Li Yinhe talks about sex

Chapter 51 Gender role stereotypes are the oppression of both sexes
Gender role stereotypes are the oppression of both sexes. Both men and women should try to get rid of this oppression and strive to live a free life so that everyone's individuality can be fully realized.

The essentialist view on gender issues particularly emphasizes gender role stereotypes, emphasizes the differences in temperament between men and women, and makes a large number of distinctions and generalizations about the temperament of men and women, such as: science vs. poetry; vitality vs. harmony; strength vs. beauty; intelligence vs. Love; reason versus romance, etc.

At the philosophical level, debates about gender temperament have centered on the following pairs of concepts:
The first is about the distinction between emotion and rationality. It is believed that women are born with emotions, lack of rationality, and lack the ability of logical thinking.It has even been argued that a woman simply does not understand that man must act on principles, that since she has no continuity, she cannot appreciate the need for logical justification of her own thought processes, and that she may be considered "logically delirious." ". "Women are just grown-up children; they have an entertaining tongue, sometimes a quick wit, but no real sense or reason... In fact they have only two passions: vanity and love."

The second concerns gendered affiliation in nature and culture.Many people believe that women are closer to nature and men are closer to culture.The reasons are as follows: women's physical body looks closer to nature; women's social roles are closer to nature; women's psychology is closer to nature.Those who disagree with this division retort that women are no closer to nature than men, that both sexes are conscious and mortal, that there is little real evidence that one sex is closer to nature than the other, or that Get farther from nature.

The third is about nurturing.People tend to associate nurturing with women, thinking that because of women's childbearing and breastfeeding activities, they have a nurturing characteristic and make them more willing to engage in nurturing occupations, such as nurses and nurses.However, some people also pointed out that although the reproductive function separates men and women, the impact of this factor on the occupations of both sexes is not always consistent. For example, in Western societies, medicine is mainly a career for men, but in the former Soviet Union, It is mainly a woman's business; in Europe, agriculture is mainly a man's business, but in third world countries it is mainly a woman's job.

The fourth is about aggressiveness.People always associate aggressiveness with masculinity and submissiveness with femininity.When people measure men, they use the criteria of being strong, rough, capable, and confident;There are also sociobiologists who try to explain male aggression from the perspective of evolution. They ask the question: Why are males of most animals larger and more aggressive than females?This is the result of male animals competing within their sexes for the privilege of mating with females.Males fight, females choose.Aggression is adapted to male competition, so aggression is a product of sexual selection.

The fifth is about the division of the public domain and the private domain, which mainly refers to dividing the domain of human activities into two, one is the public domain and the other is the private domain.The public domain is the domain of men's activities; the private domain is the domain of women's activities.The separation of earning work from family reinforces the notion that men are the breadwinners of the family.It is generally believed that women's inherent position is at home, with the private world of family as their main field of activity; while men mainly focus on the public world of work and politics.There is a popular proverb in society: Men are born for the land, women are born for the stove; men are born for the sword, women are born for the needle; men use their brains, women use their hearts.A more succinct statement is: the male dominates the outside, and the female dominates the inside.

Due to the popularity of feminist ideas, most people have realized that the above-mentioned gender role stereotypes oppress women.In the past 100 years, with the call for equality between men and women, women have stepped out of the private sphere and entered the public sphere, showing more and more rationality and aggressiveness, trying to break the stereotype of gender roles, and live a happy life. More and more free and confident.What is not easily recognized, however, is that gender role stereotypes are also oppressive to men.This oppression is not as intuitive as the oppression of women, but is exercised in a subtle way.For example, if there is a man whose personality is more emotional than rational, or nurturing rather than aggressive, or he is keen on the private sphere, dislikes the public sphere of life, or is not very successful in the public sphere, then his The pressure is particularly great, which is the oppression of men by gender role stereotypes, which prevents them from living freely and confidently according to their own wishes.Therefore, we should realize that gender role stereotypes are the oppression of both sexes, and both men and women should try to escape this oppression and strive to live a life of freedom so that each individual's individuality can be fully realized.

(End of this chapter)