By: Annalicia Bing
Cultures are gendered in distinctive ways and gender systems and, in turn, shape both material and symbolic cultural products (Spade & Valentine 98).
As gender functions differently within these cultures across the world, it’s true sometimes that Western ideologies can conflict and inhibit progress in these nations. I’m going to examine the Gerai belief on biological sameness in an effort to explain their rape free society and other egalitarian nations will be compared in their strides toward body equality.
(Sameness vs. Difference)
Reinforced Western Ideology Framework
Gender/Sex Difference
“Western emphasis on sexual difference is a product of the heterosexualization of desire within Western societies over the past few centuries, which ‘requires institutes the production indiscrete in asymmetrical oppositions between ‘feminine’ and ‘masculine’ for these are understood as expressive attributes of ‘male’ and ‘female’” (Spade & Valentine 104).
Rape
"Rape stems from difference in social position; inequality between men and women is linked to men's desire to possess and control women" (Spade & Valentine 104).
"The 'biological' body difference between men and women exist everywhere" (Spade & Valentine 104).
Understanding Your Set of Cultural Blinders
People often do not reflect on their own culture; in fact, we hardly question the things we 'know' or think to be true. In this conversation, it is vital to understand the following:
(1) When speaking about gender, at least in the western viewpoint, it is understood that there are only two sexes that are determined by our biological genetics; while our gender can be and often is determined by social interactions and engagements with others.
(2) Western culture along with western feminism reinforces the gender difference placed on men and women by assuming the difference in biological genitalia creates difference among sexes.
The Gerai People
Geography
Often it is difficult to directly translate terms in other countries and establish an accurate understanding of these terms through the cultural context.
In southeast Asia where we can locate the Gerai people, the genderscape is lax, so much so that terms such as men and women are unrecognized terms.
(West Kalimantan)
Beliefs on Sameness
(Bodies) "In Gerai men's and women's sexual organs are explicitly conceptualized as the same... in all cases, the basic structure and form of each were the same. In all of these discussions, it was reiterated that the major difference between men's and women's organs is their location: inside the body (women) and outside the body (men)" (Helliwell 6).
(Sex) In line with the stress on sameness, sexual intercourse between a man and a woman in Gerai is understood as an equal coming together of fluids, pleasures and life force. The same stress also underlies beliefs about conception. Again, what is seen as important here is not the fusion of two different types of bodies ('male' and 'female') as in western understandings; rather, Gerai people say, it is the similarity between the two bodies that allows procreation to occur (Helliwell 7).
(Work) Gerai stresses sameness between men and women more than difference, and such difference as occurs is based on the kinds of work that people perform...Gerai people, whether one has a penis or a vulva – and, indeed, whether a potential sexual partner is of the same or of a different 'sex' to oneself – is largely unimportant in the constitution of sexual desire. What is important in this regard is the kind of work that one performs. (Helliwell 17).
'Someone who can cut down trees for a rice field' or 'Someone who can select and store rice'
Body Equality
In Gerai, Men and women are not understood as fundamentally different types of persons: there is no sense of a dichotomized masculinity and femininity. Rather, men and women are seen to have the same kinds of capacities and proclivities… men are said to be braver and more knowledgeable about local law, all women are said to be more persistent and more in during. All of these qualities are valued (Spade and Valentine 106).
Gender difference in Gerai, then, is not predicated on the character of one's body, and especially of one's genitalia, as in many western contexts. Rather, it is understood as constituted in the differential capacity to perform certain kinds of work, a capacity assigned long before one's bodily being takes shape (Helliwell 12).
Rape Free Society
Rape in this society isn’t possible due to the cultural belief in biological 'sameness'. The lack of difference between genitalia, personhood, and body devalues the assumed uneven power dynamic, often reflective of patriarchal societies. This coupled with the ideal no one can be coerced into anything really creates an uncomprehendable term for Gerai people.
Egalitarian Nations Strides in Equality...
"The Gini coefficient was developed by the Italian Sociologist and statistician Corrado Gini to measure an economy’s level of income inequality" (Sawe).
Income inequality, like many other inequities, is rooted in various laws, polices, and guidelines within institutions as a result of various social constructs like gender, race, and class; egalitarian nations are presumed to believe in equality among all people, despite these social constructs.
The chart above indicates that the Nordic region remains among the lowest in income inequality.
The global gender gap – is measured across four key areas, or subindexes: health, education, work and politics (Hutt).
Evidence suggests that Nordic regions for the last decade have reduced inequality in multiple areas among its citizens. The assumed belief is that men are in support of women rights, but evidence suggest otherwise...
Men's views on women rights in Nordic region...
In a recent study conducted by Dr Natasza Kosakowska-Berezecka from the University of Gda?sk, Poland, and involved a team of experts including Dr Magdalena Zawisza of Anglia Ruskin University (ARU):
The new research which was the largest study on this topic ever attempted, involved 6,734 men from 42 nations ranging from Norway
"The researchers found, regardless of nationality, that the more men believe in "zero-sum" thinking - that gains for women equate to losses for men - the less they are inclined to support gender equality and are more likely to express attitudes of hostile sexism...Some men view women as competitors rather than allies, and our research found that men, regardless of their nationality, withdraw their support for gender equality when they think that women's gains threaten their own status...What is particularly interesting is that higher levels of gender equality within a country appear to have the effect of demotivating men from supporting gender equality causes. This could be due to a perceived threat to men's masculinity or men's belief that women are doing perfectly well on their own and do not need any extra help” (Anglia Ruskin University).
