Under Construction Journal Issue 6.1 UNDER CONSTRUCTION JOURNAL 6.1 | Page 63

Gender Essentialism: Personal Identity or Social Existence?
Jenny McCarthy • PhD in Philosophy, Keele University
Simone De Beauvoir famously said that one is not born a woman but becomes one.
Fundamentally, this highlights the idea that gender is not a biological construction, like
our Sex, but instead takes a more sociological, psychological form. From the moment
we are born the midwife shouts out a sex, depending on the sexual organs we have;
from this point on, we are gendered in line with that sex, to the extreme that (according
to Judith Butler) there is no time in our lives where we are, in fact, ungendered. For a
property to exist so prominently in the lives of every individual, it is only logical to
suggest that gender is essential to our personal identities. This piece is written in the
context of my wider research and is predicated upon the question: what would happen
if (hypothetically) a human was raised separate from any society, then would they have
a gender at all? Without being a member of society, there would be no etiquette,
stereotypes or expectation to uphold- there would not even be the influence of parental
ideas. In doing so it engages with Beauvoir, Judith Butler and performativity against
notions of essentialism.
Keywords: Gender Constructivism, Hyper Masculinity, Judith Butler, Simone De Beauvoir
Introduction
Gender is a complex structure and its subjective, juxtaposed existence makes it a difficult concept to fully
comprehend. Throughout history, the supposed differences between men and women have been
undeniably prominent, causing political and social unrest: protestation and determination to promote
equality and fairness between the genders in terms of opportunity, wages and governmental
representation. In other words, gender is an omnipresent element of everyone’s life because what gender
you have indicates how you are likely to be treated and then, as a result, the person you will go on to be.
For example, if a woman, let us call her Alice, is born into a patriarchal society, she is likely to feel
oppression or restriction; she is, perhaps, overlooked for promotions or gets paid significantly less than
her male co-workers. This treatment and behaviour towards Alice causes her to desire change. Maybe,
she becomes an activist of some kind, trying to fight for a fairer system for fellow women. This might lead
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