Midterm

Gender, biology, masculinity, and femininity have many layers to them. All but biology have been influenced by society. Society’s role in each of our lives is more overpowering than I had ever realized before. There are different view points of sex being biological or sex being a means of reproduction. According to the text sex is biological and gender is the interpretation. And “gender is something that we ‘do’ rather than ‘have’.” (Women’s Voices Feminist Visions, 126) But in Bornstein’s “Solving the Gender Puzzle” sex was defined as the relations between two (or more) people for reproduction or sexual desires.

“There are ideas about placing the two-sex system with a five-sex system to reflect [the] diversity” (Women’s Voices Feminist Visions, 126) of the world we live in now. Where different sexes/genders can relate to either masculinity or femininity, whichever it is they feel most comfortable with.

The differences between masculinity and femininity are quite polar opposites. They each have a different set of characteristics. Masculinity is usually defined or seen as being “intelligent, courageous and honest, sexual, violent, providing, ambitious, confident, competent and strong” (Women’s Voices Feminist Visions, 130-132). Feminism is quite the opposite. Femininity is seen as “soft, passive, domestic, nurturing, emotional, dependent, sensitive, delicate, intuitive, fastidious, needy, and fearful” (Women’s Voices Feminist Visions, 133). They are also seen to be subordinate. Both masculinity and femininity have varied opinions in different cultural settings. Those were some of the characteristics of masculinity and femininity in North America.

Technology has always been seen as male dominated. It was noted in the “Technology as Masculine Culture” reading that “we tend to think about technology in terms of industrial machinery and cars.” Which everyone associates cars and machinery to men and masculinity. And then there is the concept of “women’s technologies”. These technologies can include horticulture cooking and childcare which then reproduces the stereotype of women as technologically ignorant and incapable.” There are some people that may think that masculinity is “resulted from historical and cultural construction of gender” (Technology as Masculine Culture).

The idea that men’s and women’s technologies are different seems to tie in with masculinity and femininity and what one is physically and mentally capable of accomplishing. Even though we know that men and women are capable of achieving the same goals, it isn’t always seen. For one example, women are social creatures. We like to talk and be around other people. Men, on the other hand, seem to be more self-contained. It almost seems as though some men use technology as a substitute for a social life. Why would they have to go out and meet people, when they can log on a computer and find other people that way?

Another good point this article brought up was that men have an “intense need to master things. They don’t have an addiction to computer programming but to playing with the issue of control. It is about exerting power and domination within the unambiguous world of machinery”. To me this quote ties into the characteristics of masculinity.

Ideas of gender shapes the scientific field by saying men are more mathematically and scientifically inclined than women. Which, as we all know, is a false statement. Women are just as capable of succeeding in scientific fields but are affected by the social factors that fall into play. A study at Harvard showed “that reasons fewer women than men succeed in science and math may be more related to innate differences than to socialization or discrimination” (Women’s Voices Feminist Visions, Women in Science and Engineering, 66. There are many women who acquire degrees in these types of fields, it’s the social factors that seem to discourage them from pursuing what they went to school for.

Science and technology shapes our ideas of gender by putting up the persona that it is a masculine field. Cars and machinery, tools and strength are what seem to be associated with it. Computer programming and hacking are seen as male-dominated fields. Like I stated before, it seems that men and women have different technologies based on what they are supposed to do. Like the women’s technology is domesticated and men’s technology is corporate.

Gender Aptitude Test

Gender and sex have completely different meanings. Gender is an adjective and sex is a verb. Even though most all of us use the two interchangeably. One thing Kate was speaking about in the readings was that there are more than one form of gender. A man can be female, a man can be male, a woman can be male, or a woman can be female. She also noted that gender can change from moment to moment- sometimes you feel more masculine and sometimes you feel more feminine. I don't particularly agree with this perspective, and am one of the people she was speaking of that believes gender is assigned at birth and gender is essentially based on the genitalia, chromosomes, and hormones.
Kate is an author, playwright and performance artist. I cannot completely tell who "she" is within the gender spectrum- being referred to as "ze" and "hir". I wouldn't say I was surprised by the questions on the gender aptitude test. I was simply more unaware and confused on how to answer them. After doing the reading, those are the kinds of questions I was expecting to see. I didn't feel that what I wanted my answer to be was an option. It made me feel uncomfortable. But also in the same instant made me more aware of my surroundings and the fact that people think differently than I do.

