Plato was not concern about women’s right

Symposium is one of the master pieces of Plato where he puts his own thoughts about women’s status in ancient philosophy. Now, the question is if Plato a feminist or not which is one of the controversial issues in the world. So, who is feminist? According to the Dictionary of Feminist Theory, the definition of feminist is someone who has “both a doctrine of equal rights for women and an ideology of social transformation aiming to create a world for women beyond simple social equality” ( Humm 74).

If we think about Symposium, then we would find out that Plato did not support women characteristics and he showed throw his speeches that women are inferior to men. Some might argue that he used Diotima to give importance on women, but the fact is that Diotima was not present in the Symposium physically (Plato, Symposium, 209bc); her speech which was delivered by Socrates was Plato’s own philosophical view. Although Plato wanted women to put in the ruling class, he wanted this by altering the womanly characteristics.

Even though he considered souls to be gendered; he stated in his writings, “A cowardly man allows his body to control his soul so his weak soul is reborn in woman’s body” (Spelman). This fact reflects that a man who bears a feminine soul is coward. All these ideas reveal that Plato is not a feminist. Though he dreamed of having powerful and acceptable women in society, he did not talk about equality of women.

Pausanias: Two Types Of Love

Pausanias: Two types of love
You will be surprise that why I have choose this topic? It is not me who believes that rather it is the “Pausanias”. Pausanias is the great philosopher of Greek times and a character in Plato’s framed story “symposium”. This is a framed story of Plato (there are other stories in the story). The story of “symposium” begins with a dialogue between two persons. One of them demands the other to tell about the dinner party at Agathon where many philosophers spoke about love. So this man tells the speeches of every philosopher including Pausanias. Pausanias begins his speech and he thinks there are two kinds of love as he with some of his friends considered love as a god, so there were two goddesses with the name of Aphrodite and these both were considered as gods of love by Greeks. Pausanias then explains that one of these gods was heavenly Aphrodite and other was common Aphrodite. Though these two goddesses have impacts on love however different cities have different attitudes towards love.
Pausanias further explains that how these two goddesses are dominating the affairs of love “depending upon which goddess is love’s partner” (465). For Pausanias common love is “love felt by vulgar” (466) this love is only about physical relationship with boys as well as with women. On the other hand heavenly love is the pure one “this goddess, who’s decent, is purely male (hence this love is for boys)” (466). Here he assumes that pure love is only for men of their own kinds, so “they find pleasure” in loving more “intelligent and strong” ones (466). In heavenly love he believes that one man sacrifices everything to his loved one and is ready to love his lover throughout his life. Here we can see how the early Greek was thinking about love; there were no restrictions on love for male as we see now in many countries. Though there were certain cities at that time which were opposing love of any kind but Greeks were disregarding them for their acts.
Pausanias continues his speech by comparing different cities and countries and their customs concerning love. He tells that how it is difficult for Athens and Spartan to take a lover openly. But in the city of Boeotia, it was considered as tradition “tradition straight forwardly approves taking a lover in every case” (466). There it was not shameful like it was in Ionia and Persian Empire. In Persia taking a lover was considered to be disgraceful (467). Here Pausanias dislikes the ways of Persian Empire and it somehow shows the distrust among the two Great empires.
At last he discusses what the Athens think about love: they label love as graceful, honorable and god but in Pausanias’s opinion love is “neither honorable nor disgraceful —its character depends entirely on the behavior it gives rise to” (468). Pausanias maintains his argument on love by saying a true lover will do whatever his lover is demanding to do without being concern of the result but a vulgar one will not.

Gender inequality in Workplace

Ghanaian diplomat and the seventeenth Secretary- General of United Nations, Kofi Anan Stated that, “. . . gender equality is critical to the development and peace of every nation.”  Generally, gender equality is an essential element of making a developed country, because without the contribution of both men and women it is quiet impossible to make a developed state with all kind of facilities for countrymen. But unfortunately, gender inequality is still present in every society. It is a big obstacle in the way of developing a nation. Each and every sphere of life, gender inequality is obvious. For instance, in job sector women are largely limited to low-paid and poor status occupations and most of time they get less salary than men even doing the same job.

