Prompt: What is the value of viewing the category "woman" as having a universal status?

   Viewing the category of "woman" as having a universal status basically provides a template for "performances" and "guides" for social success and survival in social/political climates. If there is a "way" for a prescribed gender to behave in order to have success in an occupation or field, it'd be through a tried and true template for 'success.' 

   Merleau-Ponty's quote asserting the "body is a historical idea...with a set of possibilities to be continually realized" is a better perspective to hold in forming change to the value of "woman" as a category. Rather than solely relying on one person defying the potential or success prescribed in the category of "woman," valuing the category as a historical idea provides momentum and agency for anyone who 'fits' under the category of "woman."

    A universal status can certainly lock those who fall under said status into socio-political chains. However, as Simone de Beauvoir suggests, gender can be altered through "repetition of stylized acts," so the potential as a universal category moving towards one goal, possibly towards the same potential as other categories, is one large value.