Question:
Discuss about the Asian societies, the processes of gender construction and the Implications of gender distinctions in a Cross-Cultural Context.
Asia is the largest continent of the earth and shares important part of the history and culture of the human evolution. The aim of this essay is to analyze and describe the contradictory forces in constructing the modern images of women in relation to men in the Asian region and in what extent these images transform the traditional gender representation.
Gender making
Gender making or gender stereotyping has become one of the most important aspects of the present day scenario (Epstein and Arnold 2014). Since times in memoriam, there was discrimination between the men and women Men were usually given the maximum priority in the family and was considered as the head of the family whereas women were always considered as their subordinates. Even more surprising is the fact that the gender stereotyping that consider males to be superior to the females are often taught by teachers at school and also by the priests through the religious teachings. A good example can be a ban of the women’s freedom to wear dresses as per their choice. However, it has been seen that over the years that several countries in the Asia have signed the petition for eliminating the ban on dresses. Though women are trying their level best to become self sufficient and applying for jobs but there is often the incidence of unequal pay followed between men and women. The gender attitude towards women in Asia is largely patriarchal. Here in this region, the traditional societal hierarchy was maintained and women were considered as the lowest members of the gender structure (Nayak, Anoop and Kehily 2013). However, the archetypical role of the women is changing rapidly and more and more women in the Asiatic society have been contributing to the changing gender role in the society.
Matrilineal
It is a known fact that most of communities in Asia, particularly in South Asia are patriarchal in nature. However, there are certain communities that do follow the matrilineal structure as well. It is a kind of family structure where the women are given some independence. They are not forced to marry for financial purposes. They are no dependent on males for their economic independence. Many families also consist of only female members who also take up the responsibility of raising their children single handedly. However in many communities the freedom of women is restricted mainly in the context of choosing their life partners. However there is again another constraint. The women cannot select their life partners outside their own community, if they do so they will be banned from their community. However there is no restriction imposed on women to stay with her husband’s family after marriage. She might also consider staying with her own family and take all the necessary family decisions. However the women are not allowed to use any make up or dress as per their choice since it is restricted by the adult members of the society oppose it. They do not like the influence of the modern day society. Hence it is evident that women empowerment has not taken place in the right manner though women are given some rights and privileges but at the same time they are also denied many
This system considers men and women have equal rights to power and they have equal access to the resources. However, in this system men and women are associated with equal sexual parallelism. Female is considered as the main descendant line in this family of the matrilineal society (Stark 2013). In this system, each member is identified with his or her mother’s lineage and it is associated with the inheritance of the property. Minangkabau community of West Sumatra, Malaysia, Indonesia and Mosuo community of China in the Asian region belong to the matrilineal societal system.
Patriarchal
As the very name suggests, patriarchy is something that is related to the domination structure between men and women. One of the very common features that are seen within the context of patriarchy is the treatment of women as a property. Women are considered as objects that can be used by at any time. Women are always objectified, right from their birth till their marriage. In the Asian communities, particularly in the South East Asian most of the communities are patriarchal. Women are constantly suffering from identity crisis. They suffer from the lack of empowerment both in the emotional as well as the financial basis. They are always kept confined within the four walls of their domestic premises and are hardly allowed to go out and mix in the social mainstreams (Nayak, Anoop and Kehily 2013). There is a very poor belief among the entire south Asian people that girls are born to be fed throughout their lives and boys are there to earn and support the family. So, naturally the girls are always treated as a burden and are thought to be inferior to boys (Andersen et al. 2013).
Patrilineal system consists of dominant power relationship between men and women. In this system, the men are in the dominant position and the inheritance of property, titles of a person and other rights in the family go from father’s bloodline. In this system, the male is in the dominant position and the other family members depend on the men’s decision in the family (Maynes, Mary and Ann 2014).
Marriage and divorce in the matrilineal society holds a different role than the other normal or patriarchal societal structure. Different matriarchal society has different marriage rules. For example, the Mosuo community in China, the female could handle all the responsibilities of the household and finance. A family is consisted with a woman and all the female members of her family. In the matrilineal structure, marriage is considered as less important as most of the time women are not seen as the property of the male family to continue the bloodlines (Epstein and Arnold 2014). Men and women could mix more freely than the patriarchal one and both could freely choose their lovers. In spite of being matrilineal system, the family of the Mosuo community is composed of matrilineal members, which includes mother, grandmother, maternal aunts and mother’s brothers. The children remain in the mother’s house and all the responsibilities of the children are taken care by the mother’s family. Thus, marriage is not a big deal in this system and it does not matter if marriage is occurred or not as long as men and women could mix freely and continue their love affairs. However, divorce is more frequent in the patriarchal structure and less common in the matrilineal society. As marriage is not forced on the women in the matrilineal structure, divorce is not seen as common rule in this societal structure. Women do not have to marry to the men for security or financial needs. There are some pressures against maintaining matrilineal system in Minangkabau and Mosuo societies. The pressure mainly comes from outside or external world. In the film, The Land Where Women Rule: Inside China’s Last Matriarchy, these issues have been discussed in the context of the Mosuo community. The young members of the Mosuo community, they want to go out of the region and experience outside world. In this matriarchal system, the husband and wife could not live together in lifetime. However, some of the young members want to live together with their partners like members of Han community (“The Land Where Women Rule: Inside China’s Last Matriarchy” 2017). However, this is the major resistance in maintaining the matriarchal structure in this community. The female members have to choose her partners within the community. However, if someone chooses her partner outside of the community, she has to leave the society. In this sense, the society is very conservative. The members are restricted to sing and dance Mousuo staffs and older members do not like make-ups. However, the outside world is exposed as the technology is advancing day by day. The community is affected by the external influences or rules and this is the major constraints to maintaining the matriarchal system in the Mousuo community.
