Gender (and feminism)
Post-structuralism is said to reveal that the gender and sexuality binary system is socially constructed. Everything an individual does is connected to social norms: society teaches us how to behave which means specific behaviours are associated with specific genders. Social norms then contribute to wider power relations that are then presented in politics – a person will always react to the social norms that currently exist, either supporting them or being against them. It is stated by Monro that: “people internalise dominant ideologies and end up thinking that their own position in society is justified and that society is fair and equal.”[1] Post-structuralism in this context is presented by a competing set of ideas where subjectivity plays the main role – for example how social problematics of gender can differ from person to person. When gender identity starts to be understood as something that each individual can see differently, it is also necessary to consider intersectionality, which is one of the most important aspects of sociology. It creates subjective and individual views on social problems because each individual is affected by different aspects of one’s existence, such as social class, race, sexuality, gender, and other categories. This suggests that the way one individual experiences one thing does not mean that another experiences it the same way. [2] Personally, the question of gender is quite difficult for me. Monro rightly states that dominant ideologies, be it those that formed in a society naturally or those that were forced because of colonialism, suggest that we as people are defined by a set of rules and categories that are most widely accepted in their society. However, I have a problem with seeing how this affects me on an internal level. I am a woman because society recognizes me (and I present myself) as one, but what does it mean to do that? I have different experiences from men but I also have different experiences from other women and there is no one thing that would connect all of us. Not the mention non-binary and a gender people that bring a completely new view into this problematics. This brings me to a general conclusion that gender is so complex it cannot be understood as one specific thing, but rather as a spectrum.
[1] Monro, Surya. Gender Politics : Citizenship, Activism and Sexual Diversity, Pluto Press, 2005. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/stir/detail.action?docID=3386387.
[2] Cooper, Brittney. Intersectionality. Edited by Lisa Disch and Mary Hawkesworth. Oxford Handbooks Online. Oxford University Press, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199328581.013.20.