Gender segregation reflects existing social structures and beliefs in various societies and available options for observing such segregation. Thus, the main issue that arises is how far segregation should go.
This issue came to limelight in North America when the Dean of York University granted a male student’s request to avoid female classmates because of religious reasons. However, the Dean noted that he did not have any other choice but to grant the request (Hopper, 2014).
While the Dean regrets his decision, he maintains that the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) or the Code bound him. The Code recognizes the “inherent dignity and worth of every person and to provide for equal rights and opportunities without discrimination” (Ontario Human Rights Commission, n.d).
The request considers religious reasons but fails to account for its impacts on female learners. However, it sets a dangerous precedent and undermines several achievements toward an integrated society. Accommodating such a segregation request violates liberty because strict segregation limits individuals’ freedom, especially for women. At the same time, segregation and accommodation promote gender inequality.
While the West has emphasized the importance of offering equal opportunities to women, segregation puts women in the negative light and shows them that they are unable to compete effectively in the modern world. Accommodating a segregation request limits abilities and opportunities for women to interact, coexist, and practice fairness in any environment.
Such practices are responsible for the widespread gender stereotyping about the role of women and men in contemporary society. Accommodating the exclusion request goes against the progress toward enhancing acceptance, tolerance, and inclusion of all persons in society.
Vulnerable people, especially women, may lose their rights through requests related to accommodation and exemptions. Segregation perpetuates sex subordination for women and enhances the status of women as inferior.
It is imperative to treat women and men equally to promote gender equity, which is a long-term commitment of the University. The decision to accommodate the learner’s wish received support from some quarters. Conversely, others have termed the request as ‘odd’ since it originated from a male student. Such requests undermine gender mix and collaboration among learners of the opposite sex, as well as attempts to promote diversity, tolerance, and equity.
Therefore, institutions should review their approaches to individuals’ belief systems against the rights of others. In other words, religious concerns and people’s belief system should not compromise the rights of others.
The fundamental source of concern is that if the West starts to accommodate every person’s religious request, then it may be forced to grant other requests supported by firm beliefs in religion, such as stoning, which undermines justice and fairness.
The main point is that exemption and accommodation could set dangerous precedents and offend developments in people’s rights. Therefore, such requests do not enhance or enforce equality for men and women, but rather undermine the progress achieved in the West after several decades of struggle, particularly for women.
Overall, this essay shows that religious and cultural practices may be accounted for, but only after the primary, recognized human rights are met. The Professor established that such accommodation requests do not have empirical evidence, and inclusions do not have any negative repercussions on others.
Therefore, decision-makers must exercise care to ensure that private beliefs meet the required threshold of fairness and protection of other individuals’ rights.
References
Hopper, T. (2014). York University dean who granted student’s request to keep from female classmates says he wishes he ‘had another choice’. National Post. Web.
Ontario Human Rights Commission. (n.d). Policy on discrimination and harassment because of gender identity. Web.
In the article “Doing Gender”, Candas and Zimmerman emphasize the point that gender is not a once achieved and fixed state but rather a process of creating a gender image. Contradicting the traditional views on gender as an achievement, the researchers propose a vision of gender as a ‘display’ in a series of interaction between multiple participants (Candas and Zimmerman 127). To demonstrate the essence of gender, Candas and Zimmerman employ the notions of sex and sex categories.
The latter serve as a framework for constructing one’s conduct in accordance with the normative attitudes and activities proper to a certain sex category (Candas and Zimmerman 127). The researchers stress the importance of context and circumstances for rendering one’s behavior in a certain way, as well as point out the necessity for the ongoing process of ‘doing gender’ under the constant attention and gender assessment of the surrounding society (Candas and Zimmerman 136–137).
Having demonstrated gender as a process, the authors engage with the issue of gender being a powerful instrument of social influence. As it appears, the process of doing gender comprises an indispensable basis of social organization (Candas and Zimmerman 146). When men assume masculine roles and stand on positions of power, and women comply with feminine roles of deference, hierarchical arrangements are easier to legitimate and explain by the supposedly ‘natural’ order of things (Candas and Zimmerman 146).
At a higher level of organization, gender standards assist in creating powerful institutional arrangements, and therefore makes redefining or repudiating gender an act of not only individual change but of a social and ideological revolution (Candas and Zimmerman 147).
The importance of gender standards for social organization cannot be overestimated. Although due to the efforts of feminists and other human rights activists, the borderline between sexes is becoming more obscure, modern society is still characterized by and arranged according to established gender ideals. Men are physically stronger, therefore they are assigned more complex physical jobs; women are more graceful and fragile, which results in their vision as ‘the fair sex’ to be protected and cared for.
Denouncing the established order of things would mean nothing less than going against the human physical nature with men being the main breadwinners and women being the keepers of the family hearth and the nurturer of the offspring. Then the mere basis of society and one of the main social values — the family — would be questioned and resigned as an untenable notion.
In his comprehensive research on the nature of relation between sex and gender, James Messerschmidt employs a case study investigating the perception of sex and gender, and arrives to the conclusion that “social interaction relies on the inseparability of sex appearance and gender behavior” (87). Supporting this argument are two examples of teenagers whose peers perceived their sexual appearance as incongruent with the gender behavior they had assumed.
Moreover, in different social contexts and environments this incongruence was taken differently. In one case, the boy’s family members perceived his behavior as totally masculine, while his schoolmates viewed his sexual appearance as incongruous with the male stereotype. In the other case, the girl’s family and classmates rejected her male gender behavior since it was contradicting her natural female sex appearance.
Such unacceptance by society resulted in assuming an aggressive attitude and led Messerschmidt to the idea that “an imbalance in sex appearance and gender behavior may motivate assaultive violence” (87). Indeed, the boy — who was feeling masculine enough but unaccepted by his peers as a male — created his own society of younger teenagers that would accept him as a strong masculine leader.
The girl — who was feeling more attracted by male standards, witnessing the failure of her mother to comply with the accepted female stereotype — engaged into male-type behavior at school and in the street in order to assert her consistency as a person. But while the boy succeeded in bringing his sex appearance and gender behavior to conformity by means of street violence, the girl could not reach that balance due to her natural feminine exterior, which made her the more violent and aggressive.
The idea of inseparability of gender and sex perception in modern society appears to be more than reasonable. If sex is considered a purely biological quality, it still does not create a man or a woman alone: certain type of gender behavior is necessary for the person to be fully accepted as a representative of either masculinity or femininity. On the other hand, pure gender behavior without proper sex appearance does not convince the society of considering a person male or female.
A human with female appearance and male behavior, and vice versa, would be considered at most a transitional phenomenon but not a full-fledged masculine or feminine being. Depending on the congruence or misalignment between the sex appearance and gender behavior, one is viewed either as a gender conforming or a gender deviant personality within certain social environment. Therefore, in order to harmonize one’s social relations, it is vital to maintain the right balance between one’s appearance and behavior.
Works Cited
Messerschmidt, James W. “Goodbye to the Sex–Gender Distinction, Hello to Embodied Gender: On Masculinities, Bodies, and Violence.” Sex, Gender, and Sexuality: The New Basics. Eds. Abby L. Ferber, Kimberly Holcomb and Tre Wentling. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2008. 71–88. Print.
West, Candas, and Don H. Zimmerman. “Doing Gender.” Gender and Society 1.2 (1987): 125–151. Print.
With the growing popularisation of gender equity ideas, the topic of gender limitations and philosophies becomes even more popular. Feminists try to reconsider the meaning of gender through the prism of social limitations and norms. Judith Butler is rightly considered as one of the most outstanding feminist writers of her time. She has had an enormous philosophic impact on the theory and practice of culture.
