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.