2016

Anth 331: Sex and Gender

Dr. Tania L Saj
Dept of Anthropology &
Archaeology

Required Reading:
Gender and War in GCCP
(p.28-35)

Todays Outline

Part I
Introduction to course topics & big
questions
Course Structure/ Tests/ Office hrs, etc
Part 2 (see embedded outline)
Further introduction to Sex & Gender
Required Reading: Gender & War
Part 3
Movie: Codes of Gender & Identity
2

Testable Videos

Slide 28
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjJQBj
WYDTs

http://www.upworthy.com/theres-somethingabsolutely-wrong-with-what-we-do-to-boysbefore-they-grow-into-men

Slide 29
http://www.upworthy.com/advertisingseems-harmless-until-you-see-it-for-what-itreally-is?c=hpstream
3

2016

What

is this course about?

What

do I mean by Sex?

sex - biological differences between male and females

gender - societal differences " ", experience
What

do I mean by Gender?

differences

Course Topics I: SEX

1. Sex differences = biological/ genetic

between males and females
Evolutionary Theory

Charles
Darwin
5

natural selection
2. Sexual Selection & Parental Investment Theory

Female (L) and male (R)

Mountain gorillas
Male (L) & female (R)
Mandarin ducks
6

2016

Course Topics II: Gender

Gender is a key dimension of

personal life, social relations and
culture. Gender is also a topic on
which there is a great deal of
prejudice, myth and outright
falsehood (Connell & Pearse 2015)

Course Topics II: Gender

Gender differences between men and women
How society constructs differences between men &
women
Well look at gender patterns; notice the existence
of the gender arrangements/order of our society

The big questions well be exploring:

What does it mean to be a man in our
society?

2016

What does it mean to be a

woman in our society?

10

How different are men and women?

11

What does it mean to not fit into the 2

sex/ 2 gender system in North
America?

12

2016

Not required reading, but if you want to read

an interview & hear a few songs by the band:
http://www.npr.org/2014/01/19/263503567
/laura-jane-grace-transgendered-punk-onlife-in-transition

Laura Jane Grace (pictured above as

Tom Gabel), the lead singer of the group
Against Me!, announced in a May 2012
Rolling Stone magazine that she had
lived with gender dysphoria for years
and is currently undergoing the
transition process

Left to right: Band members Inge

Johansson, James Bowman, Laura
Jane Grace, Atom Willard. The
new album by Against Me! is
titled Transgender Dysphoria
Blues

13

Course Goals

To investigate what it means to be male and

female; to identify as masculine or feminine
in our society; or identify as outside of this
dichotomy/ in addition to this dichotomy
we will challenge 2 sex/ 2 gender thinking

To provide you with techniques of

analysisgleaned from archaeology,
cultural anthropology, political studies,
economics, psychology & primatologythat
will help you make your own critical
assessments of sex and gender
14

Required Readings

Required Textbook: Brettell, C.B. & Sargent,

C.F. (eds). 2013. Gender in Cross-Cultural
Perspective. Pearson-Prentice Hall: New
Jersey; 6th edition

Required Online: Marlene, Zuk. 2002. Sexual

Selections. University of California Press.

Required readings in course outline; readings

loosely overlap with lectures/ powerpoints.
will be tested!
15

2016

Desire2Learn
We will use the following sections:

Content

Grades

It is not enough to refer to the Powerpoint slides alone

Think of the PP slides as supplementing the notes you

take in class

Films, guest lectures & anything that occurs in

class are testable, as are readings listed on the
class schedule

Modules: Powerpoint slides will be posted here

16

Evaluation
Mid Term Exam 1 40% - Oct 12
Mid Term Exam 2 30%- Nov 9
Final Exam 30% - SET BY REGISTRAR (Dec 1222)
**tests are not cumulative
**all tests are multiple choice (which may include a
few true or false questions)

17

My Teaching Style

Layering of information
Redundancy is good!
The material that went into creating this
course is hard-wonthere has been lots
of digging over many yearsI am very
excited to share it with you!

Thats what learning is. You suddenly

understand something youve
understood all your life, but in a new
way. Doris Lessing
18

2016

Class Timetable
6:00 - 7:15 Class
7:15 7:30 Break
7:30 8:50 Class

Movies generally shown in second half

of class

19

Office Hours
Instructor: Dr. Tania L Saj
Email: tsaj@ucalgary.ca
Office hours: Wed 4:30-5:30
Office: ES 602E
TA: Alison Fraser
Email: jane.fraser@ucalgary.ca
Office hours: Wed 1:30-2:30
Office: ES 722

20

Show of Hands

What is your major field of study?

21

2016

WHAT IS GENDER?
WHAT IS SEX?

