Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Gender essentialism is a metaphysical theory which attributes distinct, intrinsic qualities to women and men. [1] [2] Based in essentialism, it holds that there are certain universal, innate, biologically (or psychologically) based features of gender that are at the root of many of the group differences observed in the behavior of men and women.
Gender is used as a means of describing the distinction between the biological sex and socialized aspects of femininity and masculinity. [9] According to West and Zimmerman, gender is not a personal trait; it is "an emergent feature of social situations: both as an outcome of and a rationale for various social arrangements, and as a means of legitimating one of the most fundamental divisions ...
[5] [6] [7] Gender roles can be linked with essentialism, the idea that humans have a set of attributes that are necessary to their identity based on their gender. Sociologists tend to use the term "gender role" instead of "sex role", because the sociocultural understanding of gender is distinguished from biological conceptions of sex. [8]
The role and importance of essentialism in modern biology is still a matter of debate. [6] Beliefs which posit that social identities such as race , ethnicity , nationality , or gender are essential characteristics have been central to many discriminatory or extremist ideologies. [ 7 ]
In The Metaphysics of Gender, Witt takes a strong stance in favor of gender essentialism, arguing that gender is the fundamental unifying trait that creates and unifies all other social roles that people occupy, thus making gender essential to identity, and all other traits subsidiary. [7]
Another theory of gender socialization, discussed by Susan McHale, is that the gender roles and attitudes of older siblings can impact the gender roles adopted by younger children. Throughout the findings of McHale's study, it is maintained that parents still have the most familial influence on childhood socialization. [28]
Sigmund Freud established the initial theories which would serve as a basis for some of Hélène Cixous' arguments in her writings. Freud's analysis of gender roles and sexual identity concluded with separate male ( Oedipus ) and female ( Electra ) theories of which Cixous was critical.
Further criticisms of écriture féminine include what some claim is an essentialist view of the body and the consequential reliance on a feminism of 'difference' which, according to Diana Holmes, for instance, tends to "demonize masculinity as the repository of all that (at least from a post-'68, broadly Left perspective) is negative."