"Gender: The Social Construct"
Yesterday, in English 12 (World Literature) we were discussing this amazing play called Medea, by the Greek playwright Euripedes.
The heroine, Medea, was a foreign sorceress who was brought by Jason of the Argonauts into Greece as his wife.
But I don't want to discuss the plot just yet. It's too complicated and I don't have enough time as of the moment. (It's seriously one of those stories where there is no black and white. Which makes it REALLY cool. The moral high ground just vanishes like *poof!*)
Anyway. What struck me about the discussion (since Medea is kind of like a testament to feminism... Just kind of, mind you,) is when our teacher (Professor Schriever) quoted Simone de Beauvoir:
"One is not born, but becomes a woman."(From the book "The Second Sex")
This emphasizes the difference "sex" and "gender."
First, sex is biological. There are basically three: male, female and hermaphroditic.
Then there's gender. Now we all know how many genders there are; man, woman and everything above, below and in between.
The thing is, the notion of what a man is, (or a woman is, in the context of our discussion) is determined by the society.
American women may be seen as liberated and open-minded while Asian women may be seen as conservative and family-oriented. But then, they're both "women."
This means that gender is a social construct. Another one, I should say. It's already been established that government, religion, baptism, marriage, school and many others are social constructs. But I seriously never thought of gender as a social construct explicitly.
I guess this also means that there's nothing wrong with having genders "in between." I mean, gender is a social construct; it is what we "think" it is. It doesn't really exist except in our own perceptions.
I'll discuss Medea next time. I swear she's like my role model now. (She was kind of dumb mid-story but she redeemed herself anyway.)
:-)
Yesterday, in English 12 (World Literature) we were discussing this amazing play called Medea, by the Greek playwright Euripedes.
The heroine, Medea, was a foreign sorceress who was brought by Jason of the Argonauts into Greece as his wife.
But I don't want to discuss the plot just yet. It's too complicated and I don't have enough time as of the moment. (It's seriously one of those stories where there is no black and white. Which makes it REALLY cool. The moral high ground just vanishes like *poof!*)
Anyway. What struck me about the discussion (since Medea is kind of like a testament to feminism... Just kind of, mind you,) is when our teacher (Professor Schriever) quoted Simone de Beauvoir:
"One is not born, but becomes a woman."(From the book "The Second Sex")
This emphasizes the difference "sex" and "gender."
First, sex is biological. There are basically three: male, female and hermaphroditic.
Then there's gender. Now we all know how many genders there are; man, woman and everything above, below and in between.
The thing is, the notion of what a man is, (or a woman is, in the context of our discussion) is determined by the society.
American women may be seen as liberated and open-minded while Asian women may be seen as conservative and family-oriented. But then, they're both "women."
This means that gender is a social construct. Another one, I should say. It's already been established that government, religion, baptism, marriage, school and many others are social constructs. But I seriously never thought of gender as a social construct explicitly.
I guess this also means that there's nothing wrong with having genders "in between." I mean, gender is a social construct; it is what we "think" it is. It doesn't really exist except in our own perceptions.
I'll discuss Medea next time. I swear she's like my role model now. (She was kind of dumb mid-story but she redeemed herself anyway.)
:-)
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