A Review of Verena Stolcke’s Article: Is Sex to Gender as Race to Ethnicity?

Rootedness of Inequality in an Unequal World

In the article, the author tried to analyze the relation of sex and gender and made a comparison if it is the same with race and ethnicity. She tried to explore the discussions about social inequalities’ legitimization by its rootedness to natural differences legitimization. She presented different arguments that support the above statement and those that are against it.

Taking off from Pascal’s (1670, quoted by Levi-Strauss, 1985) point that the ‘natural facts may turn out to be cultural constructs’ and Moore’s analysis that ‘racism divides gender identity and experience and how class is shaped by gender and race,’ the author wants to investigate the intersections between gender, race and class.

She started by looking at the historical background of the transformation of concepts like sex as a biological fact to gender which is a cultural construct, the socially defined relationships between women and men. Shapiro (1981), Collier and Yanagisako (1987), have greatly influence the idea of the author. The gender theory presented was actually to challenge the biological essentialisms and at the same time touches other ‘inequalities such as race and class and their intersection’.

According to Collier and Yanagisako (1987,) as quoted by the author and I quote: ‘we argue against the notion that cross-cultural variations in gender categories and inequalities are merely diverse elaborations and extensions of the same natural fact.’ McDonald (1989) went on further and stated that views on natural facts, ‘biology and physiology, are socio-political conceptualizations’.

With her discussion on sex and gender, she related this with class, race and ethnicity. Race as a derogatory term and used to legitimate racial prejudice and discrimination was replaced by concepts of ethnicity or ethnic groups as a sense of cultural identity. However, it was pointed out in the article that, indeed, the substitution of terms ‘does not transform social reality’. The shift has two implications. As the author said, (1) it downplay or side-step prevailing racism of discriminations and exclusions, and (2)race as a distinct phenomena. Linked to it is the term xenophobia, widely being used in the European political realm, as a cover up for racism.

Is sex to gender as race is to ethnicity? The author tried to explain her answer with the posed question. Her proposition is that it holds through in class society, a society of that is unequal and contradictory. ‘Social and gender inequalities are construed and legitimized by rooting them in the assumed biological facts of race and sex differences.’ She concluded that it is an illusion and an ideological trap that socio-economic success only depends on the goodwill and effort of the individual. She further stated that this diverts attention from the true causes of inequality and unequal access to power and property. With the economic and political ideologies on the naturalness of social conditions, women’s experiences of oppression in a class society is also a manifestation of these belief.

Thinking it over, I agree with the analysis of the author that relegating social inequalities as a natural fact perpetuates inequality of opportunities. This is glaring in the third world and developing countries. Attentions are diverted to nonsensical private affairs of actors and politicians to mask the real issues on the staggering weight of inequality and oppression of those in the lower economic status, of women, of children, of workers and laborers. Shortcuts to success are broadcasted in radios and televisions – the likes of Manny Pacquio, actors’ rise from poverty, parades of individuals who won in million peso game shows – this are cover ups of the harsh social realities that are not being resolved. ‘Success by sheer individual endeavor.’ These words are prevalent in media and are frequently painted in business magazines and books. Yet it holds true that even with the best individual efforts, such difficulties being experienced in the attainment of success is also embedded in social inequality and unequal access to resources.