Chapter 5 Skeletal 4TH Ed PDF

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CHAPTER 5 – GENDER IDENTITY AND GENDER ROLES...

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CHAPTER 5 – GENDER IDENTITY AND GENDER ROLES

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Gender  Psychological state of being female or male  Influenced by cultural concepts of gender appropriate behaviour Gender typing  Process where children acquire behaviour that is deemed appropriate to their sex

PRENATAL SEXUAL DIFFERENTIATION • Aristotle  Anatomical difference between male and female due to heat during sex  Hot semen – male; cold semen - female • 23 chromosomes from male and 23 chromosomes from female combine and fertilize egg  zygote • During first 6 weeks  embryonic structure resembles primitive female structure • At about the seventh week after conception, the genetic code (XX or XY) begins to assert itself, causing changes in gonads, genital ducts, and external genitals. •

Testosterone spurs differentiation of male (Wolffian) duct system.

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In absence of testosterone, Wolffian ducts degenerate, and female sex organs develop.

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Basic blue print of human embryo is female Female gonads develop later than male gonads Without sex hormones or androgens – all develop in female anatomically Once testes formed  begin to produce androgen, testosterone Small amount is produced in female as well but not enough to cause male sexual differentiation. Absence of androgen causes the development of female sexual organs Female sex hormone are not involved in fetal sexual differentiation If fetus with XY sex chromosomal structure failed to produce testosterone, it would develop female sexual organ What can occur if this process is disrupted or does not fully evolve/develop? Cryptorchidism  Condition in which at least one of the testes fails to descend  Men with undescended testes treated with surgery or hormonal therapy because they’re at higher risk for cancer of the testes.  Impaired sperm production due to higher than optimal body temperature which causes sterility

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Sex Chromosomal Abnormalities • Klinefelter Syndrome  A sex chromosomal disorder caused by an extra X sex chromosome (XXY)  Fail to develop appropriate secondary sex characteristics (enlarged breasts, poor muscular development, fail to produce sperm  infertile  TESE [Testicular Extraction of Sperm])  More feminine characteristics  Usually don't find out until puberty  Mild mental retardation

CHAPTER 5 – GENDER IDENTITY AND GENDER ROLES

Turner Syndrome  Disorder which a female has just one X chromosome (an X pattern, rather than XX pattern)  Loss of some X chromosome material (found in women)  Females may not naturally undergo puberty, so they usually begin hormone treatments when normal pubertal changes would otherwise start to spur growth of secondary sex characteristics.  Develop typical external genitals, but ovaries do not develop or function normally  Chances of getting pregnant are slim; window is very small (before age 20) GENDER IDENTITY • Psychological awareness of being male or female • Sex/Gender assignment  Labeling of a newborn as male or female • Are our brains bio-programmed along masculine or feminine lines by prenatal sex hormones? •

Tall, thin and strikingly beautiful, model Christie North always felt female. But when she was 15, she discovered she’d been born with male chromosomes. “There was no mention at school that there can be mix ups with your chromosomes”, she complains. “Many people have the same problem – more than you think.” As well as girls with XY chromosomes, one in 500 boys are born with a double XX as well as a Y. Most only find out about their condition when they try to father children and discover they’re infertile Nature and Nurture • Intersexual  Possess gonads of one gender but external genitalia that are ambiguous or typical of the other gender  Also referred to as pseudo-hermaphrodite  Testes OR ovaries; NOT BOTH  1 in 1000 •

Hermaphrodite  Possess BOTH ovarian and testicular tissue  Extremely rare  Assume role identity given at birth

Intersexuals • Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (XX)  Genetic female with internal female structures but masculinized external genitals  Enlarged clitoris resembles penis  Cortisone – stress hormone; fight or flight

CHAPTER 5 – GENDER IDENTITY AND GENDER ROLES  Salt wasting •

Androgen-Insensitivity Syndrome (XY)  Genetic male that is prenatally insensitive to androgens  Genitals do not become normally masculinized  At birth, testes undescended and external genitals feminized, including small vaginas  Mullerian Inhibiting Hormone and testosterone  fail to respond so Wolfian structures are absent

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Congenital adrenal hyperplasia – XX(female)

