Republic of the Philippines

City of Taguig
Taguig City University
Gen. Santos Avenue, Central Bicutan, Taguig City

BACHELOR OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

GEE 109 GENDER AND SOCIETY

BPA C2021

REPORTERS;
CAO, MARK JUSTINE S.
DOJETA, JEWEL G.
DARUNGKALA, RAIHANAH A.
DUEÑA, IRA C.
 Lesson 2: Definition of Sex and Gender
Sex refers to the physical differences between people who are male and female. A person
typically has their sex assigned at birth based on physiological characteristics, including
their genitalia and chromosome composition.
Gender refers to the socially constructed characteristics of women and men, such as
norms, roles, and relationships of and between groups of women and men.
According to Bandura (1961) The Social Learning of Gender she explained how
children acquire their gender identity based on the influence of other people particularly
their parents. There are four stages that a child goes through when develop gender
behaviour. 
1. Attention
2. Memory
3. Imitation
4. Motivation
Functionalists and Essentialism
Functionalists reinforce the essentialist viewpoint when they claim that traditional gender
roles help to integrate society. Each generation learns to perform these complimentary
roles by means of gender role socialization.
Essentialism is the belief that a person, thing, or particular trait is inherently and
permanently male and masculine or female and feminine.
Conflict Theorists and Gender Inequality
Conflict theorists believe that:
 The root of male domination is class inequality.
 Some men gained control over the economic surplus.
 They soon devised means of ensuring that their offspring would inherit the surplus.
 As industrial capitalism developed male domination increased.
Gender Inequality - discrimination on the basis of sex or gender causing one sex or gender
to be routinely privileged or prioritized over another.
Gender Socialization
(Barbie v. GI Joe) Research conducted in the early 70s showed that from birth, infant boys
and girls who are matched in length, weight, and general health are treated differently by
parents - fathers in particular.
The Mass Media and Body Image
Media influence may lead adolescents to internalize patterns of physical beauty, resulting in
unsatisfaction with their own bodies when they are unable to match up to these patterns. 

Lesson 3: What is Sexuality?

Sexuality
- Mirriam Webster (2013): The quality or state of being sexual.
- Came into English, French and German usage at the end of the 18th century.
- Usually meant reproduction through sexual activity among plants and animals.
- Used in relation to love and sex matters in European discourse in the 1830s.
Four intertwining strands of sexuality:
Sexual desire or attraction
- To whom (or in some cases what) someone is attracted (physically and emotionally)
Sexual activity or behaviour
- What a person does or likes to do sexually (intercourse, masturbation, oral sex,
sexual fetishes)
Sexual identity
- How someone describes their sense of self as a sexual being (e.g. heterosexual,
bisexual, lesbian, gay, homosexual)
Sexual experience
- Observations of others' sexualities; education or training related to sexuality;
experiences that may not have been consensual.
Challenging biological determinism and defining sex, gender and sexuality
If reproductive differences between the sexes "naturally" drive individual behaviour, why
do we need social institutions that police and set moral guidelines for sexual behaviour?
- The family, religion, government, the military.
The research evidence for many biologically determinist claims simply does not hold up
- Sex "difference" research may be popular, but it masks a great deal of evidence
for sex similarities
- Differences are often context-specific
Despite continuing interest in a genetic basis for sexuality, no gay or heterosexual gene
yet found.
- Most sex is not reproductive
- Human sexuality more complicated than 'survival of the species' or of one's gene
pool
'Biological drive' arguments are political
- Often used to resist social change and legitimate an unequal, gendered and
sexualised social order
- Institutionalised power relations affect understandings of sex, gender, and
sexuality
The Gay Gene Theory
Geneticists search for a 'gay gene' to prove there is a biological basis for, and explanation
of, male homosexuality.
- Small differences found between the post-mortem brains of heterosexual and
homosexual young men (LeVay, 1991)

- Research on pairs of homosexual brothers found that some had similar markers on
the X chromosome, indicating a genetic basis for sexuality (Hamer et al. 1993)
Caribbean theoretical definition
Caribbean sexuality is "characterized by diversity" and involves "embodied sexual
practices, identities, knowledge, and strategies of resistance of the colonized and
postcolonial subject" (2004: 2).
Kempadoo, K (2004: 2) Sexing the Caribbean, Routledge