Her multidisciplinary revelations on gender, sex, social normalization, and performativity have changed the direction of the feminist thought. Butler has caused a real flood of new ideas and ideals, which question the ofrelevance of the widely accepted gender norms. Judith Butler’s Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex” is a logical continuation of her philosophic tradition.
At the center of Butler’s book are the notions of performativity, citational politics, and queerness. As always, Butler manipulates the concept of power to collapse the traditional distinction between gender and sex and proves that power constraints sex at all stages of life since the moment of conception.
To start with, Bodies that Matter is a logical continuation of the ideas and concepts described by Judith Butler in her earlier works, including Gender Trouble. The latter created a strong foundation for the development of a distinct gender theory, which Butler describes in her book. The focus of Bodies that Matter is the gradual reformulation of the complex relationship between power and sexuality.
Such reformulation takes place based on Butler’s feminist ideas. At the very beginning of her book, Butler cites the words of Donna Haraway: “Why should our bodies end at the skin, or include at best other beings encapsulated by skin?” (1). In this way, Butler sets the framework for the discussion that follows.
She implies that, as a feminist scholar, she will use her talent for writing to reconceptualize the materiality of the human body in terms of gender and its performativity.
It is performativity that becomes one of the chief themes in Butler’s book. At the same time, performativity is of the most controversial elements of Butler’s philosophic discussion. In the view promoted by Butler, performativity is directly related to the concepts of gender, sex, sexuality, and materialization of the body (2). On the one hand, sexuality is viewed as a repetitive, continuous, and reiterative process that leads to the emergence of certain discourse practices (Butler 2). On the other hand,
“the regulatory norms of ‘sex’ work in a performative fashion to constitute the materiality of bodies and, more specifically, to materialize the body’s sex, to materialize sexual difference in the service of the consolidation of the heterosexual perspective.” (Butler 2)
Simply stated, Butler perceives performativity as being inherently limited to the heterosexual norms imposed on sexuality and gender representations in contemporary society. At the same time, performativity is not a fixed phenomenon. Rather, it is a repetitive process, which leads to the creation of the desired appearance, gender ontology, or vision of sexuality that fits or does not fit into the accepted norm.
It is wrong to believe that Butler’s performativity is synonymous to the freedom of choice. As Butler writes, performativity as a process and sequence of repeated acts does not mean that a person is free to choose his/her gender (5). Butler confirms: her idea of performativity does not entail the freedom of choosing and reproducing a gender a person desires to have (3).
On the contrary, the materialization of sexuality through performativity occurs based on the gender assigned to the individual from the very beginning of his/her existence. Butler writes that the materialization of gender starts even before the baby is born. The first signs of gender development in the fetus create the basis for the materialization of gender and sexuality later in life.
As always, Butler attributes the emergence of new limits on the materialization of gender and sexuality to the forcible imposition of social norms. Still, for Butler, gender and sexuality are related to the process of doing and re-doing oneself, an act of sexual and gender becoming, and it is this sequence of repetitive acts that constitute gradual materialization of one’s gender identity and its public representation.
Here, the idea of performativity should be critically evaluated. The current understanding of the performativity idea cannot be limited to Butler’s Bodies that Matter, at least because the origins of the concept are found in her earlier works, including Gender Trouble. Furthermore, Butler denies the very fixity of physical body, describing gender and sexuality as purely cultural constructs (4).
For Butler, both sex and gender are not static features of personality but flexible elements of life, which vary depending on the changing conditions of cultural intelligibility (5). An impression persists that performativity does not have any performer. Butler writes that the performer does not matter since it is performativity that creates the image of sexuality and gender.
By zeroing the relevance of fixed physical categories, Butler implies that gender and sex emerge as a result of various cultural reformulations, all of which do not have any material basis. It is the process of cultural reformulation that matters in the creation of visible gender representations in society.
Butler does not try to persuade her readers that performativity must have a performer. More importantly, she implies that performativity is linguistically and conceptually different from a performance. Performativity is closely connected to the emerging ideas of sex and gender as flexible categories imposed on a person by society, in which he/she is bound to exist.
What Butler says is that gender and sexuality cannot be tied to the physical features of the human body that become visible at birth. Rather, gender identity emerges and develops as a result of the complex interactions between nature and nurture, and the latter often plays a crucial role in how individuals bring their gender representations into being (Butler 24).
The role of language in constructing gender and sexuality discourses also should not be ignored. Butler calls it “citationality” (13).
The language of gender and sexuality is quite explicit but, at the same time, rather oppressive. As a feminist scholar, Butler criticizes her society for constraining the language of sexuality and gender to forcible notions and regulatory requirements (13). Simultaneously, she does not limit the discussion of her theory to the notions of sex.
Race emerges as a distinctive feature of Bodies that Matter, based on the discussion of Lacan and Freud in the later chapters of the book. Butler acknowledges that heterosexuality is not the only regime of bodily intelligibility imposed on individuals in the developed world (18).
For Butler, race exemplifies one of the central contours of the physical materialization of the human body, without which understanding the essence of social norms and power does not seem to be possible. Butler stands on a feminist position that links heterosexuality to the limits of race. Like heterosexuality is claimed to be a form of gender discrimination, racism is treated as discrimination based on the pre-given race (Butler 19).
For Judith Butler, the race is invariably one of the most interesting and emotional elements of the heterosexual power matrix (20). The scholar recognizes that the concept of race is not as flexible as the meaning of sexuality and gender (Butler 114). Also, it cannot be treated as subordinate to the meanings of sex, gender, and sexuality.
Rather, both sex and race closely interact to reproduce or deny the prevalent mechanisms of power and established cultural imperatives (Butler 116). Certainly, Butler is not as interested in exploring the notion of race as she is curious about sexuality and gender.
Nevertheless, she recognizes the difficulties encountered by people due to their race. Moreover, Butler realizes the difference between “muted” sexuality and “muted” race (170). It is much more difficult for a person to conceal his/her race (or the color of skin) than to conceal and manage his/her representations of sexuality and gender.
Unfortunately, the sophisticated cultural ideas of Judith Butler are written in a no less sophisticated language, which makes the development of cultural knowledge increasingly problematic. The written style of Judith Butler is full of complexities, ambiguities, and obscurities.
Butler implies, instead of telling. She assumes, instead of asserting. Her audience is willing to grasp her ideas and translate them into actions, but many readers cannot come to terms with the language structures and sentence models used by Butler in her book. Many terms and concepts require additional explanations.
Many references to the earlier philosophers and works make it difficult for an ordinary reader to understand the complexity of Butler’s ideas. Still, even the complexity of the language forms in Bodies that Matter does not diminish the significance of her ideas, including the idea of queerness.
In Butler’s book, queerness is reconsidered from both sexual and racial perspectives. Queerness serves as an intermediate point between reiteration of sexuality and race. Butler implicitly votes for political mobilization based on queerness (Butler 22). In many senses, Butler’s entire book must stimulate the emergence of new conceptualizations, ideas, and powers against the hegemony of heterosexuality in the modern world.
In conclusion, Judith Butler’s Bodies that Matter provides a unique insight into the challenging ideas of feminism, gender and sexuality constraints, the power and implications of race, and the role played by queerness in mobilizing the public against gender and racial oppression. Performativity remains one of the central themes in Butler’s book, implying that gender and sexuality are not fixed categories.
Rather, they operate as a complex set of repetitive acts and decisions that help to create an image of belonging to a specific gender. Performativity is also one of the most controversial concepts in Butler’s book and the entire feminist thought.
The complexity of Butler’s language, her obscurities, and linguistic assumptions create considerable difficulties for a common reader, who is not familiar with her ideas but wants to understand them in depth. As a result, this book can be recommended for professional reading.
Works Cited
Butler, Judith. Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex”. New York: Routledge, 1993. Print.