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Dominican Republic Syndrome (XY)  Genetic enzyme disorder prevents testosterone from masculinizing the external genitals  Resembled girls at birth  Born with normal testes and internal male reproductive organs but external genitals malformed  Penis stunted and resembled clitoris  Scrotum incompletely formed and resembled female labia  At puberty, testes swung into normal testosterone production causing testes to descend, voice deepened, musculature filled out, “clitoris” expanded into penis India  Hijra (3rd sex) Aboriginal  Berdache

The Fafafini is a third gender specific to Samoan and surrounding Polynesian island culture. Biologically, Fafafini are men who have been raised since early childhood to assume female gender roles in Samoan society. They dress, act and speak like women. In fact, the only thing not womanly about fafafini’s is their male body, because they sleep with straight men, although this is not considered homosexual conduct. It would only be considered wrong if a Fafafini slept with another Fafafini, but not if they slept with a man. TRANSSEXUALISM/TRANSGENDERISM • Intersexuality  All of the different syndromes characterized by some abnormality or anomaly in physical sex differentiation • Transsexuals  Condition where individual strongly desires to be and live as a person of the other gender  Feel trapped in the body of the wrong gender; experience GD • Transgenderism  Synonym for “transsexualism”  Activist movement seeking rights and pride for various transgendered individuals (transsexuals, inter-sexuals, transvestites, drag kings/queens, etc.)  Anyone who considers themselves non-conventionally gendered • •

Gender Dysphoria (GD)  Incongruity between one’s anatomy and identity According to DSM-IV: Gender Identity Disorder

Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (Alternate view) • Men who seek to become women fall into 2 categories: • Homosexual transsexuals  Extremely feminine gay males who seek sex reassignment

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Autogynephilic  Sexually stimulated by fantasies that their own bodies are female

Gender Identity Disorder • A strong and persistent cross-gender identification DSM-IV: In children, GID shown by 4 or more of the following: 1. Repeated desire to be the other sex 2. Preference for, or insistence on, wearing clothes stereotypical of the other sex 3. Preference for cross-sex roles in play 4. Desire to play stereotypical games of the other sex 5. Preference for playmates of the other sex In adults, GID is shown by: 1. Desire to be the other sex 2. Frequent attempts to pass as the other sex 3. Desire to live as the other sex 4. Conviction that he/she has the feelings and reactions of the other sex •

“Clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational or other important areas of functioning"

Sex/Gender Reassignment Surgery • Process  Lifetime hormone treatments  Male to female transsexual – receives estrogen to foster development of female secondary characteristics causing fatty deposits to develop in breasts and hips, softens skin, inhibits beard growth  Female to male transsexual – receives androgens which promotes male secondary sex characteristics such as voice deepening, hair becomes distributed according to male pattern, muscles enlarge, loss of fatty deposits in breasts and hips, clitoris may grow more prominent • SRS – Male To Female  Surgery more successful  Penis and testicles first removed  Tissue from penis placed in an artificial vagina, where sensitive nerve endings will later provide sexual sensations  Penis-shaped plastic or balsa-wood form keeps vagina distended during healing  Looks real; can ejaculate • SRS – Female To Male  Internal sex organs (ovaries, fallopian tubes, uterus) removed, along with fatty tissue from breasts  Phalloplasty – surgical creation of artificial penis, but do not work very well and most FTM transsexuals content with hysterectomies, mastectomies, and testosterone treatments Surgical Outcomes • After surgery most are no longer gender dysphoric (function well sexually, psychologically, and socially) • Most postoperative adjustment is positive • More favorable for female to male  Societal acceptance – tend to be better adjusted socially before surgery •  negative attitudes toward transsexuals than homosexuals (gays and lesbians)

GENDER ROLES & STEREOTYPES finished 05-19 • Gender Role  Complex clusters of ways males and females are expected to behave • Stereotype  A fixed, conventional idea about a group of people • Stereotypes of men and women and sexuality • Male  Tough, competitive, gentlemanly, and protective  Sexually aggressive and over aroused • Female  Gentle, dependent, kind, helpful, patient, and submissive  Sexually passive and under aroused •

