philosophy of gender and sexuality

PHIL 2250 - Philosophy of Gender and Sexuality
with Professor Michael Gilbert
Fall, 2003

Take Home Final Exam

1. There is a perceived connection in our society between what is perverse and what is immoral. The idea seems to be that if something is unnatural, it is perverse and something that is perverse is immoral. Ruse wishes to question this is the article, “The Morality of Homosexuality”.

The idea of what is natural can be traced back to Ancient Greece. Plato argued that all males were heterosexual, so homosexuality was not normal. Levin, like Plato had a similar argument, saying that homosexuality is a unnatural use of parts. These arguments sound as if they are trying to be empirical, but to no avail.

None the less, this idea is still prevalent today in our society.

Our first step would be to define what natural is. In one sense, anything we do is natural. If we wear clothes it is just as natural as if we didn’t wear clothes because we are doing it. When someone says homosexuality is unnatural, they are usually saying that homosexuality cannot be found in nature, but I haven’t seen any gorillas building cars or skyscrapers either. In that sense, everything we do for entertainment is unnatural. But is it also true that homosexuality cannot be found in nature? I have two girl dogs and one of them appears to get great pleasure from chasing and mounting the other. Female dolphins are said to habitually stimulate each other, using their noses for penetration. This behavior is cast aside and labeled dominance dances.

Drawing further from this, what makes something that is unnatural immoral? There doesn’t seem to be any connection. We don’t deem movies theatres or universities immoral. We value them for their benefits and see them as triumphs of our time (maybe not as much the movie theatres).

Unnatural or perverted sex is something that goes against our personal natures or something that we could not even perceive of doing. Gilbert gave the example of watching other people defecate. We can imagine what it would be like to have homosexual sex because it is very similar to heterosexual sex. Something that is perverted is something we couldn’t conceive ourselves doing.

Even if something is perverted, is it immoral? There is no necessary connection between what is perverse and what is immoral. Not every act that is immoral is also perverse. Stealing someone’s car is immoral, but it is not an act of perversion. Also, not all acts that are perverted are immoral. Gilbert gave the example in lecture of smelling old shoes. There is nothing immoral about taking a sniff of a sneaker, but many would not like to imagine themselves doing it.

Perversion is a value judgment, when it shouldn’t be. It would depend on an individual preference whether homosexuality is perverted or not. It would depend on whether the person could conceive of doing it. Even if the majority thought that homosexual sex is perverted, they would have no right to impose a value judgment of immorality on homosexuals.

3. Science plays a very important role in the way we understand the world, but it also has a great affect on the biases we keep. Many of the authors we have come across in this course have focused on issues like Biodeterminism and sociobiology in a way to explain the socially constructed situation we are in today.

Vance explains in her essay how the practice of Biodeterminism supports role differentiation. Biodeterminism is the idea that our character and behavior can be reduced to physical causes and can be predictable and determined. In this practice lie many hidden assumptions that come from the physical differentiations. For example, males are assumed to be naturally stronger than females, not because they are encouraged to play more sports and exercise, but that it is an innate quality of maleness.

Sex is something that is established through physical and biological issues like hormones, chromosomes or genitalia. It is also assumed that sex causes gender and that there is a biological sex drive which tends to be stronger in males. This system also uses reproduction as a sole purpose for a ‘sex drive’.

Schiffelite points out that Biodeterminism is often used on historically deprived groups like women or minority races. They are seen to have determined characteristics and we attach a moral value to them. Biodeterminism claims accentuate the differences between sexes and races and then reify them.

Biodeterminism makes claims about human nature and from this stems the idea of male natures and female natures. Men are seen to be more aggressive and women more nurturing. Men are more rational and women, emotional. It would be more natural under these assumptions for men to be in control and women should be taken care of by men.

Schiffelite also talks about sociobiology which is termed the new Biodeterminism. Sociobiology focuses on genetics, which has more scientific grounding. It uses language of predispositions and tendencies. A certain gene would have the parental of making a person act in such a way.

Lorber explores sociology research and the assumptions embedded in the field. The assumption is that ach person has one sex, one gender and one sexuality that are congruent with each other and fixed for life. Sociologists built categories according to this model and normality is limited to those categories. Categories can be very helpful in aiding research, but go unquestioned. Intersexed children blur the boundaries of these categories and must be classified as a boy or girl immediately.

The problem here is that it is not science that is backing the categories; it is the categories supporting the science. When this happens, you ignore any variations that might emerge and label them with a negative connotation. Science must look at the subject instead of trying to fit them into a slot.

Fausto-Sterling says that the belief in innate abilities leads us to believe that the system we have is fair and just. Science is never apolitical and all have hidden assumptions. Feminist science is an emerging field that focuses on context and subject. It rejects the idea that social contexts should be ignored and physical characteristics be the main cause of our behavior. The model of Biodeterminism and sociobiology is over simplistic.

