Philosophy and Gender

            Social construction on the subject of sex gender, womanhood, manhood, femininity and masculinity are fine when they’re used in limits and moderation.  First of all, what is social construction? My definition of social construction is when people/society create their understanding of how something should work. Womanhood is socially constructed. This social construction plays an important role in today’s world affecting every aspect of a woman's life such work, school and even personal life. For example, we all know women are for giving children birth and knowing how to cook, and men are for going out to work to earn a daily living to take care of the family, and be the protector of the family. This is in moderation because as a society and as individuals we can accept that these are our natural human roles as assigned by nature. But it gets out of hand and becomes over the top when a construct thesis starts to imply that women only have...

After reading parts of Julia Serano's book Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity I understand the point she is trying to make is being trangender has nothing to do with sexual desire or social gender.  Julia never “felt like a woman” before her transition.  Her gender identity always felt more like a puzzle that she had to put together on her own, and she was unsure of the final picture.  For her, being trans had little to do with sexual desire or social gender.  It was mainly about the physical experience of being in her own body.  As she transitioned Julia completely avoided the word “woman” because it seemed too associated with other people’s expectations.  Julia identified as female.  There was a dramatic point during her transition, when suddenly everyone spoke, and interacted, with her as female.  This transition challenged everything she used to believe about gender.  Julia realized how small ...

While reading Asta's book, Categories We Live By: The Construction of Sex, Gender, Race and Other Social Categories, It was difficult to understand Asta’s point. The vocabulary was very challenging. I had to re-read it a couple times to understand it. From what I understand the argument Asta is trying to make is that she is in favor of new social categories. While other people want to maintain the pre-existing categories. This results in a conflict between those in favor of new social categories and those who prefer not to change. This causes those in favor of new social categories to feel oppressed. Asta also encourages us to consider the interconnections between appearance and reality.  One thing that really stood out to me in Chapter 2 of Social Construction as Social Significance was the example Asta used to describe  “unintentional communal consequence” and “intentional consequence”. I actually never thought of that. This really made me look at this concept of social cons...

                    In Paula Stone’s Ted Talk "I've lived as a man and a woman. It made me realize and put my foot in the shoes of the individuals who go through this journey and how many rejections they face in their everyday lives. When she talked about the different experiences she experienced as both male and female it was very eye opening to see the gender inequality. Listening to Paula's talk encourages me even more to continue to treat everyone whether a friend or stranger the same regardless of who they may be. After reading the article on The Report of the 2015 U.S Transgender Survery Excutive Summary I was extremely  surprised to see the statics of how many individual experience harassment. It's very heartbreaking to see that we live in a world like this. In a world where every parent wants to make sure their children are safe and sound, in a world where we go to jobs, offices and schools all this happens so freq...