Construction of Gender and Sexual Studies - Essay Example

?Topic:  Construction of Gender and Sexual Studies Introduction In the last few decades, there has been a revolution in the study of gender and sexuality. Sex is today understood as fundamentally social. Perhaps the most crucial issue for gender studies is how to conceptualize man and women. Most authors in gender studies say that they reject a biology based concept of sex, refuse to use the latter term and claim that they are interested in gender as a social construction. The social construction process is complex, multifaceted and heterogeneous. The very idea of gender studies would be to contribute to reducing the significance or even, in some social situations and contexts, abolishing the identities of man and women. The new social perspective on sexuality was advanced by social activists. One possibility in gender studies would be to minimize or at least reduce the use of the labels of man and woman, except when used by the ‘natives’. There is a risk of gender studies producing gender stereotypes rather than revealing them through an excessive and insensitive theory – governed interpretation of the gendered meaning of everything in management, organization, work and society at large. Against the naturalistic view of gender and sexuality, feminist argued that society, not nature, creates gender and sexual differences. In particular, , feminist argued that women’s sexuality is socially shaped in ways that sustain men’s political and social dominance. In short, women’s sexuality, like men, is not is fixed by nature but shaped by social forces and circumstances, by factors such as economic independence, social values, peers or family culture. Social construction on sexuality The social construction approach, quite simply, is about understanding the historical context which shapes the sexuality. The starting point is the assumption that sexuality, far from being a force of natural external to society, is in fact always inevitably central to the social and cultural, and malleable to them. Sexuality is a highly social phenomenon and as society changes so must sexuality. Sexuality builds on biological potentials, and is subject to psychosocial organizations, so both biology and psychology can no doubt help understand individual sexual development. But we must also recognize that sexuality, like everything else, attains meaning only in culture. Social constructionist at its simplest is an attempt to understand the process through which social and individual meaning and practices of the erotic are shaped and reshaped in an ever changing history. What complicates the issue is that “sexuality” as a concept operates on two levels. It refers to the bundle of social phenomena that shapes erotic life ;laws, religion, norms and values, beliefs and ideologies, the social organizations of reproduction, family life, identities, domestic arrangements, diseases, violence and love – everything we evoke when we speak of sexuality of a culture. And it also refers to the level of individual- to the pleasures and pains that can shape our lives for good or ill. We just cannot understand sexuality if we reduce everything to the imperatives of nature brain or gene. As per Villanaueva(1997) “Sexuality is socially constructed, shaped by social, political and economic influences, and modified throughout life”. Feminism: the gender of sexuality Feminism offers a forceful social view of sexuality. Our gender identity is not a superficial part of our lives, but shapes the personal and social aspects of our lives in important ways. Feminist believe that our sexual desires, feelings and preferences are imprinted by the gender. Feminists say that individuals acquire a sexual nature as they develop a gender identity. They believe sexuality as a product so men’s power: sex is a means by which men control women. Feminist criticize the notion that women’s sexual liberation is about claiming the right to pleasure or freedom to do as one pleases, an approach that expresses men’s view of sexual freedom. The point is not to liberate sexuality from social control, but the claim the power to define one’s own sexual desires and forge sexual intimate lives. According to Cossman(2003,pg 601- 636) “Feminisms also differ a great deal in the degree to which they figure women's subordination as structural or episodic”. It is argued that all societies create sexual hierarchies that establish boundaries between god and bad or legitimate and illicit sexualities. Societies values certain specific desires, acts and identities as normal, respectable, good , healthy and normal and other forms of sexuality are classifies as bad, immoral, sinful and abnormal. Society supports the good form of sexual behavior and d punishes the abnormal and bad ones and this creates a series of outsider sexualities. American society considers heterosexuality, monogamy, marriage and reproductive sex to be considered normal and good. Gender influences pattern of sexuality, but there is still a great deal of about the organization and dynamics of sexuality that cannot be solely viewed through the lens of gender. Lesbians and Gays As lesbians and gay lives increasingly became more public and political, interest developed among some sociologist to study the emerging communities and the rise of identity politics. Within lesbian and gay studies, issues of identity and community have often been an organizing theme. Beginning in the 1970s and into the 1980s, what has been described as gay community has been predominantly an American icon, male urban middle class and white culture. Neither strict constructionist nor strict essentialism is capable of explaining what it means to be a gay. In the areas of sexual practices and urban lifestyles, lesbians and gays have indeed had an influence on the general culture in opening up possibilities for new forms of sexual and aesthetic