Feminism and Postmodernism - Essay Example

FEMINISM AND POSTMODERNISM The insects of discrimination, like a curse on civilization, are gradually eating up out society and dissolving harmony and affection, hence transforming human being into steal hearted individuals, or better said human robots. This generation of heartless citizens, without any feeling and compassion for others can make no good to the society. Thus, the society no longer remains a better place to live in. More than ever and in more organizations than ever men and women are effectively working jointly, exchanging ideas, sharing authority. It remains no longer out of the ordinary when a talented woman is encouraged to lead a business enterprise or to run an organization filled with hard-charging men. If truth were told, more people in the United States now days work for companies owned and led by women than for the five hundred prime public companies. However, there still lies so much tension between men and women at work. Controversy rises on the difference issue that if men and women in actual fact lead in like chalk and cheese ways or on the difference in their view and making use of authority or on the difference in amount and type of sacrifices made by high-achieving men and women for the growth and prosperity of the company and themselves too. It is quite true that there exist dissimilarities between men and women in management style, though not in skills but only in approach. Million years of history at the office or in the living room cannot be ignored at all. The sidesplitting Broadway show by the Caveman has summed up the dissimilarity quite well that Men hunt while women gather. That is the reason why in the present day, discrimination are rising between men and women not only on place of work but also in every aspect of life. (Manning, 279) Womens short of advancement in moving up the corporate ladder is over and over again associated with a various types of job related separation in which lady managers of a company are downgraded to the entry level and some middle management positions, although are effectively barred from getting hold of higher paying positions within the company. The observable fact has been popularly written off as the "glass ceiling", which implies the lady managers despite the fact that remaining adequately close to see the next level, but are not permitted to reach it. Other popular subjects, such as the "mommy track" may as well be taken for consideration as another form of occupational or "job" prejudice. In both the cases, the company treats male and female workers in a different way when making decisions on promotions and career tracks. In a recent article, Lazear and Rosen [1990] build up a "jobs" hypothesis of favouritism, which endow with a clarification for the "glass ceiling" and are reliable with much of the up to date experiential substantiation on the subject of the pay and job related differentiations between men and women. In the Lazear and Rosen "jobs" hypothesis of bias, men and women receive the same treatment within the same job; however, men are given privileged treatment at the time of promotion. Companies give more preference to endorse men for the reason that they look forward to men to remain with the company longer than women do. As a result, similarly, a proficient man and woman in any particular occupation will be paid the same, but the man will have an enhanced opportunity of being promote to an elevated paying position. The consequence is that lifetime remunerations of men are comparatively greater than those of women having the same capability. The popular notion is that the men are proficient to move up the "job ladder" at the same time as women stay behind at the bottom of the organizational hierarchy. (Bell, 271-3) The Lazear and Rosen (L&R) [1990] model is an official demonstration of the extensively held observation that the substandard labour market outcomes of women are as a result of their irregular labour force contribution. This outlook is dependable with the long established model of firm-specific on-the-job training written by Becker [1975] and Hashimoto [1981], in which a fraction of the expenses of training are paid for by the company. Under these state of affairs, the service association must be long lasting in order for the company to get back its investment. Black and Lowenstein [1989] in addition presented a model with prophecies analogous to those of L&R, and which is based on the issue of incompatible labour market attachment of men and women. (Bell, 271-3) The contraction of the gender remuneration gap in the order of one percentage point a year from the year 1980 is for the most part noteworthy, in view of the fact that for the duration of the 1980s and 90s the taken as a whole wage level got little higher and the remuneration discrimination between capable and amateurish workers grew up. Without improved proficiencies, womens remunerations to be expected would have gone further down in the wake of mens. On the other hand, market demands have lent a hand to generate counteractive mechanisms, and at the same time as the expenses of denying employment to women went up, therefore discriminations were put to one side. (Kumar, 334) To sum up there exist gender disparities in wage growth and