This essay is written by Jacquelyn Rabe and it addresses the issue of gender stereotypes in relation to children’s toys. According to the writer, it is inappropriate to assign children gender-specific toys. The essay argues that children should be allowed to play with toys of their choice.
The writer begins the essay by giving a personal story that relates to stereotyping and toys. The author gives instances where children find themselves as victims of ridicule and judgment because of their choice in toys. The essay also addresses various elements that are fuelling negative stereotypes when it comes to children’s toys. This paper is an analysis of Rabe’s essay “Toys Are Not Us”.
The most prominent feature of this essay is its informal nature. The author adopts an informal tone in the essay right from the start. For instance, the essay’s thesis starts with the words ‘I think’ thereby setting up the informal tone of the essay. Using an informal tone disqualifies the essay from being a good scholarly article. Personal opinions should not be integrated into scholarly or formal essays.
The essay is addressing a formal issue (toys and gender stereotypes) and this leaves little room for personal opinions in the essay. In addition, the author has used several professional voices in the essay as references. The informal tone in the essay is manifested by the writer’s constant use of “I”.
Using a formal tone in the essay would have made the writer’s opinion more solid and authoritative. Another problem with using personal and informal opinions in the essay is that the writer does not offer any credentials that would make her an authority on the subject of her choice.
The arrangement of the paragraphs in the essay is not effective. For instance, the first and second sentences in the essay do not support the writer’s main argument. For example, the first sentence in the second paragraph begins by stating that toy stores are the main contributors to stereotyping. This sentence is not in line with the writer’s main argument that children should be allowed to play with toys of their choice.
Consequently, this sentence is not a suitable ‘topic sentence’ but it would be more appropriate as additional information. The problem of topic sentences is replicated in other paragraphs such as in the third paragraph where the writer begins by stating the views of someone else.
Instead, the writer should have started with an appropriate topic sentence that included her own views and then proceeded to back them up with information from other sources. Furthermore, the paragraphs in this essay do not transition appropriately. In some instances, the views of the writer are mixed up and repeated in subsequent paragraphs.
The writer does not exhaust her discussion in one paragraph before going on to the next one. This is the case in paragraphs three and four where the writer discusses a similar issue. The writer should have considered grouping issues into separate paragraphs. This would make the essay easy to synthesize for the readers.
The outside information that is used in the essay is not appropriately cited. For example, the essay mentions things that Bennhold has stated without supplying the appropriate citations.
In the third paragraph, the writer begins by writing two sentences about Bennhold’s views but they are not cited or referenced. All information from outside sources should be cited even if it is used several times throughout the essay. The essay also includes several grammatical errors and cases of poor sentence structures.
Unfortunately, the issue of gender violence remains on the agenda of the modern global society (Igartua & Fiuza, 2018). Various reasons are listed for the problem to have a huge staying power in the context of the contemporary social environment (Wasarhaley, Lynch, Golding, & Renzetti, 2017). In his speech, Jackson Katz assumes that the framing of the problem is one of the essential roadblocks on the way to managing it successfully (Blyth, Colgan, & Edwards, 2018). Particularly, the shift of the emphasis to women makes it possible for men to alienate themselves from the problem.
As a result, the phenomenon of gender violence is not addressed by all stakeholders involved, which makes it impossible to resolve the issue. Furthermore, the identified stance contributes to the enhancement of victimization and the promotion of stereotypes associated with gender. However, the process of altering the specified viewpoint will require changing a range of social principles based on which behaviors are constructed and interpersonal relationships are built. Therefore, the required change will need a shift in the paradigm of social interactions, as well as the image of women and men in the contemporary society.
Language and Perception of Gender Violence
Being the means of communicating ideas and expressing opinions, language, unfortunately, carries a significant part of biases that serve to the detriment of relationships between the representatives of different genders. For instance, according to Katz, the shift from the use of the Active Voice to the use of the Passive Voice in the sentence that states the relationships between a victim and an offender creates the environment in which men detach themselves from the conflict and, therefore, distance from the discussion of violence in relationships (Merry, 2016). Particularly, the following examples are considered: “John beat Mary” and “Mary was beaten (by John)” (Katz, 2013). Therefore, it can be assumed that there is a direct connection between the linguistic representation of the problem and its further perception by its target audience. However, it seems that the specifics of the English language should not be deemed as one of the factors that inhibit the process of addressing the issue. Instead, it can be viewed as a tool using which people distance themselves from a problem, be it a subconscious or intentional effort.
Institutions and Their Effect on Gender Violence
Unfortunately, a range of institutions allow sustaining the current status quo and reinforcing the effect of the factors that lead to the development of violence in relationships. Particularly, a range of institutions imbues specific genders with a significantly larger amount of power than they do others. For instance, on the intersection of religious and social institutions, the current interpretation of race and interactions between the representatives of different races, etc., a breeding ground for stereotypes is built. As a result, the basis for developing unhealthy and even toxic interactions between the representatives of different genders is created (Herman, 2015). The identified phenomenon triggers an immediate disruption in the concept of gender relationships, therefore, causing the enhancement of stereotypes and prejudices. The identified rift in interactions between representatives of different genders contributes to the enhancement of conflicts and the possibility of gender violence.
Cognitive Structure of Victim-Blaming
As stressed above, the cognitive structure of the current perception of a sexual offence makes one focus on the victim rather than the offender. As a result, of the shift in the observer’s focus, the behavior and choices of the victim are scrutinized and critiqued, as opposed to those of the sexual perpetrator. The specified perspective leads to the promotion of victimization and the suggestion that the victim may have provoked the instance of violence with their behavior, appearance, etc. Thus, audiences dismiss the fact that the actions that involve any kind of violence cannot be justified and deemed as appropriate. The identified line of reasoning leads to the promotion of victim-blaming (Merry, 2016). The effects of victim-blaming are truly devastating. Apart from misrepresenting the problem, it also implies a justification of violence and, possibly, breach of law by assuming that certain types of behavior can be viewed as a reason for an assault. Therefore, the phenomenon of victimization is intrinsically wrong and contrary to the very idea of justice.
Katz’s By-Stander Approach: Description
The bystander approach suggested by Katz is aimed at preventing and addressing the problem of gender violence. Particularly, the suggested approach allows inviting men to join the conversation by describing them as not potential perpetrators but as bystanders. Not only men but also women that have not experienced any form of attack fall under the specified category. As a result, chances for addressing the issue of gender violence are created. The bystander approach helps create the environment in which neither of the parties is labeled in any way; consequently, both participants of the dialogue feel more inclined toward sharing their ideas, experiences, and impressions. The bystander approach helps men recognize the presence of the problem and work toward its resolution. Thus, the bystander approach has potential as the tool for handling the issue of gender violence.
References
Blyth, C., Colgan, E., & Edwards, K. B. (2018). Rape culture, gender violence, and religion: Christian perspectives. New York, NY: Springer.
Herman, J. L. (2015). Trauma and recovery: The aftermath of violence – From domestic abuse to political terror. London, England: Hachette UK.
Igartua, J. J., & Fiuza, D. (2018). Persuading with narratives against gender violence. Effect of similarity with the protagonist on identification and risk-perception. Palabra Clave, 21(2), 499-523. Web.
Merry, S. E. (2016). The seductions of quantification: Measuring human rights, gender violence, and sex trafficking. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Wasarhaley, N. E., Lynch, K. R., Golding, J. M., & Renzetti, C. M. (2017). The impact of gender stereotypes on legal perceptions of lesbian intimate partner violence. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 1(1), 1–24. Web.
