Response Paper #2
Gender binaries have created a system of oppression that forces all people into one of two strictly defined gender categories, man and woman. In “Dismantling Gender Polarization and Compulsory Heterosexuality: Should We Turn the Volume down or up?” a journal article from The Journal of Sex Research written by Sandra Lipsitz Bem, she discusses how society created a gender binary system where two and only categories of sex/gender/desire are recognized and the two categories have created a system of oppression where people who cross gender boundaries cannot exist. She shows that sex and gender is to blame for the way we treat other people and if society cannot see gender outside of the binary then society cannot change. In order …show more content…
“The very cultural and historical production is hidden, by an extraordinarily clever sleight of hand that cast the historical and cultural construction of the two-an-only-two into the realm of the pre-social, the pre-cultural, the pre-discursive”. (Lipsitz, 331) Society has a way of creating what is normal and it has hidden the possibilities that gender and sexuality is fluid throughout history. Lipsitz shows that society has created a historical world where people defined two-an-only-two categories of as being normal. She points out how society knew there was fluidity in gender and sexuality because in order “for there to be a system of exclusive and compulsory heterosexuality, two such bipolar groups had to come into existence”. (Lipsitz, 331) Society knowing that heterosexuality and homosexuality existed throughout history decided that “being male/masculine/attracted to women and being woman/feminine/attracted to men” (Lipsitz, 330) was the cultural way to live. Lipsitz wants society to understand that we are to blame for creating a system of power and privilege that only benefits the two-an-only-two categories. She wants people to understand that society should have questioned and impeded how history was created, so gender and sexuality could have been recognized as …show more content…
“People who might currently embrace the label queer in our society are seen as “dirt” ”. (Lipsitz, 321–322) Lipsitz points out how if people were to recognize themselves as queer they would be referred as dirt in our society because they do not belong with the standards of the classification of sex/gender/desire. Not belonging into the standard of classification will make apparent limitless categories of sex/gender/desire that people will see and question the current binaries. Lipsitz states that society has made the limitless categories of sex/gender/desire hide in the closet, so that no one stray away from what they have defined as normal. Lipsitz wants to show how the queer identity will be able to be more inclusive and make the possibilities of other identities come into existence. The queer identity will be able to include lesbian, gay, bi, trans, or questioning it will allow anyone from any identity to find a place. It will also those who do not fit into the classifications male, female, gay, bi, straight or what have you to find a place in society and not be marginalized anymore. She wants to show using a fluid label as opposed to using a concrete label (heterosexual or man/woman), will allow people to acknowledge that people are different and it encompass all genders/sexualities rather than only
Gender binaries have created a system of oppression that forces all people into one of two strictly defined gender categories, man and woman. In “Dismantling Gender Polarization and Compulsory Heterosexuality: Should We Turn the Volume down or up?” a journal article from The Journal of Sex Research written by Sandra Lipsitz Bem, she discusses how society created a gender binary system where two and only categories of sex/gender/desire are recognized and the two categories have created a system of oppression where people who cross gender boundaries cannot exist. She shows that sex and gender is to blame for the way we treat other people and if society cannot see gender outside of the binary then society cannot change. In order …show more content…
“The very cultural and historical production is hidden, by an extraordinarily clever sleight of hand that cast the historical and cultural construction of the two-an-only-two into the realm of the pre-social, the pre-cultural, the pre-discursive”. (Lipsitz, 331) Society has a way of creating what is normal and it has hidden the possibilities that gender and sexuality is fluid throughout history. Lipsitz shows that society has created a historical world where people defined two-an-only-two categories of as being normal. She points out how society knew there was fluidity in gender and sexuality because in order “for there to be a system of exclusive and compulsory heterosexuality, two such bipolar groups had to come into existence”. (Lipsitz, 331) Society knowing that heterosexuality and homosexuality existed throughout history decided that “being male/masculine/attracted to women and being woman/feminine/attracted to men” (Lipsitz, 330) was the cultural way to live. Lipsitz wants society to understand that we are to blame for creating a system of power and privilege that only benefits the two-an-only-two categories. She wants people to understand that society should have questioned and impeded how history was created, so gender and sexuality could have been recognized as …show more content…
“People who might currently embrace the label queer in our society are seen as “dirt” ”. (Lipsitz, 321–322) Lipsitz points out how if people were to recognize themselves as queer they would be referred as dirt in our society because they do not belong with the standards of the classification of sex/gender/desire. Not belonging into the standard of classification will make apparent limitless categories of sex/gender/desire that people will see and question the current binaries. Lipsitz states that society has made the limitless categories of sex/gender/desire hide in the closet, so that no one stray away from what they have defined as normal. Lipsitz wants to show how the queer identity will be able to be more inclusive and make the possibilities of other identities come into existence. The queer identity will be able to include lesbian, gay, bi, trans, or questioning it will allow anyone from any identity to find a place. It will also those who do not fit into the classifications male, female, gay, bi, straight or what have you to find a place in society and not be marginalized anymore. She wants to show using a fluid label as opposed to using a concrete label (heterosexual or man/woman), will allow people to acknowledge that people are different and it encompass all genders/sexualities rather than only