One cannot discuss the concepts of gender without looking at the various frameworks in which it exists. In Paradoxes of Gender, Judith Lorber states that gender is "a process of social construction, a system of social stratification, and an institution that structures every aspect of our lives because of its embeddedness in the family, the workplace, and the state, as well as in sexuality, language, and culture" (Lorber 5). But gender is more than an institution; it is an institution governed by an institution. And this institution is globalization. Not only is economy a direct reflection of a country's mindset and intent, but it is also alters gender roles and restructures gender hierarchies. It has the both the power to build gender relations and the power to destroy them.
[...] A detrimental lie thrives in the economic core, a false belief that globalization is the universal solvent to the problems of the world. “Since the second World War, development . has been seen by many as the one over-arching solution to poverty and inequality around the world,” but the reality of industrialization is a nightmare for many women in underdeveloped countries (Gajjala and Mamidipudi 9). Economy and society are two entirely separate entities, and although many Western nations are under the impression that bettering the economy is bettering the society as well, the two exist in a balance that is easily upset. [...]
[...] I am still proud of whom I am as a gendered individual, and that my friends will always be stronger than my enemies, even if my enemies are those I live with. I cannot honestly say if my roommates have an issue with my sexuality, but I know they have an issue with my gender, or lack there of. They are much like the faces that scorned me so freshman year. They want to shop, they want to look for boys, and they want to get drunk and go clubbing and get laid. [...]
[...] When the Islam movement first gained a hold in Afghanistan decades ago, barely an educated individual anywhere in the world escaped the onslaught of news casts that condemned the atrocities forced upon women by the government. As Julia Chill and Susan Kilbourne admit in Women, Gender, and Human Rights, “what happened in Afghanistan shocked the world. But millions of girls face similarly damaging discrimination on a smaller scale—and the world turns a blind (Chill and Kilbourne 157-158). And in many cases, when there is no global knowledge, there is no local knowledge, and the women never understand that atrociousness of their treatment. [...]
[...] The love from my parents that I held dearer than anything else turned into a lie. High school, specifically freshman year, was the big disempowering monster of my life. I entered the ninth grade highly with no self-esteem. I sometimes think if I knew a little more, if I had not grown up so sheltered from social taboos, that that year would not have been as detrimental to my sanity as it was. I was gay and did not know it; all I knew was that everyone else was living in some world that I could not access, and therefore, no one wanted anything to do with me. [...]
[...] Bibliography Brettell, Caroline B. and Carolyn F. Sargent. “Colonialism, Development, and the Global Economy.” Chapter Preface. Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective. Ed. Caroline B. Brettell and Carolyn F. Sargent. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice 507-512. Chill, Julia and Susan Kilbourne. Rights of the Girl Child.” Women, Gender, and Human Rights: A Global Perspective. Ed. Marjorie AgosÃn. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP 152-169. Gajjala, Radhika and Annapurna Mamidipudi. “Cyberfeminism, Technology, and International ‘Development.'” Gender and Technology. Ed. Caroline Sweetman. Oxford: Oxfam [...]
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