The social construction of gender

Question 1

How is sex different then gender?

Answer 1

Sex: a determinism made through the application of socially agreed upon biological criteria for classifying persons as females and males

Gender: refers to a collection of characteristics including personality traits, interests, behaviours, and appearance factors that culturally and socially define a person as feminine or masculine

Question 2

What is gender binary?

Answer 2

Binary = refers to a system with two and only two separate and distinct parts

gender binary = refers to the idea that there are only two types of people - male bodied people who are masculine and female bodied people who are feminine

Question 3

Define ideology

Answer 3

an ideology or a set of ideas is widely shared by members of a society and guides identities, behaviours, and institutions

Question 4

Describe gender as a social construction

Answer 4

• the difference between females and males are not based in some biologically determined truth
• social construction refers simply to the social forces that shape differences
• it refers to the social practice of perceiving and defining aspects of people and situations inconsistently, to force our observations to fit our social beliefs

Question 5

Describe the genderbread person

Answer 5

• way to show kids what gender is
• five distinct categories (bio sex, behaviour, expression…)
• gender does not equal sex orientation
• external genitalia does not dictate your gender

Question 6

Describe the video “i am nine years old”

Answer 6

• asked nine year old kids what the best thing about being a girl and boy is
• asked them what the worst thing is
• a lot of boy answers were generic
• girls stated they wish they could do the same thing as boys
• girls do not like to be treated differently (way they dress, play, have to act)
• the answer depended on the Childs background (ex: give food to hungry people vs. having four lanes of road to stop traffic buildup)

Question 7

Describe the Sam Killerman: understanding the complexities of gender video

Answer 7

• biological sex is predictable and can be measured throughout the world
• gender cannot be and changes overtime
• people connect gender to sex
• Shakespeare analogy (casted at birth, eventually become directors in others lives)
• groups of people who needed a new label to define them where considered psychologically ill
• society’s idea of gender is incomplete and punishes those who do not fit in
• gender identity does not equal gender expression
• show masculine and feminine traits throughout the day