ON THE BASIS OF SEX FIRST CLASS ESSAY PDF

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This is an essay which scored 70%, making that a first class essay....

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“Explore issues related to religion and society today in your selected source material, evaluate the arguments presented and the evidence for them” Sociology can be used to explore different ideas about different beliefs and practices. Sarah Delamont claimed that “sociology has been a fertile ground for feminist changes to the knowledge base” (Delamont, 2003, p.4). Throughout the course of this essay I will be exploring the issues related to religion and society today using the movie, “ On the basis of sex”. The movie I have chosen to use for this essay illustrates the vast amount of sexism women faced at the time; which is still very much prevalent in society today, with many people, (women in particular) still facing gender prejudice in their everyday lives. Gender and feminist approaches to religion will be the main topics from this module that will be applied to this essay. I will be using the film to illustrate the inherent sexism that is still rooted in contemporary societies. The film is focused on the life of former US supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who served on the court from 1993 until her death in 2020. Set in 1956 Bader Ginsburg is one of just nine women in her law class at Harvard law school. In spite of the fact that she was an extremely intelligent woman she still faced a huge amount of prejudice and sexism which is portrayed all throughout the movie. During her studies her husband Martin was diagnosed with cancer leading Ruth to take over both of their classes until he recovered. As well as this, what made it even harder for Ginsburg was the fact that the professors at Harvard law school were of very little help to her due to her sex. Bader Ginsburg worked as a professor teaching law before she made it as a proper lawyer. Her path as a woman to becoming a lawyer was definitely not easy. She was just the second woman to serve on the supreme court when she took her place on it in 1993. Gender inequality is linked to religion as a lot of religious ideas and practices stem from historic religious traditions. In our contemporary society and in this age of modernity it is often just taken as a given that gender equality is a social norm and that sexism no longer exists; this assumption is particularly made with regards to the western world (Phillips, 2018). However, this is not always correct. “Gender is a hotly contested subject” (Juschka,2016, p.137). “Gender plays a key role in all aspects of human existence be it language, education and knowledge, production, social organization, or systems of belief and practice (aka religions)”. (Juschka, 2016, p.137), it is omnipresent. There is a strong relationship between gender and religion, with many believing that the patriarchy is heavily fuelled by religion. Many religious practices and ideas regarding men and women dating back centuries still lay the foundations for many different religions today, such as, Catholicism. The movie focus is on the effects of the patriarchal society. Although the movie was set in the 1950’s, that is still fairly recent when you compare it to all the previous centuries that women have been oppressed for. One of the earliest philosophers and someone who was very influential in early Christianity; Plato stated that “it is only males who are created directly by the gods and are given souls. Those who live rightly return to the stars, but those who are cowards or lead unrighteous lives may with reason be supposed to have changed into the nature of women in the second generation” (Plato, Timaeus, c.360bc). Plato held the belief that men and women were very different and that women were inferior to men; in Plato’s eyes being born a woman is something that unfortunately happens to men that got it wrong the first time. With these views dating back to at least the time of Plato it is no wonder that these types of views have become to deeprooted in our society. Aristotle too maintained the same belief as Plato regarding woman; affirming in his book that women are naturally by nature “more mischievous, less simple, more impulsive…more jealous” (Aristotle, History of Animals, c. 400bc, 608b,1-14), that being just a few personality traits which he expressed about women. Bader Ginsburg was told that she was ‘too emotional’ to be a lawyer. Aristotle came to the conclusion that men should govern women. The movie is full of superior male figures, showing how these ancient

