The theme of these readings was human sexuality, including intersexuals and transgenders. In Dueling Dualisms, Anne Fausto-Sterling talks about human sexuality and sexual difference and how choosing which criteria to use in determining sex are social decisions for which scientists can offer no absolute guidelines. Throughout the text she explains how biology and other human sciences became to optimize and standardize the human’s function and how two kinds of processes, nature and nurture, can help break away from dualistic thought processes. In Affronting Reason, Cheryl Chase talks about how she was in disbelief that she was a hermaphrodite and how at a young age her parents decided to put her through a reconstructive surgery to turn her into…
Freud entails through his theories that feminine sexuality is passive by nature. By describing women as passive he is also labeling the man as aggressive in their roles of sexuality and sexual intercourse together. Freud believes because of this, that women only engage in sexual intercourse in order to reproduce. Throughout his explanations of feminine sexuality, Freud tends to argue that men are superior to women. In some of his earlier theories he even describes women simply as men without penises. Later on, he discusses a certain topic called penis envy.…
Therefore, even in a world without human bodies, “technological things will be gendered and there will still be a patriarchal hierarchy” (Springer 1999, 48). As a result, medical discourse, in particular, has constructed negative notions of the female body and sexuality. For example, in the article The Aggressive Egg, the author describes the studies of a researcher by the name of Emily Martin, who has spent the past seven years examining the metaphors used to describe fertilization. Martin’s studies revealed the traditional ideas of fertilization, which portrays a “sperm as an intrepid warrior battling their way to an aging, passive egg that can do little but await the sturdy victor’s final” (Freedman 1992, 2), instead the process turned out to be quite the opposite. “In fact, biologists could have figured out a hundred years ago that sperms are weak forward-propulsion units, but it’s hard for men to accept the idea that sperm are best at escaping” (Freedman 1992,…
In today’s society, people tend to group one and an another into different categories according to their own social identity. An individual’s gender identity refers to which group where one belongs to. The attributes assigned to both males and females are different because of gender differences. In “Becoming members of Society: Learning the Social Meanings of Gender” by Aaron Devor, the author argues that factors such as beliefs and behaviors help differentiate the sexual identity of a person. In addition, Devor views sex as an instrument of determining gender. It is believed that there are only two types of sexes that exist. Which are male and female. On the other hand, “Girl”, by Jamaica Kincaid, the mother tries to forces prescribe behavior,…
A consideration of how psychology approaches the study of sex and gender reveals, amongst others, four significant theoretical perspectives that are for the most part quite distinct in terms of their objects of knowledge and consequent methods of analysis. Biological psychology is concerned with explaining the differences between male and female in terms of hormones, genes and brain structure. It is mechanistic, with a strong empirical tradition. Evolutionary psychology attempts to explain differences between sexes in terms of behavioural selection for reproductive fitness. Whilst in large part necessarily theoretical, it embraces empirical methods as a means of testing theories. Social constructionist psychology approaches sex and gender through the study of discourse in various historical, cultural and social contexts and so is hermeneutic. Finally psychoanalytic psychology primarily uses clinical observation and the study of infants to gather evidence of how humans acquire and develop a sense of sex and gender (cited in Holloway et al, 2007, pp.127ff). (6)…
Butler questions whether these gendered behaviors are natural as they are learned from one’s performance of a “gendered” individual to keep heterosexuality among their culture. If she had it her way, she would simply like to let one subject “be” and see how he/she becomes on his/her own. This would determine the true natural gender of subjects, instead of having them act in specific roles they might not agree with. However, this would never happen as many feminists defend the idea of a concrete identity because they believe it’s crucial for the advancement of interests of women. Butler argues, “My point is simply that one way in which this system of compulsory heterosexuality is reproduced and concealed is through the cultivation of bodies into discrete sexes with ‘natural’ appearances and ‘natural’ heterosexual dispositions” (905). Ultimately, Butler is stating it is a mistake to characterize women as possessing the same assets. Because by doing this, gender regulations are reinforced by staying divided into two categories, men and women. But more importantly, where does this leave individuals who are “confused” or “not able to identify” with a…
When considering the ideas of both sex and gender, it is universally understood, by most, that they are both intertwined; that is to say that gender cannot be discussed without bringing sex into the conversation, and vice versa. Here it is understood that the term “sex” is being used to signify the existing genitalia on an individual’s material body, and that the term “gender” is relating to markers of social difference between men and women (Halberstam 118). However, many scholars have attempted to create a distinction between sex and gender, which now many socialization scholars speak of as a body/consciousness distinction (Gatens 144). Both sex and gender, in theory, can be thought of as two separate entities, but it is important to keep in mind that an individual’s genitalia and material body are instant sources of proof when questioning one’s biological sex for gender to fall back on, when needed. The declaration of an individual’s biological sex (i.e. It’s a boy/It’s a girl) must first take place, and, once it does, their gender begins to slowly map itself out on the body, and essentially helps the individual create their own set of ‘cultural genitals’ that will be used to express their gender within society.…
