The Egg and Sperm, by Emily Martin, exposes
hidden stereotypical concepts in biological research. The author goes into
depth about how both female and male reproduction processes are not seen as
equal. She compares the way these processes are depicted to a fairytale and
refers to the egg as being the “damsel in distress” while the sperm is often
viewed more as a hero. “…the imagery keeps alive some of the hoariest old
stereotypes about weak damsels in distress and their strong male rescuers.”
Martin analyzes and uses examples of biological research to argue how
everything associated with females are automatically deemed dependent and less
important than their male counterparts. Martin believes that the relationship
between sperm and egg, although not depicted to be, is very equal and needs to
be spoken about as if it is. She also mentions how these misogynistic cellular
metaphors, if not stopped, could inevitably affect future human relations and progression.
“Waking up such metaphors, by becoming aware of their implications, will rob
them of their power to naturalize our social conventions about gender.” In
Twilight vs. Hunger Games Noah Berlatsky contrasts the personalities of each
stories’ leading female character. He begins with telling the readers why adults
and second-wave feminists are so against stereotypically girly, Bella. “They
saw frills and pink bows…as part of the patriarchy’s effort to infantilize and
denigrate women.” Katniss, on the other hand, with her driven and independent
personality, is more favored between the two. The author then brings a question
to the reader’s attention “is masculinity really categorically better and more
feminine than femininity?” The author shows that his purpose for writing isn’t to
tell women how they should want to be perceived, but to show how a woman’s
personality doesn’t influence her right for equality. “Masculinity and femininity isn’t a duel to
the death.” Although some feminists believe femininity is disadvantageous, and others
believe the opposite, neither view is a deal breaker. Both authors are
simply saying that we don’t have to choose between one or another,
individuality trumps gender roles
I think that both “The Egg and the Sperm” and “Twilight vs. Hunger Games” rejected the idea of gender roles. In “Twilight vs. Hunger Games” Berlatsky talked about how the very dependent Bella encompassed many of the negative stereotypes related to women that we see today. By being frail, clumsy, over-emotional, and always dependent on other men for help, Bella possessed very few noble or strong characteristics. Katniss, on the other hand, was a strong, confident, noble, and heroic leader that stripped away classic gender stereotypes related to women. I think the author included the Bella example to demonstrate how society perceives women and wants them to behave. The Katniss example showed that not only could women defy these classic stereotypes, but they actually preferred the Katniss character over Bella. In “The Egg and the Sperm”, Emily Martin talks about how society has so much of a gender bias that it even shows up in science. She talks about how for a long time women were thought to be almost disposable, and how science taught us that the female body is less superior than the males, in the sense that the female reproductive organs are not as “active” or “productive” as the males. Martin first gives examples of how society places bias on this, and then explains why they are wrong in doing so. Contrary to prior belief, the female reproductive system is far from “dormant” and actually does a lot of the work. Overall, in my opinion, the two reading attempt to defy gender norms. The readings try to emphasize the importance of both the masculine and the feminine in everyone’s life, while giving insight in to how our cultures gender-bias came to be and why it is detrimental for women to be perceived this way.
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