Gender, Gender Roles, and Equality

Gender, Gender Roles, and Equality

“Is it a boy or girl?” That is one of the most frequently asked questions about a newborn or even a fetus in the woman’s womb. Why do people want to know this information? It maybe because someone’s gender determines the way he or she will be treated for the rest of the life. It is claimed that gender is psychological whereas sex is physiological (“Gender, women and health”). However, I would dare to say that gender is rather cultural or social. Some people say that sex is what we are born with while gender is what we are given with. I agree with this definition because our gender is something that is formed in response to the way we are treated and perceived by society. So is the determination of gender roles.

In many cultures, boys are considered more important and valuable than girls. I also grew up in such male-dominated society, where a perception that a male is superior to a female is permeated deeply into it. And I realized that Chinese society is not so different in that aspect, while I was reading Maxine Hong Kingston’s work “No Name Woman”. Throughout the story, Kingston argues how gender difference determines the entire life and how limitedly gender roles are developed. We should have a closer look into each character in order to explore the gender, gender roles, and inequality determined by gender.

First, “No Name Woman” starts with the narrator (Kingston)’s mother’s storytelling about her aunt who is dead and regarded as if she had never been born. The mother continues to tell about what happened to her aunt and why the family denies her. According to the mother, her aunt committed adultery and became pregnant while the husband was out of country to make money to send home (Lauter, 3125). The thing we have to point out here is that Kingston’s mother noticed her aunt pregnant in early stage but she did say nothing. No one discussed it. I think any of women in the family could have said something and consulted what to do. They instead ignored it (3126). They just left all duty to Kingston’s aunt herself. It could be a taboo to utter pregnancy out of marriage in those times. However, women themselves might have thought her aunt shameful and deserving punishment because they were taught that adultery for a female is an evil, never a mistake.

In addition, Kingston’s mother gives a warning to her not to humiliate the family as her aunt did. Her mother’s tone and voice sounds even threatening somewhat – “You wouldn’t like to be forgotten as if you had never been born. The villagers are watchful.” She also requests Kingston to keep this secret just because the father denies her aunt (3126). Kingston’s mother could have resolved the issue with her husband and persuaded him to forgive his sister rather than deny or fool himself about her sister. Again, I think that the mother’s attitude and approach could have been different if she was a man. She is portrayed as submissive and dependent on her husband because she must have been reinforced in her culture to obey the orders that a man gives since she was a child.

Second, Kingston’s aunt, no name woman, is also depicted as a woman who had borne suffering and hardship for herself without other’s help. She did not tell anybody about her pregnancy until delivery. It was her first pregnancy and should have been more than a blessing in a normal situation. Instead of being celebrated, however, she was ignored, offended, and punished by the family and neighbors even after death (3126). We cannot simply judge whether an intensity of punishment to adultery is fair or not because the culture and society determines it. Prynne of “The Scarlett letter” was required to wear the stigma, red colored “A”, standing for adultery, during her whole life since she committed adultery. Kingston’s aunt was punished by villagers, which led her to kill herself and baby in the end. In my country, those who commit adultery can go to jail by the spouse’s accusation. Yet can we say that it is too much?

I believe that Kingston’s aunt has suppressed all the agony because her culture taught that way. Despite the raid by villagers, she did not reveal who got her pregnant and took the man’s name to the grave (3130). She gave a birth in a pigsty by herself and committed suicide with her newborn baby. Why did she jump into the family well with her innocent baby? Kingston is guessing that it was because the baby was probably a girl because “there is some hope of forgiveness for boys” (3132). This phrase projects that how much favor was endowed to a male. We can also figure out such tendency bombarded with boy preferences from the following phrase: “To be a woman, to have a daughter in starvation time was a waste enough.” (3127).

One day my mother told me that she was raised in similar culture; for example, in her school age, no matter how smart and diligent a girl was, a boy had a privilege with opportunities for higher education even if he was not interested in school. Nonetheless, it is ironic that my mother herself always gave all favors and priorities to my brothers. For instance, she commemorated my brothers’ birthdays even when they were far away from home, by making rice cakes, sea weed soups, and Bulgogi which are typical birthday dinner whereas my sisters’ birthdays were often forgotten. My eldest brother went to a prestigious private school with full support while my elder sister was encouraged to a commercial high school so she could earn money for a living as soon as she graduated. She obeyed at that time and sacrificed her for my mother’s sons although she had wanted higher education.