Basically, works define the class or social status of a person in a society, but in present world, women’s condition is undermined there. When a woman want to get into any work, at first she has to take permission from her family or husband, because women are not allow to do everything that men can do. After that she has to deal with competition in job intense with male competitors as there is a grand misconception about women’s physical condition that women are physically weak, they cannot work hard. So, men are more preferable than women in workplace.

After passing a challenging situation when a woman get job, she is offered less money than a man. Besides, fulfilling all requirements of getting a job, she gets less opportunity also. This is a common picture of women in workplace. In entire life, women always have to face such kind of challenges in every step of all-purpose. So what is the solution? Actually solution is in women’s hand. I strongly believe that women can change their condition if they want. They should not acknowledge everything what society suggested them. They have to speak up everywhere (it can be in family, workplace . . . anywhere) against all injustice towards them; they have to learn how to say ‘no’ when they are under discrimination. They have to be strong enough to acquire their own rights.

Work Cited

Anan, Kofi. “International Rights for Women.” National Women’s Council. Web.16 Feb. 2013                 <http://nationalwomenscouncil.org/international.php&gt;

Gender And Sex: two ambiguous terms

“Gender” and “Sex” are two ambiguous terms which are always misinterpreted by people. Basically, most of the people can’t differentiate between gender and sex. According to World Health Organization, “Gender refers to the economic, social and cultural attributes and opportunities associated with being male or female at a particular point in time.” whereas “ Sex refers to the biological characteristics that define humans as female or male. Judith Lorber in her article “Night to his day: The Social Construction of Gender” distinguishes between gender and sex with the help of various examples. The classification of human being into two categories: men and female is based on the appearance of genitalia. This arises just after birth of a child. ‘Sex’ is main physiological difference that exists between men and women. This physiological difference includes genitalia and reproductive organs.
It is gendering which allows human beings to organize their lives. People of different genders work at different kinds of jobs. Gendering begins from home which is done by parents. That is the way children are being nurtured. This includes naming, dress up, interaction with parents of the same and opposite gender ( Lorber, 55).For example: when I was in my childhood my mother used to tell me that you should wear frocks, skirts, tops but not shirts. At that time I had no idea about male and female. She used to tell me that shirts are boy’s outfit so it should not be worn by a girl. Again, when I went to shopping mall and want to buy toy cars, video games my mom used to tell me that girls play with dolls, crockery, not with toy cars. Those toy cars and video games are boys’ games. This is a common scenario in everyone’s life. In this way the classification between men and women starts from home. Lorber mention this by referring to the line “Women influences children’s psychological development and emotional attachments, in the process reproducing gender” (61).Moreover, she mentions that gender norms are inscribed in the way people move, gesture and even eat(57). She explains this with the example of how differently men and women eat in African society(57).
It is gender which brings social difference between human being. It defines human beings into men and women. It is the major component of bringing inequality in our society. Still in our society women are subservient to men. Women’s work is usually paid less than men. Gender is mainly responsible for lowering the status of women. It is responsible for dividing work in home and in economic production. So, from this it is evident that gender and sex are two different terms, but they are compatible with each other.
Works Cited
Lorber, Judith. “Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender”.New Haven:Yale University Press, 1994. Print. 19 Feb. 2013.
World Health Organization. Gender, Women and Health. 2013. Web. 19 Feb.2013.

To Veil or Not to Veil

Veil is such an important part of a Muslim woman. But if we consider ourselves as feminists, should veils be mandatory? To find this answer, let’s look at the history of the veil at first. The Islamic veil was introduced to protect women from the aggression of men, since later it was considered as modesty and upper class women used to practice veil to show their elitism as they don’t have to work like the other women in the field who used to wear loose clothes (wiegand). But do you think only Muslim women used to wear veils? No, the Christian and Jewish women also wear veils to show their modesty.
But in future in was took in such a way that veil became a must for the Muslim women and even Iran started to portray women in a veil, wearing chador. Feminists saw them as a “sign of oppression” (Berger). Western feminists consider veil “shaped by gender relations” (Majid). So, as a feminist, someone might go against the veil which is normal and even in some country like Arab veil is a must for women, they have to cover their heads wearing loose dark clothes (odeh). So, in this case veil is such a thing which is imposed on a woman by the society and feminists must go against it.
But what about those women who want to wear veils willingly because they are comfortable with it? After the occurrence of 9/11 many women were not allowed to wear veils as they were considered terrorists. In this case, it also goes against feminism. A woman has the right to do anything and if she wants to wear a veil society doesn’t have the right to stop her by calling her a terrorist.
I think feminism must think about the veil in a broader context. There should be laws for the women who are doing the veil forcefully and those who can’t do veil because of the society. feminists should give women the choice to veil or not to veil.