job mobility, however only for employees in the lower half of the wage allocation that is among less skilful workers. Investigating the mean cover ups much of gender differences it can be seen that no indication of a ‘glass ceiling’ above highly skilled women workers are visible. Dissimilarities in inter-firm mobility, such as change of employer, are larger than intra-firm mobility, such as promotion, men has better or more outside offers or have greater suppleness to take benefit of outside offers. Up until the present day, the dissimilarity in wage growth is not explicated by mobility divergence. Men have superior bargaining power owing to stronger outside offer pressures even in the non-existence of definite promotion or quit. Consequently, hypothetical understanding of patterns is essential to develop among less capable workers, and thus broadening approach further than endorsement and job mobility issues. (Goddard, 433-5) From a postmodernist viewpoint, this subject is elaborately dealt. Post modernism involves a way of looking at life, which rejects convention or tradition. Arnold Toynbee’s usage of the term meant a way of life ending: individualism giving way to more conventional behaviour which aspect has stayed on until the present. However, in a way, the latest innovations in performance enhancing technology have quite a different effect in another context. Essentially modern sexuality is now no longer concerned by questions of age. In fact, it looks at health related problems as simply open to treatment rather than being seen as a part of old age. What has changed since the Kinsey report is quite a lot. The consumption of potency enhancing medicine is much higher now what with the innumerable alternatives available nowadays. Middle aged have equally broken the stereotype of the bored with it image they seem to have lived with. In fact, middle-aged women now report enjoying sex every bit as fully as their younger counterparts do. Quite surprisingly, amidst all this newfound excitement comes the revelation that the ‘Baby Boomers’ considered to be liberal actually disapprove of extra marital affairs. They even seem to agree along with the older generation that modern culture pays undue attention to sex. However, new age attitudes to sex remains free from any judgment and hold that sex is for everyone not only the young. For the Boomer generation sex holds the promise of forbidden pleasures and not many were comfortable with it before. Now middle-aged men and women freely talk about their preferences for sex. A large number from this group admits to having tried out ‘dirty’ sex or having exchanged erotic e-mails with their spouses. In the changing climate of sexual mores, many women as men confess to having sex in public spots. Even those over 70 confessed freely on liberal sex. However, any form of extramarital sex without a partner’s consent is definitely not the done thing for the baby boomer generation. In this respect, they are as traditional in alignment with the elders, admitting that they would not even think of it. There is nothing contradictory about this and the newfound freedom in sexual mores among this group of people. An extramarital affair would be seen as going against marriage vows while experimenting with sexual moves with one’s married partner can bring excitement into a couple’s sex life. The boldest admission among women to sexuality when not in a relationship is that they freely resort to and enjoy masturbation. A good number of women admit to having resorted to personal pleasure enhancing techniques, which they indulged in frequently. Crucial to understanding what drives modern sexuality is the fact that many women admit that ‘self stimulation’ is important to sexual stimulation regardless of age. This is a recognition that human beings are sensual and that women do not need to be in a relationship to appreciate this. Even younger women realize this, which bodes well for them, as they grow older. Refreshingly, compared to young adults, middle-aged men tend to feel that though a satisfactory sexual relationship improves the quality of life, it is not the fundamental important thing. Instead, financial security, good health, closeness to friends and family, and a happy relationship with a partner were the things to be cherished. (Dos, 218) However, in postmodernist term, the discrimination at workplace or education is the exhibition of masculine power game. In this context, Laura Mulvey indicates the cause towards social formation of popular medium. Laura Mulvey believes that movies represent women as sexual objects and this is a suppressed method of instigating the male sexual ego within the format of a male dominated society. She uses her article “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” as a weapon to reveal this matrix of indirect sexual harassment and male pleasure seeking method. The focal point of this paper is to evaluate this belief. Theorist Laura Mulvey has a very good point in her critical assessment of the world of movies and its affect on both the masculine and feminine gender. Her critical assessment should be considered a wake up call for all in that we ignore the warning signs and exploit the danger in place of fighting against it. Thus, in her essay, she proved her theory quite