Catharine MacKinnon - Difference and Dominance: On Sex Discrimination

In Catharine MacKinnon’s “Difference and Dominance: On Sex Discrimination”, she analyzes, criticizes and suggests new approaches to sex equality. MacKinnon mentions the difference approach and how it can evoke two ways of addressing this ever-present issue. She states that women can either be recognized for the traits they possess that are dissimilar to men or they can be treated alike while these differences are pushed aside. She goes on to critique these ideas as in both cases women remain at a disadvantage to their male counterparts. Differences between the sexes – ignored or recognized – exist based on biological grounds and therefore cannot be overlooked. In both instances women as a gender, as half of our world’s population are doomed as we are either told to act like men or are found reduced to the male standard. Women continuously find themselves in this conundrum as they are required to take the same physical tests as men for professions such as the military or fire department but then damned for being the minority. Whether women are treated alike or given special benefits in order to ‘catch up’ to men, MacKinnon can only hope that in our future is a country wherein “protection is not a dirty word and equality is not a special privilege.”

This male dominant society in which we live is perfectly described by the following taken from MacKinnon’s work:

“Virtually every quality that distinguishes men from women is already affirmatively compensated in this society. Men’s physiology defines most sports, their needs define auto and health insurance coverage, their socially designed biographies define workplace expectations and successful career patterns, their perspectives and concerns define quality in scholarship, their experiences and obsessions define merit, their objectification of life defines art, their military defines family, their inability to get along with each other – their wars and rulerships – defines history, their image defines god, and their genitals define sex.”

I think this quotation is effective due to its bluntness in delivering the message of our current society’s standards. This passage, though truthful to an extent, makes somewhat of an ironic claim. Specifically, the last line states that men’s genitalia “define sex” when in reality, the original act of sex comes from the need to reproduce. When taking into consideration the biological differences that man and woman possess, it becomes evident that only women are able to physically reproduce. While the male may “define sex” based on his own desires, the continuity of this ‘male dominant world’ is hinged upon a woman’s commitment to birth. So as MacKinnon puts it, “the question whether women should be treated unequally means simply whether women should be treated as less.”

I feel as though this excerpt serves an important role in raising the overarching question to its readers, that being how women can address this issue of male dominance. MacKinnon then introduces her dominance approach – which is in concurrence with a feminist’s approach – being the recognition and desire to alleviate female subordination. I strongly agree with her views as she encourages this “shift in perspective from gender as difference to gender as dominance” as the only way in which we as a society can perpetuate change by challenging our current way of life.