Despite numerous attempts at addressing the gender issue, it still remains one of the most topical concerns on the contemporary agenda (Kauanui 282). Nevertheless, one must admit that significant progress has been observed over the past few decades on a global scale. Particularly, the recent Taiwan presidential election (“Taiwan Elects First Woman President” par. 2), which resulted in a victory of the female candidate, can be viewed as a primary example of decolonization and the promotion of gender equality in the political environment.
The changes, which the Taiwan presidential elections have brought to the cultural environment of the state, can be viewed as a challenge to the identity politics that has been a common practice on a global scale-up until recently. Although the innovations that the above event will trigger in the Taiwan culture are not going to be immediate, they will definitely launch the process of providing the indigenous women with the rights that they are entitled to as the members of the society.
In other words, the above news is bound to launch the process of change in the current gender order that is viewed as normalcy (Warner 11) in the Taiwan culture. Seeing that gender discrimination, sadly, is part and parcel of the Taiwanese culture, it can be assumed that the recent presidential elections will serve as the primary tool for altering the gender order norms, thus, enhancing equity in the local society. Naturally, the process of introducing the Taiwanese society to the concept of gender equality is not going to occur easily since the cultural norms will have to face challenges. Nevertheless, the first step made seems very substantial.
As a result, the Lesbian Continuum existing in the contemporary Taiwanese society can be extended from the social environment to the political one. Once more women are introduced into the target environment, the continuum can be extended so that women could experience the process of mutual communication beyond the environment that they are currently restricted to. Consequently, the mestiza consciousness promoting duality and serving as the survival strategy for women in the oppressive environment can be fostered so that women could gain voice all over the world (Shakespeare 160).
It could be argued that the change in the current status of women in the Taiwanese society could lead to the phenomenon of an outsider within for the female members that are very active in defending their social position. Once assuming the stance that will challenge the social norms, Tsai, the winner of the election campaign, may fail to receive the support of other women. The latter may be afraid of being ostracized by the conservative members of the community, including both males and females, therefore, becoming an outsider within.
The resulting intersectionality phenomenon will manifest itself in both socially active women and less enthusiastic ones being discriminated against, yet on different levels and to different degrees. Therefore, gender as a social practice can be altered so that women could gain the freedoms and rights that they are entitled to.
The fact that Tsai is the first female president of Taiwan may also cause certain changes in the gender performativity concept in the designated environment, as well as in Asian countries, in general. For instance, the very image of a female leader is going to change once a strong image of a female politician is incorporated into the framework of the Taiwanese society. Therefore, the prejudices that the current performativity principles are based on will be replaced with the information that is much closer to actual life. Thus, premises for women to be represented better in the Taiwanese society will be created.
One must admit, though, that the phenomenon of compulsory able-bodiedness is not as integral to the target culture as it is to the European and the American ones (Rich 641). Therefore, the introduction of a female member into the political environment of the state is unlikely to have any effect on the issue in question. The change, however, may affect the current objectification-related concerns in the European and American societies, setting an example of political correctness.
Similarly, given the progressive views of the Taiwanese people on sexuality, particularly, on the LGBT representatives and the rights of queer people, the introduction of a female member into the state office is unlikely to change the landscape immediately to an even more positive environment. Indeed, the phenomenon of compulsory heterosexuality is nearly alien to the Taiwanese culture (). In other words, benign sexual variation rates are very high in the target society. However, it could be assumed that the above change will contribute to addressing the needs of the LGBT people in a more careful manner.
Therefore, in the best-case scenario, the above event may start the process of eliminating the phenomenon of the spirit murder as any discrimination, in general, and gender profiling, in particular, in the modern society. Instead of focusing on the differences between genders, one may view the concept of interdependency as the primary tool for managing relationships between the representatives of different genders.
Thus, it will become a possibility to prove that the above alterations are not aimed at attacking normalcy but, instead, serve to promote diversity on a global level. Therefore, opportunities for people all over the world to identify their sexual citizenship explicitly will open.
Assuming that Tsai will immediately start promoting love-politics would be quite a stretch. It is more sensible to assume that the political and economic challenges, as well as more basic societal issues, will be the focus of her efforts in the nearest future. However, the very fact that a woman is currently taking the post shows that the world is ready for another gender agenda.
Works Cited
Kauanui, Khaulani. “Native Hawaiian Decolonization and the Politics of Gender.” American Quarterly 60.2 (2008): 281-287. Print.
The gender and racial pay gaps are two of the oldest and most prevalent issues in international reward management. The causes of these pay gaps lie in social contexts and wage structure development which have seen the marginalization of certain populations and can be reflected in professional settings. Despite every industrialized country adopting legislation which mandates equal pay and prohibits discrimination based on gender and race, they are a persistent feature in virtually every labor market (Blau and Kahn 2003). This report will examine the key data and underlying causes of the gender and racial pay gaps in the context of Western developed nations, in order to present recommendations for reward managers to address such disparities on a widespread scale.
Context and Definitions
There is a myriad of economic and theoretical approaches which attempt to explain, deny, or justify the pay gap. However, empirical evidence exists which suggests that it is a prevalent issue (Rubery, Grimshaw & Figueiredo 2005). Furthermore, the explanations most commonly given within traditional and mainstream productivity models appear to be flawed because despite tremendous growth in educational attainment and employment participation among women, and affected racial minorities, these pay gaps remain large (Rubery, Grimshaw & Figueiredo 2005).
In all Western societies, existing gender and racial pay gaps have been a prominent issue for decades. Although significant efforts have been made to close them, progress on wage convergence has slowed down and labor market discrimination and segregation is prevalent. Labor market wages are the primary source of income for most families and salary is a vital socio-demographic indicator which contributes to the building of wealth and stability. Therefore, disparities in income for marginalized social groups have far-reaching consequences.
A pay gap is defined by the disparities within the average hourly earnings of a company or industry. For this report, the differences between males and females as well as races (white majority and ethnic minorities) are examined. A pay gap is measured through a variety of means, but the primary one is percentages (AAUW 2018).
For example, with a 5% pay gap, a woman earns 95p for each £1 earned by males. In the UK, the 2018 ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings shows an 8.6% gender pay gap, increasing to 17. 9% for part-time workers and widening after the age of 30 (Perraudin 2019). Furthermore, the racial pay gap in the UK is 17% or £3.90 per hour less for black, Asian, and other ethnic minorities, after taking into account labor market forces such as qualifications and occupation types (Topham 2018). This results in over £3.2 billion in lost wages annually and leads to significant social disparities in living standards between white employees and racial minorities.
It is important to discuss the policy context which surrounds the topic. In the UK, the most recent legislation is the Equality Act of 2010 which prohibits pay discrimination based on gender or race and mandates that all employees working in identical position for the same employer and in a similar location should receive the same salary and benefits (Equality and Human Rights Commission 2019). In the United States, pay management guided by the Equal Pay Act of 1963 under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Additional laws such as the Fair Pay Act of 2009 or the Civil Rights Act of 1964 focus on the discriminatory aspects of pay gap practices (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission n.d.).
Racial pay gaps are often less prominent in policy discussion and research than gender disparities. Theresa May’s government launched an inquiry on mandatory reporting of ethnic pay gaps in the workplace, a practice that came into force in 2018 for gender differences – requiring any company with more than 250 employees to report salaries and gender pay gaps (Topham 2018).
Gender Pay Gap Analysis
Various potential explanations have been offered by economists and sociologists to explain the gender pay gap, which are inherently interlinked and overlapping. Healy and Ahamed (2019) offer a three-factor explanation to the gender pay gap using previous theoretical research. First, using a human capital approach, differential investment in skill acquisition between men and women has been proposed as a key driver of pay divergence.
