Issues Of Gender part 1 Essay - 3,462 words

Issues of Gender The individual's sense of what it is to be masculine/feminine is derived, often directly from, and always at least in relation to, the operations of prevailing contemporary discourses - which themselves may or may not be explicitly gendered. These discourses create and offer "discursive subject positions"-epistemological spaces-for individuals to occupy, they bring about a kind of textual role-playing. Discourse is therefore never a closed system; although the power of discursive practices affects every individual, there is always the possibility of resistance to specific discursive regimes. However, the forceful way in which gendered subject positions are made available to us is such that individuals usually struggle to live up to their "genderedness," to reproduce the most perfect replication of the discursive model in everyday life. The discourse of gender difference, then, is a particularly powerful ordering, shaping, and delimiting of the field of human possibility. Although no actual male may ever reach the discursive version of maleness (nor a woman the corresponding ideal of femininity), these images at least partially shape, and frequently oppress, the lives of thousands of real members of both sexes (Hearn, 1987, p.


98). These images may have no concrete material referent, but they nevertheless have real-world effects. Therefore, sex and sexuality in nature are both material and highly contingent, determined by imperatives of survival. Gender in human relations is, on the contrary, social and highly normative, and discursively determined. Gender is established by images, and it connects to social power. Gender is not ahistorical or transcendental, it is not a mark stamped indelibly on human existence. Genitalia, through the operations of discourse, may come to represent essential differences between the sexes in terms of behavior, emotions, and so on-but they do not solely determine gender.


That the genitals perform a powerful metaphorical function which is at least as significant as their biological one may be seen in the extent to which they are attributed adjectivally to those who do not possess the actual physical attributes-such as the female who is said to "have balls." Furthermore gender, being discursively formed, has existed in different forms in different periods. Different masculinities and femininities emerge side by side at different times and in different places (Connell, 1995). Consequently, the prevailing contemporary version of masculine/feminine in Western societies, which we could call a modernist account of the relationship between the genders, emphasizes particular behavioral features which distinguish masculinity from femininity. This is of course not the only existing version of the dichotomy, as different versions of it always compete against each other for hegemony. The struggle is not simply of a uniform masculinity against a single voice of femininity. Similarly, actual men and women and their behaviors must be distinguished from the idealized forms which emerge in discourse.


Nonetheless, according to this prevailing modern ideal, "real men" are expected to be logical, rational, objective, in control (especially of their emotions), assertive, argumentative, potent, masterful, hardworking, and incrementally progressive. As Glaser and Frosh (1988, p. 24) note: Traditional masculinity focuses on dominance and independence, an orientation to the world which is active and assertive, which valorizes competitiveness and turns its face from intimacy, achieving esteem in the glorification of force. The fear at the heart of this image is of emotion-which makes us vulnerable and "womanly"; emotion is dangerous not only because it implies independence, but also because it is alien, a representative of all that masculinity rejects. Despite the constant demands of living up to this very phallic masculinity, men are surrounded with symbols which demand that they do just that, and this is the source of many male problems. Within this demanding framework, men are expected to close things off, solve problems, make decisions, and end perplexity.


Even those males who wish to break free of the competitive, dominating image of maleness represented here find it difficult, so deeply are they immersed in it from birth onward. As Heath (1987, p. 12) argues: "I cannot - do not know how to avoid the male image, the image of bettering, of asserting superiority." Women's corresponding socially-ascribed image is of being comfortable in disturbing the masculine sense of certainty, raising questions, and opening things up. The rigid structures of maleness are accordingly made to flex, even to collapse entirely, as a result of these attentions. Ragland-Sullivan (1991, pp. 75-76) notes that: "the feminine ... automatically poses a question, while masculine identification with law, logos or authority tries to stop the question." The modern feminine, then, is associated with fluidity, openness, sensuality, and emotion; it is the antithesis of the modern masculine.


In contrast to that contemporary masculinity, it represents: ... the values of caring and sharing; the prioritizing of feelings; the reality and value of the non-marketable and non-material; the importance of the imaginative and creative; a vision of the wholeness and interdependence of the world, and a knowledge of and faith in the creative potential of stillness, rest and silence. (Hines, 1992, p. 314) Nevertheless, in formulating the feminine in this way, care must be taken to avoid the effects ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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Essay Tags: gender, feminine, masculine, men and women, masculinity

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