expressions. In their article AACAP (2006) writes that “Many gay, lesbian and bisexual individuals first become aware of and experience their sexual thoughts and feelings during childhood and adolescence”. Many lesbian view bisexual women as being in transition and as denying their true sexuality and they regard them with distrust. Real lives, lesbians and gays need to be defended in an oppressive system and the sexual hierarchy which underlies that oppression has to be attacked on every level, particularly on intellectual and conceptual levels where naturalized system of domination draw so much of their energy. At the present times, the term lesbian is having a renaissance, in certain political and feminist groups. In his book Nardi (1998)mentions that “An additional assumption is that lesbians and gay men in our society consciously seek, in a wide variety of ways, to legitimate their form of sexual expressions by developing explanations, strategies, and defenses”. Transgender and sexuality The word transsexual is somewhat misleading, because the word transsexual is incorporated in to the term. The term ‘transgender’ would have been a more suitable term. The use of ‘transgender’ as another term for transsexual came to be favored by some once the term transgender became more widespread.Transgenderism is a radical concept that examines the essential nature of biology and gender as well as the social construction of sexuality and culture.Transgendrsim, transexuality, and intersexuality, as normative human variations, challenge fundamental assumption about sex and gender and shift the basic paradigm of the world is a place occupied by two sexes that are opposite and different from each other to a conception of sex and gender identities as potentially fluid. As per Enke (2009,pg.198-203)“Transgender are male-bodied people who identify themselves using a variety of culturally meaningful, gender-specific terms: they refer to themselves as girls, fem queens, women; most simultaneously refer to themselves as gay’. Transgenderism describes the meeting ground where the social construction of gender intersects with the individual’s personal psychological experience of gender, where biology is not the only factor determining the personality. It is undeniable that transsexual and transgendered and gender variant people often experience emotional turmoil and are in need of access to both medical and psychological treatments. Many transsexual people prefer to be referred to transgender. Finally the discipline of transgender studies, as we have conceptualized it, opened up a whole new domain of enquiry – particularly in regard to studying the interrelation between sex , sexuality and gender and between ‘scientific ‘, member and lay conceptualization of transgender phenomena. Social construction on gender studies Gender socialization Genders refer to the social and psychological characteristics associated with being female or male.Characterisitcs typically associated with the female gender including being gentle, emotional, and co – operative: characteristics typically associated with the male gender including being aggressive, rational and competitive. It can be said that gender is one legal status as a woman or man, usually based on sex assigned at birth. Gender status produces pattern of social expectations for bodies, behavior, emotions, family and work roles. Gendered expectations can change over time both on individual and social levels. The social construction of gender looks at the structure of the gendered social order as a whole and at the processes that construct and maintain it. Perhaps gender is a dynamic, developing concept that allows for great flexibility in roles and behavior. In his book Anderson (2008, pg 56) writes that “Through gender socialization, men and women learn the expectation associated with their sex. The rules of gender extend to all aspects of society and daily lives”. Gender socialization affects the self concepts of women and men, their social and political attitudes, their perception of other people and their feelings of relationship with others. Expectations of gender are changing, although researchers suggest that the cultural expectation about gender may have changed more than people’s actual behavior. Gender socialization does not just occur in early childhood. Patterns of play and social expectations continue throughout adolescence and into adulthood. Parents are one fundamental source of gender socialization. One result of gender socialization is the formation of gender identity, one’s definition of oneself as woman or man. Gender Identity Gender identity is formed through social interactions. In all male groups, for example, boys use more commands and threats than in mixed sex – groups. Boys are less likely than girls to comply with others and they are more physically aggressive. Gender identity is a person’s internal psychological self concept of being either female or male, or possibly a combination of both. From a sociological perspective, biology alone does not determine the gender identity. People must adjust to the expectation of others and the social understanding of what it means to be man or woman. Gender identity emerge from differ rent experiences that we have – experiences that differ not only because of gender, but also other factors such as racial identity. Gender identity is a crucial part of human identity. One’s gender identity is unchanging and directs many aspects of our lives, including recreation, occupations, relationships and academics. The studies showed that the gender identities of the individuals was in accordance with sex of rearing and not with the chromosomal or gonad sexing some instances , a person’s gender identity conflicts with his or her biological sex, a condition known as gender dysphoria.Gender identity is a set of beliefs, behavior and norms that permeate human activity. It is a set of cultural