Social Construction of Gender Roles
The following was posted on the KhushDC listserv which led to a little conversation …
—————–
City plans Women Day revelries:
[India News]:
New Delhi, March 7 : Ahead of the International Women’s Day, the UN
kicked off celebrations Monday, a city hospital announced a health week
for the fairer sex and a feminist film festival is also planned.
(click link for full article)———————-
someone raised the point of women being refered to as "fairer sex" .. and it did then strike as an irony that woman is described as fairer sex on the very day meant to bring focus on women’s issues and gender-based discrimination.On the surface its a very innocuous term, not reflective of any hidden meanings/connotations … even positive — you are calling someone fair, isn’t it?
But what does that really mean??
1. For one, it seems to imply that Fair = beauty … a view which plagues (in my humble opinion) many cultures .. fair skinned people are regarded as more beautiful and somehow ‘better’
2. It also seems to imply that women by nature are fairer … hmm, is that true in all places of earth ?
3. It also seems to imply that woman is the fairer, and thus the more beautiful sex — what is the purpose of women, to be a wallflower and look beautiful ?? how long will we keep holding the woman captive in her beauty, and use it against her in subtle ways … I am not speaking against being beautiful or appreciating beauty … I am just arguing that social perpetration of such terms creates pressures, builds stereotypes, and makes gender roles.
Also this term should not be taken in isolation, but as a symptom of a much larger phenomenon. Look at the whole vocabulary, for God’s sake!
Is a woman’s worth in how beautiful she is ?Which leads me to the larger question of gender roles: playing football is for boys, playing with dolls is for girls - and thus a boy playing with dolls is queer ! Why should society create two polar opposites, divide human characteristics among these two, and impose on us to choose one or the other based on which genetalia you are born with ?
Gender is a social construction [read my friend Amlan's recent post on this], and we need to deconstruct it to let us breathe, so men do not ‘need’ to play rough sports, use cuss words, or be the head of the house, in order to prove their ‘masculanity’ — and women don’t need to pretty themselves, play with dolls, and submit to the male ego to be feminine. We need to deconstruct gender definitions, so that boys can cry, so that ’sissy’ is no longer pejorative term, so that girls do not need to immitate men to earn respect in society.
Actually the ills of sexism and defined gender roles does not stop there. It is intricately linked to homophobia too ! but more on that some other day when I am not so sleepy …
