biological facets. Lorde would agree with Oakley on this as she would reject this theory as well.
Oakley asserts that gender is dynamic and says, “to imply that all women suffer the same
oppression simply because they are women is to lose sight of the many, varied tools of
patriarchy” (Oakley). This is similar to Oyéwùmí because she would also say that you can't just
look at gender, and you need to consider all the factors that make up a person's identity.
There is an assumption that western society constructs gendered and sexualitzed
Identities as inherently and biologically fixed, however this is a Western value that has been
bestowed upon Africa due to colonization. In order to create a binary, I will first discuss the Tide
commercial entitled,
Dad Mom.
This commercial shows a man, who self-identifies himself as a
father, doing laundry, which is seen stereotypically as being woman’s work. He says, “There are
men that are out there that are astonished by my ability to dress a four-year old.” This is hinting
at the fact that child rearing in Western society is also seen as a woman’s job. Societies in Africa,
such as the Nnobi people discussed in Ifi Amadiume’s piece and among the Suko society in
Peri Sedge
Take Home Essay 2
GNDR G215
December 4, 2017
3
Kopytoff’s piece, see identity not static and not inherently biologically fixed, but instead its
dynamic. Amadiume discusses male daughters and female husbands and how some African
societies think about gender very fluid ways. Amadiume discusses Female Husbands and says
that the accumulation of wives wasn't just for men and was seen as a sign of wealth and status for
unmarried women. These female husbands had the same right over their wives as a man would.
Female husbands can ask their wives to bear children, care for the livestock, as well as engage in
trading. Amadiume also addresses male daughters and says that land was a sign of power and
prestige and land ownership went to male descendents or in the case of no males to inherit, a
male daughter would take ownership. Male daughters must remain in the family home and the
father may ask her not to marry, stay in the family home and have only male children. It is also
interesting to note that if a “male daughter” is already married at the time, they can be called
back to the family home in order to take on the role. Igor Kopytoff examines the gender relations
of the Suku people in his piece,
Women’s Roles and Existential Identities.
He explains that there
are very few gendered roles within their society and that these roles are less constructed and
fixed biologically. The role of childbearing, rightfully so, was that of a woman. Kopytoff says,
“the reason given for the fact that women bore children was simply that ‘they are women.’ The
role of childbearer was seen as flowing directly out of the women’s identity- out of her state of
being a woman” (Kopytoff, 130). What this means is that there is no one who could do the job
but a woman. However, the roles of circumcision and begetting of children fell under roles that a
