Aastha Gupta 18010026 Week 1

"THE EGG AND THE SPERM"

Emily martin in her piece egg and the sperm talks about how sexism somewhere still exists in the society even when we talk about science. According to the author the society and the textbooks talk about the sperm and the egg with gender inequality and stereotypes. The egg is generally said to be not very worthy as compared to sperm. And this somewhere calls women less worthy. The author also talks about how the textbooks calls the whole process of mensuration a failure whereas in contrast sperm is said to be mystery, and it does not even consider whether or not it fertilizes egg. the main argument that Emily martin in her reading portrays is that the science is still portrayed in a sexist manner since the process of mensuration is seen as a failure and the egg is being represented as a lazy sleeping beauty gamete that rests in the ovary, whereas sperm is seen as protagonist and driving force and the one who carries hopes and aspiration. Some writers have also said that ovaries get old and worn out of producing eggs whereas sperms are not seen as wasteful or worn out even though millions of sperms are produced every year. The biasness in gender reinforces inequality.

“Night to his Day”:

The Social Construction of Gender

Judith Lorber

As explored in Judith lorber's “Night to his day” people in our society find it hard to believe that gender is constantly being created every time human interacts, this article also made it clear that sex and gender are not the same, gender has a different meaning, it is basically role that people are given and the role one gives to himself. Gender here is said to be a pack of rules, tradition and custom which assigned to the people of a particular sex. For example, in the history women were meant to be submissive, looking after house etc. whereas males were supposed to be the bread earners of the family. earlier when computer work started it was thought to be an easy clerical work so that was assigned to women whereas when people came to know that it is actually an intelligence it was then given to men. The justification for doing gender are always religion, law, morals or values. This proves gender and the effect of gender is very much there is our society, this reading also shows that gender and sex are such two terms which are very much related. Gender is a phenomenon created by our society and is not naturally evolved whereas sex is naturally there. gender