However, this approach does not recognize that women often invest more in careers and education. Therefore, the human capital approach may be used as a tentative explanation which stands true when focusing on individual occupation and industry factors rather than comprehensive variables. Another explanation is that men and women are segregated both horizontally, engaging in different occupations, and vertically, in that men often occupy the dominating positions in organizational hierarchies. Thus, the disproportion between male and female wages can be explained by gender devaluation in that women are more likely to participate in lower wage, feminized occupations.
This leads to the next point, that the general systems of workplace practices and reward management are based on such inequality and segregation. There is a need for change in workplace unionization and cultural practices. Finally, individual workplace discrimination may play a factor as a combination of the three previous factors, as a result of organizational practices and culture (Healy and Ahamed 2019).
Traditionally, economists have focused on gender-specific factors such as women’s shortfalls in the labor market or employer discrimination as explanations for the pay gap. However, economists Juhn, Murphy, and Pierce have suggested that the general wage structure, otherwise explained as the price that the market attaches to skills and rents, accruing in specific favored sectors, has an impact on particular subgroups (Blau and Kahn 2003). Since women tend to work in different sectors and occupations while having less labor market experience, sectoral differentials will lead to a rising pay gap. Although supply and demand, as well as the health of the labor market, may vary internationally, the gender pay gap remains a constant, albeit with minor international differences (Blau and Kahn 2003).
Paradoxically, despite American women having higher qualifications and a significant amount of anti-discriminatory legislation being in place, the United States has one of the largest gender pay gaps. This is due to decentralized wage-setting organizations which leads to greater sectoral differentiation and a larger penalty on those at the lower levels of the labor market, being disproportionately women. Therefore, the wider wage structure has a potentially greater impact on the gender pay gap than the female-specific factors considered above.
In addition, however, it is also important to note sociological factors, because both men and women have come to perceive and accept a slight gap between gender pay through the notion of the “legitimate” wage gap. Auspurg, Hinz and Sauer (2017) explain this theoretically through the same-gender referent theory, which states that women compare their earnings to other members of their own sex, usually underpaid females, thus creating a distorted perception. Furthermore, the reward expectations theory suggests that gender is comparable to status, which thus yields lower expectations for women about renumeration for comparably equal work.
This can potentially explain the persistence of discrimination and the gender wage gap in Western societies despite legislation strictly prohibiting it, suggesting that social equality norms inherently support it and disadvantaged groups (in this case women) have tolerated it. The two mechanisms of justice attitudes and individual labor market behavior are intertwined and shape each other, leading to inequalities at the macro level which perpetuate a belief system through which reward expectations are shaped at the organizational level.
Racial Pay Gap Analysis
There are several potential causes of the racial pay gap. A strong argument has been made regarding the impact of the exodus of manufacturing and blue-collar jobs from metropolitan areas and Western economies in general. Deindustrialization of economies leads to the elimination of many high-wage industry jobs as well as the stable labor provision which ethnic minorities strongly benefited from, particularly in manufacturing-focused cities.
For example, Detroit, Michigan in the United States saw a significant decline in manufacturing that thrust many workers from ethnic minorities into poverty and joblessness. Demographic composition and immigration are contributing factors as well, as globalization has allowed the unskilled labor needs in Western economies to be filled by ethnic immigrants who are commonly paid significantly less due to skill gaps and discrimination.
Finally, the digital innovation of the modern economy has primarily focused on the growth of high-skill service and technological industries where racial minorities, and black people in particular (the biggest minority group both in the US and the UK), have an extremely limited presence (McCall 2001). Technological shifts are eliminating the need for skilled or manual labor but creating more jobs where high educational and skill attainment is required, leading to employment and wage disparities.
Another aspect to consider is that the racial wage gap has expanded at the same time as general income equality continues to grow. The slow growth of living standards as a consequence of income inequality for low and moderate-income families has become a critical problem for modern developed economies. Reasons for this include stagnation of hourly wage growth and a slow to rebuild the middle class after the 2008 financial crisis. Policy decisions and business practices built around deregulation of labor standards have weakened the labor market, while executive and upper management salaries have seen strong growth.
Wages have grown more slowly than productivity, particularly for the majority of hourly-paid and blue-collar workers over the last three decades (Wilson & Rodgers 2016). While this phenomenon is not limited to a single group or race, ethnic minorities (such as blacks and Hispanics in both the UK and the United States) are disproportionately affected by the growing gap between income and productivity. Real wage growth is stagnant, but ethnic minorities experience greater disparity in wage growth in comparison to white counterparts. This is further suggestive of discriminatory practices as well as prevalent disparities and racial wage gaps in the economy.
In the UK, the racial wage gap remains stubbornly wide, with some minorities paid up to 20% less than white workers with otherwise similar profiles in terms of experience and education. It is the case that, other minority groups, such as the Chinese are generally paid more than white British citizens, but they compose less than 1% of the population and commonly work in high skill markets (Romei 2019).
Black and ethnic minorities continue to face pay gaps despite greater social awareness of the issue and equal pay audits becoming more common in firms. The primary cause of the statistical pay gap is labor force attachment and disparities in educational attainment between whites and minorities. In turn, this leads to lower labor force participation and to the accumulated experience which is necessary for promotion to higher-paying positions in any occupation or labor market (Antecol & Bedard 2004).
Discriminatory influences which are unarguably a factor in this context can occur at two points, job entry and on the job. Non-whites may experience difficulty obtaining well-paid jobs, and when they do, they are faced with less pay and potential on-the-job harassment. Overall, though, in the case of the British labor force, the primary cause of wage differentials is due to occupational segregation, with the gap being much less substantial within the same job roles (Brynin & Güveli 2012).
Addressing Disparities
In recent years, a popular organizational initiative has emerged as firms attempt to share responsibility and governments increasing require accountability and transparency in pay decisions. Organizational accountability may be defined as a set of procedures which ensure fair compensation and distributions of rewards among employees, including through design and implementation of pay structure, monitoring and auditing of pay distributions, and investigation of pay disputes. In the context of reward management, organizational transparency entails a process making relevant pay information accessible to various persons or groups (managers, HR professionals, government audits).
Measures should be adopted to ensure the upkeep of data, competent distribution processes, and availability of comparisons by gender or race. In a field study by Castilla (2015), implementation of such inequality-targeting organizational procedures led to a significant decline in both gender and racial pay gaps.
For individual companies, awareness and resolution of the pay gap issue is beneficial to their long-term health and success. Opponents of transparency argue that it will create additional administrative burdens and lead to reduced profitability, claims that have not been proven empirically. However, wage transparency is directly associated with being open about hiring practices and discriminatory disparities in companies.
Companies that have voluntarily or compulsorily adopted transparency processes have subsequently hired more women and minorities, increased promotion in vertical hierarchies among these groups, and, in fact, reduced salary expenses by slowing down male wage growths (Bennedsen et al. 2019). This contributes to narrowing the wage gap as women and racial minorities attain greater influence and negotiating power.
These vulnerable groups could use bargaining power to achieve higher wages and have the support of both company and legal standards regarding wage equality to white men. In the long-term, it positively affects the company culture as equal opportunities promote commitment, mentorship, and performance. Career and wage trajectories will eventually stabilize and produce more equitable growth, which will create a balanced atmosphere in the firm and make it more attractive to top talent.
Discussion and Recommendations
From the foregoing analysis of gender and racial gaps, it can be observed that broader wage structures are both a potential cause as well as a consequence of this socio-economic phenomenon. All people, no matter their gender or race, work in a global economy where labor market forces such as supply and demand, experience, education, and occupational or industrial wage differentials apply, even in the context where social attitudes or segregation are present.
A crucial insight regarding intergroup wage differentials which applies to both gender and racial disparities is that wage structure has a real effect on incomes of specific groups. For example, countries inherently differ in their wage structures; some with strong unions have a compressed wage structure which raises incomes of low-skill workers (occupations held primarily by ethnic minorities and women). Meanwhile, Western countries such as the US or the UK have a decentralized economic approach which leads to more dispersed wage structures.
