It is easy to take the freedoms and liberties that are offered to American citizens, men and women, for granted. Looking at the rituals that are practiced among the Masai brings an awareness of this ungratefulness. The Masai have a strict system set in place as to each individual's role in society. It is known, for example, that every man will serve as a Masai warrior from the ages of 18 to 30. I am thankful that there are more options for the next 12 years of my life in U.S. society than this. In terms of decisions, Masai women especially have virtually no choice regarding what they will do with their lives. At the proper age the women are circumcised and given away as wives, and then live out the rest of their days working for their husbands. They cannot own their own property, or even protest being mistreated by their husbands. A women who cannot bear children is useless to the Masai society. These traditions are obviously vastly different than in the U.S., and could even be perceived by someone from outside of the Masai culture as a gross violation of human rights.
The question then becomes, "Do universal human rights exist? And who decides what these include?" It is easy for an American to look in on the Masai and say that the way that they treat women is wrong; but the Masai do not think it is. Who are we to tell them how they should live their lives? It would be ineffective to march into a Masai village and tell the people that they were no longer allowed to circumcise their women or that they had to let them choose their own husbands. Personally, I believe that education is a key component in this debate. Every person should be given the opportunity to learn about different customs, and then decide how they want to live their own life--but, sadly, this an unrealistic objective.
The value of gender in society is difficult to say. In cultures such as the Masai, it is easy to see how gender is important as the deciding factor for how one will spend his/her life. In other cultures, however, gender plays a significantly lesser role. In Heading Home: Women, Work, and Identity in America, Dianna Shandy and Karine Moe note that in some cultures, such as the Wosho Indians of California and the Hadza of Tanzania, there exists gender equality. Unfortunately, this is not the norm in many societies, including in our own. Although women have been given all of the same rights as men in the U.S., they are still left with many of the "duties" that they had to do when they were not allowed to work. What results is women working just as hard as their male counterparts during the workday, and then returning home to take care of the children and maintain the house. Examples of this can be seen in Global Women in the New Economy, by Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild.
A two-gender system brings challenges in that it does not necessarily encompass everyone. There are those who do not fit the stereotypes biologically or mentally. Furthermore, because many aspects of life are classified in society as pertaining to either gender (ex: pink is a "girl color" and blue is a "boy color"), people get confused when they don't feel that they don't agree with or fit into the particular stereotype. This is becoming less of an issue in U.S. culture today, as people are learning that not everything is a black and white (or as boy and girl) as they once though it was. This can be seen in anything from men and women performing the same jobs (whether at work or in the home) to the distinction between some boys and girls clothing becoming less.
Great job in discussing the readings, film, and your perspectives. Indeed, what feminist studies sometimes miss is that cultures that are heavily proscripted in gender (such as the Masai) are limiting to both men and women. That is, while it is easy to assume that all is rosy for the men, it is likely that some men don't fancy being without a wife until later in their life, or wish they could marry their lover, or didn't want to be a warrior.
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