Discriminations on the Basis of Sexuality - Essay Example

Gender, Sexuality, and Race Are Less Biological Facts than the Outcome of Contextually-Specific Dis s and Discursive Practices Table of ContentsGender, Sexuality, and Race Are Less Biological Facts than the Outcome of Contextually-Specific Discourses and Discursive Practices 1 Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Discussion 4 Identity Aspects of Gender/Sex Discrimination 4 Identity Aspects of Racial Discrimination 6 Conclusion 8 References 9 Introduction Discriminations on the basis of sexuality, colour, ethnicity and race have been prevailing in the society through decades. All these three factors are originally the biological factors, considered as natural in this living world, although people decipher lesser considerations to those as simple biological differences, causing discrimination among them. It is in this context that recent trends have revealed sexual and racial discriminations have become a common phenomenon mainly in the workplace, which might cause a negative impact on the employees and workers (Alsop et. al., 1998). Gender discrimination also implies that the people of opposite sex, generally the female section of the society, are more often discriminated as compared to their male counterparts. However, feminists have argued with lieu to the modern phenomenon that professional potentialities and abilities do not differ within the modern society among the two genders. It is rather that gender based or racial discrimination existing in the society restricts them to become at par with the male members that has been affecting communities in their healthy developments (Mottier, 1999). Racism has been a common phenomenon since the past generations, wherein people of different nations have been experiencing the harmful impacts of racial discrimination, especially in their workplaces (Caluya, 2013; Books, 1992). Emphasising these facts, the essay aims at elaborating on the trends of gender, sex and race discriminations prevailing in the society in context to individuals’ identity related aspects. Discussion Identity Aspects of Gender/Sex Discrimination Gender inequality/discrimination has emerged as one of the major issues in this society, which has commonly targeted the female section of the society. Discrimination between the two genders has been prevailing since the early generations affecting a particular section of the society (Alsop et. al., 1998). However, due to the continuous modernization of the society, gender/sexual discrimination has reduced to a certain extent, although such trends are still prevalent in some societies (Weeks, n.d.). According to the past studies, the root cause triggering such discrimination has been related to people having limited concern regarding the biological differences, but emphasise more on the arbitrary dissimilarities between the two genders, considering the outcome as a discursive practice. Undoubtedly, gender inequality/discrimination imposes strong negative impacts on the society, as females are often not considered equal to that of their male counterparts and thus, are considered to be inappropriate in conducting certain tasks or ineligible for participating in certain events (Tanzim, 2011). In various parts of the modern society around the world, women are still being dominated by the males and are restrained from equal rights as an independent individual. Gender inequality thus affects the power, prestige, ability and status of the women that restricts them to posses the rights as compared to men (Weeks, n.d.). Gender discrimination is prevailing almost in every country irrespective of whether it is highly developed or underdeveloped, those commonly include Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, China and India among others, where a high rate of gender discrimination is considered to exist (Bucholtz, 2003). Nevertheless, the governments of these countries have been implementing various acts and regulations those might help in eliminating the practice of gender inequality/discrimination in the country and provide equal rights to the women in their professional workplace as well as in the society. It has also been studied that there are two major aspects that generally cause gender discriminations, which include professional inequality and ownership equality (Tanzim, 2011). Professional inequality, on the grounds of gender, is generally considered as the trend to restrain the liable growth opportunities for either women or men with an underlying assumption that their abilities differ substantially. In many countries and societies, mostly women are not considered at par with their male counterparts in the professional domain, even though they possess the same level of skills, abilities and knowledge. In case of recruitment, promotion and appraisal in the professional workplace, women are often given lesser priority in comparison to men (Weeks, n.d.). The example of Japan may be taken into consideration while studying gender differences within the professional domain, wherein the female section of the society was studied to encounter problems in pursuing higher education that restricts their wider opportunity during the recruitment process (Alsop et. al., 1998). However, in England, women are given equal power and are considered at par with their male counterparts. Governmental regimes and even strict governance policies implemented by company in England focuses on ensuring that the employees of the organization are selected on the basis of their merits, skills and experiences required for improving the productivity of the organizations rather than selecting employees giving special preferences to a specific gender (Bucholtz, 2003). Correspondingly, when comparing the performances of Japan and England on economic grounds, the negative effects of gender discrimination become much apparent. Similarly, ownership inequality among the women is also a major identifiable problem related to gender inequality that demonstrates discrimination against the women section of the society. In many societies and cultures, it is