gender theory

Question 1

What are the differences between the terms sex, gender, gender role, and gender identity?

Answer 1

Sex is what you are assigned at birth; gender is typically how you perceive masculinity and femininity. Gender roles are the gender behaviors a person engages in. Gender identity is someone’s sense of gender that best fits the view of the self.

Question 2

How is self-psychology connected to gender, and why isn’t self-psychology already formed when we are Born?

Answer 2

Self-psychology is the extent to which a person perceives and identifies as masculine or feminine based on what is considered masculine or feminine in a specific culture. At birth, infants do not have a scene of self, but it develops very quickly through perception of their own body and interaction with caregivers.

Question 3

What is social learning theory, and how does it play a role in learning about gender?

Answer 3

Emphasizes consequences of shaping gender-related behavior (observing, analyzing, and modeling behavior). In addition, social learning theory argues that children learn many of their gender roles by modeling the behavior of adults and older children and, in doing so, develop ideas about what behaviors are appropriate for each gender.

Question 4

Reading: American psychologist: The future of sex and gender in psychology: five challenges to the gender binary

Answer 4

This reading focuses on how there are more than just two categories of gender.

Question 5

Why is the Victorian Era such an important period of time for understanding Europeans/American’s Typical beliefs about gender even in the modern day?

Answer 5

This period of history is particularly important for the United States when it comes to sexuality science and education because this era is when many of our first laws about sex and gender were created, and when the first sex ed programs were put into place. Mean that many of their ideas about sex and Gender from the 1800s are still found in our laws and educational practices.

Question 6

What did the Victorian Era purity movement teach about the role of men and women in society in terms of sex, health, and the body?

Answer 6

The women during this era were only viewed as people that should only concern themselves with keeping a successful household. sought to abolish prostitution and other sexual activities that were considered immoral according to Christian morality.

Question 7

What was hysteria and how did it view women’s bodies and mental health?

Answer 7

Hysteria was classified by many different symptoms and behaviors. Basically, anything a woman did that wasn’t
viewed as acceptable behavior was considered hysteria and needed treatment

Question 8

What was gender identity disorder replaced with, how can this be both helpful and harmful?

Answer 8

Gender identity disorder was replaced with gender dysphoria. The change focuses more on the
distress that some transgender people experience and finds ways to target those problems.

Question 9

Reading:
Gender Development in transgender preschool children

Answer 9

The study asks whether these transgender children differ from gender-typical peers on a basic gender development task. In the study, They found that three- to five-year-old socially transitioned transgender children did not differ from controls matched on age and Expressed gender, siblings of transgender, and gender non-conforming children. However, they found that transgender children were less likely than both control groups to believe that their gender at birth matches their current gender.

Question 10

What does Patricia Hill-Collins study, and how can her theories on Black Feminist Thought be useful for for all groups of people? (hint: interlocking oppression will be helpful here as well)

Answer 10

Collins is a social theorist whose research and scholarship have examined issues of race, gender, social class, sexuality, and/or nation. Black feminist thought says that if all groups follow the ideas that they should value their own experences

Question 11

Why are discourse and the concept of normality important for Foucault?

Answer 11

Foucault believes that the truths that shape
People’s live don’t just exist but are created through discourse which then makes it normal.

Question 12

What is the post-feminist masquerade?

Answer 12

This keeps women controlled by making them seek “perfection.” Women are caught up in beauty/fashion culture which serves to control them as a patriarchal structure. This also keeps patriarchy invisible and turns the self inwards.

Question 13

Readings :
Demystifying menstrual synchrony: Women’s subjective beliefs about bleeding in tandem with other women

Answer 13

This study focused on why women believe in the theory that women’s period sync if they live in close proximity
of each other. The results from the study showed that women overwhelmingly endorsed the occurrence of menstrual synchrony, both for themselves and other women relating to their beliefs in a higher power, it
being magical or mysterious, it being biological or animal-like, and managing and overcoming negative experiences were all reasons given for why women believe in menstrual synchrony.

Question 14

Why are the suffragettes not considered a wave of feminism?

Answer 14

Suffragettes believe that women are equal but different and feminist believe that no differences exist

Question 15

What is intersectionality?

Answer 15

A theory that examines how different identities intersect and combine in relation to oppression and privilege, and the impacts it has on peoples’ lives.

Question 16

Kimberly Crenshaw wrote about intersectionality in response to legal cases, what was going on in the courtroom that made Crenshaw want to talk about intersecting identities?

Answer 16

Certain legal cases were focused on Single-issue discrimination. Failing to realize that legally, plaintiffs were
both black and women, and both factors may impact how/why they were discriminated against.

Question 17

Be able to describe/define two different types of intersectionality.

Answer 17

A black woman and a disabled, low social-class person would both be examples of intersectionality. They are
both oppressed and for more than just one reason.

Question 18

What is the gender similarity hypothesis by Hyde?

Answer 18

Females and males are more similar than different on most psychological variables.

Question 19

Does Lise Eliot say that male and female brains are very different or very similar and why? What Evidence is there to support her claim?

Answer 19

Lise Eliot says that there is a minimal difference in the brains of men and Women. The only difference is that males have larger brains than women.

Question 20

Reading:
Dump the dimorphism: comprehensive synthesis of human brain studies reveals few male-female differences beyons size

Answer 20

The study focuses on whether there is any difference between the male and female brain and if this relates to the behavior of men and women. In the study, they found that the only difference between male and female brains is that men have a larger brain than women but this has nothing to do with verbal, spatial, or emotional processes.

Question 21

How do representations of men and women in sport differ?

Answer 21

Sports that demonstrate strength and power, such as football and basketball, are seen as expressions of
masculinity. In contrast, esthetic sports, such as dance, are feminized, and women tend to be portrayed in stereotypical, comical, sexualized, and sexist ways. The most significant indicator of difference is also shown through the uniforms men and women wear. Women wear tiny outfits that show a lot of skin, and men wear full coverage appropriate clothing for
the sport.

Question 22

Why is Caster Semenya a good case for showing how limited our view of men/women is in athletics?

Answer 22

Caster Semenya was wrongly accused of cheating all because she did not fit the standards of Western ideals of what a Woman should look like, which led to them testing her and finding out that she has testosterone, which she didn’t even know. This led them to think that this was how she was winning the races. But actually, it has nothing to do with how fast she is.

Question 23

Reading:
The effect on competition on salivary testosterone in elite female athletes

Answer 23

In this study, they are determining if testosterone in females heightens one’s athletic ability and if its relates to their wins in Competitions. The study results showed increased T following individual athletic competition but that it is not associated with the outcome of the competition, revealing that it has no enhancement on one’s performance.