works cited:
“Unveiling Muslim Feminism.” – In These Times. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2013.
“Project MUSE – The Newly Veiled Woman: Irigaray, Specularity, and the Islamic Veil.”Project MUSE – The Newly Veiled Woman: Irigaray, Specularity, and the Islamic Veil. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2013.
Majid, Anouar. JSTOR. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2013. .
Odeh, Lama Abu. JSTOR. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2013. .

Gender: A mistaken hallucination

Almost everyone does gender with out unconscious thought. Though gender does not equal sex, and sex does not equal gender, but many people make a mistake by thinking gender and sex as the same thing. So what is gender and sex?

“Sex” refers to the biological and physiological characteristics that define men and women.

“Gender” refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women.

In another way,” “Male” and “female” are sex categories, while “masculine” and “feminine” are gender categories.”(WHO)

Sex is more of the physical appearance of people where gender is how men and women are treated in a society. From the primitive age we have seen that always men are superior than women. Even in professional life even if a woman has better quality for a job than man, but man is always recommended for that job. In The Social Construction of Gender, Lorber mentioned that “In a gender stratified society, what men do is usually valued more highly than what women do because men do it, even when their activities are similar.” We can see this example in our daily life. A man and woman working for the same post in a company, the man salary is always more than a woman.

But why is always gender referred to women? Why not men? Just because they are physically stronger than women? In our society when we see a father nurturing his child, he receives lots of praises and applauses from the society. But a mother who is nurturing her child and also gives birth to her child never receives praises and applauses, just because it is the rule of nature and it’s her fundamental duty. In other field it is also seen that women does not have the right to do whatever they want. For example, in Viet Nam, many more men than women smoke, as female smoking has not traditionally been considered appropriate and in Saudi Arabia men are allowed to drive cars while women are not.

Gender now has become a socially constructed accomplishment. It is now in peoples’ genes as it had been practiced from the primitive age. It is nothing except an ideology made by human where women are lowered than men.

Works Cited

Lorber, Judith. “Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender”.New Haven:Yale             University Press, 1994. Print. 19 Feb. 2013.

“What Do We Mean by “sex” and “gender”?” WHO. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2013.

