Difference between revisions of "Gender essentialism"
(Created page with "<hide> page type::article thing type::concept category:concepts </hide> ==About== Gender essentialism starts with the mistaken belief that gender is a fund...") |
|||
| Line 5: | Line 5: | ||
</hide> | </hide> | ||
==About== | ==About== | ||
| − | [[Gender essentialism]] starts with the mistaken belief that [[gender]] is a fundamental attribute of human beings | + | [[Gender essentialism]] starts with the mistaken belief that [[gender]] is a fundamental and immutable attribute of human beings, and proceeds to draw from this (combined with largely anecdotal observations about human behavior within the observer's culture) a number of conclusions about the nature of "femininity" and sometimes "masculinity". |
| + | |||
| + | These conclusions are in many ways deeply embedded in Western culture, due largely to their utility (from an [[authoritarian]] perspective) in controlling and limiting the range of culturally-acceptable actions and in maintaining a [[patriarchal]] system in which men have power over women. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Among these are the belief that there are exactly two genders (male and female), and that the condition of being male or female carries with it a certain number of immutable characteristics. [[Gender fundamentalism]] (a view held by many [[social conservative]]s) additionally holds that individuals have a [[social obligation]] to carry out [[cultural role]]s which have been assigned to their gender. | ||
| + | |||
{{seed}} | {{seed}} | ||
| + | ==Terminology== | ||
| + | Gender essentialism is sometimes erroneously referred to as "[[biological essentialism]]", a related but distinct concept. | ||
==Links== | ==Links== | ||
===Reference=== | ===Reference=== | ||
* {{wikipedia}} | * {{wikipedia}} | ||
* {{!in|rationalwiki}}: no information as of 2017-08-23 | * {{!in|rationalwiki}}: no information as of 2017-08-23 | ||
Revision as of 13:39, 23 August 2017
About
Gender essentialism starts with the mistaken belief that gender is a fundamental and immutable attribute of human beings, and proceeds to draw from this (combined with largely anecdotal observations about human behavior within the observer's culture) a number of conclusions about the nature of "femininity" and sometimes "masculinity".
These conclusions are in many ways deeply embedded in Western culture, due largely to their utility (from an authoritarian perspective) in controlling and limiting the range of culturally-acceptable actions and in maintaining a patriarchal system in which men have power over women.
Among these are the belief that there are exactly two genders (male and female), and that the condition of being male or female carries with it a certain number of immutable characteristics. Gender fundamentalism (a view held by many social conservatives) additionally holds that individuals have a social obligation to carry out cultural roles which have been assigned to their gender.
|
This page is a seed article. You can help Issuepedia water it: make a request to expand a given page and/or donate to help give us more writing-hours!
|
Terminology
Gender essentialism is sometimes erroneously referred to as "biological essentialism", a related but distinct concept.
Links
Reference
- Wikipedia
RationalWiki: no information as of 2017-08-23