DIYA JOSEPH

180314

CRITICALLY EXAMINE SEX GENDER DISTINCTION IN FEMINIST THEORY

The feminist jargon conspicuosly includes the terminology and distinct use of the two words-
gender and sex. Human history consisted of a spell of years when these terms were used
interchangeably. However, various scholars and social scientists of recent times have attempted
to discern a difference between the two. The term sex is used to refer to the biological distinction
between humans whereas, gender is used for the social construction between women and men.
Furthermore, the category of sex is also used as a basis of classification, mostly for differential
treatment in the social setting. The study of sex and gender therefore concerns itself with the
documentation of the existing differences between a man and a women, with an attempt to
explain why these variances exist. Apart from the biological differences between the two, the
feminist theory also recognises various social influences that results in distinct play of roles.
Feminism follows the belief that all human beings should enjoy the same social, political and
economic rights. The genealogy of the term goes back to the time when women realised the
unjust treatment that they had to face because of their sexual identity. Women have been socially
overshadowed as secondary beings, muted and silenced throughout the history of times. This
comes out as a result of various social norms, expectations and convictions that are laid down on
women by the so-called superior gender. The emphasis of this paper would be on the distinction
between sex and gender by locating it in the feminist theory. This will be achieved by focusing
on the individual denotation of the two and then taking into account the various factors that have
come to affect it in the social setting.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GENDER AND SEX

The commonplace belief stands that the biological sex of a person, which is assigned at birth is a
cause of gender, which is not, as gender is theorized as an aspect that develops over time, as
opposed to sex, which is considered in accordance to the presence of either male or female
genitalia. Gender is non- biological as it is shaped by environmental factors and therefore is a
result of social production. Most societies seem to embed sex and gender into a binary paradigm,
where biologically speaking, they believe in only two kinds of people- women and men. People
belonging to either of these come to inherit characteristics that the societal norm has deemed
appropriate to the corresponding gender. Sex can therfore be both predictive and a difference-
making cause of gender in the said developmental environment.

SOCIETAL NORMS

The omnipresence of norms and expectations in a society is natural. They are formidable and
influential for they are made to be deemed universal. As a result, everyone tries to adhere to
these generalized notions. This generalization imposes various ideals especially on the functions
of one’s sex. Standards are set for the model male and female behaviors which further define the
roles and responsibilities of men and women. Different societies have different expectations for
its women, some varying according to their economic status. While child- care and housekeeping
are a shared responsibility amongst the poor, as they are also actively involved in preserving the
survival, safety and food security of the household, the affairs are almost the reverse in middle
class, upper caste households. While the enlisting of women in paid employment is increasing
substantially in all sectors, yet it often ends up in causing frustration and anxiety as they have to
manage the so- called women’s responsibilities at home while balancing their professional work.
In most families, women are not encouraged to work, for they still believe it as a sham and
embarrassment to the status of their family.

The norms and standards are not just set against the women of the society. The social atmosphere
has been cultivated in such a way that men feel the dire need to prove their manliness and in
failing to do so, they suffer great psychological and societal pressures. When a woman enters a
field where men have been traditionally working, they feel encroached upon and threatened,
which ultimately leads to a situation where she is not accepted favourably in such a milieu.
These eccentric ideals instruct us the way of behaving unconsciously, in almost all days of our
life. Resisting the systematic norms of a society can lead to material deprivation, social
disapproval and humiliation, as a result of which, only a few wish to break the convention. It can
therefore be observed that it is our own behaviors and actions that normalise these conventions
and they continue to persist because we choose to abide by them.

SEX AND GENDER IN THEORY

The yardstick that gauges the norms of masculinity and femininity are the economic and social
systems that are influenced by a myriad of other factors like caste, class, religion, language and
so on. These elements actively participate in the social production of the construct of gender. The
definition pervades into the aspect of biological ‘sex’which along with the societal norms and
construction, gives meaning to gender.

