Construction of Gender and Sexual Studies Essay

Construction of Gender and Sexual Studies - Essay Example The very idea of gender studies would be to contribute to reducing the significance or even, in some social situations and contexts, abolishing the identities of man and women. The new social perspective on sexuality was advanced by social activists. One possibility in gender studies would be to minimize or at least reduce the use of the labels of man and woman, except when used by the ‘natives’. There is a risk of gender studies producing gender stereotypes rather than revealing them through an excessive and insensitive theory – governed interpretation of the gendered meaning of everything in management, organization, work and society at large. Against the naturalistic view of gender and sexuality, feminist argued that society, not nature, creates gender and sexual differences. In particular, , feminist argued that women’s sexuality is socially shaped in ways that sustain men’s political and social dominance. In short, women’s sexuality, like men, is not is fixed by nature but shaped by social forces and circumstances, by factors such as economic independence, social values, peers or family culture. Social construction on sexuality The social construction approach, quite simply, is about understanding the historical context which shapes the sexuality. The starting point is the assumption that sexuality, far from being a force of natural external to society, is in fact always inevitably central to the social and cultural, and malleable to them. Sexuality is a highly social phenomenon and as society changes so must sexuality. Sexuality builds on biological potentials, and is subject to psychosocial organizations, so both biology and psychology can no doubt help understand individual sexual development. But we must also recognize that sexuality, like everything else, attains meaning only in culture. Social constructionist at its simplest is an attempt to understand the process through which social and individual meaning an d practices of the erotic are shaped and reshaped in an ever changing history. What complicates the issue is that â€Å"sexuality† as a concept operates on two levels. It refers to the bundle of social phenomena that shapes erotic life ;laws, religion, norms and values, beliefs and ideologies, the social organizations of reproduction, family life, identities, domestic arrangements, diseases, violence and love – everything we evoke when we speak of sexuality of a culture. And it also refers to the level of individual- to the pleasures and pains that can shape our lives for good or ill. We just cannot understand sexuality if we reduce everything to the imperatives of nature brain or gene. As per Villanaueva(1997) â€Å"Sexuality is socially constructed, shaped by social, political and economic influences, and modified throughout life†. Feminism: the gender of sexuality Feminism offers a forceful social view of sexuality. Our gender identity is not a superficial pa rt of our lives, but shapes the personal and social aspects of our lives in important ways. Feminist believe that our sexual desires, feelings and preferences are imprinted by the gender. Feminists say that individuals acquire a sexual nature as they develop a gender identity. They believe sexuality as a product so men’s power: sex is a means by which men control women. Feminist criticize the notion that women’s sexual liberation is about claiming the right to pleasure or freedom to do as one pleases, an approach that expresses men’