Veil: A Controversial Topic for Feminists

In “Night to His Day”, the author Judith Lorber has emphasizes on Gender issues—how gender is included into social structure, the meaning of gender to individuals and society and the role of gender classification in the society. While describing, Lorber has pointed out the issue of gender discrimination between male and female. She has compared the social structure as a building which is based on the ‘unequal stuses’ of male and female and the gender issue as a ‘major’ building block in this case. She not only observes the role of ‘gender’ and ‘sex’ in society but also points out how gender discrimination undermines women. She says, “As a part of stratification system, gender ranks men above women of the same race and class.” (60) So, it is clear from her state that in social stratification inequality between the genders is a familiar thing to notice. But she also says that it varies in different societies. As an example she brings out ‘Saudi Arabia’ which is according to her one of the societies that has ‘the greatest gender difference’ and the controversial topic of veil in the life of Muslim women. She believes that it is the ‘veil’ that keeps women separate from the main stream. She has compared veil with ‘wall’ which symbolize that she thinks veil is an obstacle for Muslim women’s development. She points out that the women in Saudi Arabia don’t have civil rights, they are confined within themselves and from her point of view veil or covering up women plays an important role behind this inequality. (61)
on the contrary, in the article ‘Unveiling Muslim Feminism’, the writer Erin Wiegand has presented ‘veil’ as a symbol of freedom and women’s right to choose the way of dressing. For explaining her point, she has introduced the history of veil in Iran’s history and the role of women there. From the evidence of history she has tried to prove that instead of being an obstacle, veil is the part of Muslim feminism. She showed that, in the early 20th century of Iran veil was used as a symbol of aristocracy. She says, “women veiled themselves to proclaim their virtue and, more, importantly, to protest against the Pahlavi dynasty.”She agrees with Nima Naghibi who is the author of the book Rethinking Global Sisterhood: Western Feminism and Iran and they both argue against the idea of veil being a barrier for Muslim women. Wiegand starts from the status and history of feminism in Iran and then she gradually talks about the whole Muslim feminism. She claims though western world think veil as a symbol of inactiveness of Muslim feminism, however, the veil is a symbol of freedom instead of being a symbol ‘oppressed women’.
Lorber and Wiegand both are contemporary feminist but their ideas about veil is totally different. I think the topic of veil is controversial for feminist because veil is related to Muslim religion and Muslim women are likely to be more oppressed than the other women in the western feminism’s point of view. It is related to how western world observes Middle East countries and the Muslim feminism. Both sides are strong in their argument which makes this topic controversial.
Work Cited
Lorber, Judith. “Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender”. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994. Print. 19 Feb. 2013.
Wiegand, Erin. ‘Unveiling Muslim Feminism’. In These Times. 7 Sep. 2007. Web. 19 Feb. 2013

“Gender” – Don’t misinterpret the word!

According to the Longman Dictionary of American English the term “Gender” means “the fact of being male or female” (425). And from the same dictionary the meaning of the term “Sex” is “the condition of being male or female” (927). So, what is the difference between gender and sex? Does it really have any difference? It surely does. From the definitions, we can see that the only difference in the definitions is that in case of gender it is written fact and in case of sex it is written condition. But who decided that gender is a fact. Who made it fact? The society made it fact. The society taught men how to behave like a man and how he should be presented in front of the society. In the same token, the society taught the women how to behave like a woman and she should be presented in front of the society. One can’t be a perfect man or woman from his or her childhood. It is the society who shapes them as society’s want. The only thing which is decided from their birth is their sex. Sex is the biological term to differentiate a man and a woman. Whereas gender is the outward sign to express a person’s femininity or masculinity through one’s appearance or behavior. The society which makes a man, man and a woman, woman is the society which includes the person’s own parents, friends and relatives. One is trained properly about the tiny details of the gender one should follow. The training may consist of the way of clothing, walking, talking, sitting, eating and so on. So, it is the society which is creating variances among men and women as their roles are predetermined by the society. But who gave the right to the society to make these rules of being a man and a woman? From my point of view, the only difference between a man and a woman is the biological difference. Society is no one to tell a person to adapt manhood or womanhood. One can’t expect from a person particular characteristics. It entirely depends on the person how he / she want to be.

Work Cited
Longman, Pearson. “Gender.” “Sex.” Longman Dictionary of American English. ed.4. 19. Feb. 2013. Print.

