Gender and Race are a Social Construction

Gender and race are social construction in our society (Kenya) and beyond our borders. However, in objective reality, they do not exist. These divisions have been used over centuries not to view human beings as diverse but rather to decide the fate of populations, usually in a biased manner. In regards to gender, women have been oppressed as they have been defined by their sexuality as inferior to men. Similarly, the race was used as a tool to enslave those perceived to be of Negroid root (Lopez, 2017).

In his argument of race as a social construct, Lopez, 2017 opines that race is an illusion and asserts that, “… few in this society seem prepared to relinquish fully their subscription to notions of biological race.” He builds his argument from the Wrights generation vs Hudgins case of Virginia, 1806, whose culmination saw Judge Tucker free three generations of women as Hannah's hair (the mother) was long and straight. The observation test proved they were of Indian descent and presumptively free. Here, we can vividly see the judgement made in a social construct manner, that is, on the assumption that Hannah’s hair wasn’t wool but straight, thus Indian. This is after an obvious failure to prove their status under the jurisprudence of slavery as it stood in 1806 - A person born to a slave woman was a slave, one born to a free woman was free; this followed the maternal line (Lopez, 2017). It is crystal clear that the formation of race is fluid and can change from one context to another. Back to the root of construction of race in the imagination of Europeans in the Middle Ages where they categorized race into three: "Caucasoid," "Negroid," and "Mongoloid," to the United States in 1806 where three races are categorized according to their ancestry, that is White, Indians and Africans. The later formation in America is even tied to one’s freedom. Those of African ancestry in early America were enslaved following this notion of race.

Furthermore, Lopez, 2017, argues that there is no such thing as “Biological Race” as one might think. He states that “There are no genetic characteristics possessed by all Blacks but not by non-Blacks; similarly, there is no gene or cluster of genes common to all Whites but not to non-Whites.” Lopez adds that scientific evidence refutes the supposition that racial divisions reflect fundamental genetic differences. Therefore biological race is nonexistent and therefore we should emancipate ourselves from such notion however powerful it may be in our society.

Another social construct that we counter daily is gender. Like race, gender is a creation and re-creation out of social life; it is the essence and organization of that social life (Lorber 1991). Many times we do gender unconsciously, but it starts with the assignment to a sex category based on what the genitalia look like at birth. Lorber 1991, notes that “A sex category becomes a gender status through naming, dress, and the use of other gender markers.” The treatment of persons in society thus differs depending on what gender they have been constructed socially to belong to. Gender influences our behaviour; norms and expectations are dictated this way. Among the aspects of our lives that are dominated by gender, construct include parenting, that is, father and mother and their distinct roles; jobs, that is, women and men are expected to take up certain jobs in the society. Lorber, 1991, points out that sex is the obvious trait in categorizing gender in our society. For males and females, it is easily taken up unconsciously, however, it is constructed by dressing, speaking, walking, and gestures among transvestites and transsexuals in the ways prescribed for women or men. In this way, Lorber (1991), defines gender as simply a way in which society socially organizes the lives of its member. Society even assigns tasks and allocates resources in terms of gender.

In conclusion, it can be noted that both race and gender are illusions; they are just mere social constructs the society categorizes members of its population. To prove that both race and gender don’t exist in actual reality, dress up a boy or a girl in unisex clothing with no other label on them - the gender construct will automatically disappear. It is, therefore, disheartening that that which exists only in the illusion has been used to perpetuate inequality, discrimination, disenfranchisement and enslavement.

 

References

Ian F.H. Lopez. The Social Construction of Race. (Critical Race Theory: The Cutting Edge), edited by Richard Delgado, 2017 Edition.

Judith Lorber, 1991. The Social Construction of Gender.