The cultural
forms and practices are also shaped not only by the structures of
a society but also by the subjectivities of
individual women and men as social actors...and the identities that
individuals adopt in order to define themselves are produced, at least in part,
from the cultural and social contexts in which we find ourselves and from which
we draw certain assumptions about 'human nature', 'individuality' and 'the
self'.
Humanist Idea of Self: a unique 'true' selfhood lies within the psyche of each individual and that each individual has the right to express and protect that uniqueness.
Essentialist vs. Non-essentialist
Biological Determinism vs. Social Constructivism
Gender
1.Trinh T. Minh-ha's Woman,
Native, Other: Writing, Postcoloniality, and Feminism.
Whether I accept it or not, the natures of I, i, you, s/he, We, we,
they, and wo/man constantly overlap. They all display a necessary ambivalence,
for the line dividing I and Not-I, us and them, or him and her is not (cannot)
always (be) as clear as we would like it to be. (p.90)
-To fix an “authentic” I is not as simple as it looks!
-Minh-ha's idea of "boundary"
2.Louis Althusser's idea of Ideology
For Althusser,
the subject is not the same as the individual. Subjectivity is a constructed category produced by ideology.
The category of
the subject is constitutive of all ideology, but at the same time the category
of the subject is only constitutive of all ideology.
3.Social Constructivism
Social
constructivism is the term used to describe approaches that reject essentialist
explanations of identity.
A social
constructivist perspective claims that gender identity is formed through
interaction with social factors, and is not simply
the result of biological differences.
Such an approach
does not deny biological differences, but attempts to understand and explain
them in terms of social context, rather than seeing individuals as limited and
bounded by their biology.
4.Sherry B. Ortner, "Is female to male as nature is to
culture?"
My thesis is that woman is being identified withsomething that every culture devalues, something that every culture defines as being
of a lower order of existence than itself. Now it seems that there is only one thing
that would fit that description, and that is “nature” in the most
generalized sense.
Every culture, or, generically, “culture,” is engaged in the process of generating and sustaining systems of
meaningful forms (symbols, artifacts, etc.) by means of which humanity
transcends the givens of natural existence, bends them to its purposes,
controls them in its interest.
Ultimately, it must be stressed again that the whole scheme is a construct of culture
rather than a fact of nature. Woman is not “in reality” any
closer to (or further from) nature than man – both have
consciousness, both are mortal.
The result is a (sadly) efficient feedback system: various
aspects of woman’s situation (physical, social, psychological) contribute to her
being seen as closer to nature, while the view of her as closer to nature is in
turn embodied in institutional forms that reproduce her situation...
Ultimately, both men and women can and must be equally involved in
projects of creativity and transcendence. Only then will women be seen as aligned with
culture, in culture’s ongoing dialectic with nature.
The cultural
forms and practices are also shaped not only by the structures of
a society but also by the subjectivities of
individual women and men as social actors...and the identities that
individuals adopt in order to define themselves are produced, at least in part,
from the cultural and social contexts in which we find ourselves and from which
we draw certain assumptions about 'human nature', 'individuality' and 'the
self'.
Humanist Idea of Self: a unique 'true' selfhood lies within the psyche of each individual and that each individual has the right to express and protect that uniqueness.
Essentialist vs. Non-essentialist
Biological Determinism vs. Social Constructivism
Gender
1.Trinh T. Minh-ha's Woman,
Native, Other: Writing, Postcoloniality, and Feminism.
Whether I accept it or not, the natures of I, i, you, s/he, We, we,
they, and wo/man constantly overlap. They all display a necessary ambivalence,
for the line dividing I and Not-I, us and them, or him and her is not (cannot)
always (be) as clear as we would like it to be. (p.90)
-To fix an “authentic” I is not as simple as it looks!
-Minh-ha's idea of "boundary"
2.Louis Althusser's idea of Ideology
For Althusser,
the subject is not the same as the individual. Subjectivity is a constructed category produced by ideology.
The category of
the subject is constitutive of all ideology, but at the same time the category
of the subject is only constitutive of all ideology.
3.Social Constructivism
Social
constructivism is the term used to describe approaches that reject essentialist
explanations of identity.
A social
constructivist perspective claims that gender identity is formed through
interaction with social factors, and is not simply
the result of biological differences.
Such an approach
does not deny biological differences, but attempts to understand and explain
them in terms of social context, rather than seeing individuals as limited and
bounded by their biology.
4.Sherry B. Ortner, "Is female to male as nature is to
culture?"
My thesis is that woman is being identified withsomething that every culture devalues, something that every culture defines as being
of a lower order of existence than itself. Now it seems that there is only one thing
that would fit that description, and that is “nature” in the most
generalized sense.
Every culture, or, generically, “culture,” is engaged in the process of generating and sustaining systems of
meaningful forms (symbols, artifacts, etc.) by means of which humanity
transcends the givens of natural existence, bends them to its purposes,
controls them in its interest.
Ultimately, it must be stressed again that the whole scheme is a construct of culture
rather than a fact of nature. Woman is not “in reality” any
closer to (or further from) nature than man – both have
consciousness, both are mortal.
The result is a (sadly) efficient feedback system: various
aspects of woman’s situation (physical, social, psychological) contribute to her
being seen as closer to nature, while the view of her as closer to nature is in
turn embodied in institutional forms that reproduce her situation...
Ultimately, both men and women can and must be equally involved in
projects of creativity and transcendence. Only then will women be seen as aligned with
culture, in culture’s ongoing dialectic with nature.
Related Bianries 
