Michel Foucault; Race and Gender

Michel Foucault proposes an anti-essentialist argument that has no "universal ahistorical subjectivities" where instead, he argues that gender is not an outcome of "biological determinism, or universal cognitive structures and cultural patterns", but historically and culturally specific (291). This argument is agreeable in my opinion in that, to think that our characteristics are predetermined at birth is senseless and illogical. This argument goes for both race and gender and whether women and men and all races are they way they are because culture has formed these social constructions. To delve into the matter more deeply, is culture important to race? Does culture determine how people think, feel decide on in life and form opinions or preconceptions of others?

During our discussion in class, a question was asked to the class."Do we identify race, or gender first?" My answer to that is, it depends on the situation. For me, I chose not to judge by looking at race or gender, but by surveying character and environment. For example, when I was in Paris, France, a city bursting with tourists visiting from all parts of our planet, what I chose to identify in that situation was in finding another Armenian or American like myself. In that hectic city, I heard many strange and unfamiliar languages and yearned to hear a language that I understood, so when I heard English or Armenian, it was like finding a piece of my home thousands of miles away.

I believe this desire to find people that you can identify to was formed from the tribe mentality. Though we do not live in tribes today, culture and language gives us that unique bond that allows us to form a unique group of people that we can identify to. In this situation, I identified race first, not because of any biological or learned response, but because of the environment of the condition that I was placed in. However, at night when walking to the hotel, my main concern is protection, and in the dark, the only identifiable characteristic is gender. Being a girl and short, I am an easy target an my main concern is to keep my eyes and ears alert. Identifying gender and race allows us to protect ourselves while also providing support in varying conditions. Culture may determine how we see the world, however, I believe it is the individual who ultimately chooses to make that decision whether to allow culture to determine our ideas.



Barker, Chris. Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage, 2008.