midterm

1. DO BIOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES
DETERMINE HOW WOMEN AND MEN
BEHAVE? OR DO SOCIALIZATION AND
ENVIRONMENT PLAY A BIGGER ROLE?
Monica D’Aguanno

2. BASICALLY, DOES SOCIETY
HAVE AN IMPACT ON OUR
GENDER AND HOW WE
BEHAVE?

3. YES, ABSOLUTELY!
➤ Society starts to label your gender from the day you are
made
➤ “Is it a boy or girl?”
➤ once the parents know the sex of a child the child is
instantly labeled
➤ Pink for girls
➤ Blue for boys

4. Sex vs. Gender:
➤ “In scientific discourses and
everyday beliefs, western thinking
has understood gender (sex) as the
natural outcome of sexual anatomy.”
➤ Sex: person’s biological status
(male, female, or intersex)
➤ Gender: attitudes, feelings, and
behaviors that a given culture
associates with a person’s biological
sex.
➤ gender-normative: behavior that
society sees as acceptable that
matches sex and gender
➤ gender non-conformitve: behavior
society sees as not acceptable that
does not match the sex and the
gender

5. WHAT IS INTERSEX?
➤ A person is born with a
reproductive or sexual
anatomy that doesn’t fit in with
the typical definitions of female
or male
➤ Pretty much, a person may
be born with genitals that
seem to be in-between
➤For example, a person might
be born appearing to be female
on the outside, but having
mostly male-typical anatomy on
the inside

6. IN STORES, TOYS ARE SPLIT
BY GENDER

7. ➤ Because advertisements and stores
categorize toys by the sex of a child,
girls cannot build Legos or play with
cars, and boys cannot play with
barbie or like to design clothes.
➤ “..women are by nature more
nurturing, emotional, patient, and less
intelligent than men, and that women
are physically the weaker sex, have a
long history.”
➤ Women's primary purpose in life: to
reproduce
➤ Men: to succeed in "production"
(making money) and protection of
women: physical strength,
intelligence, and courage

8. ➤ Peggy Sanday (1981) found that sexual
violence against women is related to
constructions of masculinity and
femininity in a number of societies.
➤ She found no incidence of rape, for
example, in the ancient Ashanti
kingdom of West Africa where women
were highly respected and influential
members of the community.
➤ “ In societies like the United States,
where men and boys are encouraged to
be tough and aggressive and violence
is tolerated, rape is prevalent. Violent
sexual relations also can be found in
societies in which the construction of
masculinity calls for competition among
men”

9. ➤ In Cinderella, who brings her out of rags and into riches?
Prince Charming. The trope presented in fairy tales across
the board is of a charming prince, saving the princess who is
desperately in distress. Fairy tales, through the use of
assigned, subversive, unavoidable vulnerable states to each
of their female protagonists, directly imply that women will
only be successful, that is, having attained a man, when they
are beautiful victims. Although each female protagonist is
beautiful, the paradoxical nature of the story dictates that
they must be victims who do not argue with their victimhood.
This is to say that they must be victims in order for the prince
to save them, and they must be beautiful and submissive in
order for the prince to be willing to save them. If these
characteristics are not fulfilled, there would be no prince, and
each protagonist would not have a chance to attain the
prince, as shown in the Charles Perrault versions of
Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast.

10. THE IMPACT OF TOYS ON
TODAYS’ JOBS➤ Infrastructure
➤ Jobs that are created mostly
for men
• 2008 recession millions of jobs
were lost
• President Obama came into
office and invested federal
dollars in infrastructure to create
a ton of jobs
• But, where did this leave the
women?
Are most infrastructure jobs predominately for
men because society raised men to reach for these
kinds of jobs while women stayed at home?

11. • What gender
norms did
you face
growing up?
• Do you still
face them?

12. Citations:
“What is intersex?”, http://www.isna.org/faq/what_is_intersex
January 08, 2016
Lees, Mascia Sex Differences, Nature and Nurture, Chapter Four: Sex Differences
(https://content.sakai.rutgers.edu/access/lessonbuilder/item/10359171/group/b6ca6594-e9e3-437e-aaf9-
3369e488fbda/Sex%20Differences%3A%20Nature%20and%20Nurture%20-
%2012_30%20_Wednesday%20%7C%7C%20Online_/Mascia-Lees%20-%20Sex%20differnces-
%20Nature%20and%20nurture.pdf)
Women in Recession, Chapter Five: Austerity and Misogyny
https://content.sakai.rutgers.edu/access/lessonbuilder/item/10361201/group/b6ca6594-e9e3-437e-aaf9-
3369e488fbda/Women%20in%20recession%20-%201_7%20_Thursday%20%7C%7C%20In%20class_/Enloe%20-
%20Women%20in%20Recession.pdf)
“The Guidelines for Psychological Practice with Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Clients,
adopted by the APA Council of Representatives”, February 18-20, 2011.
http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/guidelines.aspx