Egalitarian Nations Strides in Body Equality...
In exploring this topic, I came across an article from Insider, which debunks the idea that Nordic regions strides in equality prevent women in these regions from facing gender-based violence.
Although strides for general workplace equality, like wage gap and promotions, healthcare, and educational equalities, have diminished consistently over the past decade, the idea of body equality has yet to be visible in the Nordic region. As men from varying nations within Norway are blinded to their desire to maintain power over women, it highlights their lack of visibility as the privileged sex. Statistics resulting in disproportionated data, such at the that of the perpetration of rape / attempted rape to conviction rate that was reported on the Insider, often suggest inequality due to an inequity regime (Naftulin).
As long as Nordic regions continue to construct socialization in support of western and feminist frameworks that rely on assumed gender difference in biological genitalia, as well as rape stemming men's desire to have control of women, the treatment of women's bodies will remain inevitably unequal.
Work Cited
Anglia Ruskin University. “Men 'Less Supportive' in More Egalitarian Nations.” Phys.org, Phys.org, 24 July 2020, https://phys.org/news/2020-07-men-egalitarian-nations.html. Accessed 3 Dec. 2021.
In this study, researchers find that regardless of nationality, support for gender equality by men consistently become withdrawn as they often become demotivated due to women’s gains jeopardizing their own male status. In exploring how the culture of the Gerai people impact their sex gender understanding, other egalitarian efforts toward body equality are capable of being compared.
“Farmers Harvest Rice in Paddy Fields in Boyolali, Central Java, Indonesia.” Dreamstime, https://www.dreamstime.com/editorial-image-harvest-rice-farmers-paddy-fields-boyolali-central-java-indonesia-image50725980. Accessed 4 Dec. 2021.
On this webpage is a digital photo that depicts individuals who can select and store rice. This image works to support my stance that Gerai people contain work centered personhood which dictates their only differences.
Helliwell, Christine. “Engendering Sameness.” Intersections, 6 Aug. 2001, http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue6/helliwell.html.
In this piece, the author of a related reading “Its Only A Penis”, gathered more than 18 months of anthropological field work on the Gerai people and the way their sex/gender operates in the community. In exploring this specific tribe of the Dayak people, her work ties in crucial elements of how the Gerai culture shapes their egalitarian understanding of body sameness.
Hutt, Rosamond. “These 10 Countries Are Closest to Achieving Gender Equality.” World Economic Forum, 17 Dec. 2019, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/12/gender-gap-equality-women-parity-countries/.
On this webpage, there is information regarding countries Global Gender Gap Index and the top ten countries that have frontier this work. In an effort to compare all egalitarian nations stride toward body equality, crossing multiple equality index’s provides the foundation to hypothesis general equality in these nations.
Naftulin, Julia. “Women in Nordic Nations Deal with High Levels of Rape and Abuse Even as the Countries Lead in Gender Equality.” Insider, Insider, 17 Apr. 2019, www.insider.com/women-in-nordic-countries-high-levels-of-rape-2019-4.
In an effort to explore if Egalitarian nations are indeed more likely to conduct body equality as a result of higher index of equality compared to other nations, this article examines rape among women in Nordic regions.
“Odisha to Get Its Second Agriculture University in KBK District.” Bhubaneswarbuzz, Economic Times, 16 Aug. 2014, http://www.bhubaneswarbuzz.com/updates/odisha-get-second-agriculture-university-kbk-district. Accessed 4 Dec. 2021.
On this page is a digital photo that depicts a poverty-stricken region soon able to rely on agriculture and technology within the following year. I use this photograph as support of my stance that Gerai people contain work centered personhood which dictates their only differences.
“Sameness vs. Difference.” YouTube, 9 Aug. 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5tWkG5SGcU. Accessed 3 Dec. 2021.
In this video, the presenter works to explore sameness and difference and how they constitute and metaphysical substrate of reality. I examine his work and use relevant images from his presentation as representation of the term ‘sameness’.
Sawe, Benjamin Elisha. “The Most Equal Countries in the World.” WorldAtlas, WorldAtlas, 3 Aug. 2018, https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-most-equal-countries-in-the-world.html.
On this website, I find a chart (Gini coefficient) that compares income inequality amongst all countries and highlights the most income equal nations. Egalitarian nations continue to strive toward economic equality which allows for me to make a comparison among Egalitarian nations and their work toward general equality.
Valentine, Catherine G., et al. “Gender and the Prism of Culture.” The Kaleidoscope of Gender: Prisms, Patterns, and Possibilities, SAGE Publications, Los Angeles, CA, 2020, pp. 97–113.
In this book chapter written by Christine Helliwell, the author examines concepts of body equality by examining sex/ body relationships of the Gerai people. Through the conducting anthropological field work, the concept of rape is examined in this context. I use this as evidence because it supports my starting position of the Gerai community being a rape free Egalitarian ‘nation’.
“West Kalimantan.” Wikitravel, https://wikitravel.org/en/West_Kalimantan.
On this webpage, information about the Gerai people is present as this is the geographical location of these specific people. I use elements of Dayak ethnicity to act as identifiers for the Gerai people and implement locale for greater cultural understanding.
Credits:
Created with an image by Vitalii Vodolazskyi - "Gender equality concept. Wooden symbol and equal sign."