Miles Harrington, Period 8 5/5/22

 Miles Harrington Period 8 05/05/2022

Modern Mythology 2022

Socio-political Consciousness

What are your thoughts and feelings about issues of inequity, oppression, and/or power?

What is a woman? Well, if you were to do a quick google search you’d find that a woman is supposedly “an adult female human being”. But, if one were to observe how the term woman is actually employed, this definition appears incredibly impractical and detached from society’s unspoken verdict on the word's correct usage. In reality, the typical individual tends to refer to someone’s appearance to determine if they are in fact a woman or not, often searching for stereotypical gender signifiers to make this unconscious assertion. This is because people aren’t able to identify someone’s sex at a glance, and since most find it inconvenient to ask for that information before guessing if a person is a woman or not, it’s clear that sex isn’t the primary indication of gender. Furthermore, transgender women that “pass” and appear to be female are able to navigate society as women and are perceived as such by those around them, confirming the reality that most people don’t actually base their gendered assessment of others on sex. So does this mean that women are just people that look like women to those around them? Well no, I wouldn’t say that’s entirely accurate either. For example, it’s not uncommon for transgender women who don’t pass, whether by choice or not, to still be treated as women by those in their life because others know that the individual in question identifies as a woman. Moreover, there are even cisgender women (usually queer cisgender women) who don’t fit society’s perceived notion of what a woman should look like, as they display either masculine physical features or mannerisms. Although they don’t embody stereotypical feminine traits, these women are still regarded as women because it’s what they personally identify as and others around them are aware of this. With all this in mind, should we then define womanhood based on a mixture of self identification and the way society perceives someone? Maybe, it’s hard to say. Instead, try defining whether a hotdog is a sandwich for a second. Or try stating for certain if cereal is a type of soup. Similarly to our initial inquiry surrounding gender, these questions seem almost impossible to answer using a concrete definition.

Alternatively, I find it more insightful to ask why one would want to define what a woman is in the first place. Often certain feminists groups assert that there absolutely must be a solid definition of woman so it could clearly be mapped out who is affected by misogynistic systems and who is instead the oppressor, the enemy. They base their need for answers on fear, a need to know who is safe and who needs to be avoided to prevent mistreatment or abuse. But what needs to be understood is that most definitions of woman are faulty in this regard too, because a definition based on sex excludes intersex people affected by misogyny, a definition based on appearance excludes certain females whose reproductive rights are threatened by misogynistic systems, and while a definition based on identification rightfully excludes trans men from womanhood, they too are targets of sexist institutions. Ironically, certain self-identified feminists sometimes even hold up misogynistic ideals in their quest to define what a woman is, as they end up defining women by their ability to rear children. Through adopting this reductive

 definition, it centers womanhood around motherhood, and thus women would be intrinsically reliant on men to fulfill the role of woman as they wouldn’t be able to have children without them.

So what is the conclusion to draw from this? Personally, I don’t know how I would define woman, and I think it’s likely impossible for anyone to do so with complete certainty. Due to this ambiguity, I feel as though it would be immoral and oppressive to force a universal definition of womanhood onto women, rather, I believe individual women should be free to define what womanhood means to them. After all, historically women have never been able to decide for themselves who they were, as they were always seen and defined in relation to men. Thus, I find the most satisfying and freeing system allows for choice over one’s identity and the reasoning behind it rather than a strictly unified definition.

How do you reflect critically on your own beliefs, assumptions, values, and experiences, and how these can influence your perception of self and others?

What is a man? As one would assume, I’m just as incapable of defining man as I am of defining woman. But, I discovered that what I have been able to do is detect patterns in the way most men choose to define manhood, patterns that are popularly upheld despite the grief they cause both men and women alike. Most often I find that men maintain this unconscious belief that men are everything that women are not, and any actions even reminiscent of women are a threat to one’s masculinity. For example, when men dare display feelings of sadness, they are told to “stop crying like a little girl” or when men fight poorly they are told they “punch like a girl”. Over time this creates a negative association between certain actions and femininity, imploring men to avoid any behavior that could be seen as womanly out of fear of ostracization or harassment. Relating this to my own experiences, I sometimes observe that transgender men, in the pursuit of passing as men, will adopt this toxic idea of manhood and try to distance themselves from womanhood as much as possible. While these actions are understandable considering these men believe they are necessary to pass to secure comfort and safety, this mindset very often leads to misogynistic behavior and personal grief over feeling like one has to denounce certain things they may enjoy just because they may be feminine. While I’ve become much more secure in my masculinity with time, I myself have struggled in a similar way, as I used to feel as though I had to change my hobbies and style in order to avoid being mistaken for a woman. But in a more overarching sense, I feel what I most struggle with is creating a healthy masculine ideal that I can aspire to while in a society that pushes a harmful definition of masculinity. It seems many other men are frustrated by the same issue, often being told that the masculinity they are chasing is toxic, but not being provided with a healthier alternative. Overall I am optimistic though, as it seems more and more men are coming to acknowledge the faults in our modern definition of masculinity. Just as I encourage people to define gender identity for themselves, I hope men begin to cultivate a new form of masculinity, one that brings about positivity and security rather than harm.