It follows that changes in the overall wage structure can have a positive effect on income pay gaps for both groups. For example, in the 1980s, the US experienced a return to a skill-based economy as manual labor was being rapidly outsourced to Asia, giving rise to white-collar employment and a decrease in manufacturing and blue-collar work. When this occurred, two patterns emerged which led to a decrease in the pay gap.
Since men predominantly work in manufacturing and blue-collar jobs, this led to a redistribution of skills and wages in the economy, narrowing the gap. Furthermore, since white-collar employment requires greater skills which also benefits men, more women increased their qualifications to counteract the adverse effects of the transition and narrowed the gender pay gap (Kahn 2015). However, it is important to compare this example to one made with Detroit previously. Both follow similar scenarios, however Detroit serves as a localized example and affected the racial pay gap, while this particular instance benefited the gender pay gap, without data to determine influences on racial minorities.
In addition to supply and demand guiding wage structure, the institutional impact should be considered, its effects on wages as well as on the direction of the economy. The most prominent forces can be considered to be minimum wage legislation and collective bargaining. Raising the minimum wage will primarily affect low-skill occupations or the lowest levels of pay-distribution hierarchies, both primarily dominated by women and minorities.
Meanwhile, collective bargaining across sectors can set wage floors for a whole industry and benefit low-paid workers. Furthermore, offering stronger employment protection, not only to permanent employees but also to non-contractual or part-time workers (a large percentage of which are also composed of vulnerable labor groups) will lead to greater stability as well as bargaining power, helping to decrease the wage gap.
In the context of modern policy initiatives and social movements for racial and gender equality, closing the gender pay gap has become a high priority among governments and companies. For example, since the early 2000s the EU has emphasized a commitment to this issue in its European Employment Strategy, though with mixed success (Rubery, Grimshaw & Figueiredo 2005). On a policy level, systems of wage compression do show evidence of narrowing the pay gap among genders and races. However, policymakers must consider potential implications for the labor market if any interventions are made, particularly in the context of Western economies which welcome a decentralized approach.
It is recommended that policy be directed towards guiding and supporting vulnerable groups into entering traditionally white and male sectors of the economy, facilitating participation, skills and qualifications, and retention in the labor market, while reducing barriers to entry. Supporting policies such as anti-discrimination legislation and investments in education and childcare can also contribute to progressive transitions in the labor market (Kahn 2015).
Conclusion
The issues of gender and racial pay gaps are prevalent in modern society and reward management. Despite having different origins and contexts, the manner that gender and racial inequalities are reflected in the labor market and wage distributions are ultimately similar. Wage structure has been identified as a primary driving factor in the formation of this gap as population groups experience both vertical and horizontal segregation. It is a particularly salient factor in Western economies that take a decentralized approach to wages. It is recommended that policies be enacted at both government and organizational levels to address disparities, facilitate entry and retention of women and racial minorities into new sectors, and engage in wage compression practices.
Reference List
AAUW 2018, The simple truth about the gender pay gap. Fall 2018 edition. Web.
Antecol, H & Bedard, K 2004, ‘The Racial Wage Gap: The Importance of Labor Force Attachment Differences across Black, Mexican, and White Men’, The Journal of Human Resources, vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 564-583.
Auspurg, K, Hinz, T & Sauer, C 2017, ‘Why should women get less? Evidence on the gender pay gap from multifactorial survey experiments’, American Sociological Review, vol. 82, no. 1, pp. 179-210.
Blau, FD & Kahn, LM 2003, ‘Understanding international differences in the gender pay gap’, Journal of Labor Economics, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 106-144.
Brynin, M & Güveli, A 2012, ‘Understanding the ethnic pay gap in Britain’, SAGE, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 574-587.
Castilla EJ 2015, ‘Accounting for the gap: a firm study manipulating organizational accountability and transparency in pay decisions’, Organization Science, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 311-333.
Healy, G & Ahamed, MM 2019, ‘Gender pay gap, voluntary interventions and recession: The case of the British financial services sector’, British Journal of Industrial Relations, vol. 57, no. 2, pp. 302-327.
McCall, L 2001, ‘Sources of racial wage inequality in metropolitan labor markets: racial, ethnic, and gender differences’, American Sociological Review, vol. 66, no. 4, pp. 520-541.
Rubery, J, Grimshaw D & Figueiredo, H 2005, ‘How to close the gender pay gap in Europe: towards the gender mainstreaming of pay policy’, Industrial Relations Journal, vol. 36, no. 3, pp. 184-213.
An article titled “I Just Gotta Have My Own Space!: The Bedroom as a Leisure Site for Adolescent Girls” talks about the comfort level of girls and the future confidence they grow up with. The article mentions several issues, body image, and a lack of standards and hard criteria are the major ones. There are also variations in the usage of terms and definitions.
The objectives of the evaluation itself are not as clear as they could be, as it is one of the unclear parts of the article. Another issue is the procedure and how the evaluation was conducted. The tools and methods that are used during the evaluation are key to a successful and precise outcome, but often, absence or lack of data and consensus between methods creates problems.
The situational and interpersonal variables change during the interviews and evaluation, so it is difficult to account for. The population consists of people who specialize in psychological views that determine the response and self-confidence of a large portion of the population (Kandy, 2001). The article is useful, as it is specific and detailed.
The bedroom is shown to be one of the places where a particular atmosphere is created. There is a clear linkage to the social aspects of the image, as a lot of girls are affected by ridicule towards their body image. The population is a part of the physical factors presented that determine how social imaging plays out. The article is focused on identifying the issues and outcomes, so it is rather useful.
The control factors are compared, as different public and private spaces have their particular meaning. For example, boys have more places they feel attributed to, so girls have to be more connected to their personal spaces, which are often bedrooms. The society has many influences, and the roles people play have a significant effect on the way society views media, which is another source of an image.
The theoretical perspectives and how the society is “moved” into a certain direction that is dictated by the social views, mixes with the unique nature of the popular culture and is what drives the society. The subliminal messages specifically target people who are easily influenced by pop culture and its negative side. Of course, there is also a cultural connection between personal feelings and others.
The interviews conducted helped to delve into the psyche of an adolescent who is bombarded by messages on social status. The difficulty in determining the cognitive-psychiatric reasons of why people resort to the reliance on the public view are analyzed, but the amount of issues and causes is very large, so there is a difficulty in the specific determinants.
Each case is unique, and the level or degree of the problem is sometimes hard to establish. Overall, the article is useful, but the focus limits evidence and data. The article looks at changing perceptions and shifting social standards. The comparison to previous studies and cases is made, as to isolate certain determining factors and conditions.
Behavior studies are taking a direct approach to produce long-term observations, to check for the development of people’s roles in a given society. The article is helpful as it explains the details from both psychological and biological perspectives.
Future solutions and changes are offered to suit better the population that is affected. It is very difficult for people to change cognitively and to support themselves so, social programs and help are necessary to address the issue. The article provides data that adds to the effectiveness and clarity of the presented material.
The modern world has brought about many changes in the way popular culture and image are created and interpreted within a public and private setting. It is also significant how the culture of a certain place is reflected in the views of others. Recently, people’s roles and the way they are manifested in society are critically observed by people. The media has a lot of influence on people’s demand for the types of images and styles.
Media and all its aspects are important to society, as it is one of the main information sources. It has many influences, and the roles people play, have a significant effect on the way society views media. Human beings are social creatures, spending a lot of time socializing, interacting, and participating in activities that involve others.
