studies on gender: navels
Artist Statement
“One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.” - Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex
Despite efforts to free individuals from irrelevant gender markers, physical characteristics are still used to support intellectual and psychological differences between men and women. Medical practice and studies continue to support images of a dualistic understanding of sex, gender, and sexuality. This strict dichotomy is not congruent with occurrences in nature, such as beings born with ambiguous sex or those who do not behave gender normatively.
The assignment of specific characteristics as either “masculine” or “feminine” is centered on studies conducted in the medical and academic fields. In Reinventing the Sexes: the Biomedical Construction of Femininity and Masculinity, Marianna Van Der Wijngaard states, “Dualistic thought about masculinity and femininity has led to the belief that male and female brains are essentially different---probably as a response to the need for a biological theory explaining the differences in the social functioning of men and women.” Biology can show the physical differences between a male and a female body, but experience and the social interactions construct and define gender. Psychological characteristics applied to a gender based on biological sex have yet to be objectively proven in a scientific study. An individual can behave in both “feminine” and “masculine” ways and those definitions are even fluid as those characteristics could be defined as anything. Placing the basis of psychological characteristics for a specific gender on nature deflects the responsibility from society to correct serious problems that arise from gender stereotyping.
The navel is a symbol of ambiguity amongst gendered and sexualized images of the body. The shape of the navel cannot be definitively differentiated among the sexes. The representation of the figure in images demonstrates the ideas of gender, sex, and sexuality in our culture and is a reflection of the ways in which society constructs gender. The navel's sex ambiguity disrupts the instinctive need to identify a person as a certain sex along with corresponding gender stereotypes. Deconstruction of sex and gender allows for progression beyond a dichotomy of sexual differences, and contemplation of an individual rather than an identity wholly based on sex.
Copyright © 2017 by Samantha Purcell-Blyth (Sam Kawehionalani). All Rights Reserved.
“One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.” - Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex
Despite efforts to free individuals from irrelevant gender markers, physical characteristics are still used to support intellectual and psychological differences between men and women. Medical practice and studies continue to support images of a dualistic understanding of sex, gender, and sexuality. This strict dichotomy is not congruent with occurrences in nature, such as beings born with ambiguous sex or those who do not behave gender normatively.
The assignment of specific characteristics as either “masculine” or “feminine” is centered on studies conducted in the medical and academic fields. In Reinventing the Sexes: the Biomedical Construction of Femininity and Masculinity, Marianna Van Der Wijngaard states, “Dualistic thought about masculinity and femininity has led to the belief that male and female brains are essentially different---probably as a response to the need for a biological theory explaining the differences in the social functioning of men and women.” Biology can show the physical differences between a male and a female body, but experience and the social interactions construct and define gender. Psychological characteristics applied to a gender based on biological sex have yet to be objectively proven in a scientific study. An individual can behave in both “feminine” and “masculine” ways and those definitions are even fluid as those characteristics could be defined as anything. Placing the basis of psychological characteristics for a specific gender on nature deflects the responsibility from society to correct serious problems that arise from gender stereotyping.
The navel is a symbol of ambiguity amongst gendered and sexualized images of the body. The shape of the navel cannot be definitively differentiated among the sexes. The representation of the figure in images demonstrates the ideas of gender, sex, and sexuality in our culture and is a reflection of the ways in which society constructs gender. The navel's sex ambiguity disrupts the instinctive need to identify a person as a certain sex along with corresponding gender stereotypes. Deconstruction of sex and gender allows for progression beyond a dichotomy of sexual differences, and contemplation of an individual rather than an identity wholly based on sex.
Copyright © 2017 by Samantha Purcell-Blyth (Sam Kawehionalani). All Rights Reserved.