In chapter 1 "Night to his day" of the book “Paradoxes of Gender” by Judith Lorber I could recall how she emphasizes how society determines gender. According to her research, societies from the past had recognized only 2 types of genders, male and female, but with time now society recognizes 4 types of genders, male, female, transsexual and transvestite. These last 2 new genders are actually created not by nature, but by society. Transsexuals change their sex using surgery to be recognized by society as the opposite gender and transvestites only change their clothing to look like the opposite gender. The author also recalled a story where she confused a baby girl for a baby boy just for the fact of her clothing, but later on realized because of the earrings, that the baby actually was a girl. To her story, she asked herself “Why the earrings?” and to answer her question, I could say that for personal experience earrings look better on baby girls than baby boys. My daughter got her ears pierced when she was 2 months old and I did it to make her look cute and “girly” and I was tired of people confusing her for a baby boy.
The author said “The process of gendering and its outcome are legitimated by religion, law, science and society’s entire set of values” and then she explained about western culture. I have a connection to point out between her saying and the western culture; in my last deployment to Afghanistan I observed a rare cultural way to express the power of society and religion over gender and sexuality. “According to an unclassified study from a military research unit in southern Afghanistan details how homosexual behavior is unusually common among men in the large ethnic group known as Pashtuns — though they seem to be in complete denial about it. Pashtun men commonly have sex with other men, admire other men physically, have sexual relationships with boys— yet they completely reject the label of “homosexual.” By Fox News. I personally saw how Afghan soldier and civilians were kissing each other, walking holding hands and touched each other in a homosexual manner. I asked a Afghan Pashtun, my interpreter in Afghanistan, why men were having sex with other men, Is not that against your religion? He said that “is a social mentality that men satisfy their sexual necessities with other man because women are USE only to procreate and not to involve with them in an emotional relation”. “To our God, the action between men (having sex) is known as bounding, not homosexual, that “gender-label” does not exist in our religion or social point of view”. It could be view that genders varies between cultures, religions and laws. To my anecdote, I could link Lorber’s saying “morals and religions cannot be equated with the fears of ecstasies of the brain”. Anne Fausto-Sterling “How to build a man” and Judith Lorber “Night to his day” emphasized with researches that sex and gender are actually create by our social predomination of life.
While Lorber mentions the acceptance of the third gender in other cultures, she notes that in Western societies other than male and female, no other genders are recognized though they do exist. Can you clarify what you mean by "now society recognizes 4 types of genders, male, female, transsexual and transvestite. These last 2 new genders are actually created not by nature, but by society"? Aren't all genders, according to Lorber, constructed by society? The absence of the homosexual label, which you discuss in connection to Afghan Pashtun men is wonderful, do bring this up in class. The same was true in the West before 19th century, as only then the term homosexual came into use.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how the last sentence relates overall to your post,as you don't really discuss sex?
Male,Female,Transsexuals and Transvetites, even though these las 2 are not a gender classified by science books,are a gender well know by society.It is accepted it because there is not a law phohibiting such sexual behavior; Society accepted it as the other choice besides male or female. Gender is different than masculinity or feminine. A individual that was born with a penis is call male and a individual that was born with a vagina is call female Both individuals were born with this gender, but Transsexual and Transvetites were made by society given them those labels in attempt to orginized the intitude of sex/gender. The last sentence I was trying to explain how both authors emphasized their researches in one conclusion " Sexual behavior and gender is build by our society"
ReplyDeleteI agree that the society has it this way, meaning that in the 21st century the world makes it okay for man to be wit man and woman to be with woman. People define this action as a mind set and that is something that we cant help. I believe that as a child that while growing up children do not know what the two add on genders are untill it is expose to them. So if parents put a stop to this and not allow there children to believe these action are okay
ReplyDeleteI'm having trouble following your comment, Sandro as you use gender and sexuality interchangably. Genitalia does not determine gender; it is used as proof of sex.
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