The way an adolescent life is represented adheres to several media principles and values, which are open-ended information transfers and specific representation of what took place. The outcome of the role players would have been different if the society had thought of other principles and judgment, which is sometimes, detrimental to people (Gatens, 1996).
When a society represents inappropriate views through making others feel less confident, it reinforces the predisposed roles that men and women have and so, will lead to further division. The most negative effect of culture will influence the younger generation. Young children will expect individuals to be a certain way and will repeat such behavior in schools.
References
Gatens, M. (1996). Imaginary Bodies: Ethics, Power & Corporeality. New York, NY: Routledge.
Kandy, J. (2001). I Just Gotta Have My Own Space!: The Bedroom as a Leisure Site for Adolescent Girls. Journal of Leisure Research 33(1), 71-90.
Research from the ancient years has shown an incredible increase in the levels of incarceration in the United States. It is proposed that the increase amounts to 44 percent. The increase in the incarceration rates is said to have exceeded the levels of crime. The incarceration rates have always been high in Canada as compared to the US. However, the rate was found to be constant especially in 1994 to 1996.
Some researchers have verified that the high detention of prisoners has relatively led to a reduction in the rates of crime. The impact of race, class or income inequality, as well as gender issues have been said to have an influence on the detention of individuals in jail.
The effects of these stratifications have been supported by various theories explained by different researchers. Most of these theories explain the increase in the rates of imprisonment as result of the increase in the levels of crime. The theories refer to many countries including the United States. Basing on the given assertions, the paper seeks to examine the social and economic dissimilarities in the American society.
This focuses on the class, gender as well as race among the Americans in terms of incarceration. These are issues explained in a sociological perspective. This paper therefore seeks to explain the similarities, differences and directions being taken in the future regarding to the impacts of race, class and gender to the incarceration rates between the USA and Canada basing on the existing historical information and other competing sociological theories.
According to the functionalist perspective, inequality has a general significant to the entire society. The assurance of higher payments acts as sources of motivation for individuals to be able to face risks, attain even difficult goals and challenge the existing ideas through exploration and innovation.
However, the functionalist mention on differences in ethnicities as contributors to incarceration in the United States. This is because ethnicity differences increase the consensus and cause a lot of conflicts and disagreements. The conflicts will result in fights thus increase in the crime activities which later leads to the increase in the levels of incarceration (Bornstein, 32).
Considering the (Intelligence Quotient) IQ theory in the United States of America, the IQ is the major base of argument. The difference in the rates of crime among individuals belonging to different races is as a result of the difference in the Intelligence Quotient between the races. This is supported by the data from (Barker, 24).
In this book, it is proved that in spite of the race, individuals who have their intelligence quotient between seventy and ninety have higher crime rates as compared to individuals who have their IQs either below or above this range. It should be noted that the peak range of IQ’s among people ranges from eighty to ninety. To support this claim, the IQs for individuals originating from different races are given; the African Americans have 85, the white Americans have 100 while the Asian Americans have 106.
The comparison of crime rates on the basis of races is to a great extent referred to the intelligent quotient. The increase in the rates of crime significantly leads to an increase in the number of individuals being detained in jail as a way of punishment for the crimes committed.
Racism on the basis of the ranges of IQs can be said to be one of the greatest exposure of individuals towards antisocial behaviors. However, the gap in the IQ between White Americans and African Americans is said to have reduced over the ancient years. Therefore, the differences in the IQ may not exist only if the environmental factors are put into consideration. The intelligence quotient basing on racial differences thus has an effect on the levels of incarceration in the United States (Provine, 15).
The critical race theory argues about racism being highly manifested in the officially permitted system as well as in the various performs of law in the American government. This theory was developed as a race reform practice. Despite of the various reforms that had been established, the racism practices were still legally practiced. These activities led to an increase in disparity of the incarceration rates.
The critical race theory points out that within the legal system of governance, a lot of African American men offenders were detained as opposed to the white men offender counterparts who were very few. This was done because the American African men were dominant in the American society. They were also feared by all the other persons in the American society thus being highly detained as compared to any other group in the United States of America (Gottschalk, 21).
According to the social perception of incarceration, the race and income inequality have impacts indirectly on the levels of punishment or rather incarceration. This perception is supported by the Durkheimian theory. This theory usually bases on the supposition that racial favoritism lowers the chances of an individual to access his rights.
These rights are channeled towards economic opportunities. Such activities enhance violence as well as criminal activities. These activities lead to the imprisonment of the concerned person. Considering the conflict theory, the financial inequalities and racial favoritism have not only direct but also indirect impacts on incarceration. These two variables tend to have a significant impact on incarceration when regulating the rates of crime.
The final impact is accredited to the economy and policies of the country. The nation emerges to be the most powerful and thus perceived to be a threat by other racially different groups of people. This is thus referred to as the cultural conflict theory. This theory on incarceration is a contrast to the Durkheimian theory.
Basing on the economic perspective of incarceration, the huge amounts of individuals who are languishing in poverty in the United States of America are attributable to the higher levels of incarceration in the country.
Similarly, basing on the cultural theory, United States persons are full of individualism in the view of judgments and policies. This results in the formation of more disciplinary norms that are responsible for our higher rates of incarceration. I will therefore clarify our individualistic cultural practices permits for the high levels of poverty which later results to the increase n the levels of incarceration.
This is explained on the basis of gender differences. The permit to allow women to take part in only home chores by our culture makes them susceptible to poverty. Women taking fewer jobs in the United States as a result of marriage and pregnancy always get paid less. The belief in our culture that men are the ones to engage in more dangerous occupations while working brings about the gender wage gap.
Women are thus more likely to be poor in the United States as compared to men. Our culture explains men as being superior to women. This allowance is attributable to the increase in the levels of domestic violence. Domestic violence is viewed by the law as a criminal activity. The increase in the rates of domestic violence causes a corresponding increase in the rates of incarceration in the United States.
Still on the cultural theory, the individualistic norms that are set in the United States are attributable to the increase in the rate of incarceration. The culture here plays a major responsibility in promotion of inequality among individuals on the basis of discrimination.
This is based in the fact that individuals from a certain separate ethnic or racial minority are denied access to certain jobs. As a result, only the minority groups of individuals are expected to be poor. For instance, individuals who were black Americans were denied access to certain jobs which were later given to the white Americans.
The hopelessness and poverty among this group of individuals prompts them to engage in some other activities of expelling poverty which are related to crime. The criminal activities lead to the increase in the levels of incarceration. In addition to this, the unequal methods of awarding jobs as well as unequal payment of workers increases violence related activities. This leads to imprisonment of innocent individuals who are trying claim for their rights. All these are as a result of inequality brought about on cultural basis.
The rates of incarceration are said to be higher in the United States as compared to Canada. From a cross-sectional research within a period of one year, a positive relationship was discovered between the crime rates and the incarceration rates. Thus the increase in the crime rates leads to a corresponding increase in the rates of imprisonment. The United States of America was discovered to be experiencing more serious crimes that land individuals into incarceration.
The serious crimes include violent crimes and homicides. A distinguishing factor in Canada from the United States is that in this country, the criminal law which is the same across the country is administered on the basis of provinces. The incarceration and reporting schemes in this country are comparatively alike. This has a significant effect to imprisonment. The evaluation of incarceration in Canada is thus perfect and clear as compared to that performed in the United States.
Incarceration has a negative impact on the future employment of the concerned individual in the United States. This is because most individuals who move out of jail never want to be considered in any given job. In various companies, individuals who are released from jail are never allowed to retain their former jobs.
In addition to this, the detention of individuals in jail reduces the working force. This is especially affecting the United States of America. This is because a larger number of America’s population has been imprisoned. This does not affect individuals from Canada. This is because Canada’s population has a higher number of youths.
