THE PHILOSOPHICAL PRISM OF GENDER(ED) CAPITAL: FROM SOCIO(CON)STRUCTED BEHAVIOURAL PATTERNS TO INDIVIDUALLY PROFITABLE FORMS
Keywords:
behaviour, behavioural patterns, bodily capital, body, boy/young man/man, capital, communication, community, corporeality, femininity, gender, gender capital, gender divide, gender gap, gender nullification, gendered capital, gender(ed) capital, gendering, girl/young woman/woman, human being, human capital, inequality, masculinity, resource, society, sociosegment, zero genderAbstract
The research is written in the author’s analytical style, combining academic argumentation with philosophical reflection on a multivectoral consideration of gender(ed) capital as a complex of sociogenically determined behavioural patterns, expressed through feminine and masculine forms. Gender is taken as a characteristic of accrued profitability or capitalisation, where femininity and masculinity serve as instruments of agent-based governance within sociosegments. Accordingly, gender(ed) capital: 1) emphasises anthopofeatures that, through socially acceptable behavioural patterns – whether feminine or masculine, may be profitable for each human being as well as for the community/sociosegment/society; 2) reflects a reorientation within sociosegments – a shift from the classical imperative to accumulate and multiply feminine and/or masculine traits toward the optimised regulation of their applicability, grounded in mutual respect for difference, broad inclusivity, rejection of stereotyping, and the avoidance of selective situational constraints; 3) in both its feminine and masculine forms, becomes an effective means for the human being to enhance their anthropness, in both private and professional domains; 4) depending on its application mode, may lead to either a reduction or intensification of gender gaps and/ or gender inequality, thereby either mitigating or amplifying the negative impact on human beings’ life quality and life chances. In the 21st century, emphasis on capital is increasingly realised through the human being – namely, human capital in general and bodily capital in particular – who is metaphorically ‘immersed’ in marketing trends. Gender(ed) capital is not merely an ‘actualised construct’ introduced by feminist studies; it lies at the core of present-day challenges – from both feminine and masculine perspectives – driven by selective sociosegmental shifts, especially in the professional field, which underpin the emergence of gender gaps and gender divides, thereby exacerbating inequality. Gender-masculinity reveals itself as a fragile and unstable construct, whereas gender-femininity emerges as dominant due to its situational flexibility – that may be further reinforced by ‘strategic masculinisation’ and subsequent reassembling. The anthropoprofitability of gender capital – in both its feminine and masculine forms – should not be grounded in sociogenically standardised behavioural patterns, which tend to constrain human beings, but rather in communicativity – a space for the continuous renewal of feminine and masculine complementarity.
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