Socially
Constructed Differences
If
one is cisgendered, with gender identity matching the societal assigned gender,
one is privileged to live in a world of normal expectations. On the other hand, a transgendered person
faces every day with challenges that change with each new situation. Navigating the public forum is fraught with
occasions that are uncomfortable, or even criminal, since gendered privilege
dominates the environment. The bathroom use issues in N. Carolina come to mind.
Living in a body easily recognized as either male or female does not oppose
dominant ideology. Therefore, as Evin Taylor says, when one is cisgendered a
person “generally needs to spend less energy to be understood by others (94)”. Culturally
established hegemony drives politics and institutions.
1. Poverty: In the absence of a way to understand the
structure of society based on classism, discontented people look for
scapegoats. Women and the poor are especially vulnerable. Poverty has created a
class of females who work more than one job and still cannot achieve the level
of men who are paid more. (98) This is problematic in many organizations which
may fire employees for merely sharing pay check information. Yeskel says, “…being
poorer or richer than others leads to secrecy and silence (99)”. She adds, “By definition it is impossible to
have equality between classes while still having classes (99)”.
2. Disabled: Susan Wendel says, “…the biological and
the social are interactive in creating disability (101)”. Standards of
normality lead to social construct which excludes full participation in society.
Expectations of performance give rise to the identity of being inadequate, and
therefore disposable, if not one of the superior abled individuals. Society’s failure to protect the vulnerable
from wars, disease, and many other elements, creates the inequity of persons unable
to physically measure up to a norm. Social factors that allow high risk working
conditions, contaminated environments and poverty contribute to increasing numbers
of disabled persons. Improved medical care results in partially abled survivors
instead of deaths. Wendell includes the elderly, “since more people live long
enough to become disabled (102)”. Disability is not merely a question of
physical access but is also a construct of the mind.
3. Patricia Hill Collins, writing in “Toward a New
Vision”, points out that the interlocking nature of race, class and gender is
an essential element in analyzing the true nature of social relationships
following the legacy of slavery in America. (p74) This intersectionality begins with understanding the overarching hegemony
of white male privilege that affects women, both white and black, and the many
poor who lack agency and a voice. Collins says, “Widespread, societally
sanctioned ideologies used to justify relations of domination and subordination
comprise the symbolic dimension of oppression (74)”. This means that dominant
groups apply universal categories to those viewed in order to push them away
and diminish their status. The dominant force in America is white and male. If
you are a white woman, you are lesser in status to prevailing white male
privileged patriarchy. If you are a black man, a black woman or poor, you rank
even lower. The English language privileges the masculine form in discourse in
spite of cultural changes which now see women in gender roles formerly held by
men. This creates a need for gender neutral terms like “mailperson”. Symbolic values make shortcuts that can ease
everyday challenges but this perspective of stereotyping does not lend itself
to analysis and objectivity. There must be equilibrium. For example: like a
metaphoric seesaw, superior images of white womanhood must be balanced by
lesser images of black women. (74) To correct this stereotyping,
intersectionality increases awareness of privilege and prejudice and opens up
multiple perspectives. Intersectionality enables an individual’s experience to connect
and interact with another. Walking in
another’s moccasins has never been more applicable.
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