Do you think our perception of women’s sexuality is changing?  Women still earn less than men full time – trend toward gender equality in income will continue  More women enrolling in university suggesting that women will increasingly occupy higher paying jobs

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Changing perceptions of women’s sexuality  Let go of sexual inhibitions  Electrify libidos  Liberate fantasies  Feel good about “kinkier” sexual desires

Sexism • The prejudgment that because of gender, a person will possess certain negative traits • These traits assumed to disqualify person for certain vocations or to prevent him or her from performing adequately in these jobs or in some social situations. Gender Typing • Process by which a child acquires behaviours deemed appropriate for his or her gender BECOMING A MAN OR A WOMAN Theoretical Perspectives • BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES  Evolutionary (Genetics)  Men’s traditional roles of hunters and warriors; better physical attributes; aggressiveness better for hunting, breadwinners  Women’s roles as caregivers; empathic, nurturing, homemakers  Prenatal Brain Organization (Hormones)  Right hemisphere – specialized to perform visual and spatial tasks  Left hemisphere – more critical for verbal functions  Sexual differentiation of brain may partly explain men’s superiority at spatial-relation tasks (interpreting road maps, visualizing objects in space)  Testosterone in male fetuses spurs greater growth of right hemisphere and slows rate of left hemisphere  Gender Prenatal Hormones  Girls showed visual preference for doll over truck and boys showered higher number of visual fixations on truck than doll  Sex differences emerge much earlier than self-awareness of one’s sex when there has been relatively little time for social influences to take effect

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PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES  Psychoanalytic  Focus on parent-child relationships  Identification - When child identifies with same gender parent, child comes to develop behaviours that typically associated with that gender  Freud: Oedipus complex – in psychoanalytic theory, a conflict of phallic stage in which boy wishes to possess his mother sexually and perceives his father as a rival for her love.  Social-Cognitive Theory  Gender-typed behaviour by observational learning, socialization, etc.  Socialization - Process by which individual is guiding into socially acceptable behaviour patterns through information, rewards, and punishment

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Cognitive Developmental Theory  Children are motivated to behave in gender-appropriate ways once they’ve established concepts of gender stability and gender constancy  They then make efforts to learn which behaviour patterns are considered masculine and feminine  Once they obtain this information, they imitate gender-appropriate patterns.  Gender stability - Concept that people retain their genders for a lifetime  Gender constancy - Concept that people’s genders do not change, even if they alter their dress or behaviour Gender-Schema Theory  Children cluster mental representations about male/female physical qualities, behaviours, and personality traits  Once they acquire the schemas they judge themselves and blend their self concept with what is appropriate for their gender and their own ideas  If consistent,  self esteem  Schema - Concept, or a way of interpreting experience or processing information

GENDER ROLES & SEXUAL BEHAVIOUR • Are gender differences in sexual attitudes and behaviours that big? Are men and women that different?  Oral sex  77% of men and 68% of women performed oral sex on their partners  79% of men and 73% of women received oral sex  Sexual permissiveness  Men more sexually permissive in attitudes than women  Number of partners  Men more likely to report more lifetime sexual partners than women (small difference)  Premarital sex  Both men and women’s attitudes toward premarital sex more accepting  Sexually Explicit Material (SEM) (pornography)

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 Men more likely than women to access magazines, videos, and internet for sexual content  Masturbation  Men more likely to masturbate than women  63% of men vs. 42% of women masturbated during previous year Gender and Sex Advice Literature  Husband as wife’s tutor and initiator of sex and wife as passive student  Husband’s responsibility to arouse wife and to control speed of his own orgasm  Assumption that wives entered marriage as inexperienced virgins who lacked any knowledge of sexual pleasure  1960s – sex no longer tied to marriage and marriage manuals renamed to sex manuals  In following years, many women had strong sexual desires and sex manuals continued to focus on gender differences Highly Sexual Women  Women do have strong interest in sexual pleasure  Cougars  Women in late thirties and older that seek out younger men solely for sex Male  Initiators, more sexual partners (men over report vs. women under-reporting)  Initial sexual encounters, expected to dictate all moves thereafter  Expected to take lead in bringing partners to orgasm but shouldn’t ask partners what they like because they’re expected to be natural experts Female  Gatekeepers in romantic relationships, expected to wait to be asked out and to screen suitors  Determine how far advances (sexual) will proceed  Let men determine choice, timing, sequence of sexual positions and techniques; unfortunately favours men’s sexual preferences, denying women opportunity to give and receive their preferred kinds of stimulation  Don’t enjoy sex as much as men