prescriptions and expectation that specify how heterosexual men, women, gays and lesbians should behave. Gender identity develops in early years of life and generally is established by age of 3 years. As per Hales (2008,pg 45)“Gender identity once it is firmly established is extremely resistant to change”. Gender expressions Gender expression is the communication of one’s gender. A person’s sexual orientation and gender expression are, in themselves morally neutral. It is by individual’s action towards others – not by virtue of their sexual orientation- that judgment is to be made about their moral character. For many people, not just transsexual people gender expression is an important surviving mechanism. Gender expression refers to all the external characteristics and behaviors that are socially defined as masculine or feminine, such as dress, mannerism, speech patterns, and social interactions. Gender expression is external and socially perceivable concept. Gender expression is an extended concept of gender identity. For some people their gender expression can have conflict with the biological sex. We may not fit the expectation of other if our gender expression conflict with gender identity. Some people do not have any gender expression and they are neutral. This kind of people face difficulty in a world which is gender based. Gender expression is a continuum with feminine at one end and masculine at another, in between are gender expressions that are androgynous and those that combine elements of both. Gender expressions can vary for an individual on day to day or in different situations, but most people can identify a range on the scale where they feel the most comfortable. Some people are comfortable with a wide range of gender expression than others. Gender equality theory Modern research on gender was triggered by the women’s movement for gender equality. There is a simple reason for this: most gender orders, around the world, privelege men and disadvantage women. The degree of gender inequality varies from place to place. The crux of gender equality concerns equal treatment on the basis of a socially defined construct that varies over time and place. Feminist have built the framework of a gender equality system that encompasses virtually every aspect of human lives. As gender equality is a complex and multi- faceted concept any measure used to capture it must cover many areas. The lower the degree of gender equality, the more women is inhibited to commit violent crimes and engage in so called masculine behaviors. When gender equality is high woman have more potential freedom. Gender roles and expectation follow close behind rigid definition of men and women when gender equality is low. Levels of gender equality have the ability to influence the lives of women in many ways. Lack of social equality increases the likelihood that women will remain in abusive relationship because traditional gender norm dictate that legal marriages is the only appropriate long term romantic relationship. It is important to realize that a focus on gender equality does not mean ignoring the issue of parity. Gender is a social construct, referring to the ways in which societies distinguish men and women and assign them social roles. Conclusion Sexuality is a fundamental part and need of our identity.Wheras; gender is a social construct an idea or concept created by society through the use of social powers. According to Njiru (2006) “While sexuality is widely used in research, a precise definition is not available because it has many diverse meanings”. Gender theory asserts that society may be best understood by how it is organized according to gender and that social relationship are based on socially perceived differences between females and males that are used to justify unequal power relationships.Many psychologists are involved in the study of the social construction of the gender often asked research questions regarding the extent and nature of gender differences, and if these differences are result of nature, nurture or some interactions between sex and gender. Social constructionist work on gender emphasizes the communal support for producing similarities and differences in the patterns of feminine and masculine behaviors. Social constructions have been drawn in to this new areas of male studies, in which questions similar to those raised about the social production of feminity is applied to masculinity .Work on masculinity from a social constructionist perspective continues to expand rapidly. From a social constructionist perspective, all theories of sexuality whether favoring biology or social learning, are by products of particular system of meaning. Bibliography Anderson, M.L, 2008. Sociology: understanding a diverse society . 2nd ed. Belmont: Cengage Learning. AACAP. 2006. Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Adolescents. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.aacap.org/cs/root/facts_for_families/gay_lesbian_and_bisexual_adolescents. [Accessed 28 October 11]. Cossman, B, 2003. GENDER, SEXUALITY, AND POWER:. Columbia Journal of Gender and law, 12/3, 601-636 Enke, A, 2009. Imagining Transgender: An Ethnography of a Category . Project Muse, 21/2, 198-203 Hales, R.E, 2008. 3. The American Psychiatry publishing textbook of psychiatry. 5th ed. Arlington: American Psychiartic Pub Nardi, P.M, 1998. Social perspective in lesbian and gay studies. 1st ed. London: Routledge .Njiru,R. 2006. The Social Construction. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.arsrc.org/downl oads/sldf/FinalReportRoseAnne2005.pdf. [Accessed 29 October 11 Villanaueva,M.I.S. 1997. The Social Construction of Sexuality ; Personal Meanings, Sexual Experiences and Female Sexuality in Puerto Rico. [ONLINE] Available at: http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-13514459731541/unrestricted/DISSE R1.PDF. [Accessed 28 October 11]. Read More