GENDER & SEXUALITY

BERGER & LUCKMANN 1966

HUMANS HAVE
UNDERDEVELOPED INSTINCTS

HUMANS REQUIRE SYMBOLIC

SYSTEMS TO COMPENSATE FOR
LACK OF INSTINCTS
 CULTURE
Culture is the sum of socially
transmitted ideas, practices, and
material objects that people create.
Culture gives us guidelines for how to
think and act.
A society exists when people interact
and share culture, generally in a
geographically delimited area.
Adam & Eve
 INTERSEXED
A person with biological characteristics of
both males and females, often consisting
of some combination of male and female
genitalia
 TRANSGENDER
A person whose gender identity
does not match their birth sex.
Some transgender people present as
either male or female, while others
present as a third gender, neither
male nor female.
GWEN: (Feb 1985- Oct 2002)
BERDACHE or TWO-SPIRIT
HIJRA
TRAVESTI
 Ethnocentrism involves judging
another culture exclusively by the
standards of ones own.
MALE & FEMALE & ??
African Goddess Barbie
THE POWER OF A DOLL
BOYS ACTION FIGURES
 DOING GENDER
Gender is not a set of traits that reside
within individuals, but something
individuals do in their social
interactions.
Gender is omnirelevant because you
cannot avoid having your gender
assessed by others throughout
interaction

-West & Zimmerman

 ACCOUNTABILITY STRUTURE

Individuals, groups, and institutions

that sanction our behavior,
including negative sanctions for
behavior that does not conform to
the norm.
e.g. family, peers, church
 THE 5 SEXES
ANN FAUSTO-STERLING
FEMALE: people born with ovaries, no testes
MALE: people born with testes, no ovaries

INTERSEXED:
HERMS (or hermaphrodites): people born with both an
ovary and a testis
FERMS: people born with ovaries and some aspects of
male genitalia but no testes
MERMS: people with testes and some aspects of female
genitalia but no ovaries
PHALL-O-METER
 EURO-AMERICAN
BINARY SEX SYSTEM

SEX GENDER GENDER SEXUAL

ASSIGMENT IDENTITY ROLE ORIENTATION

MALE BOY MASCULINE HETEROSEXUAL

FEMALE GIRL FEMININE HETEROSEXUAL

 Essentialism asserts that gender
is rooted in biology. Main criticisms:
1. Essentialism ignores the historical and cultural
variability of gender and sexuality.

2. It tends to generalize from the average,

ignoring variations within gender groups.

3. It ignores the fact that gender norms and

practices change over time (e.g,. female high
school wrestling teams)
FEMALE WRESTLERS
 CAT CALLS:
just harmless fun?
BRITNEY SPEARS
CHRISTINA AGUILERA
MARIAH CAREY
BEYONCE KNOWLES
POPULAR MALE SINGERS
JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE
WHO IS THE ARTIST?
JUICY COUTURE
MAN WITH JUICY COUTURE?
MEN IN SHORT-SHORTS?
DONT LIE TO ME!
 Dispositional Attribution
Assigning a character trait to another
person based on something other than
his or her character

(like the clothes she wears, or the beverage

he drinks)
HEIGHT AND RELATIONSHIPS