Gender Reflection

1 Chapter 1: Critical Gender/Sex Lens Key Concepts androgyny: The definition can be understood by combining two Greek words: andros meaning “male” and gyne meaning “female.” Persons who are androgynous exhibit both masculine and feminine and are said to have more behavioral flexibility. Instead of seeing masculinity and femininity as in a zero -sum tradeoff on a continuum, Bem believed one could exhibit chara cteristics of both. Example: Male model Andrej Pejic models both men’s and women’s clothes in fashion shoots and in fashion shows. See: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/entertainment/2013/01/elle -puts - androgynous -model -andrej -pejic -on -a-cover/ binary: One of the primary ways sex and gender discipline bodies is through the enshrinement of binary views (meaning you have only an either or choice) of one’s sex, gender, and sexuality. Examples: Bathroom signs enforce the gender binary. See: http://ygraph.com/graphs/washroomsign -20121129T040355 -mmqwl9p.jpeg (From this website http://ygraph.com/chart/2837 ) Although people have creatively redesigned restroom signs, they almost always reinforce the binary. This has started to change recently, however, with unisex toilets becomin g more common and with signs saying simply toilet. *This diagram shows sex as complex, rather than a binary. See:

http://blog.lib.umn.edu/isoke001/engaging_justice/sex% 20is%20binary.png The commentary accompanying the image is informative: Feminism and Social Justice. (2012). Engaging Justice GWSS 1005 -2012. Retrieved from: http://blog.lib.umn.edu/isoke001/engaging_justice/2012/09/blog -2-critical -response -to-i- know -what -i-am.html communication: This text adopts a broad definition of communication as a meaning -making process, which is consistent wit h a social construction perspective. Example: interpersonal, organizational, media, public address, monuments, icons, etc. essentialism: The presumption that all members of a group are alike because they have one quality in common, such as when one assum es all men’s communication will be alike because the individuals are all men, or Black women’s communication will all be alike, or all LGBTQ communication will be alike. Example: An interview with Susan Gelman, a professor of psychology at the University o f Michigan, discusses her definition of essentialism and gives a few examples. Roell, Sophie (Interviewer), & Gelman, Susan (Interviewee). (2011). FiveBooks Interviews: Susan Gelman on Essentialism [Interview Transcript]. Retrieved from: http://thebrowser.com/interviews/susan -gelman -on -essentialism?page=1 ethnicity: A term commonly used to refer to a group of people who share a cultural history, even though they may no lo nger live in the same geographic area. They may share values, a language, and a way of life. 2 Example: This website compares and explains distinctions between ethnicity and race and provides textual information and videos. Diffen. (2012). Ethnicity vs Race . Retrieved from: http://www.diffen.com/difference/Ethnicity_vs_Race gender: The behaviors society dictates a body of a particular sex should perform, structures people’s understanding of themselves and each other; refers to the cultural designations of feminine and masculine. Examples: The Pink and Blue Project : Artist JeongMee Yoon presents a series of images side by side of a girl surrounded by toys that might not be seen as significant separately, but all together are overwhelmingly pink, and then a boy surrounded by the same in blue. One example:

http://thegrandnarrative.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/the -pink -and -blue -project1.jpg Source: Yoon, JeongMee. (2013). The Pink and Blue Project. [Weblog]. Retrieved from: http://www.jeongmeeyoon.com/aw_pinkblue.htm *This is a simple graphic of images representing what gender is and is not.

http://25.m edia.tumblr.com/tumblr_lhfgjdtJtJ1qhzoo9o1_500.jpg gender fluidity: People who cross the culturally constructed sex and gender lines reveal gender fluidity; they are not limited to the two binary (either/or) options but are recognized as part of a world o f gender diversity). Example: Tomboy Tailors: A custom clothing company that makes suits and shirts for customers who are “butch/boi, trans -masculine individuals, and women of any identity who have a strong sense of self -expression and like to wear fine cu stom -made clothing.” http://tomboytailors.com/ gender/sex: This phrase emphasizes the interrelation between the concepts of gender and sex in terms of how they are lived. Examp le: Even though both men and women can be feminine and masculine, social expectations dictate that men should be masculine and women should be feminine. heteronormativity: This term highlights how social institutions and policies reinforce the presumption that people are heterosexual and that gender and sex are natural binaries. Example: *This is a brief explanation of the term, how it is used, and what its implications are. Gray, Emily. (2011). What is Heteronormativity? Retrieved from: http://www.genderandeducation.com/issues/what -is-heteronormativity/ *For a visual representation, see the image on a changing station (Papa elephant, Mama elephant, and baby elephant): http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2008/08/30/illustrating - heteronormativity -on -a-changing -table/ identity: How people see themselves as ind ividuals and as members of groups, and how others see them as individuals and as members of groups. Example: The Human Rights Campaign describes how they ask gender questions on surveys. A spokesperson for the campaign discusses whether or not a gender que stion is necessary on 3 surveys and offers suggestions on how to phrase questions to encourage inclusivity. The Human Rights Campaign demonstrates there are multiple ways to self -identify, makes obvious how identity is regulated and policed in various aspect s of life, and offers alternatives to a binary system. The Human Rights Campaign. (n.d.) Collecting Transgender -Inclusive Gender Data in Workplace and Other Surveys. [Weblog]. Retrieved from:

