Gender Test 1 Flashcards
Psychological sex differences
Buss (2011) - go back over that reading and see if I can find more information
Emotional attachment versus deep attachment
Evolutionary psychology - Darwin: men and women are incomparable so one cannot be inferior/superior
Differences in adaptive problems:
Paternity uncertainty(men can be unsure that a child is their own)
Identifying reproductively valuable women(men have the problem of identifying a fertile woman)
Gaining sexual access to women(men who gain access tend to have more reproductive success than men who do not - as a single act of sex can result in a pregnancy)
Identifying men who are able to invest(women have to find a man who is able to invest their time and money in a pregnancy)
Identifying men who are willing to invest(women who can detect these men have an adaptive advantage)
What is sex? Understood to be biological rather than social - based on chromosones, hormones and secondary sex characteristics
Idea that there are two sexes (although this idea has been critiqued by Fausto-Sterling)
Sexual selection
Buss (2011)
Developed by Darwin
(evolution of characteristics based on reproductive advantage rather than survival advantage) which occurs in two forms:
Members of one sex can out-compete members of their own sex through intrasexual competition (greater size, strength, social skills)
Members of one sex can evolve preferences for desirable qualities in potential mates through intersexual selection
Testosterone rules
Sapolsky (2011) - week 2 reading
Evidence linking testosterone with aggression (men tend to have higher testosterone levels and they also tend to be more aggressive) - puberty (when men tend to have higher levels of testosterone is also when aggressive behaviour tends to peak). It is important to note that this is only a correlation - it is not clear if high testosterone levels cause aggression, or if aggression elevates the amount of testosterone in the body
Normal levels of testosterone are a prerequisite for normal levels of aggression. However, if a male’s genes predispose him to higher levels of testosterone, it does not mean he is necessarily going to be more aggressive
Men have higher testosterone levels, and higher levels of aggression
arguments:
Testosterone elevates aggression
Aggression elevates testosterone levels
Neither causes the other
Permissive effect: aggression pluments with no testes
Brain also linked to aggression
Biology as ideology
Lorber (2011)
Link to biological determinism?
Until 18th century there was the belief that there was only one sex - females genetalia was the inverse of a mans
Biology used in sex assignment - from this gendered attributes are assigned to a person (ideological notions of masuclinity and feminity, for example)
Gender and sport - case study of female Oylmpian
Men aren’t tested for chromosonal ambiguity but women are - sexism within the system
Sports illustrate
Lorber (2011) - part of the idea of biology as ideology
Sports as a way of constructing a masculine identity and a legitimate outlet for violence and aggression (this is what sports illustrate)
Physical competence is a marker of masculinity in western societies
Assumptions about women in sports are ingrained in the structure of sporting procedures and events - e.g. gymnastic equipment geared towards slim girls while men’s gymnastic equipment is built for muscular men
Idea that women are naturally inferior at sports
Sports construct men’s bodies to be powerful and women’s bodies to be sexual - thus, as Connel notes: sports construct men as superior
Idea that if women did too much sport they would stop menstruating/ovulating but studies show that this has been exaggerated as many women (with differing levels of exercise) do not have regular cycles
Women have changing room rituals so that they can ‘do woman’ off the basketball court
Women redefining sports as feminine to manage ‘status dilemmas’
Physical strength seen as unfeminine
Sports therefore, construct gendered bodies
The paradox of human nature
Lorber (2011)
It is always a manifestation of cultural meanings, social relationships and power politics - it is not biology, but culture that becomes destiny
Critique of biological determinism/biological arguments?
Discussion of gender categories
The five sexes
Fausto-Sterling (2011) (she)
Looked at the social construction of gender
Male, female, herm, merm, ferm (different ways of being categoried by sex)
Draws attention to the category of ‘intersex’ which she defines as a congential condition where there are atypical combinations of physical features otherwise distinguishing male and female. These differences can be chromosomal or physical.
Critique of the two sex model, believing that ‘intersex’ should be included
Hermaphrodite
Link to intersex
True hermaphrodites have either one ovary and one testicle, or else a single organ with both types of reproductive tissue
Social Darwinism
Ordained by Nature, The Gendered Society:
Social Darwinists: distorted Darwin’s ideas about natural selection to claim biological differences among races, families, women and men. - idea that gender is racially specific (there are culturally distinct formations of both masculinity and femininity)
Pre 19th century, most explanations of gender differences came from theologians rather than biologists
Late 19th century (under the influence of Darwin) scientists entered the debate
After biological differences between men and women had been established, people began to believe that efforts to challenge social inequality and discrimination against women were violating the laws of nature
Today, biological arguments tend to draw their evidence from three areas:
Evolutionary theory
Brain research
Endocrinological research on sex hormones (before birth and at puberty)
Sociobiology
Ordained by Nature
Edward Wilson
A move away from social Darwinism and towards sociobiology
Idea that there is a difference between male and female sexuality -the costs of reproduction are higher for women so they tend to be monogamous whereas men aren’t so monogamous (idea that women have to carry the baby etc.)
