Ashna Gupta: Philosophy and Gender Blog

 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 in...

     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...

  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...

 In the book "Beyond the Binary: Thinking about Sex and Gender" by Shannon Dea, the concepts of gender attribution, sex, and gender are discussed. Dea notes how the words sex and gender are used as synonyms, when in reality they do not have the same meaning. Sex refers to the biological aspect of a person, with reference to their chromosomes, hormone levels, and anatomical properties. On the other hand, gender is more of a loose spectrum, as it includes a variety of factors such as clothing, self-expressive tools such as makeup, behavior, and the identity a person chooses for themselves. If we only consider sex and not gender, it is accepted that females are born with XX chromosomes and males are born with XY chromosomes. However, this method of thinking becomes problematic if a person does not identify with the chromosomes they were born with, which exemplifies the importance of gender in conversations about identity. There are advantages of treating gender and sex of distin...

Reading the article " He/She/They/Ze " by Dembroff and Wodak has challenged my views on pronouns and gender identity. There were two main theses in this article, which are the moderate and radical claims. The moderate claim states that "we have a negative duty not to use binary gender-specific pronouns (he or she) to refer to genderqueer individuals", and the radical claim states that "we have a negative duty not to use any gender-specific pronouns to refer to anyone, regardless of their gender identity" (371). From the beginning, I agreed with the moderate claim, but I was more skeptical about the radical claim as extending this theory to everyone seemed unnecessary upon first glance. However, after the authors provided extensive evidence supporting the radical claim, such as privacy concerns and the importance of not reinforcing harmful ideologies, by the end of the article I agreed with Dembroff and Wodak's Radical Claim. The example comparing the t...