The Fiction of Gender Constructing the Fiction of Nation: On How Fictions Are Normative, and Norms Produce Exceptions
The Fiction of Gender Constructing the Fiction of Nation: On How Fictions Are Normative, and Norms Produce Exceptions

Author(s): Rada Iveković
Subject(s): Gender Studies, Gender history, Politics and society, Politics and Identity
Published by: Centar za ženske studije & Centar za studije roda i politike, Fakultet političkih nauka, Beograd
Summary/Abstract: THE FICTION OF GENDER CONSTRUCTING THE FICTION OF NATION: ON HOW FICTIONS ARE NORMATIVE, AND NORMS PRODUCE EXCEPTIONS, “NATION”, CLAIMING AN IMAGINARY COMMON BIRTH, RECONSTRUCTS ITSELF A POSTERIORI AS A REALITY AS IF IT HAD ALWAYS EXISTED. IT NEEDS PATRIARCHY FOR THIS. BOTH THE GENDER DIVISION, AS WELL AS THE EXCLUSION ON WHICH THE NATION IS ESTABLISHED, THOUGH CAUSALLY INTERTWINED, EXPRESS THE SAME UNIVERSAL "SHARING/SPLITTING OF REASON" (PARTAGE DE LA RAISON). BOTH CLAIM “NATURE” ESSENTIALISING THE INEQUALITY AS NATURAL. REASON IS NORMATIVE, ESPECIALLY IN ITS DIVIDED FORM. THE SEX (OR GENDER) DIFFERENCE IS POLITICAL. IT IS THE POLITICAL DIFFÉREND REPRESENTING THE HETEROSEXUAL NORMATIVE PARADIGM THROUGH SYMBOLIC ANALOGIES, FOR OTHER INJUSTICES AND INEQUALITIES. IT IS A HIERARCHY INCLUDING WOMEN AS SUBORDINATE. IT IS THE DICHOTOMY THAT FIXES GENDER AND SEX, NOT THE OPPOSITE. THE SEXUAL DIFFERENCE IS A VERY POWERFUL IDEA SHOWING THE INADEQUACY OF THE SELF WITH ITSELF.

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