FEATURE BOXES Gender Identity Disorder: A Controversial Diagnosis (p. 131) • Biological influences found in left-handed boys among GID • Social influences found boys more than six times as likely than girls to be referred to specialized clinic for GID • Society less accepting of cross-gendering in boys than in girls, so parents of cross-gendering boys see situation as a problem • Boys with GID have more problems with peers • Cross-gender behaviour better tolerated among girls than among boys • Distress felt by North American children with cross-gender behaviours and identities isn’t a disorder but rather caused by discriminatory and hostile attitudes such children are subjected to by society Third Gender/Third Sex (p. 134)

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People who are considered neither women nor men Social category in societies that recognize three or more sexes The Ladyboys of Thailand  “Kathoeys” = third gender  Perceive themselves belonging to a third gender, some see them as either a kind of man or a kind of woman The Two-Spirits of North America  First Nations cultures associated with multiple genders = “berdache” or “two-spirits”  Berdaches – characterized as gender crossers, mixed genders, intermediate genders, and distinct third and fourth genders that are not dependent on male and female as primary categories The Hijras of South Central Asia  Hijras of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh most well known and populous third sex type in modern world  5 to 6 million hijras in India  In various areas, known as aravani, aruvani, and jogappa

An Experiment Gone Wrong (p. 136) • Bruce Reimer, an identical twin that lost his penis as a result of circumcision accident • Underwent sex reassignment surgery (testes removed and artificial vagina constructed) and female hormone treatments and reared as girl, Brenda • After told about accident at age 14, decided to pursue life as male, David • This outcome supported view that gender identity may be determined to considerable extent in uterus and when fetal brain exposed to androgens • Committed suicide at age 38 Are There Universal Differences in Sexual Strategies? (p. 144) • Suggestion that males are naturally polygamous and females are naturally monogamous • Men more interested in sexual variety in short term • In long term, both males and females may seek heavy investment in relationships, love, companionship, and resource sharing • Men place more value on signals of fertility and reproductive value demonstrated by women’s youthfulness and physical appearances • Women place relatively more value on men’s social status, maturity, and resources – cues that indicate ability to provide over long term • In short term, according to theory, men more interested in one night stands and brief affairs, by impregnating as many women possible, have greater chance of contributing their genes to future generations • Men in every culture surveyed were more likely than women to desire multiple sex partners What Do Men Value Most? (p. 157) • Study that analyzed characteristics of masculinity and sexual functioning • Men placed highest value on being honourable, self-reliant, and respected • Being seen as attractive, sexualy active, and successful with women were less central to their vision of masculinity • When it came to quality of life, men cited good health, harmonious family lives, and good relationships with partners as more important than sexual concerns • Men valued coupled relationships more highly than pure sexual pleasure Psychological Androgyny (p. 150-151) • A state characterized by possession of both stereotypical masculine traits and stereotypical feminine traits

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Masculine stereotype – high in assertiveness and instrumental skills (abilities in science or business) Feminine stereotype – high in only traits such as nurturance and cooperation Someone who’s low in both stereotypical masculine and feminine patterns considered undifferentiated in terms of gender-role stereotyping Psychologically androgynous people  Capable of summoning wider range or masculine and feminine traits to meet demands of various situations and better express their desires and talents  Less likely to stereotype occupations as masculine or feminine  Comfortable with sexuality  Broader repertoires of sexual behaviour  Comfortable with cuddling and tender holding and with initiating and directing sexual interaction  Androgynous women experience orgasm more frequently than feminine women do and express greater sexual satisfaction

FEATURE BOXES • Gender Identity Disorder: A controversial Diagnosis p. 131 • Third Gender/Third Sex p. 134 • An Experiment Gone Wrong p. 136 • Are there Universal Differences in Sexual Strategies? p. 144 • What Do Men Value Most? p. 157 READINGS • Prenatal Sexual Development p. 126-129 • Psychological Androgyny p. 150-151...