Gender and Sexuality - Essay Example

Gender and Sexuality Introduction Dis s of gender and sexuality often weave in multiple disciplines by defining relationships between men and women in ways that are incorporate biological, social, and psychological categories (Beasley 145). In the conventional sense, matters of gender and sexuality evoke the notions of power relationships between men and women. Such conventional perspectives on the discourses of gender focused on the presumed physiologically differences that distinguished man from women (Disch 121). In some cases, the discourses focused on the struggle between patriarchal forces and the forces of feminist responses. Thesis Although gender and sexuality tend to define categories and identities within some cultural frames of references, these discourses often get disrupted by other forces such as class, and race, which eventually determine the manner in which they are represented at individual level, group, societal and national levels. Roadmap This paper will focus on some readings and films with the objective of determining the manner in which they represent the subject of gender and sexuality. The major topics will revolve around gender, race, and class. Gender Vast amounts of literature and films explore the dynamics and challenges that are anchored on the discourses of gender and sexuality. These films and readings cover some of the dominant themes within this discourse including power, subjugation, tribulation, emancipation, cultural factors, and empowerment. Many convergent themes on the matter continue to attend to the matter including the possibility of creating structures that would redeem the oppressed gender from the systematic structural disadvantages that make it difficult for them to gain any meaningful progress within the discourse human development. Radical approaches on both feminism and patriarchy have often been attributed to the rise of gay, lesbianism, homoeroticism, bisexuals, heterosexuals, and other categories that cut across both men and women. As such, the line of demarcation has been erased to an extent that multiple possibilities could exist within the same individual. However, gender, race, and class remain the most dominant discourses that determine the gender and sexuality. Charlotte Perkin Gilman’s short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, explores the psychological tensions and damage that result from the systematic and structural oppression from the patriarchal system. The narrator is a woman who struggles from a mental condition in a house in which her husband confines her. She observes a strange and disturbing pattern of an oppressed woman in the wallpaper. Retaining her in the house symbolizes some aspect of triumph by the patriarchal forces by retaining her to her domestic role within the expectations of the custom on gender roles. The narrator’s final act of tearing down the wallpaper symbolizes an act of defiance against the gender design that subjugates women and imprisons them within the domestic space. Gilman’s short story is comparable in theme to the film Rabbit- Proof Fence directed by Philip Noyce. The film focusses on the plight of three aboriginal girls attempt to escape from the stifling conditions imposed onto them by the captors and tormentors who want to exploit them for some higher goals of social transformation. In this film, the three young girls are not defined in any terms larger than their sexuality and gender. Their captors intend to train them to be future house helps for the white people. They also hope that the girls would eventually get married to the white community in order to erase rid the aboriginal community of the “impure” elements. The struggle of the three girls to redeem themselves from the retrogressive social roles imposed on them underlines a deep-seated gender division that actively violates the rights and liberties of the female gender for their own private gains. Race The subjugation of women becomes even more complicated when perceived from the perspective of race. African American women have endured double jeopardy on account of their identity as women, and black at the same time. Maya Angelou in her poem, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, explores the question of gender discrimination and the problematic aspects of sexuality from the perspective of an African American woman with the experience of the stifling conditions of the oppressive society. Nevertheless, she holds out hope for the possibility of redemption at some point in history. Her writings serve to elaborate the difficulties that the black women have to endure because of their gender and sexuality within a racially segregated society. Gender is often defined in terms of the social roles that societies assign to men and women. Social roles evolve out of cultures, traditions, mores, values, and other accustomed practices adopted and enshrined in the conscious, and the subconscious minds of people in ways that define their world view. The culture of a people often provides a frame of reference that determines the manner in which the people project their views on matters the regard the roles of men and women. The common trend often involves the deliberate development of power hierarchies that assign men roles that are more prominent while women remain in the less important positions so that their value remains significantly subordinate to the roles of men within the society. Class Matters of class have always tied in with issues of gender and sexuality (Beasley 55). It would be appropriate to consider some of the factors that relate to gender as an indication of the tensions that exist between the classes. Generally, classes often tend to increase the levels of inequality across the gender divide. In other cases, people at the higher levels of classes will tend to unite in discrimination against the same gender as expressed from others of a relatively lower level of class. It is important to consider the various factors that determine the difference between classes within the perspective of the hierarchies that distinguish between one gender and another. It would appear that matters of gender often get blurred across the supposed distinctions when confronted by the realities of class. For instance, higher classes will tend to ignore gender differences and form a kind of unity that distinguishes their particular class as the single unifying factor. Whenever this happens, it becomes important to consider the degree to which gender and sexuality transform into issues of class and the manner in which the same issues determine social identities, and gender roles within the society. Class will often triumph over the cultural structures that impose gender roles (Beasley 61). This is because power that emanates from the classes often overshadows the power that rests within socially constructed gender roles. Classes will often create their own private worlds set within the larger cultural world and surviving out of some autonomous laws that shield them from the requirements of gender and sexuality. Works Cited Angelou, Maya. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. And Still I Rise. New York: Random House Publishing Group, 2011. Beasley, Chris. Gender and Sexuality: Critical Theories, Critical Thinkers. London: SAGE, 2005. Gilman, Charlotte, P. The Yellow Wallpaper. New York: MobileReference, 2009. Noyce, Philip. (Dir). Rabbit-Proof Fence. 2002. (Film). Disch, Estelle (ed.). Reconstructing Gender: A Multicultural Anthology. New York: McGraw Hill, 2009. Read More