sufficiently in that, the industry would continually uses sexual images specifically to capture the attention of people, and now, teenagers and children have become the target audience thus becoming addicted to both the images and the brand. If we do not fight as equals, then feminism has no true hold on culture in any way. This, in actuality, is of a far greater impact on the lives of men and women, as well as boys and girls. The fact that these films continue would tell us that feminism is losing its hold on the minds of many. Movies have a tendency to meld a generation, and the portrayal of men and women in suggestive or violent poses manages a platform for strong debate. There are no doubts that Laura Mulvey’s criticism of our efforts to put a halt to visual sexuality and even the innuendo of sexuality in both feminist movements and equality based ones, would in fact be direct and to the point in her understanding of what is acceptable, and what should hardly be. The affect of these movies on the younger minds alters the landscape in such a way that we would see it in the actions of younger and younger children. For instance, the rape of a six year old girl by an eight year old on the same bus while on their way home from school as she was held down by four other boys. In another incident, take the mass murders of classmates in places like Columbine and other school tragedies since that mark their place in this world. Laura Mulvey’s belief and her essay is quite an informative piece. It proves that what we see and what we get are obviously gender separate, and can be either intimidating, or thought provoking dependent upon that gender. Most, if not all, movies can be considered mildly offensive, no matter the implied innocence. This, without realizing our own actions, simply feeds the desire to continue the outrageous behaviours displayed within the movies. Thus, it is obvious from the point of view of Laura Mulvey that it is important to understand the male nature of sexual pleasure seeking principals. It is interesting to understand the inner methods of voyeurs that generate pleasures out of the exposure of the female body. It is a direct case of oppression of the gender but it is compensative in terms of economy but the fact remains that from ethical and moral point of view the problem remains and it would be interesting to find out the nature of legal and social indulgence in future. (Mulvey, 38) It should be remembered that this same pleasure principal is applied at the education or work scenario. Jean Kilbourne makes an excellent point in her portrayal of advertisement and its appearance of violence and sexually predatory nature. Blatantly sexist, implied violence and the essence of fear or dominance would be inherent in advertisement of all descriptions from lingerie, to jeans all the way to peanut butter. Jean Kilbourne’s essay shows us how much we ignore in the world of advertisement, which simply exemplifies that which we ignore in life as a whole. Either her portrayal of the difference between perceptions of men and women in the various ads, including such concepts as intimacy, violence and innocence would be such as to cause alarm or to cause us to seriously examine the route advertisement is taking in the role of human behaviours. Human behaviour is altered by stimuli outside the mind, but absorbed by that same mind. This absorption must be considered when understanding the human psyche. Sexual advertisement has a tendency to increase violence done by men continuously exposed to the ads and the industry continues to use these sexual images for attention magnets. There are no doubts that Jean Kilbourne’s criticism of our efforts to put a halt to violence and even the innuendo of violence in both feminist movements and equality based ones, would in fact be direct and to the point in her understanding of what is acceptable, and what should hardly be. Jean Kilbourne has a very good point in her critical assessment of the world of advertising and its affect on both the masculine and feminine gender. Her critical assessment should be considered a wake up call for all in that we ignore the warning signs and exploit the danger in place of fighting against it. Thus, in her essay, she proved her theory quite sufficiently in that, the industry would continually uses sexual images specifically to capture the attention of people, and now, teenagers and children have become the target audience thus becoming addicted to both the images and the brand. If we do not fight as equals, then feminism has no true hold on culture in any way. This, in actuality, is of a far greater impact on the lives of men and women, as well as boys and girls. (Kilbourne, 2001) One criminology theory that has developed from labelling is the feminist criminology theory. During previous times, there was no differentiating between men and crime versus women and crime. Instead, they were all linked together. Even when criminologists and other researchers actually started to examine females about crime, they approached it from a masculine viewpoint in which they believed that all females committed crimes because they had penis envy. Since then, a new theory of criminology, feminism criminology has developed that dismisses the penis envy theory and examines more deeply