Women are more emotionally attached - they tend to link sexual behaviour to emotional commitment so they take their time to find the right male to have sex with
There are some arguments against sociobiology on the basis of a lack of evidence and the fact that they ignore inconvenient data (less reliable)
Sociobiologists tend to favour male dominated species
Idea that women’s brains are smaller and men are therefore smarter
Gay brains, gay genes
Ordained by Nature
Idea that women’s brains are smaller and men are therefore smarter
Gay men aren’t masucline enough and lesbians aren’t feminine enough
Since Freud, there has been a growing view that homosexuality develops as a result of childhood socialisation (rather than it being an innate characteristic)
LeVay: believes homosexuality is biological - studied the brains of people who had died from AIDS BUT the study was developed on an issue that could not be overlooked - AIDS is a disease that affects the brain
Researchers have found that brains of male transsexuals more closely resemble
woman’s brains than heterosexual men’s. - Could this be the result of taking hormones?
Research to try and determine a ‘gay gene’ in order to prove that sexual orientation is biological
Estrogen and testosterone as a basis for gender difference but many experiments on hormonal differences fail to look at environmental factors to see if there were any other external reasons/pressures why someone might be more masucline/feminine
1970s, Gunter Dorner: argued that low levels of testosterone during foetal development would predispose males towards homosexuality
Gay men tend to believe their homosexuality is natural and biological while lesbians are more likely to believe their homosexuality is socially constructed - arguably, this is because men have more privilege and if their sexuality is natural, it can be overlooked and they can continue to live their life of privilege whereas women are marginalised and often gender identity can be connected to feminism (sexuality viewed as a political statement)
Sigmund Freud
The Gendered Society, Chapter 3
Oedipus complex
Sexology
Psychoanalysis: a theory of personality/a clinical practice - talking about our feelings would relieve the extent of repression that we experience - this decreases neurosis (and is known as ‘the talking cure’)
Critiqued by Foucault - doesn’t think we should understand sexuality through repression
Believed that modernity witnessed a period of sexual oppression - the extent to which we had to express our sexual desires led to neurosis (especially the extent to which women had to repress their sexuality due to the image of them being frigid)
Contemporary society: anxiety, depression and sleeping problems could be symptoms of sexual repression
Universal bisexuality
Penis envy
Can be seen as offering a critique of culture
Freud argued that modern sexuality is characterised by repression and as we become more ‘civilized’, we become more sexually repressed. There is more social pressure employed on us to curve our desires/sexual pleasures. Freud thought that sexual repression was an unfortunate effect of modernity. On the other hand, Foucault argued that while it is true that sexual repression does exist in the Victorian era, the idea of sexual repression doesn’t capture what has changed in the nature and order of sexuality. Repression is therefore not the fundamental way in which we can understand sexuality in the modern era. If sexuality is therefore not best understood through repression, how should we understand how sexuality has changed?
Psychoanalysis and gender
Freud and sexology
A theory of personality and a clinical practice
Feminist psychoanalytic theorists - Helene Cixous and Julia Kristeva argue that feminine essential means ‘other’ - therefore, anyone who doesn’t fit the masculine is labelled as ‘other’
Psychoanalysis is a treatment to neurosis
Idea of the ‘pleasure principle’ - repressing this pleasure leads to neurosis
Foucault takes issue with psychoanalysis as he doesn’t believe repression is the best way to understand what has happened to sexuality in the modern era - he felt that free talking was turning sexuality into something that needed to be confessed (like catholic confession - pastoral power)
Social psychology
The social psychology of sex roles? - chapter 3 AGAIN
Typology of behaviours
Four possible combinations (MM, MF, FM, FF)
MM and FF were considered gender appropriate
MF (internally feminine and externally masculine)
FM (externally feminine and internally masculine)
Miller and Swanson- argued all children begin their lives FD (identified with and behaving like their mother), boys then pass through the oedipal stage (FM), finally boys arrive at MM
Freud: psychology
Cognitive development theory
Theories of cognitive development- idea that children are born gender neutral but as they grow up they process information through ‘cognitive filters’ that enable them to interpret information about gender
The gendered society, Chapter 3
Link to Freud - people pass through states to find their identity