CRJ #3

Nature is a constant state of the unchanging natural world. Culture is the constant changing of humans and other aspects of the world.

Saying that gender and sexuality are social as opposed to natural I believe is quite accurate. Although I don't believe certain aspects of sexuality and gender are appropriate, they are a part of our time period and I have to learn to accept them the way they are. Back when our parents were younger, there was no tolerance of homosexuality, bi-racial couples, and trans gendered individuals. Those are a few examples of gender and sexuality being a social construction. If it were natural then there would be no change and no variation from past generations. All couples would be male and female. All couples would be of the same race. Those are the 'traditional' modes I believe the author is referring to.
Another aspect in reference to gender is the fact that women now have more abilities, powers, ideas, and objectives. We can own our own business, run for President, raise a family, be a doctor or a lawyer; there are very few limitations now. Had the role of gender been a natural truth, then we would only be allowed to marry a man and then raise his family (depending on how far back in history we travel).

We can look into different perspectives about this issue. The essentialist's perspective states that a person's sexual desires and needs are innate (chapter 4 pg 186) and that social impact has very little to do with it.
The social constructionist view was also explained in the same section of reading and was seen within the biological desire and evolutionary understanding of biological adaptations. This is saying that the ideas of male and female are based on culture.


As seen in the previous section of my journal, I had to go to the text to find out more information on this topic. I didn't really find these readings to be helpful. They were bland and boring and I can't say that I agree with most that were in them. Some of the ideas seemed to be a bit outrageous to me and others seemed to be more commonsense. The idea of "biopower" threw me for a loop. Looking back over the reading now, I believe it is in reference to women being involved in the medical and science fields. But originally, all I could think of was: where do these people come up with this stuff? There were women arrested for wanting other women to have birth control and equality. There are still women (and doctors) being arrested now for wanting the freedom to have (perform) an abortion- which is a completely different topic and I will not go into this because I'll write more than you want to read.
Women should have the right to the birth control and other contraceptives they may need but sometimes things get taken too far. I think abortion is wrong and should only be used in rape cases. And even with rape cases I think they should bring back the law which will allow a woman to be "cleaned" after a rape so that way there is no chance of her becoming pregnant from it.

CRJ #2

The bootstrap myth is concerned with economic success. If you work hard you prosper and pull yourself up by your bootstraps. If you cannot provide for your family and don’t work hard or are not able to provide for their family, then they will not prosper. Many people disagree with the bootstrap myth and are not socially accepted.

Internalizing oppression means that someone is having an issue, but refuses to bring it to the surface. They keep the anger and frustration inside and don’t allow a venting. By doing this one can encourage or justify hostility against another group. Marilyn Frye talks of how women can be oppressed by networks of force and barriers that expose one to penalty, whether or not they are heterosexual, have children, are married etc. By being oppressed the person seems to live in a box and is confined by all of the previously mentioned notions.

Homophobia is the irrational fear and hatred of those who love and sexually desire those of the same sex. Sexism is a system that shoes privilege and inequality based on gender. Compulsory heterosexuality is the assumption men and women are attracted to each other emotionally and sexually. It also believes that heterosexuality is normal and universal.

Lesbian is a word that carries threat of loss of power and privilege according to Pharr. It can mean that the person has been abandoned and cut from society. Some people associate lesbians as women who believe they don’t need a man to survive and prosper or even against men. Heterosexual women can see lesbians as women who stand in contradiction to the sacrifices the rest of the female population has made to conform to compulsory heterosexuality. Lesbians are established as a threat to the status quo. Lesbianism threatens all women because they step out of the box, out of the norm. There is no way a woman can defend herself in regards to her sexuality, there is no clear cut definition or specific look a lesbian has- therefore it makes it impossible to defend ones self. Lesbianism and feminism can be tied together because a lesbian is a woman who steps out of the box and a feminist steps out of the box. They both want more rights and privileges and are able to live normal lives with the same types of rights that the “normal” American has.