Models are used to make things simpler for us to understand, but the map is often forgotten for the territory. Models are myths – stories that we find helpful.

There are physical differences in men and women, like menopause and lactation, but this does not cause differences in mathematic or verbal skills. Exercise stimulates growth hormones, so if boys are encouraged to be more active than girls, which is often the case, they will grow larger.

Sociobiology and similar disciplines focus on very small differences and then attach a value to them. Even if there are innate differences, it is turned into a hierarchical system, but most importantly the complexity of the relationship between the physical and the environmental as well as the complexity of our human genome cannot be reduced to the state it is in.

4. Socialization plays a very important role in the way we define gender. Many of the philosophers we have discussed apply this idea to transexuality. It is possible, using many outlets in our society, for a person to join or convert to a gender, much like the way we join a religion.

Zimmerman argues that gender is an achieved social status, one that we attempt to portray to other members of society. It is a routine and recurring accomplishment that we affirm by the way we act in social arrangements. Goffman claims that gender is what we would like to portray to people about our sexual natures.

You are not born a gender, but at birth, you are placed into a sex class based upon your biological sex. From that point you are named, clothed, held and treated differently from a member of the other sex class, so it is very difficult to discern just how much of this is natural and how much of it is socialized. We assume, like Wittig suggests, that we always assume that the class of men and women exist as a natural separation and that it is a natural division.

Wittig quotes Simone De Beauvoir, saying that one is not born, but becomes a woman. It reminds me about the idea of a bar or bat mitzvah. At a certain age, when one becomes a man or a woman, they enter into society and are expected to act in certain ways. The woman might begin to wear makeup and dress more sparingly where the man will be expected to refrain from hugging his mother in public or crying when he gets hurt.

Gilbert draws the connection in his essay, “A Sometimes Woman”, that if the models are socially constructed, sex differences are contingent. If they are contingent, they can be changed. Socialization can be a very public production. All genders have access to media like women’s magazines, advertisements and television. It is not something that you must seek, it is unavoidable. The image of ideal man and ideal women are projected on billboards and commercials. Socialization also can be very private, like at slumber parties and locker rooms, but the learning experience can be hard for any gender, even if it the ascribed one.

Socialization involves women learning what matches, how to hold babies and how to cook. Males are socialized to be rough and tough, but also courteous and helpful. They learn about competition, power and hierarchies.

The implication of this is that you can change genders like a religion. It might take a great deal of study and deliberation as well as faith, but eventually a transition will occur. You might have a ceremonious arrival. You might or might not have the support of your family. You enter into a new community and you might wear different clothes.

What is also important is that you send out different signals. You can act in a different way in order to “pass” as the appropriate gender or to send signals that are based on societal conventions.

5. This question relates very much to the one above in the sense that gender is based on a judgment system. Gender is a recurring activity that we all participate in. There emerges the idea of an ideal man and an ideal woman and one can be accused of not living up to the gender role.

There are many ways this accusation can come about. It is possible that you are not following the conventional gestures used in a society to convey what is masculine and what is feminine. These gestures include secondary and tertiary sex characteristics.

Secondary sex characteristics include clothing, hairstyle and makeup. Tertiary sex characteristics are focused on body posture, speech and tone of voice etc. Males are expected to appear more imposing and aggressive, where as women are supposed to wear dresses and makeup and take great lengths to look perfect.

I know personally, I have been accused of not being a real woman because I do not wear makeup or dresses, but the fact that I have long hair and occasionally wear pink, I have not been accused very often. My boyfriend on the other hand was often mistaken for a girl (or assumed to be homosexual) because he wore nail polish and had long hair.

Wittig presents an ipso facto argument that says if someone can fail at being a real man or woman, that category must be a socially constructed concept. The actual image of a real man or woman is very far-fetched. Only a slim and so called lucky minority fit the category.

Hale points out that when we use the word ‘real’ in this context, we do not mean that we are not in fact a man or a woman, but we are just not being a good man or woman. We are not displaying properly.

It is very possible to be accused of not being a woman, and when this is brought about, it is difficult to defend yourself. We don’t focus on primary characteristics like genitals, so it wouldn’t help to show others what is under your pants. In the case of women, a vagina is not essentially feminine, only “not masculine”. Because gender is a reciprocal relationship, it is based on the person who is judging you. The only thing you could do would be to act more appropriately to the constructed conventions.

Conformity does not seem to be a very good objective for our society, so I would hope that I would not have to defend myself if accused again. It was only a little while ago that it was taboo for a woman to wear a pair of jeans. This is similar to Wittig’s idea that we create meanings in objects. An object, like a vagina is not essentially feminine, we ascribe the characteristic to it because most females have vaginas. We ascribe the meanings to inanimate objects like clothes and makeup and then use them to display our preferred gender.