In Maxine Sheets-Johnstone’s excerpt, “Females as Docile Bodies” she claims that “women inspire male sexual desire simply by existing.” In western culture, especially in the twenty first century, women are constantly analyzed by men solely based on their appearance. A women’s appearance alone creates male arousal which leads to the degrading demeanor of males towards the female body, reducing a woman as a whole being to only particular body parts like the genitalia. You hear about examples of this instance in the media all the time. The real question is as women, should we conform to the opinions of the world and agree with this claim. Should we truly just leave ourselves as women, subject to the perception of the world? As women we don’t have to try hard to stimulate a man’s sexuality or sexual thoughts; it happens visually by “being in the eyes of males”.…
Butler’s most famous published work, Gender Trouble, deals with themes of the semiotics of the human body in juxtaposition to the “performative subversions” of gender identity (Butler, “Gender” 372). There is a pervading discussion of internal versus external signifiers of the body. The external signifiers are “shaped by political forces with strategic interests” as well as social and cultural hegemony (374). She also makes clear distinctions in defining what is gender as opposed to sex or sexuality and the common misunderstandings of the three terms. Simon During republished the third chapter of Gender Trouble, titled “Subversive Bodily Acts,” in a volume accompanied by highly informative introductory material. The essence of Butler’s entire book is contained within this third and final chapter of the work, followed in its original form only by a conclusion.…
For many years discussions of sexuality were informed by a distinction between ‘sex’ and ‘gender’. The sex of a person was judged to be ‘biologically determined’ and their gender to be ‘culturally and socially constructed’ (Abercrombie, Hill and Turner, 1988: 103). Gender roles are frequently based around the ideas that women are expected to be more passive and emotional and men more assertive and rational. “The first type of essentialism that can be found in this area [music and gender] is the idea that men and women ‘express’ some essential masculine or feminine forms of sexuality. The second type is that this in turn can be found manifested in the content of particular cultural products and practices.” (Negus, p.124). Jeffery Weeks argued that biology merely provides ‘a set of potentialities that are transformed and given meaning in social relationships’ (1986: 25). One of the reasons why gender has perhaps often been considered to be more ‘social’, and ‘sex’ in turn more natural, is that gender is usually more visible as a series of conventions about dress codes, expected public bodily behaviour, manner of speech and so on. Sex, however, is closely connected to ‘sexuality’, which has often been informed by beliefs that this should be a more ‘private’ affair. The distinction between sex and gender is therefore both ideological and misleading. Here I follow the approach of Weeks, who has argued that gender is the ‘social condition of being male or female, and sexuality, the cultural way of living out our bodily pleasures and desires’ (1986: 45).…
The Article goes into profundity what sexual orientation (gender) is and how we comprehend being feminine and masculine. In the article the comprehension of how women's liberation and manliness influences society. We begin to finding out about "sex standards" at an early age. However not all men feel masculine similarly as not all ladies feel feminine. It is sometimes the other way around.…
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States of America, consisting of two houses, the Senate and the House of Representatives. Both senators and representatives are chosen through direct election. As provided by the United States Constitution, each of the 435 members of the House of Representatives represents a district and serves a two-year term. House seats are apportioned among the states by population. The 100 Senators serve staggered six-year terms. Each state has two senators, regardless of population. Every two years, approximately one-third of the Senate is elected.…
Alcohol consumption became big in the 1800’s and the common man drank alcohol every day. They started to drink it more commonly and even at work, men would get injured because their abuse of alcohol. Husbands would beat their wives if they drank to much and they weren't in the right mind this led to families separating. The temperance movement was effective in achieving its goals because the consumption of alcohol went down. The political cartoon shows the necessity of banning alcohol. The American Temperance Society wants to stop alcohol consumption for all of mankind in the mid 1800s. The picture shows a man evolving going a little drinker to the worst state, a drunk. Alcohol was evil and it had a negative effect on people and their families.…
Gayle Rubin created the sex/gender system concept in the year 1975. She created this term to offer a new way of thinking about the difference between sex and gender. She defined the sex/gender system as “the set of arrangements by which a society transforms biological sexuality into products of human activity, and which these transformed sexual needs are satisfied” (WRWC, 2015). The sex/gender system has many explanations that attempt to address how our sex plays a role in how we learn gender. A few of these theories include: cognitive-developmental theory, social learning theory, gender schema theory, social interactions and gender roles, and lastly, performativity theory. In this essay I will explain how the sex/gender system is created and reinforced from the perspectives of feminist theorists.…
The term sexuality, is described by The Penguin Dictionary of Sociology (Abercrombie et al. 2000:313) as the mode by which sexual interests and sexual preferences are expressed '. Sexuality is described by biologist David Buss, (Myers 2001) as the instinctive and innate behavioral tendencies that increase the likelihood of sending ones genes into future offspring. Sexuality is not one 's sex, which is simply ones physiological and anatomical characteristics of maleness or femaleness (Marieb 2001). Also, sexuality is not ones gender, which is the socially learned characteristics or roles of maleness or femaleness (Poole & Jureidini 2000). These terms, sex and gender, imply the differences between men and women physiologically and characteristically. Sexuality is not sex or gender, although sexuality is somewhat intertwined with the two. Sexuality is sexual behavior; the behavior related to copulation and similar activities ' (Oakley, 1985 p.99: as cited in Zajdow 2002:63). Sexuality is the whole area of actions and thoughts surrounding achieving and having sexual relations ' (Pinker 1997). The behaviors one exhibits when attracting a partner, the interactions with other humans in a sexual manner, and actual sexual activities, are all components of sexuality (Vida 1996).…