Woman’s self-identification: Resistance and reluctance under patriarchal society

Liu Hiu Lam

20608793

Traditional notions (Bach, 2012) for sex and gender are often constructed by a simple binary

system- the inherent biological difference divides the population into females and males,

gender therefore falls in the respective category of woman and man. The social and political

forces behind this boxed binary system hastily define women only on their reproductive

biology. Women, therefore, are often situated in historical social expectation as the effort of

kinship. However, definition of a woman should not be fixed. There are different dimensions

shaped by inner identity. The self-identification process is generally the most desirable form

of strategy to free women from patriarchal society stereotypes especially since they are

framed under the labels of “womanliness”. I argue that beyond the binary ideas of gender,

questioning a woman’s definition shows a sign of resistance and reluctance in a patriarchal

society. Ultimately below arguments depict the utopian picture of not labeling the model for

an organic family for a woman.

Transforming traditional family roles and definitions of women, metamorphosis serves as

alternative identities in a “post-gender/desexualized world”. (Du, Week 7) As a consequence

of patriarchal power embedded in the institutions of the state, community and family, women

have been subjected to systematic subjugation based on their biological sex throughout

Chinese history. With the mere power of discourse under society and family, women are

vulnerable and inferior. In Donna Haraway’s A Cyborg Manifesto, she opined that a cyborg is

a condensed image of both fiction (imagination) and material reality without gender

boundaries. (Haraway, 1991) Therefore, by projecting their anesthesia into something else

like a cyborg, women can escape their responsibilities of fulfilling the roles of “fu”（婦） or
“mu”（母）, which further discards the category of gender. In The Spark of Life (dir. Dong

Fang, 1962), Haiying was determined to be a tractor driver at all costs. When women confront

machines, their identities are erased and sublimated to cyborgs given the reinforcement of

gender equality when they work equally to males. The concept of gender effacement was

well-celebrated during Mao’s era when women were no longer as vulnerable as socially

possessed. The definition of women once again forecloses, meanwhile category of woman

could no longer be clear-cut.

Sublimating women’s obsessions and desires through the miraculous metaphasis could have

resulted in the self-identification process. Throughout different eras, inferior women were

situated in a hierarchical gender relation and were disadvantaged by societal force. Therefore,

they were often suppressed for having agency and sexual desires. When they confront

something exotic, static, and new which beyond their usual cognition of traditional roles,

resulting in a greater tendency of becoming a different identity. This could be better

showcased in the era of capitalism when it explores commodification, sexuality, and local

forms of power and powerlessness. (Farquhar, 1999) Mundane premises including

glamourous and open sexual desires were never expected from oriental Chinese women. In

Ermo(dir. Zhou Xiaowen, 1994), television - is the glossary of new desires and new ways to

imagine. Her vigorous pursuit of the television somehow shed a light on her

transformation/sublimination of displaced monetary and sexual desire into labor and work.

Women unconsciously/unintentionally identified themselves with something else that

creates an internal walkaround for their refusion of traditional woman roles and also

“displacement of modernity and inappropriate sexual desires”. (Du, Week 12) Although this

may come at a cost with little hope of substantive replenishment, the social definition of

woman's performance is no longer homogenous.

Self-identification process liberates women from the victimization of the “social gaze” (Du,

Week 10). Biological and social roles shaped the social gaze towards women whereby a

woman is inexorably inscribed by gender roles. (Dai, 2002) Female victims are usually taken

up the biggest blame when confronting morality issues in the public sphere. In Women,

Demon, Human (dir. Huang Shuqin, 1987), Undergoing traumatic effects of childhood events

and a sequence of social gaze and gossip over Qiuyun and Teacher Zhang's rumored affair,

she dressed up like a tomboy, performed the male role and identified herself as the ghost role

– Zhong Kui. All of these are identified as an ideology of gender confusion/ambiguity that

women reject their female identity and crave to be liberated under victimization. Women see

transcending gender identity as a haven from which to reject with wrenching pain intuited

from the experience of being female and profound empathy for the real fate of women. The

celebration of woman detachment has once again sublimated the binary gender identity

system. The gender of “woman” has blurred under society's surveillance and rumor.

In conclusion, the self-identification process transforms female traditional family roles that

could masculinize and modernize women. Social norms have victimized females and let them

internally reflect on their true identities. Questioning woman’s essentialism and gender

expression have been a driving force for a woman’s becoming especially under the

hypocritical and fragile gender stereotype of a patriarchal society. The category and definition

of woman could not be predetermined merely based on physical attributes. Yet, gender is

naturalized by daily behaviors that shape the floating amorphous self-identity in one's head.
Bibliography:

1. Bach T. 2012. “Gender is a natural kind with a historical essence.” Ethics. 122:231–272.

2. Du Daisy Yan. 2022. “Week7: Women and Machines: Tractor Girls in Socialist China” Lecture,

HKUST, October 14, 2022

3. Donna Haraway. 1991. “Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature” 149-

161

4. Dong, Fang, director. “The Spark of Life”. Paramount Pictures, 1962. 1 hr., 48 min.

5. Farquhar Judith. 1999. “Technologies of Everyday Life: The Economy of Impotence in Reform

China” 155-179

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November 18, 2022

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