Fri, Jul 04, 2008

User login

David Strauss


A few notes on gender-flipping

It's not really fair to flip the genders in a statement because they're not just variables, they're imbued with context:

(1) "As a woman, I feel my competition against males in the workplace is handled unfairly."

(2) "As a man, I feel my competition against women in the workplace is handled unfairly."

The first statement implies a sort of glass ceiling for women, given the history of discrimination. The second statement isn't so clear: it could be implying that he's aware of discrimination against women or that he's against something like an affirmative action policy.

And this isn't just an issue of history: psychological profiles vary. When we judge someone for expressing a sexual intention, we judge them by how we expect them to pursue that intention (in addition to other ways). The author of the book clearly has a gentleness and calm the reader gathers from the surrounding pages, versus, from the example, some random guy saying he wants to fuck a girl and her sister. So, what do we expect this random American guy to do in pursuit of the sisters? What would we expect of the author? Hint: only one involves roofies.

And, yes, I'm aware that the change in meaning draws on its own stereotypes, but it is not the book that has created them.





Reply

  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <i> <strong> <strike> <b> <cite> <code> <u> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <p> <br> <img> <blockquote>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Images can be added to this post.

More information about formatting options

Captcha
This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Copy the characters (respecting upper/lower case) from the image.