Chapter 3
Gender and Sexuality
Learning
Objectives
At the end of this chapter,
students are able to:
Explain Human sexuality
Classify the different
Sexual orientations
Make a sound judgment on
the Issues on sexual
orientations and preferences
Analyze the Sexual
inequalities in various societies
Apply the theoretical
perspectives on sex and
sexuality
Key
Concepts
Gender – as the term is used by
many researchers, refers to
perceptions about the differences
among males and females. It is
socially constructed depending
upon time and culture.
Sexuality – is the quality or
state of being sexual and
encompasses sex, gender
identities and roles, and sexual
orientation.
Gender Differences. To what extent the stereotypes of men and women are true is
difficult to judge. Even if male and female differences do exist, they must be placed in proper
perspective. Simone de Beauvoir’s famous dictum stresses that “One is not born a woman
but rather becomes one.” Science suggests otherwise, and it is driving a whole new view of
who and what we are. Males and females, it turns out, are different from the moment of
conception, and the difference shows itself in every system of body and brain. In fact, men
produce twice as much saliva as women. Women, for their part, learn to speak earlier, know
more words, recall them better, pause less and glide through tongue twisters. See if you can
spot gender differences in the cartoon illustration below.
If the sex of a person is biologically determined, the gender of a person
is culturally and socially constructed. Generally, there are two sexes (male and
female) and two genders (masculine and feminine). However, masculine and
feminine as gender orientations are now expanded to include the lesbian, gay,
bisexual, transgender, and queer otherwise known as the LGBTQ+ community.
In fact, the sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression (SOGIE)
equality bill is now being pushed at the Philippine House of Representatives.
The principal theoretical and political issue is whether gender as a
socially constructed phenomenon is related to or determined by biology. For
example, in nineteenth century various medical theories suggested that the
female personality was determined by anatomy and women’s reproductive
functions. These views have been challenged by feminism. Anthropological
research has also shown the cultural specificity of notion about gender,
sexuality and sex-roles. For example, M. Mead showed in a number of crosscultural studies that, while gender differentiation is wide-spread, the social
tasks undertaken by men and women are highly variable. There is no general
relationship across societies between social roles and biological sex. Social
psychologists have treated gender- identity as the product of child training
rather than as biologically given. Ethnomethodology studies ‘gender’ as the
problem of how individual sexuality is assigned.
More recently, critics have challenged these interpretations, because (1)
while sociologists distinguish between sex and gender, they often treat the
latter as an expression of the former, thereby giving biology a determining
significance, and (2) they fail to provide the connection between the economic
subordination of women and its expression through the family and personal
life. In the radical critique, it is the place of women in relation to economic
production which ultimately determines male/female differences. In this sense,
it can be argued that ‘gender’ is analogous to class relationships. The task of
establishing systematic, causal connections between capitalism, class and
patriarchy has, however, proved to be highly problematic. Theoretical attempts
to develop a sociological perspective on biological sex, gender, sex- roles and
personality have nevertheless transformed many taken-for-granted assumptions
in a number of sociological topics. For example, feminists within the
psychoanalytic tradition have challenged the basic ideas of Freud by showing
that the Oedipus complex, penis envy and castration complex should be
interpreted as features of the symbolic world of patriarchal power. (Nicholas
Abercrombie, Stephen Hill and Brian S. Turner. Dictionary of Sociology. The
Penguin. New Edition. 1994. Pp.180-181)
One of the most heard-of behavior among sexual deviations is
homosexuality. It is not only common in one place but is even universal. Many
human societies, such as in Ancient Greece, accepted it as normal. During the
Middle Ages it is probable that there were homosexuals not only in military
camps but also in religious monasteries and convents. News like these are even
common nowadays. This sexual behavior was also frequent among men of
intellect and fame: Michael-Angelo, the greatest sculptor of the Renaissance,
cherished homosexual ideas and passions; Marlowe, one of the chief poets of
the Renaissance in England, was clearly of the same feeling, and there is also
ground for believing that Bacon was one (Havelock, Ellis, Psychology of Sex.
New York: The New American Library, 1957, 162).
Sex Differences. In her article, “Sexism,” Marilyn Frye argues that the
whole system of gender is really one of power. She implies that masculinity is
about dominance, and femininity is about subordination. She notes that we go
to a great deal of trouble to keep the sexes distinct; even products that have no
inherent differences---like shampoos, deodorants, and razor blades—are
packaged differently for men and women. Men and women talk, move, and sit
differently from each other. In a myriad of unnecessary details, men and
women are different. Although sex differences in brain and body take their
inspiration from the central agenda of reproduction, they don’t end there.
“We’ve practiced medicine as though only a woman’s breasts, uterus and
ovaries made her unique—and as though her heart, brain and every other part
of her body were identical to those of a man,” says Marianne J. Legato, M.D., a
cardiologist at Columbia University who spearheads the push for gender
differences. Legato notes that women live longer but break down more.
Everyone gains from the new imperative to explore sex differences. When we
know why depression favors women two to one, or why symptoms of heart
disease literally hit women in the gut, it will change our understanding of how
our bodies and our minds work.
