module 4

Question 1

north american gender stereotypes

Answer 1

• What does it mean to be male or female? Why do people assume girls should wear pink and boys should wear blue? Are all little girls raised with Barbies and all little boys with toy guns?
  • , these symbols and stereotypes are not universal but rather reflect North American ideals about what it means to be male or female, as well as how North Americans enculturate their children for subsequent adult roles.
    ○ The North American symbol of pink for girls, for example, does not translate cross-culturally: in many Bedouin societies, the embroidery on your unwed daughter’s dress would be blue (the embroidery will be red once she marries).

Question 2

what do all societies teach children

Answer 2

• All societies teach their children and enculturate (prepare) them for their eventual adult roles, and toys are often a part of that enculturation process.
  ○ Among the Yanomano, for instance, fathers will make small bows and arrows for their sons to hunt (large Amazon jungle) beetles to begin honing their hunting skills (and to learn to kill without sentimentality).

Question 3

rituals? is gender culturally constructed

Answer 3

• There are many elaborate initiation rituals and rites of passage, most often for males, noted cross-culturally, to assist the transition from boyhood to manhood emphasizing what it means to be a man in a given society.
  In short, gender, as well as what it means to be a man or a woman, is culturally constructed.

Question 4

how are men and women seen

Answer 4

• However, men and women may not be seen as two social equals, but rather gender constructs may reflect an asymmetrical view of males and females (i.e., not equal).

Question 5

bacha posh description (just read it)

Answer 5

“In Afghanistan, an old tradition allows families without a son to transform one of their daughters into a boy. These little girls, known as bacha posh, spend their early years dressed as boys and are accorded all the privileges and responsibilities of being male—but after puberty, they must revert to the female roles into which they were born. This program follows four girls who temporarily became the sons their parents longed for. Shabina has recently become bacha posh to help her disabled father and seems to be taking it all in stride. For Mariam and Naid, it’s time to change back, but both are desperate to hang on to their male identities. Lastly, we meet Jack, a bacha posh who refused to change back and who now heads for Europe. What new discoveries will the freedoms of the West invite?”