Gender

Oct 27, 2009

Dichotomy
A dichotomy is the complete separation of things into two unique parts. A dichotomy describes EVERYTHING. Everything must be either A or B. There is no option C.

Gender as a Dichotomy
Gender tends to be understood as a dichotomy. Gender also tends to be used interchangeably with sex There are a few unavoidable problems with this way of thinking

How to define SEX?

By anatomy? Between 0.1% and 1.7% of people are born with intersex characteristics. Thats between 7 million and 120 million people world-wide.

How to define SEX?

By chromosomes? Many different conditions can lead to men or women being wrongly chromosomed. (Like androgen insensitivity)

Theories About Gender

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5d-FTRSUfyU&feature=related

One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman. - Simone de Beauvoir Gender is one of the conditions of intelligibilityby which the human emerges, by which the human is recognized. - Judith Butler
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMldVZOxW64

 Gender Roles
The division of labor according to gender Fuels the public space/ domestic space dichotomy

Gender Stereotypes
Gender-based characteristics and behaviors

Gender Stratification
Structural inequalities that give people different access to power and resources, according to their gender.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWc1e3Nbc2g&feature=related

Feminism
First wave feminism
Gained strength at the and of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century Focused on de jure inequalities between men and women, like the right to vote.

Feminism
Second Wave Feminism
At its height in the 1960s and 1970s Fought against unofficial inequalities between men and women. Womens Libbers Equal Pay Act of 1963 Birth Control
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YV7W9vWVCtw

Feminism
Third Wave Feminism
About 1990 to the present. Aims to correct past mistakes of the movement. Recognizes a diversity of genders and gendertypes, and the fluidity of gender identity.

When Reading Kottak Ch9

Look at the dates for his references. What was happening in America at that time? What was happening in the feminist movement at that time? What cultural constructs and values were being reconsidered at that time?

BREAK!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xO9YPkXSET0&feature=related

Dreamworlds 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mVEGfH4s5g&feature=related

How is masculinity defined? Is there more than one way? How is femininity defined? Is there more than one way? In what ways are these concepts used to define each other? What keeps these ideas recurring over and over again?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CU2JhYM8tY