Whatever sets men and women apart, it all starts with a single
chromosome: the male-making Y, a puny thread bearing a paltry 25 genes,
compared with the lavish female X, studded with 1,000 to 1,500 genes. But sex
genes themselves don’t leave everything to hormones. Over the past few years,
scientists have come to believe that they too play ongoing roles in genderflavoring the brain and behavior.
Females, it turns out, appear to have backup genes that protect their
brains from big trouble. To level the genetic playing field between men and
women, nature normally shuts off one of the two X chromosomes in every cell
in females. But about 19 percent of genes escape inactivation; cells get a
double dose of some X genes. Having a fallback gene may explain why
females are far less subject than males to mental disorders from autism to
schizophrenia.
Ruben Gur, Ph.D. discovered that females have about 15 to 20 percent
more gray matter than males which is another major sex difference: Men, overall,
have larger brains than women, (their heads and bodies are larger), but the sexes
score equally well on tests of intelligence.
Gray matter, made up of the bodies of nerve cells and their connecting
dendrites, is where the brain’s heavy lifting is done. The female brain is more
densely packed with neurons and dendrites, providing concentrated processing
power---and more thought---linking capability. Meanwhile, the larger male
cranium is filled with more white matter and cerebrospinal fluid. “That fluid is
probably helpful,” says Gur, director of the Brain Behavior Laboratory at the
University of Pennsylvania. “It cushions the brain, and men are more likely to
get their heads banged about.”
Moreover, white matter, made of the long arms of neurons encased in a
protective film of fat, helps distribute processing throughout the brain. It gives
males superiority at spatial reasoning. White matter also carries fibers that
inhibit “information spread” in the cortex. That allows a single-mindedness
that spatial problems require, especially difficult ones. The harder a spatial
task, Gur finds, the more circumscribed the right-sided brain activation in
males, but not in females. The white matter advantage of males, he believes,
suppresses activation of areas that could interfere with work.
On the other hand, the white matter in women’s brains is concentrated
in the corpus callosum, which links the brain’s hemispheres, and enables the
right side of the brain to pitch in on language tasks. The more difficult the
verbal task, the more global the neural participation required---a response
that’s stronger in females.
Furthermore, women have another heady advantage---faster blood flow
to the brain, which offsets the cognitive effects of aging. Men lose more brain
tissue with age, especially in the left frontal cortex, the part of the brain that
thinks about consequences and provides self-control. “You can see the tissue
loss by age 45, and that may explain why midlife crisis is harder on men,” says
Gur. Also, he added that, “Men have the same impulses, but they lose the
ability to consider long-term consequences.”
On LGBTQ+. Debates on the issues of homosexuality started after
Alfred Kinsey, in the 1940’s and 1950’s, estimated that, “10% of the adult
population is homosexual” (Jones and Yarhouse, 2000). People became
interested in this topic, about which so little was known. However, recent
studies estimate that only two to three percent of the U.S. adult population
admits to homosexual orientation (Yarhouse, 2010). In the Philippines, the
number of males having sex with males (MSMs) was 840, 280 in 2006. This
included only males engaging in anal sex, so it could be higher, if the whole
LGBTQ+ community were to be included. Kinsey’s formula was utilized to
arrive at this estimate, thus, the number of LGBTQ+ to date is approximately
10 million, since the Philippines’ total population in September 2016 totals
approximately 103 million.
The Philippines is predominantly Catholic but it also is known to
be the 10th most gay-friendly country in the world. Despite embracing
the sexual minority groups, same-sex relationships and same-sex marriage are
still not accepted (UNDP, USAID, 2014).
Generally, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and queer
(LGBTQ+) members of the population are those who dis-identify themselves
as heterosexual. LGBTQ is often used to abbreviate or to collectively refer to
the diverse sexual orientation of this population. Sexual Orientation otherwise
known as sexual preference is the “direction of one’s erotic attraction”
(Malony, 2001). However, it is difficult to define sexual orientation as it covers
a lot more than just erotic attraction. According to Mayer & McHugh (2016),
sexual orientation may actually refer to “a set of behaviors, to feelings of
attraction, or to a sense of identity.”
Heterosexuals are those whose erotic attraction are to the members of
the opposite sex, while lesbians and gays are attracted to the members of the
same sex. On the other hand, bisexuals become attracted to both males and
females, and transgender is an “umbrella term to refer to individuals who cross
or transcend culturally defined categories of sex and gender” (Malony, 2001).
The emergence of the LGBTQ community started on June 28, 1969,
when a group of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people first gathered in
public to make a stand against the police of New York City. The police then,
attempted to raid a mafia-owned underground gay bar called the Stonewall Inn,
which resulted in frequent “shakedowns” (Marin, 2009). Such threats were
made when they were not paid off. Since then, the LGBTQ community has
gathered to resist such oppression.
Moreover, in the Filipino culture, sexual behavior does not
automatically equate to sexual orientation, because sexuality in the Philippines
is based on “gendered behavior” (Nadal and Corpus, 2013). In other words,
one’s behavior determines the gender they portray. In the case of a man, if he
acts masculine, he will be seen as heterosexual, but if he acts feminine, he will
be understood as gay. The same is true with a woman, who is more masculine
in the way she dresses or wears her hair, she will be called “tomboy” rather
than lesbian (Nadal cited in Nadal and Corpus, 2013).