The Theory Of Gender In The West And China

"Gender ",as a core concept in the theory of feminism, was first put forward during the second tide of feminism in western society. It is the inevitable result of feminism movement. Essentialists declare that gender is the innate attribute of the individual, a quality or trait describing one's personality, cognitive process, moral judgment, etc. West feminists separate "sex" from "gender". They emphasize that gender is not the individual's inherent trait but the result of the social construction. In different period of the history, different value measurements norm the disciplines of people's practices and they themselves are continually strengthened. Contrarily, the difference of sex is just the premise of the gender.The gender theory is widely used and becomes the chief topic of feminists. Simone de Beauvoir declared that a woman is not born, but is created after birth. Her idea shows why the women were oppressed and became the foundation of the gender theory, In "Sexual Politics", Kate Millet examined both sex relation from the angle of authority for the first time and made it clear that it was the man that controlled the woman by the inborn authority in the society, she aimed at the patriarchy in the struggle. Gale Rubin proposed a new concept of "the sex/gender system". She argued that each society has one system to organize and control humanity's sex life and race's multiplication and the system takes the female as natural materials and makes them domesticated.Scott blamed Rubin for localizing her theory in relative system , she expanded the definition of gender. But since the 1980s, it has had to face with the constant challenges coming from black feminism, the Third World feminism as well as queer theory .These theories no more take gender as the central category, but they emphasize on the concept of the women's identity in the pluralistic background of the society. They analyze the change of gender systems and gender discourses of different cultures in different historical times, the intersections between gender , class , race and ethnicity;the relationship between gender , politics , economy , and culture;the construction of femininity and masculinity;sexuality;and women's experiences in all walks of life. With the development of the post-modernism, the theory of feminism had surmounted the pattern of dual opposition though in gender, rethinking of sex/gender in a deeper and broader field of vision.In the mid 1990s, the theory of gender was introduced into China and developedin China's practice domain. In the localization process the gender theory had met many problems. For example, "gender" and "sex" are translated in a wrong way and the use of both is confusing the academic exchange, so this field should be standardized scientifically.The western feminist criticism has experienced three stages approximately with the development of the gender theory. Under gender theory influence Chinese feminist criticism appear new changes: gender studies forms an alliance with the culture studies, the new geographies of identity is popular and reconsidered, confusion arise meeting with deconstruction, the strategy of feminism is adjusted, body writing is facing a more heated dispute, the native feminist literature theory system is being constructed etc.The recognition of gender as a social construction has impacted on feminist literary studies most profoundly. It is enlightening for broadening the theoretic vision of Chinese feminist criticism, for understanding and reflecting upon the wholesome development of female literary criticism in China. It may show Chinese literary studies a new way.