Page 275 - DSOC202_SOCIAL_STRATIFICATION_ENGLISH

Social Stratification

Notes Nor these granted women a basis for collective action. Thus, social stratification was two-
dimensional : (i) the two nuclei of household/family/lineage and the dominance of the male
gender, and (ii) the “public” stratification nuclei (classes, military elites, etc.). The latter was
connected to the former, as the aggregates of household/family/ lineage heads were represented
in the “public” sphere.
Distinction between “male” and “female” is bio-physiological; it is value-neutral. However, when
a male is referred as a “man”, and a female as a “woman”, a value is attached to the two, in terms
of superior and inferior human beings. Postmodernists both Foucault and Derrida recognize
connection between language and power. Both attack such a rationality of postmodernism. To say
that women are identified with the irrational and men with the rational implies dualisms of
Enlightenment thought, e.g., reflected in the basic feminine/masculine dualism. This dualism is
not symmetrical. “Woman is always defined as that which is not man; she is ‘minus male’, who is
identified by the qualities that she lacks.” Language establishes and maintains the basic gender
identity that creates female inferiority.”
Through language, women are told that they should have those qualities by which they remain
“feminine”. In this sense, sex and gender become intertwined. Today, feminist writings focus at
separating biological sex from imposed gender roles in linguistic practice. The language practice
forges a connection between personality identity and gender identity. Children come to know this
right from their early life. They learn distinctly about “male personhood” and “female personhood”.
And personhood is not merely tied to biological sex. It is linked, rather, to a specific gender
identity — a “feminine” identity. This identity is irrationality. Men and women learn separate
languages, even if they know each other’s language, women would not use men’s language. Men
are considered embodiment of rationality; and women are seen as having emotion, feeling and
irrational. The male-female dichotomy leaves for women two unacceptable options : (1) either
they can talk like women and be “feminine” but irrational, or (2) they can talk like men and be
rational but “unfeminine”. Thus, male-female dualism is a culturally created power dichotomy.

“Female” speaks of sex, and “feminine” means that is central to an understanding
of the nature of the oppression of women.

Through the control of language, men have dominated not only women but every aspect of the
world in which we live. This is done (i) through linguistic practices in the knowledge-creating
institutions along gendered lines, and (ii) by connection between the real and the rational. For
example, women were denied education, particularly in Sanskritic studies, in India, and also in
other societies learning of Latin language. J. Derrida states that speech is privileged over writing in
the West. But, when speech or oral expression becomes a common feature, then, the disprivileged
challenge to the dichotomy, to the superiority of speech. In the second case, there is connection
between the real and the rational. “Concepts formed from the male point of view create a male
reality; both the real and the rational are defined in exclusively male terms.” Thus, the male
definition of reality hides women’s experiences, makes them invisible. It also means that women
are inarticulate because language they use is derivative of male definitions of reality. The claim
that term “man” is generic, that is, it includes both the experience of both man and woman, is
false. Men’s experiences are not of “mankind”, but only of “men”. Since the Enlightenment,
reason and rationality have been defined in exclusively masculine terms, “man of reason” is
gendered, not generic. Public Man, Private Woman theory is serious attack all over the world. No
more private/public, irrational/rational/human/not fully human, etc., are unacceptable
dichotomies.

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