Is woman to man what nature is to culture? A review of Sherry Ortner’s dualist perspective on gender relations

Abstract

The purpose of the essay is to present the central arguments that reinforce the validity of universal thought regarding the undervaluation of the female subject, based on the dualistic conception developed by American anthropologist Sherry B. Ortner, drawing from one of her most important academic works for feminist studies on the issue of women's subordination in patriarchal cultures. We refer to the article Is Woman to Man What Nature Is to Culture?, from which the critical analysis will expose the predominant points that support the oppositional nature between the categories of woman and man, equated with the categories of nature and culture, erected within the structure of androcentric thought and rationalized by the inheritance of Western modernity. Ortner's contribution has been to conceive a perspective of cultural construction of meanings attributed to oppositional relationships to explain male predominance in political, social, ideological, and legal acts, which shapes the discursive exercise of androcentric power in public and private life. However, it will be relevant to show the scope and limits of the arguments in light of emerging alternative theoretical perspectives that attempt to explain the necessary manifestations of one gender's dominance over another, and the marked exclusions in which men in certain societies have been relegated due to issues of effective leadership exercised by women.