Gender Hierarchy even at Conception

The article “The Importance of Feminist Critique for Contemporary Cell Biology” was quite an eye opener and very comical at times. It only makes since that the miracle that is conception has for years been a scientific debate determined to create a hierarchy between the sexes. The determination of some biologists to devalue the role of the women during conception is relentless and disturbing. The most upsetting aspect touched upon in the article was the stubbornness of many biologists to accept or even entertain the idea that the egg is not as passive as originally perceived. This hypothesis that a woman’s egg is “inactive” correlates with the idea of the ideal woman of the 19th century. The perfect and most desirable woman during this time was one that was dependent and passive. It pleases me to read of articles like “The Energetic Egg” that cast the woman’s egg as a main character rather than an extra.

The article was indeed comical as it shared various “sperm tales”. At times the sperm was the hero “struggling against the hostile uterus” (3) and other times the sperm was prince charming conquering the task of “awakening the slumbering” (5). All laughing aside, these stories all contribute to the gender roles currently corrupting our society. The patriarchal system we live in today refuses, even when discussing conception, to believe that a partnership, like British socialist C.H. Waddington, between egg and sperm is possible. The idea that the egg allows the sperm to enter the egg is overlooked. The idea that without the help of the egg’s secretions, the sperm would meet the same fate as the other 99+million sperm is disregarded. The fact that some biologists aren’t even willing to consider the possibility that the egg is vital and active, although backed up by research, says a lot about the society we live in.