Reading Gendered Texts

Reading Gendered Texts


The idea of gender in this following passage is portrayed in a very extreme manner. According to this the first ever mistake on earth was made by a female, in this particular case Eve. Eve being the first ever female on earth, left the consequences of her mistake for all future generations to suffer. As far as the process of child birth is concerned, the author very directly and discriminately smashes all females and states a direct way to hell. The very basic and pure bond of motherhood according to the passage, is supposed to be like a ticket to heaven which we have to earn in order to be with the opposite gender, men. And these males don’t need to prove anything or earn it, as they’re supposedly more noble and purer than us.
However, we should not surrender to this notion and challenge it. On the basis of how Adam gave in to the same temptation as Eve did, after all it was Adams first bite that led the future generations of mankind to suffer the wrath of God in terms of their struggle on earth. Why is it that Adam’s first bite is always ignored and the blame is always put upon Eve’s shoulders? Should she really be pointed fingers at and treated as the weaker sex considering it was Adam who took the first bite?
This passage is a perfect example of essentialism. A concept that follows a quote by Plato, “essence comes before existence”, which basically means in this very discrimination of women is predetermined and always been like this since day one. There are certain roles men and women are expected to hold on to, and there are accordingly ascribed statuses they will have to live with for the rest of their lives. We will always be someone’s daughter, which is an ascribed status, and according to it, we have a certain role to carry out. And if you don’t live up to the expectations of the following role, you get labeled as deviant.
A completely opposite school of thought is that of constructivism. The belief that status is not...