Androcentrism

The term androcentrism is used by sociologists to describe the favoring of men over women. It also encompasses priority given to male interests or point of view. Androcentrism is often used to describe a viewpoint, historical account, culture, or society with a masculine priority.

Many feel that androcentrism marginalizes women, their importance in a society, and the feminine point of view. A masculine bias influences the way people think and, in turn, the way they act. This can result in women and the concept of femininity receiving less status in a culture or society.

Brief History

Charlotte Perkins Gilman coined the term androcentrism in her book The Man-Made World or Androcentric Culture published in 1911. She identified the concept of masculinity being perceived as the normal or standard, and femininity being perceived as outside of the norm or even deviant. Gilman was a humanist, a feminist, an author, and a social reformer. She is perhaps most famous for her short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” which describes the marginalization and, ultimately, the mental demise of a female protagonist due to the pervasive androcentrism present in society and family life at the time.

Historically, most societies have been male-centered. Men have been the ones to participate in the history-making events and men have recorded them. Women are rewarded in a society only if they exhibit masculine qualities; in turn, men are punished for demonstrating qualities considered to be female. Even though in recent times, more focus has been on feminism, changes in gender roles, and broader ideologies in gender identification, feminists argue that androcentrism is still alive and well in modern society. They feel it continues to subvert the female perspective and ultimately harm women.

Overview

Androcentrism can be seen in many aspects of life. In the majority of cultures throughout history, respected authors and educators are men. Most history has been recorded by men and therefore is according to a male viewpoint. Men often receive more education and influential historical figures have been predominately male. In literature, the majority of characters are male.

Androcentrism is even present in linguistics, although it was more common in the past than it is in the present. Masculine nouns, pronouns, and forms of addresses were and sometimes still are considered the standard. For example, identification words such as salesman, slang such as guys, and even the common address of Dear Sirs promotes androcentrism in our language. It can also be seen in how the human species is sometimes referred to as man or mankind. This promotes an androcentric anthropological view, as if males are the standard human and females are the variant.

Androcentrism extends well beyond the English language. Many Latin-based languages rely on gender, and pluralized nouns are often seen using the male gender, even when it is understood that the female gender is also included. For example, in Spanish, abuelos, which is the plural of grandfather, is used to mean grandparents, including both male and female. In recent years, a shift has taken place to make language more gender-inclusive. Using terminology that does not have the connotation of masculinity is now generally preferred, especially in professional settings.

However, androcentrism still persists in modern society in more subtle ways. Being considered a girl is often perceived as an insult or a state of unmanliness. Women are sometimes idealized as being attractive, even sexually desirable, if they aspire to male behavior and dress, but men are considered unacceptable if they exhibit female qualities or choose female-centered attire.

Generic symbols in society also tend to be androcentric. Representations of people are generally seen as male. From street signs to avatars, people are depicted as male figures. Only for restrooms is a differing figure shown as being female, with long hair and a triangle body to represent wearing a dress. This shows a deviation from the norm, which in itself is another manifestation of androcentrism.

The arts and media have the tendency to exhibit androcentric views. The vast majority of famous works of art that are considered the most valuable were created by men. While women are popular subjects of artwork, many of these are nudes. Feminists point to this as an objectification of the importance of the sexuality of the female figure, which is a male-centered point of view. Journalism and the film and television industry are disproportionality male-oriented. Writers, producers, publishers, commentators, advertisers, and even news reporters and anchors are traditionally seen as being part of male-dominated professions.

Product design is also an area in which androcentrism is present. Products designed for women are often pink or have a floral design. Products designed for men may be any other color or design. Advertisers target female audiences by changing the color of a male product adapted for their use.

Sports are traditionally a major androcentric area of culture. If asked, most people would name a male as a celebrity athlete. Advertisers and media target men to be the primary participators in sports and the consumers of sports-related entertainment and goods. When a sport is performed by women, it is designated as such and labeled accordingly, as in women’s basketball, to show that it is different from the usual and expected male-centered sport. As would be expected in a strongly androcentric field, female sports are considered less important than male-dominated sports.

Even though a shift has taken place in society to make language—and life in general—more gender-neutral, professions and roles within our culture are still androcentric. Wages of equally qualified female professionals are still less than those of their male counterparts. Many women hold professional titles, but people may view a certain profession as being for men. For example, a patient may assume that in a hospital setting the doctor is male and the nurse is female. Professions in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and manufacturing are male-dominated.

Feminists argue that there is more to androcentrism than superficial labeling and marketing. They feel that the prevalence of androcentrism demonstrates the underlying thinking of society that women are not as valuable as men.

Bibliography

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