gender and society Flashcards
(16 cards)
biological sex and gender
someones biological sex is determined by physical attributes such as sex organs and chromosomes.
however gender refers to a more sophisticated relationship between someones physical characteristics (gender biology) , the way people percieve themselves (gender identification) and the ways in which they choose to behave (gender expression)
in the view of many people, gender is something that is acquired from a young age, people learn about the expectations associated with being a boy or girl and develop their gender identification and expression through socialisation
socialisation refers to the lifelong process by which we learn the norms of our society.
our parents, siblings, peer groups and other members of society all contribute to our socialisation. this is how we learn all of the spoken and unspoken rules of the culture in which we live.
in western society, socialisation traditionally puts a lot of emphasis on learning to make a distinction between male and female. things decorated blue for boys, pink for girls, boys having dinosaurs, girls having butterflies.
our culture is full of gendered words - always having he or she in books, gendered words for family - uncle and auntie, mr and mrs
by the time we have grown into adult life, we have a strong sense of what is expected of us as a male or female.
patriarchy and feminism
most societies in the world are patriarchal, which means that men tend to dominate social structures and domestic relationships.
in a patriarchal society, men have more power than women and more wealth. they tend to be organised in ways that benefit primarily men. for example in a patriarchal society historical events that are considered worth remebering are generally mens stories and achievements
it is stereotyped that men are more rationa, wheras women are more emotional - used as argument for allowing men to make important decisions.
however such ideas have been challenged especially with the feminist movement.
one of the earliest feminists is mary wollenstonecraft who wrote ‘a vindication of the rights of women’
Feminists argue that gender roles are to some degree socially constructed, though they disagree amongst themselves about that degree. That being the case, it is wrong for society to push gender expectations on people. People should be free to do what they want with their life, so long as they aren’t hurting others. Gender roles being present everywhere in society manipulates people into thinking that they are natural which makes people accept them.
Gender Traditionalism is the view that traditional gender roles are natural and that human life is best when following them.
the view that men and women are not equal
some people believe that men are better than women
this is a view that dates back at least to the time of plato and aristotle.
plato believed that women were inferior to men and wrote - ‘it is only males who are created directly by the gods and are given souls’
in other words he sees being a women as a thing that unfortunately happens to men who didnt get it right the first time.
however in his book ‘republic’ he did say that women should be treated more fairly and not as possessions of men.
Traditional Christian gender roles
In Genesis, Adam is created first and Eve is created from a part of Adam. It also says Eve was created to be Adam’s ‘helper’.
- Augustine interprets this as meaning that a man by himself contains the imagio dei, but a woman does not. Only when combined with husband as his helper can a woman be in the image of God.
Eve’s was the first to fall into sin. Her punishment was pain in childbirth and that her husband will “rule over you” (Genesis 3:16)
St Paul says that because of this, women should not have authority over a man and can be saved through becoming mothers:
—- “I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet. (1 Timothy 2:12)
St Paul is also clear about this authority point within the family unit, stating that wives must ‘submit’ to their husbands:
“Wives, submit to your own husbands as you do the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church … Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church” - (Ephesians 5:22-33)
Aquinas said that this submission of wives to husbands is actually for their “own benefit and good” and required for “good order” in the family, since men are wiser and more rational than women.
Feminist biblical criticism
Biblical Patriarchy is a key concept in feminist biblical criticism. It is the idea that the Bible is man-made for the purpose of subjugating women. If a man tells a woman to submit to a certain gender role, that’s not persuasive, but if that man tells the woman that the creator of the universe wants her to, that is quite persuasive, especially if both the man and woman actually believe in that God.
The consequence is that the Bible, or at least the sexist parts of it, are not the perfect word of God but written by men to further the interests of men.
As Hume points out, reason is a slave of the passions. Men will therefore be subconsciously drawn to ideology that serves their interests. The view that men’s rightful place is being active in the world while women support them by being passive in the home, appeals to the self-interest of men. They therefore tend to support it.
Traditional Christians might respond that that the Bible is God’s inspired word. If God wants men and women to be different, then that’s what God wants.
