Is Female To Male And Culture Sherry Ortner's Article: Article Analysis

In the article, Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture Sherry Ortner developed a theory that outlines and explains the male and female binary. Ortner argued to be a women is to be, in varying degrees, inferior to men and that this is dichotomy is represented in all cultures. This claim is supported by three categories of evidence, the first being the explicit devaluation of women — that the roles that have been conditioned to fulfil are second to the male’s role. The second aspect are the symbolic differences — such as the socially constructed idea of purity required for women to remain respected, which is a concept that is never lorded over a male’s head. The third condition are the social roles that women must abide to that prevent us …show more content…
As part of fourth- wave feminism women have worked together to become more comfortable in speaking about when men have wronged them. Harvey Weinstein was an extremely powerful man in Hollywood who used his clout to prey on women. Since the scandal broke more than seventy-four public figures have too faced allegations of abuse in power through sexual assault or misconduct (Chan, 2017, para. 5). In less than three months there has been a lot of changed Hollywood due males facing consequences for their actions towards women. Some raise the question, are these men being fired because their employers do not want to deal with the public relations nightmare that continuing to employ them would cause, because it is hard to believe they did previously not know of the disgusting behaviour of these men. Others comment that they do not mind it them men are fired because the company cares or not, as it sends a message regardless, that it is unacceptable for a man to think a women owes him …show more content…
That the male’s role is always more important and they must dominate. Women face misogyny each day from both men and from each other, because the gender binary is so ingrained in our collective societies. Ortner came to this belief throughout the work of Simone de Beauvoir who once wrote, “the female is more enslaved to the species than the male, her animality is more manifest” (De Beauviour in Ortner, 1972, p. 13). The female is too busy procreating so the male, who is not bound by procreating in that way is free to create tangible cultural advancements and hold positions of power that perpetuate the notion that they are superior to females. Despite the mother being the one who carries, nurtures and teaches the child to be a functioning member of their society (Ortner, 1974, p. 14-19). The nurturing mother is low on the cultural and societal framework and is never seen as a distinct entity in her own right. Her body is used foremost to nurture her