A socially constructed and learned set of characteristics, behaviours and mentality connected with girls and women, in general. For example, in a matriarchal society, “women” need to possess and display attributes of strength and integrity, as opposed to the submissive and dependent ones of a patriarchal society.
Published in Chapter:
Gender and Sexuality in Toni Morrison's Home
Anita Devi Ahanthem (Kumbi College, India)
Copyright: © 2022
|Pages: 10
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch013
Abstract
Before venturing into the term “gender,” the biological differentiation of male and female as “sex” is inevitable. Moreover, if “sex” is a biological categorization based primarily on reproductive potential, then “gender” is the social elaboration of biological sex. Hence, gender gradually builds on biological sex, but it exaggerates biological difference, and it carries biological difference into domains in which it is completely irrelevant. For reference, in a heterosexual society, “masculine men” are seen as sexually dominant, active, and initiating whereas “feminine women” are sexually passive, receptive, and submissive. In this chapter, the author has taken up Toni Morrison's novel Home in order to discuss the dynamics of “gender” and “sexuality” based on “race,” as it gives false perception of self, identity, and trauma. It will also analyze how women of any race are always the victims of violence associated with male sexuality.