TIGed

Switch headers Switch to TIGweb.org

Are you an TIG Member?
Click here to switch to TIGweb.org

HomeHomeExpress YourselfPanoramaCulture and Gender Difference in Kenya
Panorama
a TakingITGlobal online publication
Search



(Advanced Search)

Panorama Home
Issue Archive
Current Issue
Next Issue
Featured Writer
TIG Magazine
Writings
Opinion
Interview
Short Story
Poetry
Experiences
My Content
Edit
Submit
Guidelines
Culture and Gender Difference in Kenya Printable Version PRINTABLE VERSION
by Thomas Igeme, Kenya Aug 8, 2002
Peace & Conflict   Opinions
 1 2 3 4   Next page »

  

However, logical as this argument seems, we cannot ignore the wise words of our member Mr. Martin Njuguna who said, “we cannot expect people to be what they are not. Fact: women are better caregivers than men. Fact: women give birth. The attributes they posses ensure they carry out their roles adequately. Men are not caregivers because they weren’t meant to. The only person who can be blamed here is nature. We do not decide who or what we will be, we receive it and we should embrace it, not fight it. Women are and will always be the best caregivers, I do not deny that, but their ‘many emotions’ make them volatile. Fact is, they may be the best shoulder to cry on, but most of the time they are doing the crying. And as far as that accusation about running away from responsibility goes, presidency is the most important form of responsibility and who is prevalent in that? A woman’s emotional state is unpredictable and that is why a female president in a country like Kenya is impossible!” This point was soon under fire and we came to the conclusion that it was erroneous on the grounds that there are many female presidents in our modern world and Malaysia, for example, which has a female president is one of the cleanest countries in the world.
But some people even go so far as to say that if we use the Christian perspective of God creating Adam first, then women are better than men. Their theory is based on the principle of how an artist works. He creates the sketch and then makes adjustments to finally come up with his final piece of perfected work. According to this, they claim that men are the sketches and women are the final, perfected work. They claim that in countries like Iraq, where women are covered from head to foot, we have an example of how men are so intimidated by women that they have to hide their perfection.
As you can see, the people’s opinions were as diverse as they were interesting. In fact, the only job that is agreed to belong solely to women is that of mother and wife (although even that was under dispute by one or two people) but one point came out clearly: there are differences between men and women. Now that we have reached that conclusion, we have to find out what determines these differences. Are our gender differences genetic or does our environment dictate a lot more than we are willing to admit? If we were to create an artificial environment, one where women did things that are generally considered male oriented, and have children grow up in this environment, would we have a situation whereby due to socialization the female children would perform male oriented tasks or would the traits that we now consider female oriented still prevail? Basically, does society dictate our attitudes towards gender difference?
The answer to this can be brought out in the question – what happens to a child raised by animals? I mean, doesn’t it stand to reason that children who are brought up by monkeys would act like monkeys and children brought up by wolves would act like wolves? If that is true, then isn’t it proof that our environment directly affects what we view as our gender differences.
Some people would prefer to look at each individual as a mound of clay who is molded by society but whose characteristics will always remain the same. If that were true then it would be an accurate analysis to state that one’s surroundings do not alter a person’s personality, but rather shapes it. According to them, a child comes into the world as an individual and the differences in how we respond to our surroundings depend on that individuality - not on our gender. This can be supported by the fact that there are different environments all over the world. Different societies in different areas have different ways of doing things. However, in all these societies, there are things that are similar, especially in relation to gender. For example, the world over, women have been considered the more emotional sex: they supposedly cry more than their male counterparts. Now this doesn’t differ from culture to culture. It is one thing that, on average, can be considered a common factor. Obviously, all of these cultures didn’t just come up with the same idea coincidentally. It stands to reason that they didn’t just play a game of ‘odd-man-out’ to decide which was the most emotional sex. Obviously, the traits that made them come to this decision were constant irrespective of different environments. Doesn’t this then prove the fact that our environment doesn’t make our differences but rather moulds the ones we already have?
This can all be fairly summed up in the statement that differences are personal and are not created by our environment, thus there is no normal as every single person is unique. But wait a minute, if there isn’t any normal, then how do we define those ‘unusual’ traits we see in the odd person? Think about it - if there isn’t any normal, then who is abnormal? These so-called ‘abnormal’ people are, according to this argument, simply ‘different’; just like everyone else. The answer to that is simple: what we perceive as normal isn’t really so, rather it should be called average. That means that no two people are alike, but all people do share some common traits however differently these traits may be expressed from person to person. It is people who do not seem to follow these ‘traits’ that have had the term ‘abnormal’ bestowed on them.





 1 2 3 4   Next page »   


Tags

You must be logged in to add tags.

Writer Profile
Thomas Igeme


This user has not written anything in his panorama profile yet.
Comments
You must be a TakingITGlobal member to post a comment. Sign up for free or login.