Gender- GENeral DERogation
Feminism is
a new trend mushrooming in various disciplines of life; to the populist eye it
looks like an endeavour to give the rightful place to the female populace, but
at an ulterior level, the feminist approach is actually helping all those
respective disciplines in opening up to their real potential. For e.g., philosophy
has been traditionally male oriented. The entire ancient and medieval periods
were dominated by male thinkers and hence it risks being one-sided in its
approach. Feminine gender carries a view of life that the masculine can never
approach and it’s imperative that philosophy should integrate the feminine
aspect so its spectrum widens like never before.
Now, what
exactly is feminism? It’s not as simple as just being the female sex. The
Female and her Feminineness are not really as tightly bonded as commonly
understood. There is an ontological and conceptual difference between them. The
female sex is just what the body is made of. It’s a direct result of her
genital organs. Biology dictates her sex and its significance is only in the
tick mark she makes in the various application forms she fills up. Sex is binary;
it can be either Male or Female. No human is sexless or hermaphrodite in nature
(maybe only in Ripley's museum). Feminism, on the other hand, is her gender,
and gender is a continuum between the two extremities of Male and Female
sexualities. It’s in gender talk, we refer to transgenders, crossdressers,
heterosexuals, transsexuals, etc.
In today's
world, after all the rigorous researches in Psychology, Cultural Anthropology
and Feminist Philosophy, it has come to light that a person's gender, though
being a primary facet of his/her identity, is actually not directly pinned down
to his sexuality alone. Gender inhabits a human being at various levels of his
existence. We label a baby as boy or girl as soon as it is born, but in
contrary for the few months of its life, the baby has no gender identity at
all. It is wholly ignorant of what is male or female. It is not even aware of
its own sexuality. As the years develop, it starts observing the world around
it as well as changes in its own body, and learns gender based realities. The
environment and culture has a lot of contribution in shaping the gender
identity of a human being. Gender is the sum total of feelings, thoughts, and
expressions in a human that puts the person at a point somewhere between the
two extreme sexualities, and probably never at one of the extremes.
To
generalize gender into either simply male or simply female is derogatory to its
meaning. Gender is more of a mindset than anything material.
We all have
masculine and feminine traits in us. Carl Jung had used the archetype
Anima-Animus for the same (Anima is the feminine aspect in a man, while Animus
is his counterpart in a woman). The degree varies from person to person,
creating an infinite number of possibilities in human personality.
I belong to
the male sex, but my gender is certainly far from it. My nature is on the shy
side, I can't break the ice with strangers very soon, I have moody phases all
the time, I am soft-spoken and extremely courteous and avoid confrontation at
all costs. I have, what many of my friends call, a "girly" character.
Now, in a totally frank evaluation I may be rated as belonging to the feminine
gender. At the same time, I have so many lady friends who are extremely
outgoing, brash, super confident and good decision takers - I classify them as
more masculine than a lot of the other men. The sexualities of these people had
nothing to do with their gender traits.
This is exactly where I feel
feminism, as a gender, has been kept out of the mainstream. It does not mean
ladies/women were sidelined. Queen Victoria ruled a major part of the world
centuries ago. All South Asian countries have had a lady as their head of state
by now, but these were ladies who fought with men and rose above a male
dominated society. They were probably more masculine than the average men of
their generation. Feminism probably didn't find a niche in their lives. It’s
time we take up the case of real and true feminism and give it the fillip
required to escalate it into the mainstream, where it can give the world a
truly balanced line of thought, as well as, a balanced way of life.
9 comments:
Hey Vikas....
Am not sure if i really got what you tried to post. But as per my understanding here is my view..
I want to question is there anything specifically written somewhere that certain characters are tagged feminist and masculine?
Apart from differentiating the male and female by their genital parts, We have grown with the perception that male symbolizes taking care of responsibilities, being courageous, takes decisions, family head, intelligent, blah bhah.. And female means being submissive, shy, soft, emotional, loving, caring, etc..
According to me there is nothing wrong in male or female having assorted characters of the above. It shouldnt evaluate what is the person actually is - Being a male behaving feminist or being a female behaving masculine.
Whatever characters or gentials we have, we all are still called human beings. We need to find out what are the characters and duties of a human being to differentiate good human being from bad. This balances life and self :)
i loved your writing
it was brilliant,straight forward and to the point
with every word and phrase i was constantly nodding as if i was listening you talk !!!
Radha - Your comment is more frank and probing than my post. Thanks for reading my opinions. Like I said, Masculinity and Feminism are two extreme qualities of a wide spectrum of traits in our world. Every person may be anywhere in this spectrum in his/her own unique way. When I say extremes, I dont mean they are opposites. They are both contrary as well as complementary with each other. By the Feminine trend, we mean that they the quality that wasn't heard so far should now be heard.
For eg, dominant and submissive are two extremities of the one aspect of personality. Traditionally, domination has been "considered" as masculine trait though you are free to not-label it that way, but when I say that feminism should be given a voice I just mean that even the submissive opinions should be given a hearing. All branches of our knowledge should now include both the masculine and feminist views and should become inclusive.
Dr.Mandeep ji,
Thanks a lot for your encouraging comment. Please feel free to read through my other posts and leave your frank opinions on it.
Best Wishes.
All the traits are actually accepted vikas and at the same time it is rejected too but all depends on situation one is caught up with.
Very interesting post n liked the way u differentiated the sex n the gender.. very interestingly brought out.. definitely is a conversation piece n am sure nt many ppl hv thought of things at this level of thought..
very very interesting work, V :)
Dear R-a-j, I am happy you found gender interesting. In sex, the whole world is interested anyways.. ha ha
I liked this post a lot. And you have structured it well. Brining out and accepting the feminist qualities of the Anima qualtiies. Well written and I do have some male qualities too. :) They call me a tom boy in my circles
Thanks Divenita. So with all your male qualities, you are part of one of the domineering powers of the society. :)
Post a Comment