The politics of gender (Showkeen Bilal)

THE POLITICS OF GENDER Prepared By: Dr. Showkeen Bilal Ahmad Gul, Aligarh Muslim University 1. Complementarity (Politics of Gender) Complementarianism is a theological view held by some in Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Jainism and Islam, that men and women have different but complementary roles and responsibilities in marriage, family life, religious leadership, and elsewhere. The word “complementary” and its cognates are currently used to denote this view. The idea, then, behind gender complementarity is that men have these qualities and those shortcomings while women have those qualities and these shortcomings.

Sex differences are real and must be affirmed and celebrated. Human beings are hardwired differently according to sex. There are real differences, for example in the brain, which cannot and should not be meddled with by social engineers. Thus the push for complete gender role interchange ability, unisexuality and androgyny is to be rejected.

Men and women bring unique and complementary skills, abilities, gifts and talents to relationships, to work, to society, and to one another. As one expert has put it, “Sex differences are large, deeply rooted and consequential. Men and women still have different natures, and, generally speaking, different preferences, talents and interests… These differences can be explained in part by hormones and other physiological and chemical distinctions between men and women. Thus they won’t disappear unless we tinker with our fundamental biological natures.”

Let’s grant the existence of sexual complementarity between men and women and that it is a prerequisite for “the flourishing of social and family life” [(I guess this would mean that men would have certain personality traits–assertiveness, leadership, ability to acquire a well-paying job, knowledge of sports, affinity for playful rough-housing–and women another set of traits–deference, kindness, patience, generosity, receptivity, a desire to bear children?) and of course let’s not think too deeply about the centuries-old example of single-sex and sexual non-complementary communities of monks, nuns, and priests whose holiness the church holds in unparalleled esteem…