Philosophy and Gender
Gender, sex, and sexuality are described as a special arrangement by which society transforms biological sexuality into human activities. Clerk suggests that the relationship between social gender, biological sex, and sexual attraction are mere cultural products. In this case, gender is described as the social product that can be attached to the philosophies of biological sex. In a diverse modern culture, there is an assumption that everyone is heterosexual. That is, one can be attracted to a woman if they are men and vice versa unless otherwise stated. Most individuals make assumptions concerning the way people should be acting in social life as well as the kind of persons they should get attracted to. This is purely based on their opinion on the superficial bodily outlook that is normally presumed to bear the representation of the biological sex characteristics.
Clerk raised questions on biological determinist arguments that claimed that every individual recognized as female at their births would have to be recognized as women and hence draws the attraction of men. In relation to the biological determinist view, where destiny is attributed to biology, this is the direction that is intended by nature. Clerk, however, claims that the view has failed to take care of human interventions. Human beings have a direct influence on societal social arrangements. There is a belief by the social constructionists that most things that are left typically unquestioned as a convenient way of life have an actual historical reflection and relationships that are culturally rooted among different groups of individuals. Through socialization, this can then be reproduced in parts where conventional ways of behavior and thinking from our communities and families. Simply because female-labeled individuals give birth to children does not guarantee that, by definition, they are the best caretakers of their children or that they are endowed with the natural instinct that their male counterparts lack.
Just because female-assigned people bear children does not necessarily mean that they are always by definition the best caretakers of those children or that they have “natural instincts” that male-assigned people lack. For example, women’s’ arrangements for providing care to children have a memorable historical legacy. Mothers have been seen taking active roles in providing daycare services, babysitting, as well as elementary school teaching. The common thing about these jobs is that they are occupations that are dominated by women, and economically, the works are undervalued. This is due to the fact that despite the valuable services that the ladies offer in these jobs, their payments are not good. Clerk claimed that women fail to be compensated well due to the fact the mothering is never viewed as a work but as a “natural” behavior that they are obliged to perform.
Clerk argues that just as well as women, men can also do the same work. However, society lacks cultural dictates that say that even men can do the same works as women. Social construction has therefore shaped and restricted women to certain activities despite the fact that men can also offer the same. Besides, Clerk argued that if men were the caretakers, then they would have been earning better payments as opposed to their counterparts. Furthermore, Clerk maintained that most men who work in female-dominated professions get more payments besides being promoted faster than women. This argument clearly brings forth how social systems or social structure brings a big disparity between women and men.