In class on Tuesday, Dr. J asked us to reevaluate the claim that gender is solely a social construct. We made a list on the board of things we thought were actual biological differences between male and female and another list of gender differences between man and woman. The task was to decide if any of the gender differences listed corresponded to any of the biological differences we decided existed. While we were doing this exercise we decided that the glaring biological difference between male and female are our parts. No one will contest that we cannot socially construct a penis or a vagina. I am sure that we all think our own biological sex is very real. Even as children, an aspect of identifying as on gender or the other comes through understanding the parts that one was born with. This makes me think of the scene from the classic film, Kindergarten Cop, when the little girl proudly stands up and exclaims, “Boys have a penis and girls have a vagina!!” The question then becomes is this the only difference that exists?
In class we also agreed that things such as strength might be another biological difference that exists. I was a competitive swimmer my whole life and I can tell you that the boys can swim faster than the girls. However, it was hard for me to accept the fact that many of the other differences I see between myself and a man are simply socially constructed. In her essay Judith Butler claims that she “will try to show some ways in which reified and naturalized conceptions of gender might be understood as constituted, and hence, capable of being constituted differently (98)”. Which conceptions of my gender then remain naturalized and which ones are constructions?
An essential aspect of my own identity as a woman in tied into my ability to have children. I know that this is an extremely personal part of ones identity and I do not discredit any woman who does not have or want to have children, but the fact still remains that women are the ones who have the ability to make babies. My mind keeps going back to this during all of our discussions concerning naturalized versus constructed differences in gender. It is important to me as a woman that I have this reproductive ability and I believe that it is one of those biological differences that crosses over the line on the board to the side of gender differences. I do not fully understand the biology of all the hormones we have in our bodies, but I do know that there are reproductive hormones in women that men do not have. I do not mean to imply that men cannot be nurturing or that women are slaves to their crazy baby hormones. However, this significant difference does exist and I think that it needs to be considered when examining the constructions of our gender norms.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Leah, I enjoyed reading your entry. I would like to comment on the hormonal differences between men and women that you mention. On the one hand, many like to believe that men have dramatically low amounts of estrogen. However, this view is complicated when we consider many environmental estrogens that both men and women come in contact with on a daily basis. I recently read an article that stated that even our drinking water has some amount of estrogen in it. While I do believe that hormones play an important role, I also believe that the fact that we come in contact with so many hormones on a daily basis complicates things a bit.
ReplyDeleteLeah, I totally agree with you that a lot of a woman's identity is tied to the ability to produce children in the same way that manhood is measured by sexual virility and the ability to produce seed. I'm am one who defines a lot of my womanhood by my ability to be a mother, so I believe a lot of one's ability to identify with gender is based on their sexual identifications...
ReplyDeleteI think that the ability to reproduce is one way in which we allow ourselves to perform gender, I think. Yes, it is certainly part of who you are, but it is not solely what you are, just one fact among many. I think it is important to note there is a certain physical distinction and experience will shape the individual, but it does not limit and is certainly not responsible for all that a woman can become. Essentially, women are infinitely more than their ability to reproduce.
ReplyDelete