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assignment 7

In “are women human? It’s not an academic question”, peterson and parisi argue that we should focus on and study the connection between human rights and heterosexism rather than emphasizing the androcentrism of human rights. I think that peterson and parisi have a good argument because the focus on androcentrism has been the scope when it comes to studying how humans are defined based on the binary genders. I think what the authors are trying to encourage onto the readers, is that we should critically analyze the conditions, causes, and methods used to preserve the inequality between genders through generations in order to break the barrier of gender-based inequality in our current times.

The chapter also talks about heterosexism, a way in which the subordination of women becomes a social norm that serves male interests. Heterosexism has foreclosed any alternative bonds that women could have, such as woman to woman groups and relations. It also imposes a role that women must follow, despite the weakening effects that it has on woman socially and politically. The exclusion of women from human rights is another evidence that upholds human rights as gender-based and gender-oriented. One way in which the law excludes women from their human rights is dependant upon the fact that institutions differentiate between the public spheres and private spheres. It is certain that the law would neglect women vulnerabilities and experiences because it is mainly the men who are in charge of creating the law, which lacks a female perspective.

Heterosexism has always promoted unfair advantages and privileges that have made men become dominant over women. The way institutionalized heterosexuality plays a role in society is very imperative to analyze. Women have always been the victims of patriarchal systems and part of these systems is heterosexism. It is a method that the state utilizes to control people and maintain power over them.