Genderless Society, Is It Possible?

Radical feminist groups claim that the only way to create equality between women and men is to eliminate or abolish the concept of sex/gender. Ideas or ways to realize the condition of a genderless society also vary. Shulamith Firestone, for example, proposed that natural reproduction (in utero) be replaced with artificial reproduction (ex utero) so that women do not need to play the identity as mothers and behave femininely, nor do men need to play the role of fathers and behave masculine. Another idea is to create awareness between men and women that nothing else differentiates them, except for their gender. The question is, is a genderless social condition possible?

Book Feminist Thought, especially in chapter two, it discusses the views of radical feminist groups which are divided into two camps, namely libertarian radical feminists and cultural radical feminists. This chapter specifically discusses the views of the two camps on gender roles, sex, and women's reproductive functions. However, this paper will discuss more about the views of radical libertarian feminists and cultural radical feminists on gender; both of them are of the same opinion that the root of women's oppression is the gender system created by patriarchal society. The only way to remove this oppression is to remove sexism from the gender system itself. However, the two camps voice very different views on how to combat sexism.

In order to understand the views of radical libertarian and cultural radical feminists in more detail, it is necessary to first understand what is referred to as sex/gender. Referring to Gayle Rubin's definition, sex/gender is a set of arrangements formed by society to determine human activity based on sexuality or the biological conditions of a particular sex. For example, patriarchal society uses facts about the biological conditions (chromosomes, anatomy, hormones) of men and women as the basis for building masculine gender identities and behaviors for men and feminine gender identities and behaviors for women. Patriarchal society uses rigid gender roles to make men more active with their characteristics which are described as tenacious, aggressive, curious, ambitious, full of plans, responsible, original and competitive. While women remain passive by having loving, obedient, sympathetic, cheerful, kind, and friendly characteristics. In other words, patriarchal ideology exaggerates the biological differences between men and women, ensuring that men have dominant or masculine roles and women always have subordinate or feminine roles.

Patriarchal society has the belief that such masculine-male and feminine-female constructions are formed naturally. Therefore, eliminating or destroying the system of sex/gender in order to create conditions for a new society where men and women are equal at every level of life, is one of the ideals of radical feminists.

One of the radical libertarian feminist figures, Shulamith Firestone in his book The Dialectic of Sex, offers the idea to eliminate the gender system created by a patriarchal society. In his estimation, it would take more than simple reforms to liberate not only women from the feminine personality, but men from the masculine personality. The trick is with a biological revolution through the replacement of natural reproduction (in the womb) to artificial reproduction (outside the womb). In other words, women no longer need to reproduce by conceiving children and their reproductive function is replaced with an artificial uterus. Firestone claims that in this way, men and women do not need to display their socially formed identities and personalities. Freed from gender roles at the biological level, women do not have to be passive, receptive, and vulnerable. Men also don't have to dominate and feel they have a duty to keep the wheel of human procreation turning. Instead, men and women will be encouraged to mix and match feminine and masculine traits and behaviors, which is then referred to as androgyny.

Androgyny is a keyword or solution offered by radical libertarian feminist groups for the problem of sexism. Libertarian radical feminists encourage women to become androgynous people, that is, people who have characteristics of both masculine and feminine virtues, or masculine virtues and feminine virtues. The best society for radical libertarian feminists is an androgynous society, in which both men and women embrace historical feminine values of love, compassion, and share them with historical masculine values, namely control, structure, and possessiveness. Even so, the integration of masculine and feminine subcultures must be done with caution and must be thoroughly evaluated. For example, feminine vices such as (excessive) docility or masculine vices such as aggressiveness should not go into androgyny.

This androgynous view has also been criticized by other radical feminist groups, namely cultural radical feminists. Unlike liberal radicals who encourage women to have masculine and feminine sides, cultural radical feminists emphasize that women retain feminine traits. According to cultural radical feminists, androgynous women are women who are trapped in masculine and feminine traits created by a patriarchal society.

One of the radical cultural feminist figures who criticized the androgynous pluralist model was Mary Daly. According to Daly, the androgynous model is inappropriate because it does not re-evaluate the concept of masculinity and femininity. He considered that the masculine concept, including the feminine concept that exists and is currently developing, is not worth defending because it is entirely a product of the patriarchal system. Daly illustrates such conditions with artwork by Jerzy Kosinski. Korsinski's work tells of a keeper who cages a bird, who then paints its feathers in glittering colors. The woman, likened to Daly, is like a painted bird, she lost her original color because she was painted by her keeper. Daly insisted that women should decide for themselves and independently what and who they want to be. By being themselves that adjusts to their needs, desires and interests, women will end the role of men as masters as well as women as slaves.

Daly replaced the androgynous ideal with the ideal of the 'wild woman' who lived outside of masculinity and femininity. To become whole, a woman must give up the false identity – femininity – that the patriarchy has built for her. Then and only then will she be who she wants to be if she lives her life in a matriarchy rather than a patriarchy.

Basically, radical feminist is one of the many streams of feminism. Like religion, feminism also has many streams, ranging from liberal feminism, radical feminism, Marxist feminism, to socialist feminism. The presence of radical feminism is a form of criticism of the liberal feminist movement (the first wave of feminists) which only fought for equality in education, politics, and women's representation rights. So that it can be said that radical feminism is second wave feminism. But in essence, all feminist movements have the same goal, namely to end sexism, sexist exploitation, as well as oppression.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Tong, Rosemarie. 2009. Feminist Thought: A More Comprehensive Introduction.Colorado: Westview Press.