Sex differences are not distinct and sharply defined. It becomes even more obscure when it
comes to gender. Men and women are more or less tagged as feminine and masculine. However,
this degree of femininity and masculinity is not fixed for life as it alters over time, according to
different social situations. It has been observed that most of us play with gender, what is usually
known as ‘role play’ or ‘gender play’. We subconsciously behave in accordance to the standards
that define our roles in society. The distinction in gender roles can be correlated to the gender
differences in behaviour, attitudes and other traits. This results in the formation of beliefs about
the differences of sexes, which are agreed upon by a majority. What we refer to as ‘gender
stereotyping’ is a product of the said process.

A homogenous pattern of gender role differentiation can also be observed across societies like
typifying men for analytical, mechanical and instrumental traits while emotive, expressive and
sentient traits personify women. Men and women have been emblematic of hailing from
mutually exclusive worlds. According to the feminist historian Joan Scott, women find it
difficult to sustain themselves on the so- called ‘non- feminine’ roles and therefore end up
accepting the gender roles set by the societal norms for women. Therefore, she says that women
pursue those roles and functions for which their everyday life prepares them. Here comes the
view of seeing men and women as an interdependent pair which justifies women’s role in
housekeeping and child rearing and asset men’s role in the world outside the home. The
belligerent character trait of men reverberates a desire to possess, control, rule and subdue
women. Supported by various social, religious and reactionationary scientific beliefs influenced
by the societal norms and weak observations, men have always maintained that biologically
women are weak, emotional and in need of male control and protection. This brings out the
inherent personality of men being dominant and barbaric.

RELIGIOUS ARCHETYPE

Men and women came to be considered different on the account of the possession of distinct
genitalia. Religions of almost all types have interpreted the sexual difference between men and
women explicitly. The physical and sexual difference therefore imply that they possess different
qualities, that are referred to as the innate attributes that cannot be changed. If such an attempt is
made, it is believed to disrupt the natural order. From Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism to
Islam, almost all the major religion declared women’s bodies to be ingeretly inferior and sinful.
They also articulated men as ideal and flawless, with the power to control women, who were left
to be defined, interpreted, judged and represented by this superior sex througout the history of
times. The hypocrisy of these religions lie in the reverention of women for their ability to sustain
life in their wombs while overshadowing them as secondary individuals. Even though birth
seemed to be a miraculous act, yet men were eager to mansplain motherhood and birth as they
were unwilling to accede to them the potent status. With an attempt to deny women’s power over
birth, they tagged them as unclean and impure.

By enabling men a high stature to command authority and control in matters, religions of the
world authorized them to lay down rules and regulations that all women are to follow. Even
though religions like Hinduism don't give this status of high power to all men equally, but the
intersectional subjugation and oppression of women ends up being far worse than that of men
from lower caste and class. They have to assent to stringent strictures that bind them in
multifarious ways like wearing a purdah/ veil, keeping a fast and so on. In Islam and Christianity,
in the place of caste discrimination, we can observe the castigation of homosexuals as unnatural
to the world order.
THE SCIENTIFIC DISTINCTION

The ideal trope of the temperament of women permeated into the early medical field as they
continued to maintain and give a substantial backing to the societal norm which discriminated
and disfavoured women. Medical science from the epoch of the Greeks assumed that the ideally
and naturally perfect body was the male body and women were rendered as flawed and inferior.
They labelled female bodies as radically and naturally different from men and believed that the
differences were not just in the matter of genitals but in fact extended to every fibre of their
being. The maxim of ‘destiny’ was attached to this trope where, like the social conventions,
intellectual and physical strength was awarded for men and motherhood for women. Therefore,
the discipline of science came to be predisposed to the notions of masculinity and femininity. As
a result, the discourse of science failed to stick to its disposition of being critical and objective
when it came to the question of sexual difference. The field still remains male dominated where
women, if they achieve to break the norms to enter this system, have to work in an environment
where their efforts are often not acknowledged and have to work twice as hard than men to prove
themselves to be capable and competent.

