‘Anatomy determines destiny’ and mental health

Pages:44-46
Komil Tyagi (MCM DAV College for Women, Chandigarh)

Gender, a term burdened with multiplicity of meaning is even more demanding when it comes to its socialization through the institution of family. In the words of martin Heidegger, “Each age has only one issue to think through and one only. Sexual difference is probably the issue in our time which could be our salvation on an intellectual level.” In the family structure, the ‘male’ and the ‘female’ are charged by the burden of gender socialization to become ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ respectively and that affects the mental health of a individual significantly. The physiological differences between the sexes create psychological dissimilarities in thinking and behaviour. The social environment creates sex-type patterns which are forcefully exercised on the children, and the line of segregation deepens as they attain age. Ideal and conventional temperaments are encouraged for the dichotomy and variation or transgression is neither expected nor promoted. To meet the demands of changing ethics and socio-economic functions in the contemporary world each individual is trying to move away from rigid gender socialization which in turn is proving hazardous for mental health. Like a pendulum, the youth today is swinging between the contrasting forces of acceptance and rejection, flexibility and rigidity, revolt and compromise and this challenging situation creates havoc with the mental framework of all. Therefore, inequity on its basis of anatomical differences should be discouraged within family and the practice of ‘agender’ should be applied for better mental health.