the deviant behaviours and their causes in women. Feminist criminology has reviewed many crime statistics, which argue that women are less likely to commit crimes than males (French, 2005). Research has also determined that penalties for women who partake in deviant behaviours are less severe than their counterpart males. However, the reason for this has not yet been determined (French, 2005). While progress is being made on studying the females and crime, most feminist criminology supporters still tend to analyze and criticize how and why women were ignored, distorted or stereotyped in previous research and theories (French, 2005). Feminist epistemology and philosophy of science studies the ways in which gender does and ought to influence our conceptions of knowledge, the knowing subject, and practices of inquiry and justification. It identifies ways in which dominant conceptions and practices of knowledge attribution, acquisition, and justification systematically disadvantage women and other subordinated groups, and strives to reform these conceptions and practices so that they serve the interests of these groups. Various practitioners of feminist epistemology and philosophy of science argue that dominant knowledge practices disadvantage women by (1) excluding them from inquiry, (2) denying them epistemic authority, (3) denigrating their “feminine” cognitive styles and modes of knowledge, (4) producing theories of women that represent them as inferior, deviant, or significant only in the ways they serve male interests, (5) producing theories of social phenomena that render womens activities and interests, or gendered power relations, invisible, and (6) producing knowledge (science and technology) that is not useful for people in subordinate positions, or that reinforces gender and other social hierarchies. Feminist epistemologists trace these failures to flawed conceptions of knowledge, knower, objectivity, and scientific methodology. They offer diverse accounts of how to overcome these failures. They also aim to (1) explain why the entry of women and feminist scholars into different academic disciplines, especially in biology and the social sciences, has generated new questions, theories, and methods, (2) show how gender has played a causal role in these transformations, and (3) defend these changes as cognitive, not just social, advances. The central concept of feminist epistemology is that of a situated knower, and hence of situated knowledge: knowledge that reflects the particular perspectives of the subject. Feminist philosophers are interested in how gender situates knowing subjects. They have articulated three main approaches to this question: feminist standpoint theory, feminist postmodernism and feminist empiricism. Different conceptions of how gender situates knower also inform feminist approaches to the central problems of the field: grounding feminist criticisms of science and feminist science, defining the proper roles of social and political values in inquiry, evaluating ideals of objectivity and rationality, and reforming structures of epistemic authority. In conclusion, it could be mentioned that history has witnessed that from the beginning of time women have been subjugated and undermined in this so-called men’s world. It is well recognized that women fare badly relative to men in the labour market. The gender gap in reimbursement, especially, is well recognized. The ‘Glass ceiling’ is an indistinguishable blockade that holds back the promotion of women to high- responsibility, high-pay jobs. This is a form of ‘dynamic’ favouritism. Women have always been the victim of discrimination not only on place of work but also in every aspect of life. References: Bell, L; Man and Management Techniques (New Haven and London: Yale University Press. 2006) pp 271-3 Border, S; Human Resource Strategies: Games People Play (Remote Publishing Trust; 2004) pp 375 Cunningham, S A; Introduction to Human Resource Management (DLTT Publications Ltd. 2005) pp 24-5 Drake, S; Evaluation of Techniques In Management (ABP Ltd. 2006) pp 153-55 Dos, M; Advent of Motivation (Alliance Publications; 2005) pp 47-48 Dollard, John; Zenith and Zero Point (New Haven and London: Yale University Press. 2004) pp 116-7 Goddard, J; Management: Making the Most Out of It (Howard & Price. 2006) pp 433-5 Knott, P; Development of Management as a Science (Dasgupta & Chatterjee 2005) pp 188-9 Kumar, H; Win Some, Lose None (HBT & Brooks Ltd. 2005) pp 334 Manning, C S; Principals and Practices: Human Resources Today (National Book Trust. 2004) pp 279 Mulvey, L. Visual and Other Pleasures (Theories of Representation and Difference). Indiana University Press. (March 1991) Kilbourne, Jean; Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt: Advertising and Violence; Rereading America Cultural Contexts for Critical Thinking and Writing 5th Edition; St. Martin’s Press 2001 French, M. (2005) Feminist criminology, female crime, and integrated theory [online]. Available from: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; Peter Markie; Copyright 2004; Feminist Epistemology and Philosophy of Science http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-epistemology/ Dos, Mark. Future of Thought Process in Sociology. Canberra: Alliance Publications. 2005 Read More