Women are living in a patriarchal society which contributes to gender inequality. It dominates most of the institutions of society like; religion, the family politics, and the work place. The International Encyclopedia of Social Sciences describes patriarchy as a social structural phenomenon in which males have the privilege of dominance over females, both visibly and subliminally. The value of women is often reduced to the role of Trophies, housekeepers and reproductive tools. “Because the subordination of women to men is a feature in the majority of all societies, patriarchy is often argued to be due to biology, such as women’s principal role in childbearing.”(Darity) Patriarchy is the cultural norm of many societies so it is seen as natural. “Bloodchild” challenges how natural the role is by reversing the roles and showing a parasitic male pregnancy.
...socially directed hormonal instructions which specify that females will want to have children and will therefore find themselves relatively helpless and dependent on males for support and protection. The schema claims that males are innately aggressive and competitive and therefore will dominate over females. The social hegemony of this ideology ensures that we are all raised to practice gender roles which will confirm this vision of the nature of the sexes. Fortunately, our training to gender roles is neither complete nor uniform. As a result, it is possible to point to multitudinous exceptions to, and variations on, these themes. Biological evidence is equivocal about the source of gender roles; psychological androgyny is a widely accepted concept. It seems most likely that gender roles are the result of systematic power imbalances based on gender discrimination.9
(Creed pg.67 ) The fact that women can create life through the abject notion of birth and create polluting objects such as menstrual blood. Which is looked at as shocking or terrifying in being suppressed by our male dominated society. In addition to the already permeable and abject body the female is looked at as more so abject than the male given the role of the female in the life cycle. In horror films this concept is exaggerated in many ways to reflect men's societal outlook on women.
Gender stereotypes have existed since the beginning of modern man. We've all heard them before; male dominance and female weakness, a controlled male and a flustered female, aggression and passion, and many others that all basically boil down to the same thing. Emily Martin, in her essay entitled The Egg and the Sperm, takes this problem of gender stereotype to a new and much more serious level. As an anthropologist, Martin is concerned with the socio-cultural impacts on many different aspects of everyday life, including biology. In doing her research for this article, Martin was trying to uncover suspicions she had about socio-cultural gender stereotypes, and the affects they had on the diction used to describe egg and sperm interactions in numerous biology books and research reports.
The dystopian society that has been in established in P.D. James’s novel, “The Children of Men”, presents difficult challenges for the characters to overcome. This novel directs the reader’s attention to the importance of fertility and the parallels between humanity and extinction. In this novel, the protagonist, Theodore Faron, describes the humiliation and failure that homo sapiens experience due to their inability to reproduce. As a result, the civilization of mankind faces events of cultural illness, cruelty, and hopelessness; becoming a staple in their everyday lives. However, when examining “The Children of Men” through an archetypal lens, one can attest that the character’s journey provides a chance to end universal infertility through
Video Games have been around for over thirty years now. A lot have changed in the way programs work. When they first came out Video Games weren't that powerful because the hardware couldn't support it. Now the possibilities are almost endless. Games have changed so much. From Games like Asteroids that was made in 1979. With Asteroids being only a small program with some computations going on.
In addition to the sexes male and female, Fausto-Sterling proposes we add three more categories including herm, (a true hermaphrodite) which has both testes and ovaries, merm (a male pseudo-hermaphrodite), which has testes and no ovaries, although some aspects of female genitalia, and fem, (a female pseudo-hermaphrodite) which has ovaries and some aspects of male genitalia but no testes. The reason for the addition of these sexes is to be more accurate and inclusive for all persons. Fausto-Sterling’s arguments for having at least five sex categories are valid because only having two categories is biologically inaccurate, and exclusive to people who do not fit into either category perfectly, both contributing to societal
Martin, Emily. "The Egg and the Sperm: How Science Has Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles." Gender, Sex, and Sexuality. New York: Oxford University, 2009. 248-53. Print.
Video games have become one of the largest forms of entertainment within the last decade or two. People of all ages play these games to get out of the boring reality of things and experience the thrill of fantasy, combat, or adventure. But what kind of games gives you the experience you want? Some may want to control one person, a great being on a quest to restore his or her torn land, wielding great powers and becoming enveloped in a great story. Others may want to control a million persons, on a great battlefield, seizing land and bringing about destruction to all who come across his army. Or you may want to recreate your favorite sports team, leading them into the history books as the greatest team to ever step foot onto the field or court. Let us take a look at the different types of game genres that encompass the majority of games today and see what one you might wish to partake in.
Growing industry nowadays react so fast to produce more software games that are targeted to children and adolescent who are fascinated by these games. Some of the games are mainly create...
Computers have fascinated me ever since I can remember. Everything about them, from the parts that go into them, to the things you can create with them. More specifically the worlds you can create that others can immerse themselves in; being video games. Though it seems rather simple on the surface, the art of video game design & development has so many specific, and crucial parts that go into the game you purchase and play. Through research, I have gained more insight into each part that goes into game design, and the requirements needed to be successful in the field.