In his 2011 article “The End of Gender?,” Linton Weeks argues that the American society is steadily moving to gender neutrality. Weeks provides a set of examples which illustrate the claim that the contemporary society “could be heading to the end of gender.” These examples include a featured young boy with pink toenails in J.Crew catalog, the success of the androgynous fashion model Andrej Pejic, the experience of raising one four-month-old child in Canada without revealing his or her gender as “a tribute for freedom and choice in place of limitation,” and others. Whereas for Weeks and many contemporary academics these examples serve as the signposts of the possible end of gender, there are a number of others who believe that gender still matters. One of the most famous supporters of this view is Leonard Sax, a psychologist, family physician, and the executive director of the National Association for Single Sex Public Education. MAIN CLAIM: Gender matters in the modern society because consideration of this category allows better understanding of how people develop, function, and communication. This does not mean, however, that gender stereotypes about males and females should persist and strictly determine how both construct their lives.
The supporters of ignoring gender in upbringing, education, and social life point out that gender is a construction and a myth, which serves to designate people’s lives and segregate people. These people are furious about persisting gender stereotypes in the society which orientate children from the very young age to think and act in accordance with the socially constructed formulae: “Girls are more emotional and sensitive than boys” and “Boys have a brain advantage in learning math” (Weeks, 2011; Sax, 2007). The supporters of this gender-doesn’t-matter approach base their views on earlier and current studies that it is parents that create and reinforce all those difference people see between boys and girls (Sax, 2007, p.3). It needs to be said that the critics of gender are certainly right about the harm of gender stereotypes. Even though there is nothing inherently wrong in acknowledging the socially constructed nature of femininity and masculinity in a certain culture, people typically use the category of gender to form gender stereotypes and discriminate against others. As researcher Kathleen Dolan observes, “Gender stereotypes are among the most pervasive and persistent stereotypes people hold (…)” (Dolan, 2014, p.22). Their power is rooted in the fact that gender is a socially relevant category and it shapes virtually every facet of human life. At the same time, it is unwise to consider gender a myth and a mere social construction because this reflects only one approach to understanding gender – the constructivist. Other schools of thought, like essentialists, for example, link gender directly to biological sex, as they believe that certain gendered social behaviors result from biological category of sex (Shepherd, 2014). Another counterargument is that the examples that seemingly illustrate the end of gender in the modern American society do not apply in the large scale and “are of interest only to a small segment of media people, and without resonance in the larger society” (Weeks, 2011). In this way, many gender stereotypes should be reconsidered with seriousness (especially, with regard to the professional, family, and political spheres) whereas the category of gender should still be used.
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The arguments for the acknowledgment of gender all stem from the understanding the importance of differentiating between female and males’ specific behavior, responses, and ways of approaching the reality. This, essentially, excludes discriminating against females (or males) in every sphere of life, i.e. excludes gender stereotyping. According to Dr.Sax, ignoring gender will not delete gender from the public mind, but will rather lead to the exacerbation of gender stereotypes (Sax, 2007). Instead, the awareness of gender should be built on reliable empirical scientific evidence which will help prevent problems in boys and girls’ lives. In opposition to Weeks and those representatives of academia who assert the need to implement a gender neutral approach to everything, Dr. Sax provides his own set of examples that speak against eliminating gender form the public discourse. These examples are as follows. There are differences in the ways that boys and girls hear the information; in fact, girls hear everything better than boys. At the same time, boys’ lack of attention classified as “not hearing” can be attributed to the fact that they hear worse than girls and may need their teachers speak in a louder voice. In many cases, the diagnosis of ADD is not relevant because the issue is the teacher’s speaking not loudly enough. Another example is women who attend all-women colleges have been found five times more likely to earn a PhD degree in such subjects as computer science, physics, and math (Sax, 2007). These examples have been described in order to show that gender differences matter in everyday and professional life.
In conclusion, gender still matters in the contemporary U.S. society because people continue perceiving themselves within the categories of femininity and masculinity that they tie to biological characteristics inasmuch as socially constructed qualities. The examples of implied gender neutrality are only true about a small percentage of population and hardly apply to everyday life. Understanding gender differences is essential but it should not be taught or imparted in the form of gender stereotypes. More empirical research is needed to address the need of gender re-conceptualization in the society, abandoning gender stereotypes, but, at the same time, acknowledging the importance of gender to facilitate communication between people.
- Dolan, K. (2014). Why does gender matter? Women candidates and gender stereotypes in
American elections. Oxford University Press. - Sax, L. (2007). Why gender matters: What parents and teachers need to know about the
emerging science of sex differences. Potter/Ten Speed/Harmony. - Shepherd, L. (2014). Gender matters in global politics: A feminist introduction to international
relations. Routledge. - Weeks, L. (2011). The end of gender?Npr.org. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2011/06/27/137342682/the-end-of-gender.
