Introduction
People live based on collective identity and It's defined by conditions where they are. Their behaviors and decisions in their life are at least subconsciously influenced by such an identity like age, class, race, religion and so forth. They often act to be a certain way as dictated by the culture. But sometimes those collective identities are regarded as harmful because they could suppress individuals by forcing them to assimilate and attack them physically and psychologically.
Gender is also one of those factors, which have influenced people’s behaviors. We sometimes have gender as an identity and we have many ideas about how we expect men and women to dress and behave in a society and we often follow those norms." For example, girls and women are generally expected to dress in typically feminine ways and be polite, accommodating, and nurturing. Men are generally expected to be strong, aggressive, and bold. "(Planned Parenthood, n.d.) .
Recently, however, some people have criticized the definition itself of how to live as women or men. They say the predetermined idea of how women or men should be is suppressing some people in a fixed way. In the field of feminism, the idea of patriarchalism was suggested as one example of the suppression. The idea that women should take care of the children, cook, and clean the home, while men take care of finances and work creates the structure of men's superiority over women(Planned Parenthood, n.d.). So, the fixed prejudice of how women should be can be harmful from that perspective.
In addition, there is another criticism on masculinity. As mentioned above, men are also sometimes suppressed by men’s stereotypes of being strong, aggressive and bold. The stereotypes can give men psychological problems and cause men’s violent behaviors against others(American Psychological Association, 2018 *3). Some people called such harmful masculine images as "Toxic Masculinity". According to Maya Salam (2019), “researchers have defined it, in part, as a set of behaviors and beliefs that include the following:
1,Suppressing emotions or masking distress
2,Maintaining an appearance of hardness
3,Violence as an indicator of power (think: “tough-guy” behavior)”
These suppressions can cause bad behaviors. Actually in the U.S., it’s said the fact “men represent more than 90 percent of perpetrators of criminal violence and 78 percent of the victims” (American Psychological Association, 2018 *4) may be related to the problems of masculinity.
In summary, we need some identity to survive, but contemporary studies indicate some definitions of identities are harmful. So, we are compelled to rebuild its value systems now so that everyone can identify themselves securely. In these sections to follow, first we clarify what Gender is like and its more specific influences on us. Then we will search for an alternative identity to the traditional gender values.
Gender (Femininity and Masculinity)
Gender is related to femininity and masculinity by society(Aono, Morinaga & Toi, 2005). According to American Psychological Association, “Gender refers to psychological, social and cultural experiences and characteristics associated with the social statuses of girls and women or boys and men, whereas sex refers to biological aspects of being male or female. Gender includes assumptions, social beliefs, norms, and stereotypes about the behavior, cognitions, and emotions of males and females(Peck, 1981, 1995)”(American Psychological Association, 2018 *3).
John Money, a psychologist, sexologist specializing in research into sexual identity and biology of gender, also said “gender is personal, social and legal statuses of masculinity or femininity based on inclusive, meaningful and behavioral standards rather than mere external genitals".(Chikako Ogura, 2001 my translation p,54) .
For example, color reflects gender stereotypes as the characteristics of femininity or masculinity. In Japanese elementary schools, boys tend to use Black randoseru, while girls tend to use Red randoseru. And there is another custom where worm colors are men’s ones while cold colors are women’s ones, which is often seen in the picture of infants. (Aono, Morinaga and Toi, 2001). Actually two companies in Japan use Red and Black as the image of randoseru though it’s not declared which is for girls or boys.
Figure 1 : 2021 Takashimaya no randoseru
Talashimaya Online Store.
Figure 2 : Sudou Regular satchel lineup of Rndoseru.
As mentioned above, gender is influenced and made by external society, so its stereotypes and identities based on it are also easily changeable according with age and place (American Psychological Association, 2018 *3) because they are particular ones which reflect changeable society and cultures.
Negative aspects of Gender identities
Gender has an aspect of social stereotypes and expectations which decide how males or females should be. In many societies, females have been required to nurture children, cook, clean the home and be obedient while men have been required to be strong, rich, competent, and active. (Aono, Morinaga & Toi, 2001). In this section, based on the definition of gender in the last section, the negative aspects are present.
First these stereotypes could justify the structure of the suppression of males over females. “Glass Ceiling”(Benshop, Y. 2009) is the term for the structural problems. “It is embraced as a metaphor…to account for the lack of women in top positions, and…it refers to ‘invisible or artificial barriers that prevent women (and people of color) from advancing past a certain level’ (Morrison et al., 1987) …the glass ceiling applies to women as a group who are kept from advancing higher because they are women(Morrison et al., 1987: 13)”(Benshop, Y. 2009) .
