GESS week 2 Tuesday reading notes PDF

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1. Susan M. Shaw and Janet Lee, “Learning Gender” • Important ideas, concepts, facts, and vocabulary - Notions of femininity and masculinity are fluid and created by social processes that reflect the various workings of power in society - Patterns of gender in the U.S. are transported worldwide - Social and economic dynamics of globalization shape global gender arrangements and transform gender relations - When intersex children are born, an immediate sex determination is often made - “Two Spirit” status: people with multiple or integrated genders held/hold places of honor in native communities - Gender is one of the foundational ways that societies are organized - The differences between femininity and masculinity are made to seem natural and inevitable - Gender pronouns are a significant way to support gender identity - Androgyny: a lack of gender differentiation or a balanced mixture of recognizable feminine and masculine traits - The first dimension of masculinity is machismo, which involves breaking rules, sexual potency contextualized in the blending of sex and violence, and misogyny - The second dimension of masculinity is the provider role, which includes ambition, confidence, competence, and strength - A key aspect of femininity is its channeling into two opposite aspects: chaste, domestic, caring mother, and the sexy, seducing, fun playmate - At least 25 transgender or gender nonconforming people were killed in 2017, and 3/4 of trans and gender nonconforming students feel unsafe at school Main thesis • - Systems of truth about gender and other identities provide the standards through which thoughts and behavior are molded • Quote(s) of significance - “Performativity is constrained by social norms. What this means is that gender is not only what we “do”; it is a process by which we ‘are’ or ‘become’” (Shaw & Lee, 95) - “It is really impossible to speak of a fixed biological sex category outside of the sense that a culture makes of that category” (Shaw & Lee, 96) - “Both trans and queer theory emphasize that ‘woman’ and ‘man’ are changeable, evolving, and contested categories that must not be seen as fixed, static, normalized, and taken for granted. Both are interested in the ways diverse notions of personhood are mapped onto the physical body” (Shaw & Lee, 100) - “Masculinity and femininity are socially constructed categories that have little to do with biology and much to do with social hierarchies” (Shaw & Lee, 110) 2. Fausto-Sterling, “The Five Sexes, Revisited” • Important ideas, concepts, facts, and vocabulary - Many physicians spoke of the need to scrap current practices in favor of treatments more centered on psychological counseling

- About 1.7% of live births are intersexual - Many individuals who were reassigned as males or females shortly after birth but who later rejected their early assignments have come forward

- One of the goals of NATFI is to establish a new sex nomenclature • Main thesis - Treatment of intersex children should combine basic medical and ethical principles with a practical and less drastic approach to the birth of a mixed-sex child • Quote(s) of significance - “The revelation of cases of failed reassignments and the emergence of intersex activism have led an increasing number of pediatric endocrinologists, urologists and psychologists to reexamine the wisdom of early genital surgery” (Fausto-Sterling, 117) - “What has become increasingly clear is that one can find levels of masculinity and femininity in almost every possible permutation” (Fausto-Sterling, 118) 3. Lorber, “The Social Construction of Gender” • Important ideas, concepts, facts, and vocabulary - Gender construction begins with sex assignment at birth and continues throughout a person’s life - Gendered norms and expectations are enforced through informal sanctions and by formal punishment - The spatial separation of women and men reinforces gendered differences • Main thesis - Gender is a human production that depends on everyone constantly “doing gender” • Quote(s) of significance - “As a social institution, gender is a process of creating distinguishable social statuses for the assignment of rights and responsibilities” (Lorber, 120) - “The characteristics of these categories define the Other as that which lacks the valuable qualities the dominants exhibit” (Lorber, 121) 4. Wong, “When I was Growing Up” • Important ideas, concepts, facts, and vocabulary - Wong was not just insecure about her appearance but about her identity as a Chinese person - White became a symbol of purity for Wong • Main thesis - The American idea of a beautiful women is always conveyed as white and rich, which creates insecurities in young girls who do not fit this idea • Quote(s) of significance - “when I was growing up, people told me I was dark and I believed my own darkness in the mirror, in my soul, my own narrow vision” (Wong, 137) - “when I was growing up and a white man wanted to take me out, I thought I was special, an exotic gardenia, anxious to fit the stereotype of an oriental chick” (Wong, 137) - “I thought that god

made white people clean and no matter how much I bathed, I could not change, I could not shed my skin in the gray water” (Wong, 137) Discussion Question • Is it possible for the social hierarchy of gender to be deconstructed after so many years of existence? If so, how?...