On the other hand interpretivists do not agree with positivists. They argue that structured interviews produce a false picture of society because interviewers have little freedom to explain or clarify misunderstandings and any questions. Also feminists disagree with positivists because they are that the relationship between the interviewer and interviewee reflect the exploitive nature of gender relationships within patriarchal society. Graham takes this further by arguing to structured interviews give a distorted view on women’s experiences. They impose categories on women, making it difficult to express experiences, and therefore hiding the unequal power relationships between the sexes.
Whether they go along with roles society has forced upon people or whether they realize how society forms a social construct and go against society’s ideas. The documents, “Barbie Doll” and “The Tragedy of Female Circumcision” go against the beliefs that society think are right and mock society’s ideas. “Barbie Doll” states:
The Performance of Gender as a Social Construct: Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Film Stills “Gender is always coming from a source that is elsewhere and directed toward something that is beyond the self, constituted in a sociality in which the subject in incapable to fully author”. Scholar Judith Butler interprets gender as a social construct, or a norm that is promoted through a social consciousness and perpetuated by a society who accepts their roles and, in turn, performs up to them. Within this reflexive interaction, constituents of what society considers being masculine and feminine regulate and develop in opposition to each other. In saying this, it is impossible to consider someone as being truly masculine or purely feminine, but rather, that each subject preforms to the gender that they assume, and/or are endowed with at birth. According to Butler, “Gender is not exactly what one ‘is’ nor is it precisely what one ‘has’”.
Regardless of whether the choice results in conflict privately or publically; or eluding an opportunity to convey our concerns and emotional setbacks, the intent is to liberate our identity. However, the necessity to come forth with these bold decisions is not always received by those who are subjected to the consequences. In the selected readings, “The Revolt of Mother” by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman and “Prologue” by Ann Bradstreet, there is a struggle by strong opinionated women. These particular characters acknowledge their roles as women in society. Through their actions and despite their response to others reactions, their emotions were always based on the opposite of the norm of their specific time period.
There is a deeper, more complex understanding of gender that can be recognized through the existence of supernumerary or third gendered individuals who transgress the gender binary and do not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth (Eyre and Pollack 2011: 212). The experiences of these individuals challenge society’s normative beliefs and theoretical ideologies about the nature of gender roles, gender identity and sexual orientation, and aim to “destabilize” gender classes (Brzuzy et al. 2012: 406). They supersede the norm by reclaiming aspects of their past gendered experiences and integrate them into a new transgendered identity. The performance of Brandon in Pierce’s Boy’s Don’t Cry (1999) highlights how gender performances
Does everyone have the same definition too? People’s fear of crossing that line lies within this theory as well, once you cross that line there is no going back. Her most popular idea that there is only one proper way to have sex. Society is ignorant to other relationships, just because one couple does not participate in some sexual act does not make is ‘bad’. Rubin points out that we have learned to accept other cultures religions and customs but we fail to accept an understanding other ideas of love.
Women should accept themselves for who they are and not worry about others opinions. Sexual Double Standards: Ridiculous and Outrageous. It is very unfortunate that we as a society have continually repressed our sexuality because of standards set by people unbeknownst to us. Instead of being able to freely do as one
For example, cultural feminists look to the different values associated with womanhood and femininity as a reason why men and women experience the social world differently. Other feminist theorists believe that the different roles assigned to women and men within institutions better explain gender difference, including the sexual division of labor in the household. Existential and phenomenological feminists focus on how women have been marginalized and defined as the “other” in patriarchal societies. Women are thus seen as objects and are denied the opportunity for self-realization. Gender Inequality: Gender-inequality theories recognize that women's location in, and experience of, social situations are not only different but also unequal to men's.
Sex categories suppose sex but are not necessarily determined by it. Doing gender in this sense is acting in a manner which promotes assignment to one of the sex categories, under the supervision of others. Doing gender is a socially required practice, and therefore we cannot "not do gender", our assigned sex category is imposed on us and is perceived as essential, we can comply with is or rebel against it, but in either case we are always, “Dude you’re a Fag” (Pascoe) * This article argues that American adolescent boys become masculine through the continual rejection of a fag' identity. * Pascoe analyzes masculinity as not only a gendered process but also a sexual one * She demonstrates how the "specter of the fag" becomes a disciplinary mechanism for regulating heterosexual as well as homosexual boys and how the "fag discourse" is as much tied to gender as it is to sexuality. * The social construct of “fag,” which exists primarily as an image of failed masculinity, meaning that person is not a
How this structure may show the struggle between the sexes is through the impression and notion of Churchill having a contemporary, free form, she is not complying and concurring to the expectations and normal literary structures; it seems that she is breaking the rules. Men throughout centuries were known to be the authors who had authority over their pieces, the chance to present various ideas through various forms and often it was accepted. Churchill goes against these expectations that society has on female play wrights to show that they are free and by her presenting these fragmented scenes, not only would it allow the