Jack Halberstam Gender Analysis

While sexism is no longer as overt a practice as in the past, it is arguably just as pervasive. bell hooks’ life as an academic has been spent trying to breakdown the existent sexist barriers, which have prohibited women from achieving equality with men.

Gender has been a big issue in society. Sex is biological, and it is through sex that gender is produced (which according to West and Zimmerman, “gender, we said, was an achieved status: that which is constructed through psychological, cultural, and social mean” (West and Zimmerman 1987, 125) - in other words, it is the categorization of both sex to act in a certain and acceptable way by the society, also known as norms) and can be recreated through human interaction and social life. All of this is being constructed by our environment; Inequality is being formed through identity. Everything all begins from when we are born. In society, it is believed that boys are tough while the women are believed to be soft and nurturing. There

Even the word ‘female’ is a marked term derived from ‘male’, and ‘women’ is derived form ‘men’. This repetitive format stems from the fact England has always been a patriarchal society, where female liberation is a relatively new idea, and as a result the English language still strengthens and perpetuates sexist attitudes. However, it is possible to argue that this is gradually changing, and the language is becoming less discriminate, because many marked terms such as ‘authoress’ are dying out; this is a sign of changing attitudes in society. Another illustration of how the English language devalues women more than it does men is that there is a vast amount of insulting lexical usages for females, often with no equivalents for males, and usually with increased negative connotations compared to the insults aimed at males.

Women are objectified on a daily bases and are estimated to fit into what society deems as beautiful. Women are constantly told they are the weaker sex, and cannot and should not do what a man does. Women are constricted by gender roles; which are behaviors, expectations, and roles society places. They are behaviors that are culturally regarded as appropriate for a male or female. From these conformities comes sexism, which wants to restrict or discriminate against a person because of their biological sex or gender role. There is the belief this world is a man’s world, and women are projected to just live in it. This superiority is not only placed by men, but also fueled by other women who feel they are the weaker sex and must abide by the

When gender is discussed, sex is the identification between male and female whereas gender is described as the roles we fulfil as separate sexes. Although brains seem different in structure there is no measureable difference in intelligence between men and women.

The purpose of this study was to develop a theory of sexism devised as ambivalence toward women and validate a corresponding measure, the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI). Past research on sexism has been predominantly conceptualized as hostility toward women. However, from a historical and contemporary perspective, images of women have not been strictly negative. Within the realm of sexism, images of women can also be seen in a “positive” manner. Therefore, Glick and Fiske (1996) investigated the multidimensionality of sexism by examining both the hostile and benevolent aspects of sexism.

Gender derives its formative meaning from culture and societal values, it is not a universal entity as there are various cultures, societal values, beliefs, and preferred ways of organizing collective life across the globe and even within a single culture the meaning of gender varies over time. Chapters three and four of Gendered Lives by Julia T. Wood helps to insightfully look at those views, and rhetorical movements (women and men’s movements) that have overtime influenced, defined and given various meanings to gender (masculinity and femininity).

Sexism is a problem that can distort a person’s thought process, young and old. Society has been immersed in a culture that values women for their bodies and physical appearance. There are many groups and movements that make this more aware to the public eye and help bring light to these issues, but sexism will continue in our world as it has since the roots of mankind's creation. I hope to be wrong and see the formation of peace between the genders - to see the tensions die and a new world of equality

To be feminine is to be pretty, sexualized, and passive. “Marked Women” by Deborah Tannen, “Sexism in English: Embodiment and Language” by Alleen Nilsen, and “A Woman’s Beauty: Put Down or Power Source?” by Susan Sontag are three essays that show these negative connotations of femininity. Together, they exemplify that females are “marked” as pretty, sexualized, and passive.

Genders—a question so complicated that only recently have people in America acquired the intellectual capacity to ask it. Before the era of modern technology, people blindly assumed that there were only two genders. This notion has since been disproved by great philosophical thinkers such as Bruce and Caitlyn Jenner. A problem arises when there are not enough genders to distinctly express the individual quirks and fetishes of everyone.

Gender roles are ensuring that children grow up to be mediocre. Sexist stereotypes that were functional at one time are increasingly irrelevant, causing young adults to form a safe haven from the real world. Feminists today are relishing in the results of their predecessors rather than continuing the fight. Combining the recent phenomenon of “Guyland” with failing to keep momentum in feminism we’re setting up the next generation for struggle. It is in the interest of our society to continue to strive for gender equality.

Gender subjectivity is another important aspect of the debate around gender because it focuses on a move away from the idea of innate sexual identity characteristics that divide human beings into male and female (Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology, 2014). This type of view challenges the essentialism of sexual difference into something more then a binary between male vs. female, heterosexual vs. homosexual, etc., as it recognizes that these dichotomies are problematic because the term of gender encompasses a whole range of identities across a spectrum. In particular ideas like what does it mean to be equal? (Butler) and seeing division of gender into binary conceptions of identity can be seen as a process of ‘othering’ (de Beauvoir) are some of the areas that this topic examines.

While language alone is not the reason sexism is our society exists, it can be reflective of an individual’s innate sexist ideology as well as an entire society’s sexist perspective. The language one speaks is the language of their thoughts, so the way one uses a gendered term can be an embodiment of their thoughts. Some linguists argue that the language one grows up speaking, along with its underlying assumptions and connotations, limit the way one can perceive the world, which is innately sexist. If the neutral form of a word refers to men and a suffixed version, such as suffragette rather than suffragist, its subtle indication is that men come first, whereas women exist as secondary figures. So when children are taught to say “mankind” because it is what society uses or what their parents use, the child may subconsciously believe that “mankind” refers to men. It is difficult at first for a child to understand that “mankind” allegedly embraces women in the term, and while the child may soon understand that women are included, their initial understanding continues to exist on the basis that men shape a humanity that is also accompanied by women. This initial connotation shapes their innate perception of the role of a woman living in “mankind.” This is why a call for the explicit addressing of gender

Abiding by this form of hegemony is to perceive “sexism as the ultimate oppression,” thus dominating feminist critique with issues of the patriarchy and social differences between men and women (Thompson 2004: 545). This in turn fails to acknowledge the plethora of social and racial differences that exist between women alone, ultimately marginalizing the realities of those whose identities are shaped on the basis of additional constructs. However, amid review of this narrative, it is important to establish that the construction of gender is indeed an immensely influential aspect of women’s lives. As a process, system, and means of stratification, it is “built into the general social structure and individual identities deliberately and purposefully” (Lorber 1994: 62). Gender categories work to label women of Western society as the “different, deviant, and subordinate” ‘Not-A’s’ in an institution where the A’s- men- are perceived as normative and superior (Lorber 1994: 60). This results in a “devaluation of women” and the “social domination of men” which sustains the presence of gender inequalities within many cultures (Lorber 1994: 62). Yet, as gender studies scholar Judith Lorber writes, “gender is also

Sexism is taught to children at a young age by the reading of textbooks. Studies on history textbooks have shown that American textbooks “mention 8 white males for every one African American, women, Jew, one figure from other various minority groups” (Ferroni 2). Statistics like this show how textbooks lay the foundation for sexism in our society. Women and other minorities learning mainly about the white man in school affect their self-view majorily.