22

Part 2 Outline: Lecture 1

What is Gender?

What is Sex?

Chapter: Gender and War (L. Peach in

GCCP)
Break

Definitions: gender identity, gender stereotype

Gender variance: e.g.3rd gender
What makes someone male or female?
How different are men and women?
Gender Differences Hypothesis vs Gender
Similarities Hypothesis
Essentialism

PART 3: Watch The Codes of Gender and

Identity
23

1) at birth, individuals are labeled male or female

What is gender?

The cultural meaning given to an

individuals physical sex (Lang, 1998)

The socially and culturally produced

ideas about the differences between
females and males in a particular
society (Lees, 2009)

2) birth sex determines if you go down two routes ( masculinity vs

feminine - society has traits to determine this)
3) what constitutes what traits are masculinity and feminine?
- society constructs these differences

Gender differences based on sex

differences
24

2016

But gender is not the same thing as

sex

25

Definitions we need at this point:

Gender Identity

Gender Stereotypes

26

definitions - this reflects a persons subjectively (inside) felt

Definitions
1.

experiences being masculine, feminine, or ambivalent (not

Gender Identity

fitting in masculine or feminine.

Different than Sexual Identity

society is less tolerant with ambivalent

Gender scholar Diane Ehrnesaft puts it

this way: Your sexual identity has to do
with who you get into bed with; your
gender identity has to do with who you
get into bed as.

sexual identity - who you are attracted to

27

2016

2. Gender Stereotypes

gender stereotypes - society's beliefs and attitudes on what

Run Like a Girl

Be a Man

Traits exerted from Prentice &

Carranza 2008:

activities or behaviors are appropriate for men or women

society determines which traits belong to each

Feminine Prescriptions

Warm & kind

Wholesome
Interest in children
Expresses emotion
Loyal
Spiritual
Sensitive

Masculine Prescriptions:

Business sense
Willing to take risks
Athletic
Consistent
Leadership ability
Aggressive
Self-reliant

Increasingly, due to mass

media imagery/ stereotypes,
both men and women are
under intense pressure to
look and be a certain type of
man or woman

From the illusionists.org

website: The
Illusionists is a 90 minute
documentary about the body
as the finest consumer
object and the pursuit of
ideal beauty around the
world. Or: how corporations
are getting richer by making
us feel insecure about the
way we look.

The Illusionists

28

29

Ideas about gender are not fixed/

content not fixed

Sylvester Stallone as
Rambo;1980s

King Louis XVI of

France, 1754-1793
30

10

2016

2 sex/ 2 gender system in North America

doesnt account for everyone

Well talk about gender

variance in North
America and around the
world

For example, we will talk

about the Hijra of India

Hijra are genetic males

who consider
themselves third
gender, not man, not
woman

Hijra of India

31

What is sex?
Biological/ genetic differences
between males and females
Physical traits that differentiate
females and males

32

What makes someone male or

female?
In general, different chromosomes
XX or XY

However, intersex & gender variant/

creative individuals challenge this 2
sex system

33

11

2016

sex - "reproductive differences"

Sex vs. Gender Differences

To put it another way:

Male and female are sex categories,
while masculine and feminine are
gender categories

34

in todays society, there is a great difference

How different are men and women?

35

Are Men are From Mars, Women

From Venus?

36

12

2016

differences hypothesis - men and women are more different than

they are similar

Gender Differences Hypothesis

similarities hypothesis - men and women are more similar than

Gender Similarities Hypothesis

they are different , this not mean that men and women are the
same
both have been tested
37

Gender Differences Hypothesis leads to

Essentialism
Essentialism: What is it?
Notion that all women / all men share certain universal
experiences because of their biological similarities
In other words, what it means to be a man or woman is
fixed by nature. Women are supposed to have one set
of traits, men another
E.g. Anatomy is Destiny; women are reproducers; men
the producers

38

Next class: Evolutionary theory

predicts relatively FEW differences
between men and women

39

13

2016

However

(1) Essentialism is alive and well in our society

and

(2) Leads to prescriptions and prohibitions

about what men and women should do/ not do
based on what we think are innate sex
differences

Rather than societal constructions about

what men and women should and shouldnt do

40

Gender and War

by Lucinda J Peach (p. 28-35)

Should women be
combat soldiers?

The underlying
question is: are men
the warriors and
women the
nurturers in
society?

US soldier in Iraq, n.d.

Militarywoman.org

41

Last year, the US lifted its

ban on women as combat
soldiers by 2016
potentially thousands of
combat jobs will be opened
up to women

Peach explores: (I) the

presumed biological
reasons for combat
exclusion vs (II) Gender
Ideology

Photo from New York Times:

Full Caption reads: Renee
Peloquin, 25, of Coeur d'Alene,
Idaho, served in Tikrit, Iraq, with
her state's National Guard. She
worked as a radio operator and
received the call when her best
friend was killed.

