Am I a Woman?

Lets look at sex and gender

Sex and Gender

Do

sex and gender matter in contemporary society? People experience different realities depending on their gender (economically, politically, socially) Is category of woman a universal reality grounded in nature?

Relationships
Sex

gender sexuality identity

Sex: anatomical difference Gender: external practices such as clothing and behaviour (typically corresponds to sex) Sexuality: our desires and sexual acts Identity: such as professor, student, etc

Sex and Gender distinctions

3

assumptions:
1)biological distinction between women and men; assumes a distinction between biology and culture 2) while gender is changeable, sex is immutable 3) biology itself distinguishes between females and males

Critique
Sex/gender

distinction NOT a given Rather, it is a product of our understandings of the relationship between 2 concepts We must look at the meanings we attach to these concepts and examine how this distinction came into being

Dividing sex and gender

Two sex model has not always existed Prior to 18th century, opinion was that males and females had the SAME body Belief in fluidity of movement across sex continuum Medical literature of that time details sex changes (legal changes of women to men) This change reflected an attempt of women to achieve physical perfection

Meaningful bodies
This

research reflects idea that bodies only become meaningful through their interpretation (social construction of reality) Sex is socially constructed through discourse Today, we can change sex both legally and physically

Two-Sex Distinction: Sex

People

with intersex conditions provide researchers with opportunity to explore relationship between sex and gender Intersex: refers to a wide range of conditions that involve presence to some degree of both sex organs

Sex Reassignment

1960s, John Money founded the practice of surgical reassignment in infants and children His practice remains standard practice in US today Belief that sex and gender should align Problem with his approach exemplified with David Reimer case Belief that sex creates gender Intersex viewed as a disability; something to be fixed (medicalization)

Medicalization

The process of defining conditions and/or behaviours as illness, disease, syndromes, or conditions What is natural and NOT natural (unnatural) The authenticity of sex resides not on or in the body but rather results from a particular nexus of power, knowledge, and truth (text, p. 53) Who makes these determinations? Who has the power to define and illness?

Two-Sex Distinction: Gender

Intersex people raise difficult questions about sex as natural Intersex people lack the choice that trans people have View that trans identity is socially created by medical and psychiatric community: one sex trapped inside the body of another This becomes an origin story and something that should be fixed

Threatening
The

more closely the imposters performance approximates to the real thing, the more intensely we may be threatened, for a competent performance by someone who proves to be an imposter may weaken in our minds the moral connection between legitimate authorization to play a part and the capacity to play it (Goffman 1971, p. 55 text)