Status of Gender in the Society - Essay Example

Status of Gender in the Society In our childhood all of us must have heard the story of a sleeping beauty. How the beautiful princess had slept for hundred years and how did she get up by the magic kiss of the very generous prince. Though we have enjoyed this story and think of it in a very romantic way, there is a symbolism hidden in this story. Why I am trying to refer this fairy tale is because I want to reveal this symbolism which is related to our topic. The sleeping beauty is the symbol of the Egg in woman’s body while the noble and brave prince is the symbol of the sperms. While analyzing the genders and their role it is necessarily expected to discuss about the biological aspect of the genders also. The gender is the important thing which creates the effect on the entire life of the human beings including their bodily movements, their way of thinking and even their destiny. In the accepted norms of the society a perfect family includes a man, a woman and their little ones. Man and woman are the two wheels of the family vehicle. If one of them breaks, the family will collapse. So male and female both have the equal importance. Keywords: Egg, Sperm, Genders, Destiny Though both genders are important they have their specific roles to play. In the society woman has always been given an inferior status. There might be the biological reason also which has become responsible for her passivity. In this contest Emily Martin has mentioned the argument of Ruth Herschberger. “Ruth Herschberger argues that female reproductive organs are seen biologically interdependent, while male organs are viewed as autonomous, operating independently and in isolation.” (Page 490, “The Egg and the Sperm: How Science has constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Role) The typical conventional attitude about the egg and sperm is that the sperm is active while the egg of the female is passive and so it is conquered by the sperm by penetrating it. The role of the genders is revealed in this quotation, “Women merely supply the matter to be shaped and a suitable container. Men are the carpenters creating a child out of the wood supplied by women. Of even greater significance in Aristotelian thought is that semen also transmits the soul. Men, therefore, pass on the very essence of humanity.” (Page7, “Making your hair stand on End: The meaning of Sperm, in Sperm Wars, : the Rights and Wrongs of Reproduction, Ed Heather Grace Jones and Maggie Kirkman, ABC Books Sydney, 2005, 6-17.) By this statement we generally come to know what is the conventional attitude is. Men are always considered as a subject and women an object. Thus woman is always denied by the subjectivity, autonomy, and creativity, both socially and culturally. And actually these are the major things for of being human. Thus the status of subjectivity is always accorded to man in patriarchal society. But this attitude has changed now. Now a day the new opinion has been put forward by many critics that both eggs and sperms plays equally important role. Here along with the sleeping beauty I would like to point out a poem which according to me is quite suitable for the discussion. In “Leda and the Swan” the poet W.B. Yeats has very effectively set up the image of a typical conventional woman in form of Leda. He shows how Leda has been helpless before the vigorous and aggressive power of Zeus in guise of a swan. How does she have been raped? In biological term the swan is like a sperm and Leda is the symbol of the female egg which is supposed to be easily conquered and helpless. We cannot actually say that Leda (the female egg) “A sudden blow: the great wings beating still Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill, He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.” (Page 216, “Leda & the Swan,” “Collected Poems” by William Butler Yeats, 1950, Public-Librart.net) Leda and the Swan is the transition of male aggressive intensity to a female vague. In cases of the sleeping beauty, it is not an oppression of man by woman. But though the story of Leda and the Swan is very romantic, it is after all a rape, A rape which is done by the aggressive sperm (Swan or Zeus or the male figure), on the egg (Leda or the female figure). The victory on the female body either by love or by rape is there since ancient time and we cannot say that the society has changed its attitude towards women. The oppression, the harassment of human body is there in modern world also. Some years back, in1991 there was a beautiful movie called “Sleeping with the Enemy.” It was a psychological thriller. The movie was based on the novel of Nancy Price. It is the story of a woman who is exasperated by her possessive and abusive husband. He harassed her and she is bearing her cruelty which includes constant beating, sexual harassment etc. Laura Burney is the name of the protagonist who is the representative