Genealogy of Gender: Social and Philosophical Aspects

The paper is devoted to the socio-philosophical analysis of sex and gender with the help of the comparative historical method of genealogy in the unity of biological, social and symbolic dimensions. The origin, relevance and history of “male – female” relationships are analyzed. It reveals the complexity and multy-dimensionality of social reality including history and tradition, mythology and metaphysics. “Male” and “female” are understood as constitutive social ontological sources of the cultural picture of the world. The difference between sex and gender is considered as a fundamental characteristic of the social order. If sex refers to the physical, bodily differences between a man and a woman, then gender includes their psychological, social, and cultural characteristics. The binary opposition of male and female is characterized by a relationship of dominance and subordination that is projected onto the social hierarchy. In the course of the civilizational process, the “female” element is marginalized. “Female” is understood as natural and passive, “male” – as social and active. In a patriarchal society, the male becomes the privileged sex, and the woman is a subordinate. In the article the male-female relationship is revealed through the concepts of “social order” and “symbolic activity”. The subordinate gender is marginalized, but it has more symbolic activity.