GENDER IDEOLOGY: ORIGINS, IDEOLOGY AND CRITICISM - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The gender ideology or theory gender is a doctrine developed in the late s. XX and early s. XXI. He argues that the differences between masculine and feminine are due to social and cultural canons, leaving aside the biological characteristics of individuals.

This current is derived from cultural Marxism and proposes to put the social before the biological, in order to give the person the power to define and decide on their sex, sexuality and gender. The theory combines ideas from queer theory, which defines gender as a social construction.

Gender theory also takes elements from social constructionism (social and gender roles), feminism, and other studies related to transsexuality, sexual identity, and biological sex.

origins

Although it is a current term, authors and scholars agree that the first milestone of gender ideology was Simone de Beauvoir's work The Second Sex (1949), which refers to the fact that man is capable of exercising his freedom by rejecting the previous reality.

One of the most important sections of the book: "You are not born a woman, you are born", allowed to establish that the gender of the individual is not determined until they begin to interact in society.

Beauvoir's approaches were influenced by neo-Marxist currents, which allowed him to extrapolate the main terms and bring them to the relationships between men and women, while formulating new concepts about sexuality.

First studies

In the mid-1950s, the concept and implications of gender were already being handled in the United States. One of the first scholars was the psychologist John Money, who introduced gender roles in his studies related to chromosomal sex and anatomical sex.

This would also be reinforced by the psychoanalyst Robert Stoller, when he conducted research on transsexuals and the possible causes of the lack of sexual identity from childhood. Later this would be called gender identity.

Feminism and the equality of the sexes

One of the first goals of first wave feminism was to ensure social and political equality for men and women. However, after the second half of the s. XX pursues the parity of the sexes in general.

That is, when biological differences were left behind, there were imposed social roles and behaviors that had to be repealed.

With the arrival of the Sexual Revolution of the 1960s, the first criticisms of the traditional value system were established, such as that manifested in Betty Friedman's book The Female Mystique (1963).

This work emphasizes that, thanks to the woman's role as mother and homemaker, she was unable to take a more active role in public.

Postulates that gave rise to gender ideology

At the time, postulates such as the following were evidenced:

- Man uses sex as an instrument of domination and power.

- To counteract the control exercised, sexual liberation is necessary. That is, sex is not just for procreation.

- It is necessary to radically separate the biological from the cultural. This would become the cornerstone for the Theory of Gender.

- The stage is created for the formation of groups in favor of sexual diversity.

During the 90s, authors such as Judith Butler gave the theoretical foundations and support to Gender Theory strong enough to influence the years to come.

Even her position as well as those of other thinkers were acclaimed in 1995 at the Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing.

Ideology

As mentioned above, this theory finds its bases in several ideological currents:

- Cultural Marxism, which proposes a social, political and cultural revolution against the traditional value system.

- Queer theory, also a consequence of the emergence of the Sexual Revolution and feminism of the 60s and 70s. It states that personal identity depends only on our will and is subject to our needs and desires. One of the greatest exponents was Judith Butler, who affirms that gender is fluid and multiple.

- Atheist existentialism, raised in Beauvoir's work and derived from Sartre's existentialism. It proposes that there is no metaphysical and religious entity, at the same time that it controls the fear of death since there is no figure that gives way to any type of salvation.

Essential elements of the individual

Some authors highlight the need to include three essential aspects to build the identity of the individual, an important factor in this case:

Biological sex

Determined by physical and biological traits.

Psychological sex

Given by the set of experiences related to the masculine and feminine.

Sociological sex

People's perception of the individual.

Main characteristics of gender ideology

- The human being is born sexually neutral.

- Any distinction between man and woman is avoided.

- It is expected that there will be no differences between the conduct or responsibilities established between men and women in the family environment.

- Family is understood to be any type of human group.

- Supports the legalization of the union of members of the same sex.

- Accept the various sexual tendencies.

- Recognize the multiplicity of genres.

- The social precedes the biological. In other words, determining masculinity or femininity depends on what that person believes about herself and not on the characteristics of her body.

Taking into consideration these main ideological currents and the dimensions involved in the process of sexual identity, the Theory of gender emerged to consolidate at the end of the s. XX. Its validity remains in our days.

critics

Intellectuals, theorists, philosophers and even members of the Catholic Church have expressed disagreement regarding the Theory of gender, thus expressing a series of criticisms. The most common are the following:

- It is believed that it is part of a project focused on the destruction of the family.

- Some see it as a doctrine that wants to impose itself by force and violently.

- They state that it promotes the culture of death.

- Has a reductionist vision of reality.

References

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3. Atheist existentialism. (sf). On Wikipedia. Retrieved: February 23, 2018. In Wikipedia at es.wikipedia.org.
4. Gender ideology. (sf). In Sexuality it does matter. Retrieved: February 23, 2018. In Sexuality does matter from lasexualidadimporta.org.
5. Gender ideology. (sf). In Metapedia. Retrieved: February 23, 2018. In Metapedia of es.metapedia.org.
6. Garza Medina, Luis. (sf). What is gender theory? At Catholic.net. Retrieved: February 23, 2018. In Catholic.net of es.catholic.net.
7. Peiro, Claudia. (2013) What is gender theory? In Infobae. Retrieved: February 23, 2018. In Infobae of infobae.com.
8. Siles, Catalina & Delgado, Gustavo. (sf). Gender theory: What are we talking about? In Ieschile. Retrieved: February 23, 2018 from ieschile.cl.