In the introductory sentence of this article it reads, "Biology is seen not merely as a privileged oppressor of women but as a co-victim of masculinist social assumptions." When reading this quote I realized how masculinist assumptions reduce biology as a whole by focusing primarily on certain problems rather than others. Many inflictions upon women are the result of biology. Prior to reading this article I had never looked analytically at biology. I viewed biology as factual without question, but exploring feminist critique of biology opened my eyes to a bigger picture.
My understanding of fertilization before reading this article was very limited. To begin my definition of fertilization was not only the requirement that a sperm and egg fuse, but that not more than one sperm fuses with the egg. After reading this exploratory article I looked at fertilization as a fairytale story in which the sperm and egg interaction was similar to male and female relations. Fertilization, like biology was something that I didn't question I simply inherited. The cause of my understanding is similar to the banking concept introduced in ADW. Accepting topics and subjects such as fertilization and biology without questioning is unfulfilled. Theories affect individuals' understanding, therefore implementing feminist critique improves the understanding of topics.
Expanding on the quote presented above, I related this subject of biology as an oppressor and victim to hip-hop. Since biology is a theory about life it does affect the way people view life as a whole. Some can take it as fact or look at the subject from an analytical viewpoint. But at the end of the day a person believes what they choose and therefore become what they think. If we accept what biology tells us is truth without analyzing it, this will also occur in other facets of life. Hip-hop for example is a lot of times scrutinized for its oppression towards women. Not all hip-hop artists fall in this category but not all are safe either. There is a perception of what masculinty is and how it should be executed. This sometimes resorts in the oppression of women in music videos and lyrics. Biology is sometimes perceived with gender bias just like hip-hop but the only way these two can prevail is if we are anti-sexist in both industries. Theories of biology and hip-hop are constantly circulating but at the end of the day, it is the individual who makes the decision about their own self-worth. Eliminating gender biases on all playing fields will allow for different relationships between men and women to occur.
1 comment:
Why do we imagine that science is objective? Is it simply because it says it is?
How do we create anti-sexist hip hop or support it? What if they are anti-sexists but not anti-homophobic or not anti materialist? how do we negotiate these other isms that need to be addressed?
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