of the women who go through the inhumane activity done by the men. For thousands of year there is a continuous oppression of women taking place in every society. Radical feminists accept that there are both sex and gender differences between men and women. The other reason might be there for the oppression done by the male on the female and that is the insecurity about the reproductive potential of the women. In this regard Adrienne Rich (1977) has argued that because men fear women’s reproductive capacities they need to control women’s body. (Page 40, “Look Out White Woman: Representations of “The White Woman” in Feminist Theory”, “Talkin Up to the White Woman) The social status of men and women Social status is the very important thing for the human being. As far as this social status is concerned always women have been treated in a very unjustly manner. If they have the sexual contact with any person illegally and they have an issue from that man, he has never been blamed for this deed. The woman alone is tortured physically and mentally from the society. In actual condition both of them deserve same treatment. The woman has been brutally punished by the society, just because the man has snatched her virginity from her. Female Awkwardness and Male Dominance: The marble sculpture of Leda by Timotheos is very expressive and pertinent. In this sculpture Leda is shown covering her body while the swan is on her body. It perhaps means that she is trying to hide her relationship from the world and hence she is very awkward in her sexual affairs. Either due to the biological factors or social constraints, whatever it may be the simple movements of the women also become somewhat awkward and uncomfortable. They are often hesitant, timid and uncertain about their physical ability. They cannot move their body freely like the men. They are always suspicious about their physical strength. She always stays under a great threat of being invaded. “The threat of being seen is, however, not the only threat of objectification that the woman lives. She also lives the threat of invasion of her body space. The most extreme form of such spatial and bodily invasion is the threat of rape.” (Page 155, “Throwing Like a Girl”, Female Body Experience”, by Iris Marion Young). While discussing about the relationship between the two genders we have to consider the status two genders, i.e. subject and object. The relationship always is based on these two contradictory statuses. It is not necessary that men are always subject and female are always an object. This status can settle between the two people from similar sex also. It is not a matter of gender but a status in the society and the exploitation harassment done by the superior on the inferior. It is a matter of superiority and inferiority. The relationship of subject and object can be created in the master and the servant also. It is described in “Talkin Up with the white woman” where the relationship between white women and the indigenous women is described. The indigenous women were treated as a servant in Australia by the alien white people and the daughters were brutally separated from their mothers to give the training of being a servant of the white ladies. “In their life writings indigenous women reveal that they were treated as though they had no knowledge, feelings, or emotional attachments. They were perceived as being a tabula rasa – a blank slate to be written on (Page 22, Chapter 1, “Tellin’ It straight: Self Presentation within Indigenous Women’s Life Writing) Though the status of the two genders ideally should be equal in reality it doesn’t happen. Rather it depends upon the activity and passivity of the gender. The valley between the frail and the powerful will be there forever in the society. “The power always wins.” After all it is the rule of the nature. Bibliography: 1. Page 216, “Leda & the Swan,” “Collected Poems” by William Butler Yeats, 1950, Public-Librart.net 2. Anton Mischewski, “Making your Hair stand on end: The meaning of Sperm” inSperm Wars: the Rights and Wrongs of Reproduction, Ed Heather Grace Jones and Maggie Kirkman, ABC Books Sydney, 2005, 6-17. 3. Emily Martin “The Egg and the Sperm: How Science has constructed a romance based on stereotypical male-female roles” Signs, Spring 1991: 16:3, 485-501. 4. Iris Marion Young, ‘Throwing Like a Girl: A Phenomenology of Feminine Body Comportment, Motility, and Spatiality’, Throwing Like a Girl and Other Essays in Philosophy and Social Theory, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1990. 5. Aileen Moreton-Robinson “Telling it Straight: Self Presentation within IndigenousWomen’s Life Writings” in Talkin’ Up to the White Woman, St Lucia, University of Queensland Press, 2000. 6. Alieen Moreton-Robinson " Look out white women: Representations of The White Women in Feminist Theory" in Talkin’ Up to the White Woman, St Lucia, University of Queensland Press, 2000. Read More