A Vietnamese feminist in ancient time: Hồ Xuân Hương

When we have a look over Vietnamese history, it seems that most of the Vietnamese women were taught to become a good mother as well as a good wife. The feudal society confined women to many limits. They were told to stay behind the curtain, behind men’s backs. They were told to serve men. All their lives leaned on their husbands. They did not have any chance for education. I used to think that they may not even wonder why. However, in the late eighteen century, there was the presence of a female poet that really impresses me as well as the whole world up till now by her unconventional style. Her name is Hồ Xuân Hương. The innovation in her writing is using so many allusions to the “sexual imagery” (Buijs, 146). Her poetry “[scathingly] attacks on men” (Buijs, 146).
All of Hồ Xuân Hương’s poems were written in Chinese classical style since China had profound influence on Vietnam at that time. However, her poems still reflect her strong patriotism as well as her talent when she used Nôm, Vietnamese language at that time while Nôm was really a tough language. Under the domination of many Chinese imperial dynasties, Vietnamese endeavored not to be assimilated by their creation of Nôm based on Chinese language. For men who had chance to have education, it took many years to write in Nôm because to use this language, they had to be skillful at Chinese first! Despite the fact when people began to colletct her poems, many of them were missing, Buijs states that Hồ Xuân Hương is a “prolific poet” (412). When I was in high school, my teacher did call her “The queen of Nôm”. These things convince us to believe and admire her intellectual ability which is not inferior to men at all! Baladan, the American translator of her poems, with his comment: “because of her stunning poetic cleverness, she and her poems survived.” (53), confirms the position of Hồ Xuân Hương and her poems in Vietnamese as well as world literature.
Recently, after a short conversation with my teacher, I have somehow formed my philosophy what a feminist is. You can disagree with my definition (but there is the fact that there is no exact definition for this new word!). If a woman can do whatever a man can do, she is a feminist! Especially when we consider the age when Hồ Xuân Hương lived, she is really a predominant representation of feminist today!
This is one of Hồ Xuân Hương’s poems. It has alreadly been translated into English. If any of you interests in my post, you can try this:
Country Scene
The waterfall plunges in mist.
Who can describe this desolate scene:

the long white river sliding through
the emerald shadows of the ancient canopy

…a shepherd’s horn echoing on the valley,
fishnets stretched to dry on sandy flats.

A bell is tolling, fading, fading
just like love. Only poetry lasts. (John, 57)

Works Cited
Buijs, Gina. Migrant Women: Crossing Boundaries and Changing Identities. Oxford: Berg, 1993. Books.google.com. Google Books. Web. 19 Feb. 2013.
John, Baladan. “Spring Essence – The Poetry of Hồ Xuân Hương.” The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies 21 (2002): 53-58. Transpersonalstudies.org. The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies. Web. 19 Feb. 2013.

My Mom, a Feminist

It has been only some months I became aware of the term feminism. I was aware of women rights, but never thought there would be a group fighting for women’s rights equal to men. But when I think of feminism now, I believe that my mom is a great feminist, even though she has no idea about word feminism. For me feminist is a person who does not individually support the stereotypes, being a strong woman and making yourself equal to the men of that society. According to a feminist teacher feminism does not necessarily mean to stand against the society and fight for the rights of women (Smith).

My mother is the best example of my definition of feminists. When she got married after her matriculation, she did not stay at home like other women in my family. She applied for teaching post and became the first female teacher in my area back in Pakistan. Of course my granny and other family members were against this, but mom did not care for what they said. She was from a town and married to a village man where girls were not educated. When the people saw my mom teaching in a school with male staff, the people spread many rumors. She had to ignore all those and continue her job, because she did not want to suffer like other women.  She became a role model for other girls and parents who wanted their daughters to be educated.  And due to the society they could not send them to school, they started to send their daughters to school. Now almost every girl is getting education. Our culture does not want women to go beyond the boundaries of the culture. And if any one does that they have to face consequences, may be they would be punished or they will face problems in their married life. The only thing needed is to stay calm and continue what we are doing if we really want a change.

In developed societies some of the feminist have grown into anti male. They have brought disturbances in those societies. If women grew anti male than women will not be different from the stereotyped men, who still consider women as their properties. On the other hand my mom didn’t do anything like that, she just persuaded her dream of being a teacher, regardless of the oppositions from our family.  If my mom had gone against men or tried to bring any change by challenging the society, she might have had ended in a divorce which at that time many of our relatives wanted my father to do. What my mom did was, not supported the stereotype and started working like the male members of the society. She did not persuade anyone to send their daughters to school, but gradually the people around started to see the benefits of educating girls, especially my family member supported her as she was earning for the family.

Therefore, to bring a change, an individual should try to bring change in themselves and than in the family, before changing the society. There are people who want change in the society; they just do not want to be the first one to take the initiative. If we demand for equal rights for men and women in my society, and do strikes, come on the roads, then men will not support and without the support of men we cannot insure women rights. Everything which is abrupt and sudden is not benificial and that only leads to disturbance in the society.

Work cited

Smith, Madeline. “Feminism.” Asian University for Women, Chittagong. 19 Feb. 2013