Feminism: Pro and Con

Feminism: Pro and Con • I. Fleming’s Biological Analysis of Sex • II. de Beauvoir’s version of Ethical Creativity • III. Problem for de Beauvoir: Location of Justice

I. Fleming: Men • Men can have many children, and the minimum investment in each child can be extremely low (one sperm, a few minutes). • Egg is 85,000 larger. Woman approx. 20 children max; man potentially thousands • 2 models of biological equilibria: • Monogamy • “Free agency”

Monogamy as an Equilibrium • Each man is limited to one marriage throughout his lifetime. • Men's reproductive possibilities become similar to women's, and to each other's. • Equalization of opportunities for reproduction. • Consequently, each household has two parents, who are equally committed to the household's children.

Males as “free agents” • Each man seeks to have sex with as many fertile women as possible. • Households consist of mother and children.Minimal involvement of father(s). • Reproductive inequality: some men have many children, many have few or none.

Paradox • Monogamy feminizes men -- makes the father/mother roles similar -- and equalizes the sexes. • Yet, monogamy and patriarchy are connected: • Patriarchal privilege is one of the glues used to bind men to marriage as an institution. • If men are absent from the home, they lose the opportunity of being dominant there.

Questions • Is monogamy natural? • Is patriarchy natural (adaptive)? • What does it matter if they are?

Classical vs. Modern • According to the classical tradition, objective value is rooted in human nature, prior to our choices and actions. • We exist within a framework of values and norms that are prior to and independent of our wills.

The Modern View • According to the modern tradition: we enjoy the power or freedom of ethical creativity. • There are no objective norms or values to constrain us, with authority over us. • Case in point: consider Wilson's discussion of sex roles. pp. 132-133. • Wilson admits that the differentiation of humans into distinct male and female roles is adaptive (product of natural selection).

However, he gives this fact no normative weight -- no authority over our choices. • We are still free as a society to decide whether to alter, exaggerate or eliminate these differences.

Evidence for Brain Differences • Hormones: testoterone stimulates muscle development, associated with aggressive and violent behavior. • Hormones affect brain development in utero • Men more visual; women more auditory. • Girls excel in verbal skills, boys in spatial & abstract reasoning. • Matters of averages, not universal.

Early behavioral differences • Boys tend to congregate in large groups & compete for status; girls tend to form small groups & seek approval. • At early age, girls are much more attracted to babies, small children. • Different attitudes toward sex, connection between sex and long-term relationships.

Anthropological Data • Nuclear family is a universal. Without the nuclear family, the extended family would be impossible. • Most societies tolerate some form of polygyny (high-status males with multiple mates). • Human females are unique: sexually receptive at all times. Pair bonding.

Anthropology and Sex • Societies do define sex roles differently, with three constants: • There is always significant differentiation between the sexes (no androgyny). • Whatever roles are assigned to males are also given higher prestige. • Warfare is always the exclusive province of the males.

Margaret Mead and the Samoans • In Coming of Age in Samoa, Margaret Mead painted a picture of parental permissiveness, unconstrained adolescent sexual license, and absence of psychological stress and pathology. • In fact, wrong on all counts. Samoan parents were harsh authoritarians who demanded strict chastity of girls.

Jane Goodall and the Chimps • Goodall’s reports in 60’s and 70’s portrayed chimpanzees as peaceful and sexually undifferentiated. • In fact, groups of young males constantly patrol the perimeter of the group. • Chimpanzee wars, even genocidal wars, have been observed.

Fleming’s Account of the Source of Feminine Discontent • Commercialization and industrialization in 20th century moved more and more functions from the home to outside agencies, market. • Before 20th century, men and women cooperated in economic production centered around the home: made own food, clothing, furniture. Home schooling.

Commercial Displacement of Home Production • Ready-made food and clothing. • Mechanized laundry and cleaning equipment. • Institutionalized schooling. • Medicalized childbirth & formula feeding. • Home becomes nothing more than sleeping quarters; mother a mere coordinator, chauffeur.

Two Options • Modern feminist/capitalist: complete the commercialization of home services: universal child care, after-school care, individualized entertainment. • Natural family movement (Allan Carlson): home childbirth, breastfeeding, home schooling, home-based industry & crafts, family entertainment, telecommuting.

A New Crisis? • Overpopulation is no longer a threat: in nearly every nation, fertility has now fallen to replacement levels or below. • In the developed world (Europe, Japan, North America), depopulation is an imminent threat. • As home & family are deemphasized in favor of career and income, this trend seems to be irreversible.

III. Simone de Beauvoir and Ethical Creativity • Is more consistent than Wilson, Pinker, et al. • She clearly affirms the freedom of ethical creativity, but she does so by embracing a radical sort of nature/culture dualism. • Ethical choice transcends the biological and the physical.

Metaphysical Discontinuity • Based on a metaphysical theory, in which human consciousness represents something radically new, a complete discontinuity. • Jean-Paul Sartre: dualism of physicality and consciousness, Being and Nothingness.

Consequences • We can divide the world into two domains: that of immanence (nature), and that of transcendence (freedom). • For example: femininity and masculinity in human life are a social construction (transcendent), having only a contingent relationship to biological categories of sex (immanent).

Transcendence of Nature • de Beauvoir's goal: an androgynous society. • She freely admits that this has no basis in biology.

Is the freedom of ethical creativity a coherent idea? • In classical tradition, not even God has this freedom. • 14th. C. philosopher Duns Scotus is first to attribute it to God. Followed by William Occam. • Rousseau -- transfers it to human beings.

An Aristotelian objection: 1. All decisions depend on a pre-existing scale of values. We always decide for the better. 2. FEC means that all values are created by a prior human decision. This leads to an infinite regress.

Criterionless Choice • Defender of FEC must believe in the possibility of an absolute, criterionless choice. • A choice of what I shall be, what I shall seek, that depends on no prior conception of value. (e.g., "I choose androgyny, not because it is good, but as a fundamental, ungrounded value")

Aristotelian Response • Aristotle: this is impossible. The human will is not built this way. • Some kind of self-deception must be involved in any attempt to do so.

IV. de Beauvoir and the Problem of Justice • de Beauvoir clearly affirms that sexual inequality is unjust. • Where do we locate justice: in the realm of the immanent or the transcendent? • de Beauvoir seems to face an insoluble dilemma.

The Dilemma of Justice • If de B. locates justice in the realm of the immanent, then it is something which we humans can freely transcend -- if we do not do so, we are guilty of bad faith. • If de B. locates justice in the realm of the transcendent, then it must be the product of an individual, criterionless choice. No room for universal judgments.

If justice is transcendent, then de B. cannot consistently condemn the standards of patriarchal society as inherently unjust. • At most, she can claim that she chooses (without reason) to regard it as unjust. • If others choose to regard patriarchy as just, then for them, it is just.

Feminism: Pro and Con