Figure 3 : Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Glass Ceiling and Mommy track, females’ shine best on numbers.
Aono, Morinaga and Toi(2005) demonstrated the stereotypes that mens are more likely to be regarded as leaders. The author asked the viewers who is a leader in the group of the picture. The author said if the group was only consisted of females, the viewers would choice the woman sitting in the center of the table, but in the mixed group of males and female as presented below, the decision made in the last experiment would be easily changeable. The author said this result suggests women are less likely to be regarded as a leader and it builds the structure of men’s superiority and leads to the suppression of women in a society.
Figure 4 : the image created by Aono, Morinaga and Toi in reference to Unger & Crawford. (1996). Women and Gender.
Second, boys and men also sometimes feel pressured to conform to social hegemonic masculinity. They “experience gender role strain when they
a) deviate from or violate gender role norms of masculinity
b) try to meet or fail to meet norms of masculinity
c) experience discrepancies between real and ideal self-concepts based on gender role stereotypes
d) personally devalue, restrict, or violate themselves
e) experience personal devaluations, restrictions, or violations from others
f) personally devalue, restrict, or violate others because of gender role stereotypes.(Pleck 1995)”(American Psychological Association, 2018 *3 p,2).
Concretely “dominant masculinity was historically predicted on the exclusion of men who were not White, heterosexual, cisgender, able-bodied, and privileged…So boys and men who are gay, bisexual, transgender, or intellectually, psychiatrically, or physically disabled may be the targets of various forms of prejudice and micro aggressions and often experience conflicts between dominant and minority views of masculinity. … Research has demonstrated the more boys violate norms of masculinity, the more verbal and physical abuse they may face from peers. These experiences may lead to mental health problems, including depressive systems, self-injury and suicidality.” (American Psychological Association, 2018*3 p,6,7).
Additionally, “traditional masculinity ideology discourages men from being intimate with others and is the primary reason men tend to have fewer close friends that women; this is particularly evident in all-male peer groups. Because of the pressure to comfort to traditional masculinity ideology, some men shy away from directly expressing their vulnerable feelings and prefer building connection through physical activities, talking about external matters(e.g., sports, politics, work), engaging in “good-natured ribbing” (American Psychological Association, 2018 *3 p,11).
As mentioned above, traditional gender stereotypes and its identities are so harmful for individuals and others, so it’s important to search for alternative identity norm which is secure and suitable for them.
Constructionism vs Essentialism
In this easy so far gender has been regarded as constructed by society, however it’s valuable focusing on opposing position. That is we have to ensure whether gender norms are really built by society artificially after our birth. There is a possibility that they are born naturally, not acquired. Discussing it is important to search for the alternative identity form because if a characteristic of gender is decided naturally, it’s so difficult to change people’s attitudes toward traditional gender and replace the characteristic to something newer and better. That is, it would be hard to tackle the problems socially because it’s not about society. In this case, it has been very controversial between two opposing positions; Constructionists vs Essentialists, whether characteristics of females and males are constructed artificially or born naturally.
The field of medicine is a stronghold of essentialism where it’s argued that human behaviors are decided by their gene, so gender and sexuality are consisted of biological substance(Ogura, 2001). For example, Robin Baker, a science writer, argued in “Sex in the Future” homosexuality is basically a genetic character.” (Ogura, 2001 my translation p,193) Additionally he said “homosexual gene could be removed from spermatozoa and an ovum by about 2075.” (Ogura, 2001 my translation p,193).
But in psychology of feminism, feminists have denied essentialism from the perspective of constructionism. They argued it’s wrong to regard sex and sexuality as natural or transhistorical. They have a history, that is, they are constructed by a particular society, not something universal.(Ogura, 2001).
As mentioned above there is counterarguments against constructionism on gender, but according to Chikako Ogura(2001), now constructionism assumes the hegemony in the field of gender. So, when tackling physical and psychological problems of gender norms based on constructionism, people have to rethink and rebuild how gender identity should be constructed next. But there are other problems in this attempt.
Problems of rebuilding gender norms based on Constructionism
There are two negative aspects of constructionism when trying to create new identity forms based on it.
First, constructionism could undermine the value of identity. In constructionism, gender identity is regarded as constructed, not natural, but the idea something is constructed could lead us to the conclusion that something constructed can be changeable and destroyed. In this sense identity is fragile enough not to help people believe certainly.