http://www.hrc.org/resources/entry/collecting -transgender -inclusive -gender -data -in- workplace -and -other -surveys intersectionality: The idea that identity is “multiplicative” rather than additive. In other words, intersectionality reveals how biological, social, cultural categories such as gender, race, class, ability, sexual orientation, and other identity markers interact on multiple levels simultaneously. Example: A YouTube video gives a really quick and basic visual of intersectionality: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxgdyKIeBqk intersex: This term r efers to a person’s se x who has ambiguous sex features, meaning the person has both female and male sex characteristics (genitalia, chromosomes, etc.). Example: These are two biological/medical descriptions of intersex: Gold, Carl. (2001). The Intersex Spectrum. Retrieved from : http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/intersex -spectrum.html Kaneshiro, Neil K. (2011). Intersex. Retrieved from : http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001669.htm race: A socially constructed meaning that has real consequences; at its simplest, race is how groups of people are socially categorized. There is no consistent set of physical traits to identi fy people by race, yet the social construction of racial identity and related inequalities continue. Example: See earlier website: “ethnicity, this website compares and explains distinctions between ethnicity and race. There is textual information and vid eos, although it’s note that the content (excluding the videos) is editable. Diffen. (2012). Ethnicity vs Race. Retrieved from : http://www.diffen.com/difference/Ethnicity_vs_Race rhetoric: The use of symbolic action by human beings to share ideas, enabling them to work together to make decisions about matters of common concern and to construct social reality.

Rhetoric is the means by which people make meaning of and affect the world in whic h they live. Example: Clemson University has produced a short (14:09 min) video explaining rhetoric: “In Defense of Rhetoric: No Longer Just for Liars.” It is a very basic introduction to the concept. It can be accessed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYMUCz9bHAs sex: Commonly used to refer to biological designations based on genitalia, hormones, etc. Seen as limited to two opposite groups, female or male. Example: For a clear reading that rea lly breaks down the biological meaning of sex, see: Fausto -Sterling, Anne. (2001). Two sexes are not enough. Nova, Public Broadcast Viewers. Retrieved from : http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/fausto -sterling.html 4 sexual orientation: This r efers to whether one is physically and romantically attracted to or has sex with persons of the same sex, the other sex, or both. Even now, you might notice that sexual orientation depends on a sex binary (same or other); if there are five sexes, which is the “other” sex? Again, the sex/gender binary plays a role in limiting human understanding, in this case, an understanding of sexuality. Example : Within Native American tr aditions, there is recognition of two -spirit, or berdache, people. The phrase refers to anyone who embodies masculine and feminine characteristics. The video Two Spirit People provides first person explanations of the relationships between gender, sexualit y and sexual orientation. Beauchemin, Michel, Levy, Lori, & Vogel, Gretchen. (1991). Two Spirit People [Documentary]. Frameline. 20 minutes. The video can be retrieved from:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8JcmAoderl4# socioeconomic class: The social position a person enjoys as a result of her or his income, education, occupation, and place residence. Example: An interactive chart on socioeconomic cla ss rankings done by the New York Times . You enter occupation, education, income, and wealth and you show up on the chart in sections labeled from lower fifth, middle, to top fifth.

http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/national/20050515_CLASS_GRAPHIC/index_01.html violence continuum: A tool to conceptualize the relationships between coercive gendered norms and violence . They suggest viewing all forms of such gendered/sexed practices and the degree of violence within each of them on a continuum. By locating seemingly innocent gendered norms (such as that men should be virile and that women should play hard to get) on a common line with more overt forms of viole nce (such as rape and physical abuse), the observer is better able to see how social practices create a culture in which gendered/sexed violence becomes normalized. Example: A diagram of violence and intervention sites from non -physical to physical. http://maws.org/tctatsite_top/cdvp/images/pre -physical -diagram.gif