- They might argue that women who reject these bible passages are essentially acting like Eve did when she disobeyed God.
Liberal feminist theology
would respond that the Bible is not the perfect word of God. It is full of errors and therefore requires re-interpretation
views it as a product of the human mind, not the perfect word of God. It began during the enlightenment period where scientific, historical and critique began of the Bible. The Bible was shown to contain scientific and historical errors as well as literary evidence of the human author’s influence on the text.
This suggests that the scriptures were written by witnesses of God’s divine events in history. What came to be written down as a result however was merely what those people took away from such events, or from hearing about such events.
The bible thus reflects the cultural and historical context of its human authors and requires interpretation and continual re-interpretation to ensure its relevance. It is not the perfect word of God. Liberal Christians will point out that Jesus himself seemed to be progressive in that in the sermon on the mount he modified some of the old testament laws. Christians should follow this example and continually update and improve Christian theology and ethics.
Ruether would respond that the Bible contains patriarchal verses, but also verses that are in favour of equality. The Bible is therefore inconsistent on this issue and cannot itself coherently support the traditional patriarchal view of gender roles.
—- > Golden thread argument
Post-Christian feminist theologians
Post-Christian feminist theologians (E.g. Daly & Hampson) however would regard the patriarchy in the Bible as evidence that the Christian God doesn’t exist because it’s man-made, which you can tell by the fact that the Bible gives men what is in their view a superior position to women. God did not make man, men made God.
Mulieris Dignitatum
In 1988 Pope John Paul II wrote an open letter called ‘Mulieris Dignitatum’ – on the dignity of women – to defend Christianity against the accusation of sexism.
He argued that men and women have different but complimentary qualities and abilities due to the nature God designed them with. So, while men and women are different, they are both equally valuable and in fact need each other.
Mulieris Dignitatum argument 1: Motherhood is a woman’s telos; natural purpose. J P II argued that women are ‘naturally disposed to motherhood’.
This argument is based on Natural law reasoning about telos.
‘motherhood is the fruit of the marriage union’
‘this brings about - on the womens part- a special ‘gift of self’’
in point 19 of the letter, the pope reflects on the examples of womanhood given in the bible. He repeats the word passive as used by aquinas and aristotle to say that pregancy is something. that takes place in a women rather than being something that a women actively does.
Feminists typically respond that the attempt to embed gender roles in telos is no different to biblical patriarchy. Just as the sexist parts of the Bible wer invented by men for the perpetuation of male dominance, so too is the idea that God designed the telos of males and females to have different goals/inclinations.
–> As evidence, feminists point to anthropological study of different human civilisations, where it is found that there is a large degree of variation regarding gender roles between different cultures. If we had a telos that gave us a natural inclination to behave along particular gender roles, we should not expect to find the diversity of approaches to and views on gender that we do.
–> they insist that God created women with a telos for motherhood is just a cultural invention by men in order to encourage women to adopt the passive social role of childrearing
Simone de Beauvoir also rejects the idea that motherhood is a woman’s telos. De Beauvoir was a radical feminist who was an existentialist like Sartre. Existentialists rejected telos. Sartre argued that there was no objective purpose/telos because “existence precedes essence” meaning humans exist before they have a defined purpose and so have to subjectively define their purpose for themselves.
Sartre’s argument was a psychological one, that people cling to fabricated notions of objective purpose like telos because they are afraid of the intensity of the freedom involved in having to create their own purpose
Mulieris Dignitatum argument 2: There are important and valued women in Christian history/theology. - John Paul II also pointed out that there are many female European saints and that Jesus coming to earth was only possible because of a woman, Mary, which he suggests shows the important place of women in Christian theology. The claim is that Christianity can’t be sexist since there are women it holds in high regard.
— Simone de Beauvoir argues that the Christian valuing of Mary shows that it is only through being a man’s “docile servant that she will be also a blessed saint” in Christianity.
—— Mary Daly makes a similar point. Daly argues Mary is portrayed as a passive empty ‘void waiting to be made by the male’. She argues that Mary is a ‘rape victim’ because ‘physical rape is not necessary when the mind/will/spirit has already been invaded’.
