The Idea That Lesbians Are Not Considered Women As Presented By Hale Essay

The Idea That Lesbians Are Not Considered Women As Presented By Hale - Essay Example To be a woman, one has to have the female gender, and thus, referring to lesbians as being non-women means that they are bad people and this implies that they are incompatible with being a woman. The second argument that Hale raises in support of his argument that lesbians are not women is the interconnection between sex, heterosexuality as political regime as well as the concepts of being woman and man. The paradigm of the very definition of being a woman, argues Hale, is the difference between the two sexes, which are either male or female, but nothing in the middle. Lesbians qualify neither as men, nor as women. One has to be either a woman or a man, and this qualifies them for marriage. However, women do not qualify for such an institution, and thus, lesbians are not women. Further, if the concept of heterosexuality is removed from the picture, it would be wrong to say that women make love top fellow women. This cannot happen in such relationships, as such, the heterosexual conce pt comes about in support of lesbian relationships. Hale draws a number of conclusions from the arguments rose. That the category of sex presupposes of there being an existence of a discourse in which sex is binary, then, man and woman are exhaustive, yet, man and woman are opposite but complementing. Additionally, he holds that in the discourse of heterosexuality, the categorization of sex subsumes, conforming to the reality. He also believes that being a woman, it means having a binary relation with a man. This is the main reason why Fansto held that men and women are different from each other. However, this is not true in a lesbian case, as there is no binary relationship between a man and a woman in a lesbian relationship. ... However, this is not true in a lesbian case, as there is no binary relationship between a man and a woman in a lesbian relationship (Hale 48). The fact that there is no particular relationship between a lesbian and a man, then, making the conclusion that no lesbian is a woman is true. Some of the other arguments hold that marriage defines being a woman. Opponents of these arguments, in response, pose the question, whether catholic nuns in such cases are not women. In essence, the author, articulating sex and gender could be either right or wrong (Hale 48). Gender, being a highly complex aspect of morally accountable cultural practices, successfully classifies men and women in accordance to their cultural construct (Hale 48). There are only two genders in the world; one can either be male or female, and nothing more. One cannot transfer from one gender to another, except in ceremonial times. Other researchers protest such changes, as (Fansto 126) holds that we should let people grow t he way they were born. Therefore, one of the women in the relationship acting as a man in a relationship does not simply make them male. Thus, nobody choses or decides on the particular gender they fall into. These are arguments used by Hale in arguing that lesbians are not women; if they truly are women, then they should conform to the doctrines of being woman. The Concept of the Thirteen Characteristics Not only did Hale argue that the reasons why lesbians are not woman, he also defined the characterizing features of a woman. According to him, the characterizing features of a woman fall into different clusters of groups. Sex characteristics cluster This cluster holds the largest number of people, who define gender with reference to sexuality. The following are the defining