Dichotomous Thinking:
January 12, 2007 |
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Gender is so fundamental to society that we take many beliefs about it
for granted. Much of what we call "common sense" is an elaborate
social construction, and we begin this course with a general
discussion of how such construction is accomplished. We begin with
biology - while gender is commonly presented as a simple outcome of
biology, it is actually an ideological construction that builds on
biology. Even the division of the animal kingdom
into male and female is an interpretation of biology rather than a
scientific truth. And this interpretation emerges from, and supports,
the fact that the categories of male and female are fundamental to
our culture's gender order. But inasmuch the male-female dichotomy is
a product of
ideology, it needs to be the object - not the starting point -
of research. |