Inkwell Institute
Professor’s Classroom
Subject: Political Theory/Feminism/
Paper #19
It would be difficult to try and teach political theory without injecting gender into the mix…..in today’s world gender and politics is as important as any other issue and if one looks at the most recent primaries then you can understand why I make such a statement……women are coming of age, especially in the GOP which in the past had been a cultural wasteland for women candidates….all that is changing and we need to see what it will mean in the future…..
In the US the Democratic Party has long held that women are very viable candidates, but it has not been so with the GOP in the past…but today’s political climate is giving conservative women an outlet for their political ambitions….especially on the shirt tails of the Tea Party…..this can only increase the democrat process…but in today’s political sphere there are a few philosophies about gender….personally, I like the idea of more gender diversification in politics….
But different philosophies view gender in very different lights……not all view it in a positive way….and some even see it a the hue of the Cro-Magnon man…..
I will begin with Liberals (I know I also begin with Liberals) who have traditionally viewed differences between man and woman as being a personal and private significance. In politics, all people, regardless of gender, are equal….gender is irrelevant as is race and social class.
Conservatives have emphasized the social and political significance of gender divisions and argue that the sexual division of labor between men and women is natural and hierarchical.
And now the Socialists…..like liberals have seldom treated gender as politically significant….they view the divisions between men and women as a reflection of deeper problems with economic and class inequalities.
Everybody’s a/hole the Fascists who see gender as a fundamental division of mankind, where men are naturally the leaders, while women are more suited for domestic, supportive and subordinate roles. (No wonder these guys have little success)
Feminists also see gender as a political and social distinction, but see these divisions are manifestations of male power, otherwise there is NO distinction….
Now my fav, the Religious Right who regard gender as a God-given division and as such is critical to social and political organization. So with that said, they tend to see the leadership by men as natural and desirable. (Silly people that they are)
We could carry on with this discussion of gender and politics, but that would take a whole semester and then we would be where we were when I began this post. I realize that my definitions are short, sweet and overly simple but unfortunately that is the way people think and I try to be accurate as I can and as informative as I can in the least amount of space……enjoy…..
Well, it depends on what you really mean by the question – yes gender is specific in everything, whether is matters or not is a different question. Personally, I think it does matter, but whether the results are good or bad is to my mind in the lap of the gods – and I don’t believe in them.
I suppose at the most inane level, it’s good. Apart from anything else, all those “undecided” male voters can go for the one with the biggest tits – it’s a reason, if not a very valid one.
More realistically, the subject begins to get expremely complex. That starts with the fact that anyone (male or female) who thinks that men and women think similarly, or that their normal everyday mental processes are in any way shape or form like each other, clearly knows nothing whatsoever about their opposite sex. Of course there are exceptions to every generality, but that holds true for the vast majority of men and women. I make no judgement or criticism there of either sex – it’s just a fact.
In truth, if you are going to say that in order to represent society fairly, you should have approximately equal numbers of men and women in an administration, then you would also have to consider male and female homosexuals as well as bisexuals and probably hermaphrodites too, so I kind of think that’s a non-starter, but a more representative mix is usually considered to be more democratic, though I have my doubts.
However, to further complicate the issue, there is also the fact that the so-called “hockey mom” approach to politics does undoubtedly appeal to a large section of voters, even if the results of that are more than a little unrealistic to be polite about it.
The REAL issue at the moment is, I think, the fact that women are NOT generally regarded as “equal” in many spheres (in a few cases quite justifiably in my opinion – they may be inferior, or superior, before anyone gets too pissed with me – but that’s another debate for another day). The result of that is that most women who are successful in a previously somewhat male dominated domain (such as GOP politics) are going to be “more” – more tough, more rabid, more strident, more bitchy – basically more extreme than equivalent males – it’s just a prerequisite for getting there in the first place – and THAT is worrying!
I was thinking about my mother and what she use to tell me about her younger years and I decided to write about gender…..basically, I agree…it does NOT matter but you and I are a bit different than the others (in political vision that is)…….in politics here in the South, the older voters it does matter…thank God the younger (at all) have a different opinion…so I started thinking about how different political persuasions view gender…
Yes, it is an interesting subject. But then I think that SOME people at least are of a particular political persuasion BECAUSE of their attitude to gender (and other similar things like race etc.) The truth in my opinion is that gender does make more difference to how a person thinks (that’s different, not better or worse) than race, which makes almost no difference at all given a similar cultural background, but I doubt there are many in your area that would agree with that…
A great observation……and you are right…not many at all…sad to say.
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