found that there exists unequal distribution of ownership of properties among men and women. The male section of the society herein gets the first preference to hold the right or ownership of any property at often instances while the women are deprived of such ownership-rights (Alsop et. al., 1998). This further, causes strong negative impacts on the women class to flourish in social, economic and commercial activities that ultimately deteriorates their economic position (Alsop et. al., 1998). Identity Aspects of Racial Discrimination In addition to sex/gender discrimination, decimation among various races and tribes has become a major challenge for the society, which is commonly addressed as racial discrimination. Racial discrimination has also been prevailing in the society since long, identifiable since the period of slavery, imposing negative impacts on certain sections of the society (Books, 1992). Race is also a sociological factor but in practice it is often used to differentiate between communities based on their colour, language, regional belonging or ethnicity. Such forms of discriminations can be identified in both workplaces and within the society (Caluya, 2013). Racial discrimination in modern workplace has been strictly discouraged, as being responsible for many negatively impacts on the organizational culture as well as its internal environment. Moreover, limiting the talent pool, such discrimination may also hinder the productivity of the overall organisation, as it tends to demoralise the performance of the employees and hence, inhibits sustainability of the entire company. Studies in this context reveal that racial discrimination is generally conducted on the basis of ethnicity, colour, race or nationality of the people (Caluya, 2013). The governmental bodies of various countries along with international organisations have been implementing strict rules and policies in order to eliminate the practice of racial discrimination within countries, especially those hosting immigrants from different racial backgrounds. Due to modernization and implementation of effective rules and regulations, the rate of racism or racial discrimination has also been diminished to a considerable extent, even though, many real life occurrences depict that in some developed countries, the practice of racial discrimination is still prevalent. In an organization, racial discrimination may be identified in terms of hiring/firing/promotions, payment, harassment and job classification (Books, 1992). Notably, in majority of the cases it is found that some specific tribes or races are being deprived from equal facilities in an organization and are being separated from the common employees on the grounds of their racial differences (Sidanius, 2000). Moreover, during the time of recruitment, biasness is also observed in the selection of candidates for the job vacancy based on their racial backgrounds, which also indicates towards discrimination. In majority of the cases, as often witnessed, the interviewer prefers candidates who belong to his/her nationality, religion or ethnicity and rejects the candidate belonging to other nationality or ethnicity. Harassing some employees or staff in an organization based on their race, ethnicity or nationality is also very common. All these form workplace racial discriminations that tends to affect the performance of the workers as well as the organization (Sidanius, 2000). Similarly, racial discrimination is also a common phenomenon in the society as it tends to affect the culture of a particular society. For example, high degree of discrimination was observed among the White Americans and Black Americans until an era, when the Blacks were discriminated in America and were not equally treated as compared to the Whites. Even though the government of the United States has implemented policies and laws that encourage equal treatment of both Black and White Americans, the discrimination among the races still persist in the country (Sidanius, 2000). Moreover, in other modern societies also the practice of racial discrimination can be observed. Therefore, it has become of utmost consideration for the government to implement strict and effective regulations along with educating people that would help in eliminating racial discriminations as prevalent in the modern society (Alsop et. al., 1998). Conclusion From the above discussion, it can be concluded that people in different communities, consider differences in terms of gender, sexuality and race as factors, which are further believed to signify gaps within the professional abilities of an individual and hence, often emerge as a subject for discriminating among people. In most of the cases, either women or individuals belonging to backward communities are observed as victimised through discrimination. Apparently indeed, various measures have been taken to discourage such practices from the end of government and legal authorities along with the governance systems of companies irrespective of their functional sectors. However, such trends could not be entirely abolished, principally owing to the prevalent lack of public awareness regarding the issue. References Alsop, R. et. al., 1998. Natural Women and Men. Theorizing Gender, pp. 12-38. Books, B., 1992. The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators. Black Looks, pp. 115-131. Bucholtz, M., 2003. Theories of Discourse as Theories of Gender: Discourse Analysis in Language and Gender Studies. Blackwell Publishing, pp. 42-68. Caluya, G., 2013. Radicalized Desires: The Colonial Preoccupations Of Fantasy. Critical Race and Whiteness Studies, Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 1-5. Mottier, V., 1999. Narratives of National Identity: Sexuality, Race, and the Swiss ‘Dream of Order’. European Consortium for Political Research, pp. 2-20. Sidanius, J., 2000. Gender and Race Discrimination: The Interactive Nature of Disadvantage. Journal, pp. 1-38. Tanzim, J. A., 2011. Dimensions of gender inequality & its impact on society. Assignment, pp.1-20. Weeks, J., No Date. The Invention of Sexuality. Sexuality, pp. 20-44. Read More