In our capitalistic world today individuals are not valued on their attributes or abilities but on which group of society they are placed in. These groups are categorized by race, wealth and religion but the most important classification is gender. Gender binaries and classifications are what determines the limitations that are placed upon a person. Gender binaries force people to conform to one category when it comes to sex and sexuality or even basic characteristic traits. Gender roles and binaries limit women to the archetypes of the caring mother and the damsel in distress. These archetypes create boundaries for a women’s success in society and allows the the society to stereotype all women to one role. In a patriarchal society dominated
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Justifying essentialistic views was much easier before the women’s rights movement and before feminist groups called for society to end discrimination and stereotypical classifications. Social construction theory on the other hand challenges the one dimensional portrayal of men and women in society and explores the history of sexual identity to further understand gender differences. The contrast between the behavioural traits of men and women stems from socially constructed gender binaries that stereotype relationships and societal interactions. Social construction challenges our traditional scientific view of gender and sex binaries that classifies sexuality as inherent and based on the biology of a person (Vance, …show more content…
Religion, race and wealth all contribute to the gender binary oppression of women in all walks of life. For example for a long time slavery was a big concern of feminists who fought for the equality of women of colour but it was not a big concern for white women who called themselves women’s rights activists. The logic of slavery created a racial hierarchy in the issues of women’s rights which resulted in the application of white supremacy to the language of feminism which placed coloured women in a lower status (Smith, 2006). Racial hierarchy and white supremacy in feminism fails to include elements of intersectionality. Intersectionality explains the differences in the practice of oppression and its influential factors around the world like race, religion and wealth (Aulette, Judy, Wittner, Judith, Blakely, Kristen,
Justifying essentialistic views was much easier before the women’s rights movement and before feminist groups called for society to end discrimination and stereotypical classifications. Social construction theory on the other hand challenges the one dimensional portrayal of men and women in society and explores the history of sexual identity to further understand gender differences. The contrast between the behavioural traits of men and women stems from socially constructed gender binaries that stereotype relationships and societal interactions. Social construction challenges our traditional scientific view of gender and sex binaries that classifies sexuality as inherent and based on the biology of a person (Vance, …show more content…
Religion, race and wealth all contribute to the gender binary oppression of women in all walks of life. For example for a long time slavery was a big concern of feminists who fought for the equality of women of colour but it was not a big concern for white women who called themselves women’s rights activists. The logic of slavery created a racial hierarchy in the issues of women’s rights which resulted in the application of white supremacy to the language of feminism which placed coloured women in a lower status (Smith, 2006). Racial hierarchy and white supremacy in feminism fails to include elements of intersectionality. Intersectionality explains the differences in the practice of oppression and its influential factors around the world like race, religion and wealth (Aulette, Judy, Wittner, Judith, Blakely, Kristen,