Postmodern gender

In many ways, the Russian adherence to gender complementarity and the Danish adherence to gender equality make perfect sense. However, the question is: to what extent is this just a question of cultural choice? The present Russian celebration of the ‘weak’ and the ‘strong’ sex can, from one angle, be seen as a much longed-for opportunity to express other kinds of masculinities and femininities than those prescribed in the Soviet Union. On the other hand, they also convey a notion of an ideal man and an ideal woman whose essential differences are fixed:

In contrast to the unified ideal ‘mother and worker’ of the Soviet period, there are now a myriad of masculine and feminine types, perhaps even a ‘discursive explosion’ around gender identity (...) Despite the plurality, however, there remains an underlying conviction that there exists, nevertheless, an ‘ideal woman’ and an ‘ideal man’ whose essential differences are fixed and normatively correct.69

Russia, Slovakia and Portugal are now on the track of democracy and a market economy - a track that presupposes the norms of individual freedom and equal rights for everybody, and also implies flexibility and rapid change in society. Fixed identities do not match either the conditions or the norms of a postmodern society. It is probably not sufficient (as has happened in

Portugal, Russia and Slovakia) simply to grant women formal equal rights yet expect them to remain dutiful mothers and wives, defined primarily by their family role. In a modern society, women are also individuals who sooner or later will demand equal rights and opportunities – including in practice. Thus, a final reason for Denmark’s adherence to gender equality may be that it is the richest and most modernised of the four countries as per the indicators below:

Modernisation

and wealth populationUrban capita US$GNP per expectancyLife at birth

Illiteracy

rate under 5 year-Mortality rate olds per 1000 live births Russia 77% 1,700 66 years m/f:59/72 - 20 Slovakia 57% 3,700 73 years m/f:69/78 - 10 Portugal 63% 11,100 75 years m/f:73/80 10% women 5% men 6 Denmark 85% 32,300 76 years m/f:74/79 - 6

68 _{While the concept of modernity refers to the cultural effects of the processes of modernisation such as secularisation,} urbanisation, industrialisation, commercialisation and individualisation, the concept of postmodernity refers to conditions in which the belief in rationality, progress and justice in societal development has been shaken. Instead of the ‘grand narratives’ of progress, development, authenticity and truth, the postmodern culture sees reality as shaped through media illusions, play, and the stories we tell – thus gender loses significance as an essential identity and becomes a play of signifiers (see, for instance, Drotner, K. (1999). Unge, medier og modernitet - pejlinger i et foranderligt landskab. København, Borgen.)

69 _{Pilkington, H., Ed. (1996). Gender, Generation and Identity in Contemporary Russia. London and New York, Routledge.} p.16.

According to the feminist philosopher Nancy Fraser, fixed social statuses require societies that are sharply bounded, institutionally undifferentiated, ethically monistic, and characterised by the absence of alternative evaluative horizons and by the legitimacy of social hierarchies. None of these traits are found in postmodern societies: the cultural order is not sharply bounded

because of mass migration, diasporas, globalised mass culture and transnational public spheres. No single institution (such as kinship), effectively governs all social interaction. All value

patterns and evaluative horizons are continuously and intensely contested, and social hierarchies are illegitimate:

The most basic principle of legitimacy in this society is liberal equality, as expressed both in the market ideals, such as equal exchange, the career open to talents, and meritocratic competition, and in democratic ideals, such as equal citizenship and status equality. Status hierarchies violate all these ideals. Far from being socially legitimate, it contravenes fundamental norms of market and democratic legitimacy.70

Fraser’s point is not that statuses and inequalities among them do not exist in the postmodern society, but that they are continuously contested. Social actors of all kinds, including women, actively participate in a dynamic regime of ongoing struggle for recognition. As we have seen in recent years, postmodern societies give rise to many different group identities. A multicultural society means respecting such claims to difference, but rejecting claims for universalising particular norms of groups, that is, instructing others how they should live or who they should be. This adds a further distinction to the gender complementarity models: while the subjective claim for a gender culture should be recognised, the normative claim on behalf of others to stay within such cultures, is problematic.

It is as difficult to insist on close family bonds in an individualised culture as it is to keep men and women within fixed family roles. The modern capitalist society demands not only loyal members who will stay at their posts, but free and creative individuals who are in constant motion. Emotional ties between family members do not disappear, but rather become ‘pure relations’, as the British sociologist Anthony Giddens has coined it. Relationships are not maintained by economic and institutional arrangements, but because they are emotionally satisfactory for the individual.71 _{In the words of the American sociologist, Marshall Berman,} modernisation is a double-edged process that implies gains, as well as losses:

To be modern is to find ourselves in an environment that promises us adventure, power, joy, growth, transformation of ourselves and the world – and at the same time – that threatens to destroy everything we have, everything we know, everything we are... To be modern is to be part of a universe in which, as Marx said, ‘all that is solid melts into air’.72

In a complementarity regime, women are respected and protected, but pay with restrictions in their personal freedom. In the equality regime, on the other hand, freedom is gained at the cost of protective rights and respect for women as women. Women are not seen as virgins and mothers in need of protection anymore, but as subjects in their own right. As long as the gender hierarchy still prevails, this may have some grim effects, especially in terms of sexuality. Women claim to be subjects, but may still be treated as objects - without the respect and protection that were their right as fragile objects in the complementarity system. Instead of the responsible father, masculinity is associated more with the image of a group of competing brothers. The market economy literally makes sex a commodity and disconnects it from the social institutions of the family. Thus, when women claim to be equal to men within the context of a gender-hierarchical society, a paradoxical result may be that their status as sex objects is reinforced. When women crave to be responsible adults, men may feel free to become

irresponsible boys.

This indicates that ethical questions have to find new answers in a modern society. One cannot expect women to guarantee morality anymore; new ways will have to be considered. How can an ethical society become a joint responsibility? Does freedom necessarily rule out care and respect for others? The challenge for a postmodern ethic is to find ways to combine individual freedom with care for others and respect for differences.

70 _{Frazer, N. and A. Honneth (2002 (in press)). Redistribution or Recognition? A Political-Philosophical Exchange. London,} Verso and Suhrkamp. (Quoted from the author’s manuscript.)

71 _{Giddens, A. (19xx). The Transformation of Intimacy.}