In this post, I will be summarizing a segment of the first chapter from the An Introduction to Feminist Philosophy by Alison Stone.
The distinction between the terms sex and gender was first drawn in the 1960s. Before we get to the feminist criticism to the distinction, it would be useful to define them.
In Stone’s chapter, sex is connected to the biological construction of a person. Therefore, the features of a person’s body will likely determine their sex as male or female. Gender, on the other hand, takes social factors into account. Assumptions are made about individuals based on their behavior. In Stone’s example, males prefer confrontation, but females tend to prevent it. Besides this generalization, the individual personality is part of the definition as well. While males are expected to engage in confrontation, they also “relish” this interaction. Females supposedly avoid it altogether but if they do happen to be involved, they enjoy it less than men.
With these definitions in mind, a person’s behavior allows us to determine whether they are male or female. If their actions align with female social expectations, then they are feminine; masculine in the case of male traits. Therefore, the idea of gender provides us with the differentiation between masculinity and femininity. In a social setting, a set of traits are deemed suitable for each sex. Males are expected to be masculine; females are predicted to be more feminine.
Psychologist Robert Stroller distinguished sex from gender in 1960s. Prior to that point, gender was only used in linguistics with grammar attributing words as masculine or feminine. Feminists Kate Millet and Ann Oakley caught onto Stroller’s distinctions because his definitions social expectations are always susceptible to change. Thus, they contested the idea that biological factors determined societal positions. For example, men filling up executive level jobs and women limited to lower level with the assumption that the latter cannot work function well due to menstruation. Biological functions leading to certain roles in a social setting is biological determinism.
Feminist thinkers criticized biological determinism and suggested that social positions were a direct result of the expectations imposed of them. Oakley proved that in different societies, cultural expectations are different. In some African societies, for example, men perform smaller tasks like cleaning or arts and craft. Females play a vital role in agriculture because they participate in intense labor. Since the roles are reversed in Western societies, it is implied that biology does not restrict individuals to positions. If that were the case, African communities would have the same expectations for men and women.
Oakley’s view has been met with the argument that while each society has different roles for each gender, men in all societies enjoy more benefits and the women are at a disadvantage. Therefore, patriarchy is embedded in various cultures. However, the presence of patriarchy does not negate the back that different rules exist for different genders in every culture. The degree of patriarchy also varies in different societal structures.
The feminists returned to Stroller’s work to present another argument. Stroller had shared about male transsexuals: individuals with male biology feminine traits, and identify as female. The contradiction between biological sex and the presumed gender proves that the two were independent of each other.
Millet further argued that gendered expectations are originate from the society itself. Social expectations have nothing to do with biology. In her example, she stated that boys exhibit aggression because the society encourages them to do so, not because they have male genitalia. Similarly, girls display lower signs of aggression because the societal expectations require them to conduct themselves in a certain manner. Consequently, biological determinism is a poor justification for the low positions reserved for the women in a society. Since the society sets the rules, they can change and in turn, improve the lives of all women.
The use of the terms sex and gender was championed by feminist thinkers but soon, they were used by people different ways. Gender and sex were used interchangeably, with gender replacing sex more frequently to avoid sexual innuendo. Female philosophers came to the realization that these terms were insufficient to understand the complex features and traits present differently in the lives of men and women. The lack of distinction between the terms might also suggest political problems. As a result, feminists advocated for a clearer differentiation between the terms and more detailed definitions. Some have suggested to ignore the differences between them and replace them with entirely new terms and ideas live. Some of those concepts include ‘sexual difference’ and ‘lived body’ which Stone discusses later in her book.
In conclusion, these are some of the criticisms of feminist thinkers and their stance about the distinctions. They had a much more nuanced understanding of gender and sex compared to what Stroller had first established.
