Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Disrupting Gender Roles
"Race, Class, Gender, and Women's Works: A Conceptual Framework," addresses the division of labor according to race, class, and gender. For this particular comment, I will discuss the division of labor according to gender specifically. According to the article: "Anthropologists have found that most societies, across historical periods, have tended to assign females to infant care and to the duties associated with raising children because of their biological ability to bear children" (14). However, does the sudden advent of "pregnant men" (Lee Mingwei, Thomas Beatie) affect the division of labor. Although these men did not naturally conceive, because they are currently bearing children in their wombs, will they be assigned the duties associated with raising children. Or, will their natural "manhood" absolve them of that assignment? I introduce these examples to suggest that, as technology advances, and different movements continue to grow, for how much longer will we (as a society) be able to draw clear lines and create definitive categories? Are we reaching a point where we must de-construct all the previous categories because they are not representative of the current world?
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3 comments:
I really appreciate this blog and how you related the reading to something in the media. There has been sooo much discussion about Thomas Beatie and you posed a very interesting question about the gender roles in that specific situation.
As difficult as it may be to come to terms with his situation I think Thomas is attempting to break down gender constructs in his own way. Obviously he wanted to be a male which is why he went through numerous surgeries, but he seems to want to assume the traditional "mother" role even though he is the father.
It bothers me to know that being a man is an excuse to not be in a childs life. The mother and father share the same responsibilies, they should both be providing for the child in the best ways they can, and those ways should not be limited or confined because of a difference in genitalia. To answer the question posed in the blog, I think we are at a point in society where we must deconstruct categories, because it is these false categories that are making a way for more and more children to be brought in this world at a disadvantage.
One of my professors sent me a link to the episode of the Oprah's show where she featured the pregnant man and his wife. I wondered to myself would this man breast feed his child, would he be the primary caregiver, the one that takes off of work the first couple of months to take care of the baby or would those responsibilities fall on his wife. Its an interesting situation because even though he is a man he was born biologically female, so does that mean that he still has maternal instincts? Or because this is a "modern" couple, I wonder would they split the caregiver duties. Also are we going to see a trend in "pregnant men"?
you made good points. well hopefully, considering the relationship that these couples have they won't try to adhere to gender roles in their own homes. however, I see it happening anyway for the simple fact that these women decided to become men and they did so by acting out the male gender so obviously they don't have a problem with it. how come they couldn't just be transgender and remain the way they were born? why did they have to act out their gender in order to be transgender? i guess i can answer that myself, they are also investing in the performance of gender
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