Ashna Gupta: Philosophy and Gender Blog

    Image Credit The philosopher Asta Sveinsdottir discusses the construction of social categories in her book The Categories We Live By . Some people are unaware of the social categories they have in their every day lives, such as being an American if one lives in the United States, while other social categories such as skin color may play a larger role in one's life if they are a person of color living in an area with mostly white people. Asta states that many of these social categories provide special protections for certain groups of people while mistreating others. She proposes the conferralist theory in which a social category is “defined by a social property”, and an individual’s social property is “a property that someone has conferred on them by others” (Asta, 2). This property implies a social status that gives a person a disadvantage or advantage, and these properties can eventually have significant social implications. An example of a social property leading to social s

 In Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory , Judith Butler discusses the idea that the social construct of gender can be used for political strategies. Gender is a series of acts that are repeated in order to formulate one's identity, and it can change over time. Some of these acts may be done in the name of representing women, yet they may still be politically motivated.  Butler raises an interesting point when she says that if people want to change the status of women in society, they must first "determin[e] whether the category of woman is socially constructed in such a way that to be a woman is, by definition, to be in an oppressed situation" (Butler, 523). She argues that political interests mainly create the social construct of gender in itself, and that feminists should investigate the construction of gender in order to examine how oppression shapes how women are perceived. On one hand, eradicating the term women s

     Transgender individuals are more likely to face violence, poverty, mental health issues, homelessness, and unemployment compared to the general U.S. population. The statistics mentioned in the 2015 Report of the U.S. Transgender Survey Executive Summary that related to the school experience for transgender folks were alarming, as over three quarters "of those who were out or perceived as transgender at some point between Kindergarten and Grade 12 (K-12) experienced some form of mistreatment, such as being verbally harassed, prohibited from dressing according to their gender identity, [or] disciplined more harshly..." (James et. al, 2016). I would hope that as a person gets older they would become more accepting of all gender identities despite any differences between themselves and others. I expected the percentage from K-12 to college to decrease, because I assumed that a person would be more likely to reject discriminatory views once they are no longer under the influe

     Image Credit      The term family values implies that the structure of a household includes a father figure who works to provide for his family and a wife who stays home to take care of her children. A traditional family also has the implication that gender roles are strictly adhered to, as it separates the duties of work for the man and household tasks for the women. These responsibilities are based on the social norms of heterosexual marriage. Family members create an identity together that is recognizable through geographical location and the neighborhood one lives in as a result of redlining or racial segregation. The intersectionality of gender and race can be seen through the traditional family ideals that impact social practices in the United States.      The intersectionality of privilege within the family system can be seen through the naturalized hierarchy that inherently exists in a traditional household. While the traditional family ideal claims to be a representation

  Image Credit One of the pioneers of education for children was Rousseau, a philosopher who claimed that women and men should be treated differently with regards to their educational goals. He argued that women and men were equal, but the caveat was that they are different when it comes to topics related to sex. Rousseau reflected the views of biodeterminism, as he assumed that differences between women and men were merely natural rather than social as the differences between men and women are perceived sex traits. Rousseau denies that his ideas to educate girls treats females as inferior, as women and men have different virtues therefore they should be judged based on two different standards.  Rousseau provides evidence for the differing characteristics of men and women by noting that men are "active and strong" individuals who have power while women are described as "passive and weak" individuals who do not resist as they are submissive (Dea, 151). Rousseau furth

Image Credit Gender can be perceived in diverse ways depending on the social and cultural norms of a community. Some cultures believe that human beings have two sexes, but people can express their gender identities in more than two ways. The Inuit culture in Northern Canada and hijras in South Asian culture both recognize that there is a third gender. There are spiritual, religious, and economic reasons for this acknowledgement of gender beyond the gender binary.  Economic and cultural reasons for the third gender interact clearly in Inuit culture as the third gender is marked by transvestism, which is practiced for either spiritual or pragmatic reasons. Inuit people raise some biologically female children to dress in a style that is associated with boys and act in a traditionally masculine way. They may also raise biological males to dress and behave like girls. The pragmatic reason for cross-dressing and switching gender behaviors is that families with children that are all girls or