If I would have been asked if I thought gender wars existed before really knowing what it was, I would have thought it sounded crazy, however the more I learn about its prevalence in pop culture and the debate surrounding its metaphor, the less crazy it sounds. I would say that using the word war is pretty extreme, but the issue of gender and sex is extreme and it's something that is not going away anytime soon.
When thinking about gender wars in my own life and what I have experienced I can't really say I know a lot about it first hand, however I can believe that it exists. I can say personally that I have helped popularize the metaphor and I haven't done much to change that. I constantly default to gender and sex stereotypes and by doing so I am reinforcing the notion, however it is done usually subconsciously and there in I think lies the most damage. I also assume heterosexuality too, an example that comes to mind are bathroom signs, most the time the only thing I look at is the picture, if the figure is wearing a dress I know I can go in, and if its not I assume boys and to steer clear. However I never really thought about what it would be like to not identify with either one, which one would I enter? I think that it is a dangerous metaphor and if we don't make drastic measures to try and change these assumptions then nothing is going to change and the gender "wars" will continue.
The think the metaphor "wars" is very dangerous because it assumes the worst. Yes the debate is very extreme and not to be taking lightly however war generally implies weapons, violence, anger, pain, suffering, and many more unpleasant words and depending on who's trying to make sense of this debate could have negative outcomes. I think that if we want to understand the metaphor and use a different word rather than war we should call it gender "conflict" or gender "struggle" because both give an understanding that something is wrong and worth changing, but it's not so dangerous and harmful as war.
Questions:
1) Will the metaphor for gender "wars" every be renamed?
2)Has discrimination gone up or down due to this metaphor of gender "wars"?
I really like what you say about defaulting to gender and sex sterotypes and how it reinforces the notion of gender wars. I also fall into that and sometimes need to remind myself to edit that.
ReplyDeleteHmm...I wonder why "wars" got picked up in the first place to describe gender differences...maybe sensationalism? In any case I don't think the term is going to go away anytime soon.
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