WMNST 105N Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Androcentrism, Essentialism
Document Summary
Feminine and female as concepts cannot exist without masculine and male. Opposition between masculinity and femininity is cross-cultural. Masculinity against femininity as discrete and opposite categories. The privileging of males, male experience, and the male perspective, which leads to defining woman as the other. Investigation into how temperatures for air conditioning are determined in public workplaces. Using the male body as the standard. Rationalizes and legitimates gender polarization and androcentrism by treating them as the natural and inevitable consequences of the intrinsic biological natures of women and men. Biological and physiological sex determines who you are as a person and dictates your destiny. Delink maleness and femaleness from their corresponding constellation of traits, jobs, expectations, and limitations that are associated with masculinity and femininity. Biology alone does not determine personality, weaknesses, strengths, talents, likes, and dislikes. Reject the idea that all things feminine or female are devalued.
