Introduction
The most severe discriminations and oppressions of all times had been based on race and gender. Women and people of color had been subjects to this mistreatment because of their gender and races respectively. Societies have always tolerated the exploitation of women by men. Women have being viewed as the weak creature within the society for a long time with consequential oppression (Glenn 5). On the other hand, the people of color have been viewed by the white people as being the primitive races. This has made them be poorly regarded, and to some extent heavily exploited and discriminated (Glenn 7). Perhaps the group that has felt the highest impact is the women of color, having received oppression from both extremes. The impacts of these have always trickled down to affect the world economy in one way or the other. This paper will define the terms gender and race. Then it will evaluate whether gender and race are social constructs or biological givens and why the two matter.
Gender
In simpler terms, gender is the status of being female or male. It is the identity through which one can be identified in the society as belonging to either the feminine group or to the masculine group. It does not mean the same as sex or men or women. It is the societal way of identification (Glenn 5). Contrary to the common belief of gender as being the promotion of women, gender puts focus on both men and women. It points out how the two relates and their different interests in the same household. The roles performed by women and men differ in most settings, and this largely forms the basis for gender definition. Gender refers to the behaviors, roles, and characteristics that various cultures will attach to either of the sexes (Glenn 5). There are those roles that male sex is supposed to perform and others reserved for the female sex. There are feminine work, duties, behaviors, responsibilities, and characteristics. The same applies to the masculine gender.
Is gender as a social construct or a biological given?
Though people would arguably say that gender is not sex, in the simplest manner of thinking it is. Sex is the biological identity as to whether someone is a man or a woman. It is clearly indicated by the reproductive parts of a person. According to the general assumption, two sexes exist. The genders of people are directly linked to the sexes (Fausto 21). Sex being a biological given, then it would follow that gender is also a biological given.
However, this does not seem like the case. Gender is a social construct, heavily imposed on people by the culture of the society we are living in. It is the way a society uses to designate who is supposed to do what, or who is supposed to behave how. We are made to accept the genders as being masculine or feminine reflecting the male or female sexes respectively (Glenn 5). The cultural environment chooses roles and lifestyles and dictates who should adopt them.
If gender were a biological given, it would primarily be based on the natural sexes of people. However, as it stands out to be, this is not how it is. There are more than the two accepted sexes. They are called intersexuals or hermaphrodites. These bear both female and male sexual characteristics (Fausto 21). This is the class of people that have been denied a gender. That is, the society does not recognize them.
You cannot call them men or women, female or male. So the society does not have a gender to allocate them. If it a biological given, it would be automatic. There would be other genders to accommodate these people. It is even argued that the biological sexual differences could extend to include even more than the five sexes (Fausto 21). However, the society and culture are yet to accept the intersexuals despite them being natural and without physical deformities. Yes, in spite of them being biological givens.
Children born both with intersexual characteristic are considered to be sexually deformed, instead of being associated with a particular gender. In fact, medical surgeries are done to ‘correct’ their conditions to conform to what the society expects. They have to either men or women. Anything else is not culturally accepted and would not be allowed to assume it (Fausto 21).
Those who fail to have their sexes ‘fixed’ have a hard time growing up, especially if the society is aware of the ‘abnormal’ situations. However, most cases are usually fixed, and the society becomes satisfied that they have the male or female children as usual (Fausto 23). What culture and society attempt to do in such cases are the creation of a ‘true nature’ that all people have to fit in- feminine and masculine genders.
People in society are sensitive to gender roles, identities, and even oppression. Looking at it, this is how we have been socially constructed to act or believe. We accepted what the society wants us to accept. We undertake roles that culture pre-determines for us. Women are trained to be submissive and would not question it. If anything, that is how they are supposed to behave. That is the feminine behavior (Risman and Georgiann 4). Far from our biology, the culture has molded us and converted us to accept how things should be done. We have been made to believe that men are powerful, and so they have become. This behavior that we learn, one that tries to dictate what is good for a man or woman, or how each one of them should behave constitute what we call gender.
Does gender matter?
The importance of gender cannot be underestimated. First, gender, as it stands, gives someone a sense of identity. Someone knows to which gender they belong and this brings some satisfaction. This is, however, so overemphasized to the extent that the intersexuals are not comfortable amidst other people. They cannot identify themselves with other people, and they suffer psychologically (Risman and Georgiann 4). The next way gender is important is on the allocation of roles to both women and men. Men assume better roles than women. This is the basis of discrimination against women. They are culturally thought weak and delicate, and therefore cannot do some work. Their core duties are fundamentally determined.
