‘Gender’ And Its Discursive Evolution In Context
INTRODUCTION AND THESIS
The meaning of ideas like ‘gender’ and ‘sexuality’ has undergone radical shifts over time. These semantic shifts were largely propelled by societal change necessitated by intercultural contact, technological change and even, to some extent, paradigm shifts in scholarly discourse. (Lancaster et al., 1997) There have been important ‘moments’ of change that have enabled us to view gender, sexuality, and identity with new eyes.
I believe that concepts such as gender and sexuality will continue to remain in flux simply because the world itself is in perpetual flux and because there is a multiplicity of individual lenses through which it can be viewed. Hence, the discursive construction of these concepts will also continue to evolve. Far from being rendered futile as a result, the scholar’s pursuit of intellectual clarity with regard to difficult and shifting concepts such as gender can be meaningful because it serves as a sensitive barometer of said change. It may fall short of fully capturing this complexity but can serve as an illuminating reflection of the preoccupations and struggles of its own time. This can be demonstrated by examining the contexts in which the three chosen readings were produced and the lens that each author adopts.
DISCUSSION
The progressive interaction of cultures through historical and ongoing processes of trade, conquest, colonialism, and business have led each culture to question its own understanding of identity and often define itself in opposition to the ‘other’. As Lila Abu-Lughod points out in her article ‘Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving?’, what ‘Western’ feminism perceives as oppression through dress is often treated by Muslim women as an enabler of autonomy and self-expression. (Abu-Lughod, 2002) Power can be subverted and agency reclaimed through the purposeful appropriation of the very norms that impose conformity. (Suterwalla, 2013) Thus, a ‘woman’ while remaining a ‘woman’ may choose to reject the associated implication of powerlessness. In this way, the term ‘hijabi’ can take on two completely different and opposite valencies. Hence, it is clear that there can be no universalism when speaking of gender and what it implies. Its meaning is culturally contingent and defined (and redefined) by individual action.
That Abu-Lughod should choose to speak of this makes sense considering her own complex identity as an American Muslim woman of Palestinian heritage, one that becomes increasingly difficult to negotiate in the wake of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the subsequent American war in Afghanistan. In such a polarised climate, the mission to protect Afghan womanhood becomes a convenient cover story and a misplaced locus for the justification of an intent far more sinister. It suits the purposes of the hegemonic power to propagate regressive orientalist stereotypes of gender and Abu-Lughod alerts us to this. As someone with a unique insight into both worlds that are held artificially in opposition to each other, she is in a position to debunk an essentialist approach to feminism.
On the other hand, bell hooks and Judith Butler’s work expresses the usefulness of adopting culturally imposed categories only in order to defy and transcend them in a way that powerfully exposes their inherent instability. With the example of cross-dressing, hooks reveal the limited usefulness of gender categories and racial stereotypes. For instance, it is considered less shocking for a ‘black’ ‘man’ to cross-dress than a ‘white’ one because of the underlying association of ‘black maleness’ with hypersexuality. (Hooks, 2009) As an African American and a woman, she introduces race as a powerful lens through which to destabilise existing notions about gender and identity. (Springer, 2002)
While transvestism calls into question neat binaries of gender and sexuality, transsexuality undermines the very idea of biological sex as fixed and a given. It is further complicated by, as Judith Butler points out, the limitations of normative discourse. How does one address such a person? While her earlier work had already established the performative nature of gender, partly through an exploration of drag, in ‘Bodies That Matter’, Butler asserts that the materiality of the body does not automatically imply fixity with regard to ‘biological sex’ and that it becomes ‘fixed’ through repeated reaffirmation of culturally accepted norms. (Butler, 1993) These questions could not have arisen prior to the advent of gender reassignment surgery that made it possible for individuals so inclined to transition from one sex to another entirely. Such technological changes force us to re-examine our perspectives. This forces us to look beyond the body itself for the origins of gender.
CONCLUSION
There may well come a time when questions of gender and even identity are rendered entirely redundant. However, we are not quite there yet. Until such time as we continue to speak of gender, the work of scholars and theorists will not be complete. Nor should they even aspire to ever arrive at one ‘final’ answer. That does not exist. Instead, the value of a scholar’s work lies in examining and critically probing these flawed constructs, to chart and even steer their evolution, so that we are reminded of their limitations and resist the temptation to accept them as ‘universal’ ‘truths’. In each case, the preoccupations of the author and their personal range of experiences define their response and approach towards gender. Neither perspective is complete and final in itself but offers different ways of viewing similar problems.
WORKS CITED
Abu?Lughod, Lila. "Do Muslim women really need saving? Anthropological reflections on cultural relativism and its others." American anthropologist 104.3 (2002): 783-790.
Butler, Judith. Bodies that matter: On the discursive limits of sex. Taylor & Francis, 2011.
Hooks, Bell. Reel to real: race, class and sex at the movies. Routledge, 2009.
Lancaster, Roger N., and Micaela Di Leonardo. The gender/sexuality reader: culture, history, political economy. Psychology Press, 1997.
Springer, Kimberly. "Third wave black feminism?." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 27.4 (2002): 1059-1082.
Suterwalla, Shehnaz. From Punk to the Hijab: British women’s embodied dress as performative resistance, 1970s to the present. Diss. Royal College of Art, 2013.