42

14

2016

I) Peach takes on the 4 biological arguments

commonly used to support the exclusion of women
from combat roles/ arena of war

1) Male Strength
Hypothesis
Women are not strong
enough (physical and/or
psychological) for
combat roles (p. 30-32)
-is there evidence?

2) Male Aggression

Hypothesis
Are men naturally more
aggressive than women?
(p. 31-32)

Major Stephanie Kelsen,

flies F-16s in the US Air
National Guard. Her
nickname is "Vapor".

43

2) Womens Childbearing Hypothesis

Pregnancy would hamper combat
effectiveness (p. 32-33)
-is there evidence?

3) Male Bonding Hypothesis

Womens participation in combat would
reduce unit cohesion (by interfering with
male bonding & increasing fraternization)
(p. 33- 34)
-is there evidence?
44

II) Gender Ideologies of War

(p. 29 top p. 30)

Peachs definition of Gender Ideology

(p. 29): the assumptions, prejudices,
stereotypes and myths about male and
female natures.

1. The Male Warrior

2. Woman as Needing Protection

45

15

2016

This dichotomy starts to break down

Could this dichotomy (male warrior/

woman nurturer) be a gender
construction?

The idea of woman in war may be

problematic for a society that doesnt
tolerate the overlap of masculine and
feminine traits in an individual (traits
we have constructed as masculine
and feminine)
46

What about women in the Canadian

Military?

15% Canadian
Forces are
women (15% in
US)

Combat exclusion
dropped in 1989

Women make up
2% of combat
troops

Capt Nichola Goddard: In May 2006,

Canada experienced its first loss of a
female soldier during a battle against
the Taliban in Afghanistan. Capt.
Nichola Goddard died in active
combat on the front lines.

47

Are the myths (gender ideologies of

war) just myths?

48

16

2016

The Myth of Womens Peacefulness

Womens peacefulness is at least as mythical

as mens violence. Women have never
absented themselves from war. Wherever
battles are found and justified, whether in the
vilest or noblest of causes, women on both
sides of the battle lines support the military
engagements of their sons, lovers, friends,
mates. Increasingly, women are proud to fight
alongside their brothers and as fiercely, in
whatever battles their state or cause enlists
them. There is nothing in a womans genetic
makeup or history that prevents her from firing
a missile if she desires this or believes it to
be her duty.
Sara Ruddick, 2002, p.154
49

The Myth of the Male Warrior

Very few men who take part in war can be

said to make war. Most are foot soldiers
and workers in the service of grand
campaigns they did not design, about
which they were not consulted, and which
they rarely comprehendThose soldiers
who do engage in combat are usually very
young men. Many are conscripted for
battles; others fight only to escape
intolerable civilian life. Sara Ruddick, 2002, p. 152
50

Ideas about gender are not fixed/

content not fixed

Female soldier, US, Iraq

1950s

However, gender ideologies/

stereotypes can be hard to change

51

17

2016

Movie: The Codes of Gender: Identity

and Performance in Pop Culture

Sut Jhally
Based on work of Erving Goffman

52

In a nutshell:

5) the opposite of what society determines what is feminine

1) Nothing natural (no biological reason)

we label the things we do masculine
or feminine (North America)
2) Distinctions created by our society
3) How? We learn the signals of
masculine and feminine behaviour =
Gender Display
4) One of the best ways to learn the
signals = advertising (commercial
realism) and popular media

(point 2), stronger, standing straight, looking at the viewer,

53

confidence, threat, intimidations, raring in canting

6) men shown in different poses,
7)these codes mainly come from advertising campaigns
John berger - present represents the past (nude painting)
8) the founder wants to bring back the past as in painting
and not modern women that are powerful, etc

1) soft touch, not holding things, touching themselves,

Things to Watch for:

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)

breathless posture, delicate

Codes/ Gender Displays of Femininity

Ritualization of Subordination
Canting Postures
The female athlete and the code
Codes/ Gender Displays of Masculinity
How have the Gender Displays of
Masculinity changed (somewhat)?
Where do these codes come from?
What are John Bergers ideas?
How is the Guess ad campaign
deconstructed?

2) women are shown lying down - it is difficult to defend

yourself. women submissive, powerless, dependent
3) body is tilted, positions that take the body away from being
straight - ungrounded (harder to react to anything) ex: knee
54

bend, standing on 1 leg, head leaning

4) professional athletes showing women that are strong but still
are advertising as "women" in their advertisements

18