GENDER & SEXUALITY
BERGER & LUCKMANN 1966
• HUMANS HAVE
“UNDERDEVELOPED INSTINCTS”
• HUMANS REQUIRE SYMBOLIC
SYSTEMS TO COMPENSATE FOR
LACK OF INSTINCTS
CULTURE
 Culture is the sum of socially
transmitted ideas, practices, and
material objects that people create.
Culture gives us guidelines for how to
think and act.
 A society exists when people interact
and share culture, generally in a
geographically delimited area.
Adam & Eve
INTERSEXED
A person with biological characteristics of
both males and females, often consisting
of some combination of male and female
genitalia
TRANSGENDER
A person whose gender identity
does not match their birth sex.
Some transgender people present as
either male or female, while others
present as a third gender, neither
male nor female.
GWEN:
(Feb 1985- Oct 2002)
BERDACHE or TWO-SPIRIT
HIJRA
TRAVESTI
 Ethnocentrism involves judging
another culture exclusively by the
standards of one’s own.
MALE & FEMALE & … ??
African Goddess Barbie
THE POWER OF A DOLL
BOY’S “ACTION FIGURES”
DOING GENDER
Gender is not a set of traits that reside
within individuals, but something
individuals do in their social
interactions.
Gender is “omnirelevant” because you
cannot avoid having your gender
assessed by others throughout
interaction
-West & Zimmerman
ACCOUNTABILITY STRUTURE
Individuals, groups, and institutions
that sanction our behavior,
including negative sanctions for
behavior that does not conform to
the norm.
e.g. family, peers, church
THE 5 SEXES
ANN FAUSTO-STERLING
• FEMALE: people born with ovaries, no testes
• MALE: people born with testes, no ovaries
INTERSEXED:
• HERMS (or hermaphrodites): people born with both an
ovary and a testis
• FERMS: people born with ovaries and some aspects of
male genitalia but no testes
• MERMS: people with testes and some aspects of female
genitalia but no ovaries
PHALL-O-METER
EURO-AMERICAN
BINARY SEX SYSTEM
SEX
ASSIGMENT
GENDER
IDENTITY
GENDER
ROLE
SEXUAL
ORIENTATION
MALE
BOY
MASCULINE
HETEROSEXUAL
FEMALE
GIRL
FEMININE
HETEROSEXUAL
Essentialism asserts that gender
is rooted in biology. Main criticisms:
1. Essentialism ignores the historical and cultural
variability of gender and sexuality.
2. It tends to generalize from the average,
ignoring variations within gender groups.
3. It ignores the fact that gender norms and
practices change over time – (e.g,. female high
school wrestling teams)
FEMALE WRESTLERS
CAT CALLS:
just harmless fun?
BRITNEY SPEARS
CHRISTINA AGUILERA
MARIAH CAREY
BEYONCE KNOWLES
POPULAR MALE SINGERS
JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE
WHO IS THE ARTIST?
JUICY COUTURE
MAN WITH JUICY COUTURE?
MEN IN SHORT-SHORTS?
DON’T LIE TO ME!
Dispositional Attribution
• Assigning a character trait to another
person based on something other than
his or her character
(like the clothes she wears, or the beverage
he drinks)
HEIGHT AND RELATIONSHIPS