In the film, Muslim Women of Minang, it has been shown that the community is also matriarchal. However, there are resistances in maintaining the mother’s lineage as outside world would see the Muslim women under the men’s dominance. Thus, the men from the outside world apart from Minang see the women as the men’s property (“Muslim Women Of Minang” 2017). The Minang Muslim women are compared with other Muslim women of Afghanistan, Taliban or Iran and they are very much different from the other Muslim women. The resistance mainly comes from outside Muslim community.
Michelle Rosaldo’s distinction of private or public distinction of the division of labour does not fit in the Minangkabau or Mosuo society. The division of labour in relation to private and public proposed that men and women have different gender role in society (Connell 2014). Here the society means mainly the patriarchal society. In this gender role, the public sphere is for men and the private is for the women. In the Mosuo community, the typical gender role of the public and private are changed. In this community, the women manage the public world and take all the responsibilities including the family and outside world. However, men are for harder and heavier works only.
Power pollution
The power structure that mostly exists in the South Asian communities is harsh towards women as most of the communities there is male dominated. In other words the power in the domination is always exerted by men over the women. Women are always considered to be fragile. They are always treated as men’s property; hence they can be treated in any way as per the will of the male members of their family. Women are always kept at the bottom of the power structure because it is taken for granted that they are the ones who will always surrender to men. It is often considered as a sign of masculinity to dominate and exploit the females (Stark 2013). Men and women are however considered to be equal in some societies like the Minangkabau society but there are some work that can only be performed by men particularly those that are heavier and need more physical strength. Men and women are considered complementary to each other. The society is purely matriarchal and matrilineal. In the time of the marriages, the men are exchanged unlike general societal rule. However, the division of labour does not exist in this society. Men and women complement each other. Women and men enjoy almost equal rights in division of labour and so-called private and public world do not exist for women and men.
Immediate return or delayed return economies
This again is another problem in the current gender context. In order to initiate equality in society, most of the communities are trying to adopt the concept of the immediate return or the delayed return economies. It is a kind of community that tries to initiate equal rights and opportunities among individuals by incorporating the principle that no individual can dominate each other. As a result of which among every two persons, one of them always tries to become the dominant. This creates a problem as the entire society now exerts pressure on the “would be dominator” to bring the counterpart back in line (Maynes, Mary and Ann 2014). Often it is seen that in many communities, men start surrendering so that their women counterparts do not have to get dominated by them. In the act of doing this, women are often blamed by the society with then charge that they are bossing over men and exploiting them. This really becomes a major problem.
Conclusion
It can be concluded by saying that the archetypical construction of women and the patriarchal notion of the role of the women in the Asian region are in the contradictory forces as seen in the different ethnic groups of this region. The Minang and Mosuo are the matrilineal society and gender role of the women are different from that of men.
References
Andersen, Steffen, Seda Ertac, Uri Gneezy, John A. List, and Sandra Maximiano. “Gender, competitiveness, and socialization at a young age: Evidence from a matrilineal and a patriarchal society.” Review of Economics and Statistics 95, no. 4 (2013): 1438-1443.
Connell, Raewyn. “Rethinking gender from the South.” Feminist Studies 40, no. 3 (2014): 518-539.
Epstein, Arnold Leonard, ed. The craft of social anthropology. Elsevier, 2014.
Maynes, Mary Jo, and Ann Waltner. Gender, Kinship and Power: A Comparative and Interdisciplinary History. Routledge, 2014.
“Muslim Women Of Minang”. 2017. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvNFvpCeCFY.
Nayak, Anoop, and Mary Jane Kehily. Gender, youth and culture: Young masculinities and femininities. Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
Stark, Alexander. “The matrilineal system of the Minangkabau and its persistence throughout history: A structural perspective.” Shoutheast Asia: A Multidisciplinary Journal 13 (2013): 1-13.
“The Land Where Women Rule: Inside China’s Last Matriarchy”. 2017. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_l9D7tEixc.
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