So, Jesus’ mother Mary is indeed put on a pedestal by Christianity, but only to encourage women to become passive, submissive and obedient so that women would all the better become the sexual property of men.
Simone de Beauvoir
Simone de Beauvoir is a radical feminist. She makes a Marxist style argument that religion is merely a tool of the male oppressor group which keeps women under control in their oppressed place with false promises that they will go to heaven if they obey and claiming that women are associated with sin and temptation for men due to the story of The Fall.
De Beauvoir claims that “One is not born, but rather becomes a woman.” This means she thinks that gender roles and differences are the result of socialisation, not biology.
She argued that girls and boys are the same until a certain age, but boys are then socially pressured and encouraged to avoid affection and emotion and girls are socially pressured to think the meaning of their life is marriage.
She argued that motherhood forces women to sacrifice their own desires and selves for the sake of child-rearing.
De Beauvoir argued that there is no female biological nature because all women are different.
She argued that to truly combat patriarchy requires people to “destroy the concept of motherhood”.
however,some say Radical Feminists are too negative towards motherhood- Some radical feminists seem to think that any woman who chooses to be a mother is suffering from ‘internalised misogyny’ - Mary O’Brien is a naturalistic feminist who argued that motherhood can be a positive thing if women are in control of their choice to become a mother. O’Brien thought de Beauvoir devalued motherhood.
Radical feminists have a point however that women are brought up in an environment which makes them less likely to think of themselves as scientists or business people and more likely to think of themselves as mothers and housewives
Anne Oakley
Anne Oakley, a sociologist, interviewed women about motherhood. She concluded that the so-called ‘maternal instinct’ comes from culture rather than biology.
This was based on her observations that women don’t instinctively know how to breastfeed and that the mothers who neglect their children were themselves often neglected as children.
Oakley also discovered many women found it frustrating to be a stay-at-home mother. This corroborates de Beauvoir’s claim that women are forced to sacrifice their life goals to bring up their children which seems unfair – why is it not equally the responsibility of the man?
however
Alternative explanation of Oakley’s data: However, it could be that childhood neglect creates traumas which interfere with the maternal instinct. That would explain why neglectful mothers tended to have been neglected themselves by their maternal instinct having been interfered with.
No one knows: The science of human nature is very controversial and it is extremely difficult to prove anything on either side of this debate.
view that men and women aren’t equal
believe men are better than women.
plato along with the rest of his generation believed women were inferior to men.
plato wrote - ‘it is only males who are created directly by the Gods and are given souls’ - Timaeus
in other words, being born a women is seen by plato as something that unfortunately happens to men.
aristotle argued that women are naturally inferior to men said they are - ‘more mischievous, less simple, more impulsive’ - history of animals
aquinas also took similar line in summa theologica - ‘by nature such that the male is higher, the female lower, that the male rules and the female is ruled.
aquinas also used the word ‘defective’ when comparing women to men
men and women are equal in worth
men and women are equal in worth but different in their skills.
traditionally held by christians
all people are equally valuable but men and women have different complementary characteristics.
eg jobs better suited to men like firefighter and women like nurses.
some christians argue that the different skills mean women should not be preists or have other positions of authority in the Christian Church. In particular they should not take roles where they are representing christ such as in the eucharist.
the catholic church and the orthodox church for example do not ordain women to the preisthoodm arguing that Jesus chose only men to be his deciples.
Also argue that God chose to come to earth as a man not as a women.
the view that women are superior to men
some people think women should aim higher than just equality with men.
Mary Daly argued that womens abilities and knowledge are superior to those of men and that women ought to govern.
she is best known for her books ‘the church and the second sex 1968’ and ‘beyond God the Father 1973’
important bible quotes
genesis 1-27 - ‘God created mankind in his own image’
genesis 2.:20-22 - ‘then the lord God made a women from the rib he had taken out of the man’
genesis 3:1 - ‘she took some and ate it. she also gave some to her husband’
Ephesians 5:22-33 - ‘wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands’
‘for the husband is the head of the wife’
‘the wife must respect her husband’
christian views about different types of family
one of the challenges that secular society presents to christianty concerns the notion of family .