IN THE POLITICAL DOMAIN

Mary Wollstonecraft was one of the powerful voices that challenged the existing social norms
and expectations, bringing about a radical change in the mindsets of people. She argued that if
women appear to be stupid and passive, it was not because of an innate lack of intelligence but
rather because women have never been encouraged to cultivate their minds. A short phrase from
Margaret Mitchell’s novel ‘Gone With The Wind’ reaffirms the essence of Wollstonecraft’s
words-

“Ellen’s life was not easy, nor was it happy….. It was a man’s world, and she accepted it as such. The
man owned the property, and the women managed it. The man took the credit for the management, and
the woman praised his cleverness. The man roared like a bull when a splinter was in his finger, and the
woman muffled the moans of childbirth, lest she disturb him….. Men were rude and outspoken; women
were always kind, gracious and forgiving.”
The aforestated extract speaks of a century that is not far away from the present. Even though
ideas of liberty, fraternity and equality were brought to the forefront with the pioneering French
Revolution, women continued to fight for an equal status as declarations after declarations
expressed the rights of men, subsequently asserting men’s superiority like in defining a father’s
right over his wife and child as a natural right. Even though many men were willing to accept
equality between all human beings as they possessed the faculty of reason which other creatures
did not inherit, yet there were questions and doubts on whether women were as rational as men.
The innate male and female qualities and gender roles continued to be as pervasive as they were
before the bricks of a modern democratic society was laid. Even though the rights of education
were granted to women, the view of it not interfering with the god- given qualities of women
were also maintained simultaneously. Education, as set by the male preserves, was meant to
cultivate women’s innate modesty and not for them to “encroach” upon the areas where men
excel.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

The segregation and typification of human beings on the basis of their biological sex and gender,
which forms out of the societal norms have permeated into every sphere of our lives. This along
with the binary division of gender and sex has come to face a lot of condemnation from the
theorists and political writers of feminism. Spaces are sharply defined in terms of masculine and
feminine, which further has led to the design of labour and work. This sectionalization of society
has existed since time immemorial. The religious creed and credo act as a chief support to such a
distinction, so much so that even till date, a vast majority of people hold reactionary and
conservative beliefs in place in the name of religion. While an extent of male and female roles
and responsibilities have become interchangeable, yet predicament of the situation lies in how it
still continues to remain ‘female’ and ‘male’ roles of function. When women take up such roles,
they are made to work harder so that they do justice to the position if it were a man in her place.
The toxic masculinity even penetrates into the psyche of a woman when she takes pride in being
seen as tough like men.
Social pressures on being diligent to the role play expected of men and women has only resulted
in the induration of the sex gender distinction. Feminists argue that the expectations from the
society can be subtle, persuasive as well as direct and forceful. These ideals are reinforced in
various settings like schools, work instructions, family, and media. The norms of masculinity and
femininity are fed into a child from a very young age, from the things parents and teachers say,
the visuals they see in media, the books they read, in the conduct of men and women in a social
setting and even at home. It is the society that assigns and labels particular roles for men and
women and to change this, the society itself has to undergo a sea change.

CONCLUSION

The societal norms that have reigned the functioning of the society has existed since a very long
period of time. It is a history of subjugation and suppression that we take forward in the name of
tradition. Feminists express that this very abstraction and notion of tradition and religion being a
part of a history is a very flawed one. As Napoleon once said, history is just a fable that is agreed
upon. By its very nature, history is always a one- sided account of the story. The rest is the one
that has been buried by the acts of repression at the hands of the privileged power. Through the
course of this paper, it has been apparent how both biological and social influences play a
significant role in producing gender stratification. Historically, the biological factors, particularly
women’s role in reproduction, have impeded the division of labour, which puts men in a better
position to acquire and control valuable resources of the society. This gender sex distinction has
resulted in the neglect and mistreatment of women throughout the history of times. There is a
need to look into this at a microlevel, in order to understand how gender differentiation and
stratification condition the experiences of women and men within a society. When born to a
society, an individual comes to fill gender specific roles via socialization which continues
throughout their life. Some also end up internalizing attitudes and beliefs that go against the
gender stereotype. Since these beliefs that are reinforced on individuals continuously align with
the status quo of a society, it becomes difficult to break away from the shackles to bring about a
change. The time is also ripe for physicians and scientists to remove their binary spectacles and
rather than exploring what it means to be a male or a female, look into what it means to be
neither or both. It would be fair to state that men and women are very much alike and also very
different from each other. The paradigm of fluidity in the overlapping of gender and sex must not
be neglected anymore in order to explore the essence of shades of areas between the pinks and
the blues.

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