Race
Race refers to how human beings can be classified into different groups by their external characteristics. Different physical traits among humans make it possible to group them into groups called races. The traits mostly considered are eye color, facial structure, hair color, and skin color (Glenn 7). The genetic make-up determines the race to which a person belongs. Though mostly confused with ethnicity, they two terms are not synonymous. Ethnicity to a great extent concentrates on the cultural identity of a person and is not based on the genetic make-up. The existence of different races has always led to racism (Omi and Howard 235). Racism is when someone discriminates or oppresses someone from another race. Historical injustices have happened for a long time because of racism.
Is race a social construct or a biological given?
Our biology defines how we look like. Whether is the color of the hair or eyes or skin or how our faces are structured, the explanation for this is in our genomes. However, a close examination of the human genome shows very little differences in the genes of different races concerning each particular trait (Glenn 7). The way races are highly important in social settings cannot simply be explained by our genetics. It goes beyond that.
Some races are considered better than others, yet this can’t in any way be explained genetically. We are different physically, that is for sure, but attaching importance to these differences cannot be explained by science (Sesardic 146). It is how people have been made to understand and believe by the societies that we live in. Race is a social construct based on a biological reality.
The fact that Africans were first taken to America as slaves could simply imply that they were the inferior persons. Those who enslaved them had to be considered superior. Misusing the biology of color, race as a biological concept was put across to justify the enslavement of Africans by the Whites. That drew the color boundary making it the primary indicator of races (Smedley and Brian 17). From that time, Whites have always been presumed superior to black people.
We are born in a world where racism is real. We are trained to believe that races are naturally arranged in order of superiority. The informal biology that we acquire from our different settings teaches us some races are more human and others are inferior (Omi and Howard 235). These beliefs have resulted in discriminations for a considerable period.
Even after so many years the myth of races, and their accorded status, still painfully exist. Races are a reality. This is, however, not a biological concept but a culture that we have adopted and accepted. This reality of races and racism is overwhelming. It is deeply rooted in our lives and history, not as a biological reality but a cultural reality (Smedley and Brian 26).
Does race matter?
Race and racism are important, and they matter. We meet people of different races on a daily basis. They may be coworkers, our fellow students, our employees or others. Races affect how we interact with these people. It affects how we treat them and how they treat us. This implies races or racism could affect our social life (Smedley and Brian 18). However, it is the negative importance that can be associated with races.
People have been denied justice or services because they do not belong to a particular race. Others have been mistreated, oppressed or otherwise discriminated due to their races of origin. Those who come from dominant races continue to feel more useful, while those from less dominant races feel inferior (Sesardic 146). The dominant ones want to stay at the top and decide how things should be done, and who should do them. The less dominant races are submissive enough to allow it happen.
Conclusion
Gender and race have in history provided grounds on which people were discriminated. The female gender and people of color have been the subject of this discrimination. People in the past had argued the two were biological realities and nothing could be done about it (Glenn 5). With time, however, it has been realized that these are social constructs developed through our different cultures, and imposed on everyone in the society. The painful reality is that even with the current knowledge, the two still divide us.
Works Cited
Fausto, Anne. “THE FIVE SEXES.” The Sciences, vol. 33, no. 2, 4 Mar. 1993, pp. 20–24
Glenn, Evelyn Nakano. "The social construction and institutionalization of gender and race." Revisioning gender, 1999, pp. 3-43.
Omi, Michael, and Howard Winant. "Racial formation." Social class and stratification: Classic statements and theoretical debates, 1998, pp. 233-242.
Risman, Barbara and Georgiann Davis. "From sex roles to gender structure." Current Sociology, vol. 61, no.5-6, 2013, pp. 733-755
Sesardic, Neven. “Race: A Social Destruction of a Biological Concept.” Biology & Philosophy, vol. 25, no. 2, 12 Jan. 2010, pp. 143–162
Smedley, Audrey, and Brian Smedley. “Race as Biology Is Fiction, Racism as a Social Problem Is Real: Anthropological and Historical Perspectives on the Social Construction of Race.” American Psychologist, vol. 60, no. 1, 2005, pp. 16–26
