Gender and Society (Finals)

• Sex


  A category for living beings specifically related to their reproductive functions
• Sex

  • For most living creatures there are two sexes, the male and the female
  • Female sex is determined by producing egg cells that are fertilized by another sex and bearing offspring
  • The male sex produces sperm cells to fertilize the egg cells
• Chromosomes


  • Determine one's sex
  • XY chromosomes equate to female and XX to male
  • The differences in their characteristics are necessary for reproduction
  • The copulation or the union of sexes (XY and XX or female and male) produces offspring
• Genitalia


  • The organs used for reproduction and secondary sex characteristics
  • Largely influenced by one's X and Y Chromosomes that determines whether someone's body will express itself as a female or a male
• Hormones


  • Play a large part in the definition of one's sex
  • The exposure to hormones in the womb affects how the organism develops as a male or female
  • Physical features related to secondary sex characteristics are also influenced by hormones
  • Both males and females have estrogen, testosterone, and progesterone but in varying amounts
  • Usually males have more amounts of testosterone, and females have more amounts of estrogen
  • Hormonal imbalances, both natural and induced, can result in someone born female having more testosterone than her male counterpart
• Sex and gender are two very essential yet underrated parts of a person's life. They affect all aspect of one's life, from how we look at and act in the jobs we take to how we regard the laws and values of our society.
• This chapter will establish the difference between sex and gender, define gender roles and relationships according to the United Nations and other relevant national bodies, and determine how gendered interactions affect one's everyday life.
• It will examine gendered interactions at various levels within the family, workplace, community, and larger society.
• Pop culture definition of sex


  • For pleasure, perhaps in a more Freudian sense
  • It is what drives people to do certain things
  • Often referred to as the act of reproduction (scientifically copulation)
• Copulation


  • Sexual intercourse
  • A joining together or coupling
• Pop culture


  • Popular culture
  • Cultural and commercial artifacts, media, and entertainment reflecting, suited to, or aimed at the tastes of the general masses of people
• Gender


  Socially learned behavior usually associated with one's sex
• Gender relations


  How the male and female relate to one another
• Gender


  Based on how people see themselves and on their tendency to act along with either the masculine or the feminine line
• Gender


  A social construct that determines one's roles, expected values, behavior, and interaction in relationships involving men and women
• Gender


  Affects what access is available to men and women to decision-making, knowledge and resources
• Gender


  Associated with sex
• Cycle of Violence

  Tension Building: criticism, yelling, angry gestures, threats

  Violence: physical and sexual attacks

  Seduction: apologies, promises to change, gifts
• Trafficking in persons


  1. Recruitment

  2. Transportation

  3. Transfer

  4. Harboring

  5. Receipt of persons
• Trafficking in persons is usually of women and girls
• Trafficking in persons is an act of violence
• Trafficking in persons


  With or without the victim's consent or knowledge, within or across national borders, by means of threat or use of force, or other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power or of position, taking advantage of the vulnerability of the person, or the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person for the purpose of exploitation
• Gender

  Socially learned behavior usually associated with one's sex
• Gender relations

  How the male and female relate to one another
• Gender

  Based on how people see themselves and on their tendency to act along with either the masculine or the feminine line
• Gender

  A social construct that determines one's roles, expected values, behavior, and interaction in relationships involving men and women
• Gender

  Affects what access is available to men and women to decision-making, knowledge and resources
• Gender

  Associated with sex
• Main Differences Between Sex and Gender

  • Sex: Physiological, Related to reproduction, Congenital, Unchanging
  • Gender: Social, Cultural, Learned behavior, Changes over time, Varies within a culture/among cultures
• Many scientists, psychologists, and sociologists believe that sex does not determine one's gender
• Femininity, or the behavior that one associates with females, may not actually be tied to a woman's sex. Similarly, Masculinity is not tied up to one's gonads
• The whole idea of being a woman and a man, therefore, is based on gender and society's belief in how a woman or man should act, instead of biological functions that are inescapable
• The notion that one's biology predetermines the roles one must have in life should not be the case at all
• Gender role socialization


  The process of learning and internalizing culturally approved ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving
• Gender role socialization starts as soon as one is born and manifests from the color associated with one's gender to the roles one sees his/her gender perform the most
• Socialization affects all parts of one's identity by dictating what is acceptable to do because of one's educational background, class, religion, and gender
• Two ways on gender socialization

  • One's socialization regulates his/her perceptions of genders
  • Each society has social norms that have been developed over time due to the values and beliefs that it holds
• External Regulations


  Various institutions dictating what is proper and normal based on one's identity
• External Regulations


  Affects how one sees his/her gender, and that gender in relation to other genders
• External Regulations


  • Censorship of some forms of sexuality (Homosexuality is bad!)
  • Subtle forms of control such as microaggression (subtle messages with sexist assumptions behind them-only girly boys do housework!)