Generally, the conflict theory which explains the incarceration rate on the basis of racial description encompasses many theories. Crime is explained as an unavoidable outcome of a conflict that may emerge between to groups of individuals within a society.
These two groups of individuals may be in competition on the basis of financial class, religious conviction differences, economic status, racial and ethnicity indifferences. The crimes can be evaded immediately the structure of a particular group of individuals is changed.
According to the Marxism criminology, the issue of capital differences is emphasized as the major cause of crimes. Basically, social class is usually brought about by the financial status. In this theory, crimes are explained on the economic basis. Basing on the perspective of incarceration economically, individuals within the society who lack certain goods have a mentality of snatching from others.
These results into activities related to crime thus most individuals are detained in jail. In this theory, the aspect of social conflict is emphasized where in the presence of stiff competition for goods within the society among individuals, equality is always strived to be achieved. This leads to an increase in the criminal activities thus increase in incarceration (Roberg, 16).
In order to counteract the number of individuals being detained in jail, the government of the United States of America is trying to come up with effectual programs of rehabilitation in order to lessen the probability of individuals engaging themselves in criminal activities. First of all is the offense risk or risk principle where persons who are known for committing crimes regularly are detained in jail for additional hours.
The second principle is the needs principle where the government is to the troubles and necessities that have forced some of the offenders to take part in criminal activities. The third principle is the cognitive behavioral technique which is aimed at modifying the actions and deeds of the offenders. The offering of rehabilitation programs will help in reducing the chances of individuals facing the probable factors that lead them to engaging in criminal activities. The widely known problem is the personal plus family related problems.
Canada having one of the highest numbers of youth is already taking steps to decrease youth imprisonment. They have taken responsibility to offer the youth with resources within the community and guide them on various ways to avoid engaging in criminal activities.
They are generally focusing on social interventions such as rehabilitation programs as the ones mentioned above. Others include offering education at their early stages of development, counteracting violent behavior, offering employment opportunities and positive parenting.
In conclusion, the culture is contributing a lot to high numbers of incarceration cases in both this two countries. To ensure that the large cases of incarceration are reduced, the governments in both countries, (the US and Canada) should make a follow up to ensure that the bad cultures enhancing weird behaviors such as violence are done away with. Individuals should be encouraged too to venture in this field by inventing new techniques to counteract the increasing criminal activities that lead to incarceration.
Works Cited
Barker, Vanessa. The Politics of Imprisonment: How the Democratic Process Shapes the Way America Punishes Offenders. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1998. Print.
Bornstein, David. How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2007. Print.
Gottschalk, Marie. The prison and the gallows: The politics of mass incarceration in America. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2006. Print.
The term queer was earlier on used to denote degradation. It is surprising that today the term to signify affirmation; be it present or future. The term was used to as a slur especially when referring to unacceptable sexual activity. Today it is used as a symbol of normalization.
In the case where performativity is linked to the discourses ability to produce the named then power assumes the role of discourse in the performative domain. The performativity view has implications that discourses usually have a history which precedes and conditions its current use.
Queer as a term has been used to shame the named subject. The term derives its force from an invocation that is repeated and it has been linked to accusation and insult. The term has for instance been used to refer to those who embrace habits or do actions that are considered taboo and are therefore perceived to be traversing the established norms of a particular social setting a good example being the practicing of homosexuality or lesbianism (Butler 223).
The term carries with it pain together with social injury. The deconstruction of such a term however needs not to paralyze its use but to extend the range of its usage. There is a necessity for temporary tantalization to be done by the identity categories.
The term queer is supposed to be taken as an affiliation term as much as it is not supposed to holistically describe what it purports. There has been an increase in gay and lesbian activism activities which are usually aimed at drawing the public’s attention to this group of people as they claim to have been neglected and their rights abused as well.
This has contributed to the recontextualization of the term from being a humiliating concept to something that needs to be given the necessary attention. It had initially carried with it a homophobic perception, although this perception has gradually faded due to the fact that the term has acquired a new meaning and perception.
The naming of a young male as ‘boy’ is intrinsic in the sense that it carries with it the symbolic power. It carries with it the perception of masculinity as much as it may not approximate the norm fully. Masculinity therefore a forcible norm citation and it is not a product of choice. And it carries with it some historical aspects. The gender performativity issues needs to be given thought again. Within queer politics for instance, the term queer has been given a new significance in that it is now used to refer to sexual legitimacy.
Masculinity or femininity cannot just be ascribed to the inside dispositions of someone which are psychic and ego-centered. There are cases where women adapt men’s psychic and ego-centered traits. A good example can be derived from the movie ‘The Aggressives,’ where women take up the psychic as well the ego traits of men and view the world in a masculine point of view as opposed to the feminine.
They strive to express themselves in a way that suits them. At the same time it cannot just be ascribed to the outside dispositions of appearance. This is because there are those women who would rather dress and appear like men than women as in the case of lesbians. They would rather put on the male pants and even some go to the level of even suppressing their breasts just to appear like men. This is evident in ‘The Aggressives.’
The truth about gender performance is not purely restrained to the performed part. In fact what is performed tends to conceal whatever remains opaque, that which is unconscious or even what cannot be performed. Performability cannot therefore be reduced to performance alone; instead it is supposed to consider the appearance as well as the significance. It has to be significant and legible.
The notion of someone being a gay or lesbian has been viewed in contempt and to some extend it still is. People have preoccupied themselves with how heterosexism and homophobia works and not how homosexuality works. There are several heterogeneous ways of thinking about sexuality, social dynamics, consciousness, personhood among others.
All these are in a way related to the issue of queerness and gender yet they are not just centered on sexual differences. There is an argument that human life needs to be to be based gender prejudice as most psychoanalysis and philosophies do. It has however been deduced by feminists and queers through vigilant scanning that topics and psychoanalytic areas are not immune to gender reification influence.
Efforts are being made especially by contemporary writers and even through other forms of art like movies, to loosen the traumatic link that exists between humiliation and the mistakes. This is due to the fact that when much queer energy is channeled in the wrong way, it will make mistakes to appear as though they were sexy and admirable hence giving a wrong impression to others.
There are many movies like ‘The Aggressives,’ which portrays lesbianism in a very attractive and even admirable way. Women take on the roles, appearance, and dressing styles of men. Lesbian characters have been rosily portrayed in a way that one gets attracted and admires them (Peddle 79). Such work could have been significantly criticized in the past although today it is applauded, loved and even emulated by many (Sedwick 123).
Issues of gender have undergone significant scrutiny not just in the resent years but the past. There was a time when for instance transsexuals were perceived as people whose aim was to invade and abuse the nature and power of womanhood. Transexualism was by then not accorded a disorder status.
It was seen as traversing women’s territory. The issue of gender identification as much as it may seem easy usually meets with a lot of binary opposition. Those men who have for instance been characterized with transexualism have been perceived to be destructing the issue of performative gender. They are viewed as unhappy men who seek to become unambiguous women as they seek to change their identification from men to women at times through sex change surgery or what is commonly known as gender reassignment (Stone 223).
It becomes a very complicated matter to try to assign such a person who has undergone the sex change surgery the appropriate. People are confused about whether to make reference to that person by the new gender or by the old gender by which the person has been known in the past. It may also be a very tricky task to assign gender people who are borne with the two sexes at the same time or the bisexual. The gender aspects are therefore more than the physical or the performative aspects.
Works Cited
Butler, Judith. Critically Queer. New York: Routledge, 1999. Print.
Peddle, Daniel. The aggressive. Documentary. Washington: Amazon, 2005. Print.
Sedwick, Eve. Paranoid reading and reparative reading. Touching (2003): 123-51
Stone, Sandy. The empire strikes back: a posttransexual manifesto. Transgenders Studies Reader, (1991): 221-235