I’ve never really paid attention to the advantages given to me being a white woman. Being a woman and being involved in sports hasn’t given me much of an advantage. The only advantage I can think of being involved in sports is that I played co-ed sports so I had the advantage in being in a competitive atmosphere. I went to a private school until 10^th grade and I never really experienced privilege of any sort. They treated us all the same. It’s easier to show someone else’s disadvantage than you’re over privilege. This is what it means to me, not necessarily to the author. When you put down someone else to show their disadvantage you are giving yourself a bit more of a boost. But if you were to accept the fact that you are over privileged, its still giving yourself a boost, but its negative in the sense that you are saying you are better than someone else. As opposed to saying someone is less than you. There is a status issue when it comes to privilege for example how you will be treated in court.

A Girl Like Me

When the Brown vs. Board of Education test was done over, I thought that more of the children would choose the black doll because it was what they are. But it turns out that they still preferred the white doll and the white doll was “good” and the black doll was “bad”. It broke my heart a bit when the little girl said this and then was asked to hand the doll that looked like her to Kiri. She stopped and looked at both of the dolls and then preceded to hand the “bad” doll to Kiri.

Within the black community, there seems to be a lot of discrepancies about skin color and hair types. I’ve known about these for a long time. I’ve had a lot of black friends and they have shared with me their concerns. I would say that I’m sick of my boring, straight, brown hair and would like curly hair. And they would convince me that I didn’t because it’s much harder to take care of. I have also known about the skin color issue. There is supposedly something beautiful about light skin and something ugly about dark skin. I don’t remember the name of the dark-skinned girl in the documentary, but she was gorgeous! And I didn’t think she looked that dark. I don’t think it’s fair to say that skin tone and hair texture determine value in the world, but sadly it seems to be that way. Even in the white community it’s the same thing. Pale skin is looked down upon and tan skin is adored. Straight hair is loved and curly hair is despised

The mythical norm is “a white, middle-class, heterosexual, abled, thin, and young adult”. But then the book goes into saying that there are different classes of normal based on who you are talking to. Because each person you ask what is normal or what is different from normal, will give you a different answer.

As I was reading the text, I’m not sure exactly what the author is conveying in one part. She speaks of Susan Wendell and her “The Social Construction of Disability” and the idea of ableism. It was in context of lesbianism and that ableism is “discrimination against the mentally and physically disabled. When they put lesbianism and ableism together, it seems as though she is saying lesbianism is being mentally disabled? I really hope I am reading this wrong and you are able to correct my mistake.

Activity #3 Tolerance

Some of the article I can agree with, such as we don’t always know we have prejudices based on how we were raised. But at the same time, I do not believe the IATs were at all accurate. When I took the tests, I noticed the pattern they gave and the order in which they were training your fingers to react. When taking the family/career-gender test they trained you first to relate women and home and men with career. Then after your body and brain said when I see this I use this hand and when I see that I use that hand, it switched and your brain didn’t always pick up on the change. They said you weren’t allowed to go too slow with the test. Which gave no time to realize which hand you were supposed to use, so your brain said to do it they way it had been doing it for the past couple minutes.

I do understand what they are trying to achieve by telling about hidden biases. No one knows how they are reacting at all times. We do have a tendency as human beings to falter and not realize how we act to every situation.

Part of the reading spoke of how an African-American male can dine at a fancy, high-class restraint and then not be able to get a taxi or how a female student may not excel in math because most people don’t think of women as being good at math and science. Ideas like these bother me. I can’t say I disagree with them, because I know there still is a state of prejudice in our country. I would like to say since our parent’s generation started the idea and once that generation has passed, the prejudice they brought will also pass.

Basically I think that as long as my generation has a positive outlook on life and other people, then we can change the course that we are on now. We can push the prejudice aside. Maybe that’s too far from possible, maybe it’s not. I have faith that society and people can change. We just have to start teaching our children at an early age and then they will live that way and pass it on to their children. I don’t think world peace will ever be established, but I think we’ll be able to live happier lives.