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thoughts from influential figures like Plato and Aristotle have progressed over time. Dean Griswold, who is an authoritative figure in the film sneeringly forces the nine girls at Harvard Law school to get up and explain why they’re studying in law school, demonstrating the behaviour of a male using his position of power to try and make the girls feel uncomfortable and doubt their abilities to complete a law degree. It was just as well that Bader Ginsburg remained unbothered by this and kept excelling at her studies despite men deliberately trying to make it harder for her. Professor Brown also never called on her. Bader Ginsburg was a strong willed, intelligent woman who knew what she wanted and worked extremely hard for it; however, many other women would not have had this strength to carry on in the face of such difficulties caused by the male domination of society. Additionally, in the 1950s it was still rare for women to receive a good education and to make it to higher studying. It was frowned upon for a woman to put her career before her family, which added to why Bader Ginsburg was especially frowned upon at Harvard as she was a married woman with a child, making it even more surprising. In 1988 pope John Paul II wrote a letter called Mulieris Dignitatem; this letter outlined the churches view on the rights of women, in it the pope said that “motherhood is the fruit of the marriage union of a man and woman…this brings about…on the woman’s part-…a special ‘gift of self’” (Pope john Paul, 1988, point 18), as well as that he also wrote about how naturally a woman is more capable of tending to others needs than a male is. Once again reinforcing sexist historic religious beliefs. Lots of modern feminists would argue that religious traditions and ideas like these should be either reformed or abandoned. Although the movies main aim is to get across the repression of women in society, there were a few aspects that stood out to me as being conflicting with the patriarchal society of the time. For example, the fact that Martin helps accommodate Ruth in her career, and even compromises his own career to help Ruth succeed. Additionally, the movie portrays their partnership as being equal and balanced; with Martin often being seen spending time with their first child Jane, and in the kitchen cooking. This would’ve been seen as being quite ahead of the times for the 1950s, challenging societal norms. Feminist author Simone de Beauvoir holds the view that motherhood forces a woman to suspend her ambitions and interests in order to look after her family properly, she believed that motherhood was forced upon a woman (De Beauvoir, 1949). At the time, this would’ve been the case; furthermore, at the time that this was written it would’ve been seen as being an extremely unconventional and shocking thing to say. However, society has progressed a long way since then with traditional societal/ religious norms being uprooted. Although, there is still plenty of work to be done to make a sexist free society. Nowadays women have many more opportunities to progress to higher positions in the workplace and are able to return back to their same job after taking maternity leave. Moreover, men can also take paternity leave these days. Ruth and Martin showed that sexism can go both ways when she was fighting the court case for the man to be able to be the main care giver and top turn over the laws regarding gender inequality. De Beauvoir also came to the conclusion that the feeling a woman may feel that she needs to become a mother isn’t biological at all, it’s purely due to socialisation. For De Beauvoir, there is no natural ‘maternal instinct’ (De Beauvoir, 1949). This concept of socialisation links to religious ideals, as the Bible lays out the different roles of how men and women should be in society. “Wives submit yourselves to your husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife” (Ephesians 5:22-33), again emphasising the importance of men in religion. This idea of secularism in our society may also be seen as being necessary in order to achieve a utopian, non-gender discriminatory society as religious ideals won’t be as influential in schools, the workplace and so on. Secularisation is gradually happening all around us with the number of people attending churches and Sunday schools substantially reducing. Individuals should be recognised for their unique identity; rather than living in a way 2

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where we are conforming to a particular religion or set of beliefs which leads to a loss of distinctiveness (Taylor, 1994). Secularisation may help women more and more to gain their own identities and detach from this idea that she is inferior to her male counterpart, giving women their own, individual sense of purpose. Jane Ginsburg represents the birth of a new generation of women who are independent and liberated, there is a moment in the movie where a man is being derogatory to Ruth and Jane tells her mother to not allow a man to speak to her that way. The older woman Dorothy represents the oldest generation as she believes that the country is not yet ready for what Ruth is fighting for and that women should just be happy to have the vote for now. Radical post- Christian theologian Mary Daly strongly believes that the only way we can end sexism towards women is by getting beyond religion and abandoning it, as throughout history the oppression of women has been largely enforced by religion. According to Daly, women need a new spirituality for themselves (Daly, 1973). Daly describes the unholy trinity of rape, genocide and war, according to Daly this unholy trinity symbolises a God who is violent, sexist and racist, who must be fought. She believed that “if God is male then male is God” (Daly, 1973). Despite Daly’s views being radical, they are valid to a certain extent as when you look at different religions, they do all have males in authoritative positions of power such as, Allah, Jesus, and the disciples. Rosemary Radford Ruether too holds the belief that religion has been used to reinforce the patriarchy. However, she believes that religion is in need of reform, not to totally abandon it. Reforms such as for the Catholic church to change its views on abortion, and for women’s ordination (Ruether, 1983). This seems like a less radical and more realistic approach than Daly’s. Religiously speaking, women are hardly ever seen as being strong independent free agents who can think for themselves, therefore, it is justified that many see religion as being very sexist and this could be seen as a reason for the need for the further decline of religion in society. In short, the movie I chose to evaluate displays the patriarchal society for what it was, Afterall, the film was based on the true-life story of Bader Ginsburg herself. I enjoyed analysing this movie in relation to religion and society as it was interesting to compare it today’s society in which we live in, but also on the flip side to use it to illustrate how far we still have to come in the way of gender equality for both sexes. Martin represents a man who is ahead of the times despite the film being focused on the hardships Ruth faced as a woman. All in all, I agree with Reuther, that religion and gender go hand in hand; and religion needs to change and overturn centuries of sexist, ancient ideas to fit in with our everevolving modern society. Bibliography - Phillips Anne, Gender and modernity, Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications Political theory, -12, Vol.46 (6), p.837-860, 2018 - Plato, Timaeus, c.360bc - Aristotle, History of Animals, c. 400bc, 608b,1-14 - John Paul II Pope, Mulieris Dignitatem, 1988 - De Beauvoir Simone, 1949 - Ephesians 5:22-33, New international Version - Taylor Charles, Multiculturalism: Examining the politics of Recognition, eds, Gutmann and Habermas, 1944 - Daly Mary, Beyond God the Father: Toward a philosophy of Women’s Liberation, 1973) - Radford Ruether, Rosemary, Sexism and God-talk: Toward a feminist theology, 1983

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