Navami K Week 1

Reading – The Gender Trap by Emily Kane 

Summary – The author demonstrates the difference between raising girls and boys by starting off with a simple analogy at the beginning of the article. She gives the example of child bibs and how along with the typical color stereotype, even the writing on the bibs is stereotyped to portray boys as ‘naughty and strong’ and girls as ‘glamorous’. The author also describes the struggle that parents go through when they try to raise children in a non-gendered way. She believes that the way the society is panned out today, it is almost impossible to raise children devoid of gender stereotypes as they have become an inevitable part of our culture.

More than parents, the author believes that the school inherently produces gender barriers and stereotypes within children due to factors such as peer pressure, puberty, media, teachers etc. She labels this phenomenon as the “Gender Trap” where parents do not have a choice. She also how there is a continuance of the Gender trap especially in the case of women with respect to the limitations they face on a daily basis. She also concludes that many parents feel responsible when their child does not follow the typical heterosexual routine that is socially acceptable. The most pressure they receive is from a society that constantly judges them for their parenting strategies. 

Reading - The Egg and the Sperm: How Science Has Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles by Emily Martin

Summary – The author brings to light the simple stereotype of men being stronger than women through the position of the artistic description of the egg and the sperm. She believes that biology taught in school also brings about these stereotypes  in strong light especially when the sexual reproduction is being taught to school children simply because the explanation of the female reproduction and menstrual cycle inherently describes the later process as a failure, while the male reproduction system is evaluated in a different light. The explanation of women’s organs are not spared the vivid descriptions and this increases the stereotypes and the pressing down of woman. She gives examples of how the “egg” is feminine and how the “sperm” is masculine and powerful in nature. And further added to this saying that the sperm has the decision to fertilize the egg or not, which makes the sperm is the decision-maker.

Reading – “Night to His Day”: The Social Construction of Gender by Judith Lorber

Summary – The author starts off very powerfully and claims that gender is long forgotten and inculcated into our everyday life and this ensures the stereotypes are also forgotten. She says “Gender is so pervasive that in our society we assume it is bred into our genes.” She believes that everyone does gender without even noticing it and realizing what they are doing because they have been so deep-rooted in our everyday life. These signs are so embedded that nobody notices them anymore. But most recently she believes that these gendered roles are changing slowly and society has acclimatized and got used to this. A lot of people associate gender as something everybody should  to resemble each other as the “same-gender” but the author believes that these thought processes have to be changed. She believes that a pre-existing structure needs to be broken down in order to pursue a free and united society.