In the first place, identity is indispensable for us to survive because without it we can’t identify ourselves in the world. Moreover, without it, we can’t find the purpose of life. As Paulo Freire said “only through communication can human life hold meaning”, only by finding ourselves in the relationship with others, namely by identifying oneself, we can find the meaning of life.(Freire, 2005 p,77). So, ultimately constructionism could make us completely stray, which could cause enough severe psychological problems not to live as a human being. Erikson said “In the social jungle of human existence, there is no feeling of being alive without a sense of identity”.(The mirror project, n.d.).
Second problem is the possibility that it’s inevitable to avoid the suppression or discrimination based on gender. When a society keeps denying traditional and hegemonic gender identity norms, gender identities would end up the ones decided by individual because any process of following already existing identities as group have the possibility of forcing some people to comfort to hegemonic identities as toxic masculinity have done. So, the right to decide what identity is good would be attributed to individuals as constructionism of gender spread into society.
But individuals can create their own identity alone? As long as people live with others and “only through communication can human life hold meaning” (Freire, 2005 p,77), identity is also created collectively in a culture?
In this case, Erikson gave hints to understand the relationship between building identity and others. “The growing child must derive a vitalizing sense of reality from the awareness that his individual way of mastering experience(his ego synthesis) is a successful variant of a group identity(Erikson, 1980 p,21)
” and “Ego identity, then, in its subjective aspect, is the awareness of the fact that there is a selfsameness and continuity..and that these methods are effective in safeguarding the sameness and continuity of one’s meaning for others.”(Erikson, 1980 p,22).
Additionally he argued “It is here that ego concepts must close a gap. We must find the nexus of social images and of organismic forces… the mutual complementation of ethos and ego, of group identity and ego identity,”(Erikson, 1980 p,22,23).
As he mentioned, building some identity requires the existence of others and culture, so ultimately people can’t create it alone. Strictly speaking, in the process of building identity people more or less have to find a group, whether it’s minority or majority, which appreciates their personality or individuality. In this sense, in the world there should be necessarily many groups from different values and cultures. And ontologically, when finding oneself in a group, the one has to assume people outside the group. But if two groups have contradictory values, they could fight against each other and it could happen one could suppress the other. So, even if we adopt constructionism to gender issues, we couldn’t escape from the suppression or discrimination of one against the other though it’s not only related to constructionism,
In summery, tackling gender problems, especially the suppression of hegemonic gender identity, and thinking about building alternative identity to traditional one, we are faced with two problems. First identity could become unsteady enough not to believe because it could be destroyed just as traditional one is so. Second discrimination or suppression of others could be inevitable because people have to make a group to build identities. And they could be incompatible.
Searching for new identities
As mentioned above, there are problems on gender identities. First, hegemonic masculinity and femininity could force people to comfort to the stereotype and cause consequent problems. According to Erikson, when young people can’t find their identity which is suitable for them and are in the stage of “identity diffusion”(Erikson, 1980 p,94), “to keep themselves together they temporarily overidentify…On the other hand, they become remarkably clannish, intolerant, and cruel in their exclusion of other who are “different”, in skin color or cultural background, in tastes and gifts, and often in entirely pretty aspects of dress and gesture arbitrarily selected as the signs of an in-grouper or out-grouper. ”(Erikson, 1980 p,97). So, repeatedly it’s important not to force “inexorable standardization”(Erikson, 1980 p,97) on people because it could mislead them to be too resistant against the hegemonic identity and have psychological problems, rather to help people, especially youths, find sexual and gender identity which is secure and favorite for them. It can avoid them to lose identity.
To meet the end, first society should prepare and be tolerant to various kinds of gender identities about masculinities and femininities. It’s necessary that society has enough capacity to include different people to avoid any suppression. Specifically, even if some identities contradict one another, people should be tolerant to them. In this case “aufheben” can be a key term to become tolerant to different values. If apparently two things are contradictory values, by sublating them we can appreciate each other. For example, about sexuality some man thinks all men should like women while another man thinks some men like men. It’s apparently incompatible, but it’s can be sublated to the idea it’s natural and good to love someone itself. In this way the opposing sides can reach to the agreement by sublating them to the abstract idea.
Additionally, if traditional meaning of being males or females are denied, people should keep thinking about what being males or females means again. How fragile such an identity is, we can’t escape from thinking about it because “It is difficult to be tolerant if deep down you are not quite sure that you are a man (or a woman),,that you really know who you are”(Erikson, 1980 p,98).
So, we have to go on a difficult journey of searching for new identity norms which are valuable believing certainly and suitable for every individual and in harmony with others’ ones.
Resources
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Figure
1)Takashimaya online Store 2021. Retrieved January 7, 2020, from https://www.takashimaya.co.jp/shopping/gift/story/babykids/A18190/
2)Sudou. Retrieved January 7, 2020, from https://randoseru.tokyo
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