Analysis Of Holmes's 'What Is Gender?'

Gender Analysis

Social constructionism starts at birth. The sex of the baby is a girl so the baby is put in pink clothing and given dolls to play with and dresses to wear. The same goes for if the baby is a boy. The baby is put in blue clothing and given trucks and trains to play with. The child is never given a choice at the beginning of their life because from birth they’re immediately told that they are either a man or a woman because of what biology has given them and society’s belief that you should be what you are born.

In “What is Gender?” by Holmes she states that most people like having the certainty of knowing whether their newborn child is going to be a boy or a girl and until then they have a hard time thinking of the baby as a

What they don’t think about are the differences between women. Some of these differences that are overlooked far too often are race and social class.

Most improvements that have been highlighted in the history of gender equality were made by white, middle-class and educated women. This stems back to the early second wave feminism where they focused primarily on white, middle class women and male domination being the primary source of women’s oppression, but that isn’t the case at all.

The biggest problem that lies within feminism and women’s rights are that women still compete with each other. White women, whether they want to believe are not, have a privilege that black women do not have.

“Ignoring the differences of race between women and the implications of those differences presents the most serious threat to the mobilization of society. As white women…comprehend (Lorde 1994: 37). White women do not experience what black women experience and can’t even pretend that they do. Although white and black women both share that they are sometimes not treated equal to men, white women will always have a head start in this fight against inequality compared to black

These types of feminists believe that we can achieve equality through means of legal force and social reform. In order for there to be gender equality, feminists would need to start with the social constructionism as states by Holmes, Oakley and Charles. The type of feminism that would bring about the end of categories would be Black feminism. Black feminists had to fight even harder than white feminists because of the underlying privilege mentioned before and they are always considered to be different, therefore part of a different category. “…I usually find myself a part of some group…oppressor (Lorde 1984:36). She states that she always finds herself a part of some group because she identifies herself as a “Black lesbian feminist socialist mother” (Lorde 1984: 36) It’s up to her to educate the oppressors but why is that even needed? Why can’t Lorde just say she’s a woman and not have to use so many names for all different categories? Black feminists fight to bridge the gap not only between the patriarchal racism and sexism, but within feminism as well. They’re called black feminists because of their skin color, but the fact is they’re still feminists and shouldn’t have to fight to not be