The Australian Legend and Feminism :: essays research papers fc

The Australian Legend And FeminismUntil recent long time it has been believed that there argon two call d have gotes, existence male and female, and with these there ar two genders, with these being masculinity and feminity. It may also be argued that sex is biology determined where as gender is socially and culturally constructed as studies of societies, both present and past, have shown that there is no relationship betwixt social roles and biological sex (Abercrombie, Hill & Turner, 2000). With the introduction of run modernist feminist theories we have begun to question whether or not there are only two genders and how to classify transgender (Flax, 1990).It can be argued that masculinity has socially and culturally been constructed as dominant within the public world. In westbound countries, such as Australia, it is upon men that autonomy, control over the world and bidding of others (Porter, 1998, p. 27) has been placed. Parsons (Porter, 1998) suggested five alternat ive sets of positioned values which are structured as being either expressive or implemental. Parsons (Porter, 1998) was of the belief that men somatic the instrumental values of affective neutrality (capable of unemotional and impersonal interaction), self-orientation (primary pursuit of own interests), universalism (making objective evaluations when interacting with others), achievement (ability to achieve set goals and related status) and specificity (interacting or working(a) within a specific role). Parsons theorized that these five instrumental values were associated with horse opera advanced societies (Porter, 1998).In Australia, women and children are seen to be subservient to the male superiority. Parsons (Porter, 1998) believed that women embodied the expressive values of affectivity (highly emotional), collective orientation (putting others interests before your own), particularism (responding oppositely towards different people), ascription (having status ascribed r egardless of intrinsic qualities), and diffuseness (role covers a considerable range of interests and is non-specific). To Parsons these roles were seen to belong to primitive society and in modern times were to be associated with women and private life (Porter, 1998).These roles have been repayd through fashionable media, for example by the bible which is the worlds best selling and most distributed keep back (Guinness World Records). Within the bible the word "man" may be build 5,335 times in 4,536 verses whilst woman may be found 379 times in 347 verses (Christ Unlimited Ministries, n.d.). Passages of the bible may also reinforce the notion of male superiority for example in Genesis 126-28 (Christ Unlimited Ministries, n.d.) which tells of god creating Adam in his own image and past creating for Adam a helper, Eve, whom God calls Woman as she is created from the rib of man.