When I was a kid I used to try and get my sister – an avid feminist at the time - to
react to comments like “In general men are stronger than women.”
It would usually work and my short lived laugh turned into an hour long argument.
She always said that men are just socially conditioned to be stronger than women.
And while I never argued against the fact that society pressures certain groups of people
into doing certain things, for example men lifting weights, eating mouths full of whey
protein, and injecting themselves with male hormones – making them stronger, I also
would argue that the biology between men and women is different, just look at our bodies
for one – as much as I would love to have a set of fun bags on my chest to play with
– it just would never happen without the injection of female hormones or plastic surgery.
You see one of the problems with the question of whether or not gender is socially constructed
is that the people who answer it most passionately generally overlook the arguments on the opposing
sides.
Feminists tend to disregard many biological factors, while naturists tend to overlook
sociocultural factors.
Hello everyone.
Thought Monkey here.
Today we are going to explore both sides of the argument and try to come to some kind
of conclusion for all to embrace.
First some history and background.
Gender is a term that was created as a way to differentiate between biological sex – whether
or not you have an Italian Salami or a hooha – versus the psychological, social, cultural
and behavioral characteristics associated with being female or male.
In recent years many social scientists have begun to believe that gender identity is not
a stable and fixed trait.
They argue that it is socially constructed and can vary over time.
Some have even argued that there are more than two genders and have created additional
classifications by using terms such as cis-gender, transgender, gender queer, non-binary, gender
fluid, agender, etc.
Anyways, the two competing ideas about whether gender is a social construct come from the
familiar nature vs. nurture debate.
In other words, is it our environment that makes us who we are or our biology?
Those who say gender is a social construct often argue the following:
1.
There are differences in gender norms in different cultures.
For example there are subcultures in India that identify three genders.
And in Chile some believe you must channel another gender to accomplish certain tasks.
The list goes on.
According to the academics Candace West and Don Zimmerman gender is “an emergent feature
of social situations: both as an outcome of and a rationale for various social arrangements,
and as a means of legitimating one of the most fundamental divisions of society" (West
& Zimmerman, 1977, p. 126).
By the way I looked up Candace West on Rate My Professor and she only got a 2.1 out of
5.
Would you eat at a restaurant that got such a low Yelp score?
I don’t think so.
Old Donny didn’t do much better.
2.
Language forms our reality.
The words man and woman are simply words to describe certain phenomena, but don’t describe
every option or experience of all people in our culture.
Phrases like “be a man” or “boys don’t cry” are used to pressure boys into conforming
to traditional masculine gender roles while “run like a girl” and other women-centered
phrases pressure girls into behaving in a way that is considered traditionally feminine.
Others say that gender is a feature of nature, not nurture.
They say: 1.
Being exposed to testosterone and estrogen will make the way we behave inherently different.
For example, there are studies that show male babies and female babies behave differently
given different stimulus.
Male babies tend to stare longer at mechanic objects while female babies tend to stare
longer at faces which may explain why women and men tend to find themselves in different
career paths –men often gravitate toward science and engineering while women toward
health care and education.
3.
The reason some women and men identify as a gender opposite of their sex is because
sometimes nature has hiccups.
For example some female fetuses are exposed to large quantities of male hormones and develop
Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia – a fancy term for a disease that may alter the sex
organs of people.
Also, there are members of the trans-community that believe gender is biological.
Some transwomen have stated that while they were brought into this world as men, from
the get go they felt biologically that they were women, and thus behaved as a woman.
Their argument is that if gender was socially constructed, then as a boy who felt like a
girl they would have been socially pressured into feeling like boys.
However, despite being socially pressured into feeling like boys these transgender women
have always felt like women despite their sex being male.
4.
A boy named David Reimar whose circumcision went horribly wrong, was given sex reassignment
surgery as a 22 month year old and was raised as a girl named Brenda.
Brenda was given girl toys, but always seemed to gravitate toward more traditionally boy
toys.
Eventually as a teenager she expressed her suicidal thoughts to her parents, and her
father told her what had happened.
Despite the female hormones and socialized pressures to be a girl, Brenda identified
as a male and changed her name back to David when she was 14.
Years later David started treatment to reverse the reassignment given to him as a 22 month
year old and married a woman.
Unfortunately years later after battling with a failed marriage and depression, at 38 years
old he killed himself.
This shows that despite the social pressures of David’s parents and doctors to identify
as a girl – he still felt like a boy.
5.
Men and women are inherently equal, but differ in biology.
The environment and society play a part in how we behave – like how boys are given
blue and girls pink as babies – but most research shows that biology is the reason
there are major differences in how each gender behaves.
Because of this, society follows biology, not the other way around.
Women have less sexual partners because there have been more severe consequences for choosing
the wrong mate – birth and then at least 15 years of care taking.
Society then stigmatizes women who don’t follow a biological norm, because our brains
are wired for 100,000 years ago, not for a society that has technology that allows us
to practice safe sex where choosing the wrong mate, no longer bares the consequence of a
life followed by years of care taking.
6.
If there are differences in how each sex looks, there must be differences in how we behave.
Males tend to have more muscle mass than women, probably due to the amount of testosterone
that they have.
The hormones in a man’s body must have an effect on their brains, and how they think,
thus how they act.
Similarly the amount of estrogen in a woman’s body must have an effect on a woman’s brains,
how they think, and thus act.
Of course there are exceptions – some women are going to have more muscle mass than some
men and some men will act more as a care taker than some women.
So what’s the solution to such divergent ways of thinking?
Should we categorize every difference of every individual in different genders?
I think most people would disagree.
Why would it help to have to learn more terms?
Language has historically simplified itself, not the other way around.
So instead of breaking male and female up into seven or more classifications, why not
just simplify it even more?
Instead of being male and female – let’s just be “ale.”
Oh wait that’s already a word.
Whatever, can’t we all just get a long?
Agree to disagree?
Agree there are some differences that are biological, and some that are socially constructed
and get on with life?
After all there are more important things to deal with like finding a good affordable
restaurant nearby when a friend is in town visiting.
Thank you for listening!
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