2023-10-31 17:12:00
[양성평등으로 가는 길]
(4) Book review – ①〈Unmysterious Women〉 – Citizen writer Ahn Jae-yeon
Incheon YWCA and Incheon IN develop and publish content from a gender-sensitive perspective to spread a culture of gender equality. To this end, Incheon YWCA has been carrying out a project to foster citizen writers since last March. In this content planning, the six finally selected citizen writers will participate in a series of articles related to gender equality, including ◇ Introduction to Bechtel Choice Movies ◇ Interviews with officials from institutions and organizations ◇ Columns ◇ Book Reviews. The fourteenth order is a book review by citizen writer Ahn Jae-yeon.
〈Unmysterious Women〉
Written by Lim So-yeon
Minumsa Publishing (2022)
When I started the Incheon YWCA gender equality series, I did not want to read it hastily as I was ignorant of feminism, feminism, and the philosophies within it. but <신비롭지 않은 여자들>‘What if it were science? ‘Because it’s the objective truth!’ And my heart was moved.
‘Shall we broaden our understanding of feminism?’ I thought it was perfect for me as a beginner. This book is about the size of an adult woman’s hand and is not too burdensome. The ‘Minumsa Exploration Series’ aspect was also attractive. This is a scientist’s book from a publisher with a long history. ‘Women and Science’, how fair will this be! I opened the book with excitement.
After reading the preface, I realized that it was a Hollywood movie from the 1990s. <마이키 이야기>I remembered. There are elegant, white eggs that look like pearls. The egg has no movement. I don’t feel any sense of my own will. Tens of thousands of sperm swim by. It heads towards the target, the egg. Despite the enormous competition, the first-place sperm takes the egg. In an era when CG was not common, the scene where an egg and a sperm meet was mysterious and shocking.
The egg, which symbolizes the woman at the moment of conception, has been expressed passively. On the other hand, sperm, symbolizing men, was depicted as a being with its own driving force and activity. (As if each sperm had its own self) ‘Competitive sperm and tidy egg’ is not a story that has been recently revealed to be true due to the development of science and technology. The story is about scientists starting to be expelled from their laboratories as early as the 1970s. Rather, sperm are passive beings that ‘react to chemicals contained in the follicular fluid of the egg.’ It is said that the egg is an active being that ‘selects sperm’ suitable for fertilization until the very last moment.
The author begins the story by saying that inequality starting from gender and the discomfort it causes have been influenced by prejudice even in science, which appears to be the most objective and rigorous.
Science is obsessed with studying sex differences in the brain. Biological differences in the brain do not account for apparent differences in ability. This is a result that reflects differences in ability. Feminism points out that ‘the study of gender differences does not actually contain critical thinking about the problem of gender differences.’
Neuroscientist Daphna Joel proposes a new concept called ‘mosaic brain’. It is an expression that emphasizes that the human brain is a mixture of various characteristics that are commonly classified as female and male characteristics. So, if women don’t have female brains and men don’t have male brains, why do the two genders seem so different? Joel says this is because ‘gender’, a sociocultural category related to sex, is divided into two.
Why is the default navigation voice a ‘female’ voice? Why is it a ‘feminine’ chatbot service? Why does a secretary robot have a ‘feminine’ appearance? On the other hand, why are robots with outstanding physical abilities male-shaped? Before that, “Why should we make artificial intelligence like humans?” It provides ‘objective’ information on parts of science and technology that are not objective at all.
A particularly interesting section was about ‘the history of nature and women.’ The word ‘ecofeminism’ appears, combining ecology and feminism. It also explains well why ‘ecofeminism’ is not visible in the core discussions of Western feminist theorists.
It talks about ‘women’s power’ that comes from the unique experiences of local communities, not from biological essence or the universal category of women. The story of Indian women’s logging and the water supply development project in Malawi, Africa in the 1980s were cited as examples. The knowledge of the surrounding nature and labor experience accumulated by local women makes science and technology more effective, and improved science and technology improves women’s quality of life and socioeconomic status. It was found that ecofeminism and science and technology are connected in a virtuous cycle.
The author says that nature is not a resource that anyone can use at will, and the same goes for women. It is said that science, which abandons strategies that prioritize competition and domination and focuses on care as a basic principle, is the hope that will save the Earth and humanity. What we need is not a geek engineer, but an ecofeminist engineer.
I usually ask questions such as, ‘Why are oral contraceptives only for women?’, ‘Is it true that the fixed price for over-the-counter medicines that says ‘1 pill once a day for adults’ also includes women?’, ‘I’m 180cm and 70kg, and I’m 160cm. ‘Is it okay to take the same amount of 50kg?’ I had questions.
<신비롭지 않은 여자들>I can’t say that the answer lies in . However, it shows that women can be very familiar with science. Science is coming closer to women in order to transform from science that is unfamiliar to women to science that is familiar to them.
This book serves as a great example for young women who dream of becoming scientists. It will also provide support with objective figures. It is also worth recommending to other women who live away from science. This is a basic knowledge book on women’s science that can provide scientifically verified answers to those who felt speechless and frustrated by responses such as ‘It’s not objective at all’ or ‘It’s not scientific.’
Science also clearly has a biased side. It may not be objective. The more female scientists there are, the more solid the objectivity of science will be. I am even more excited about the future that the author envisions where women and science join hands.
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