Gender Differences
What a Great Idea!
Based on the Online Lecture found at
http://nzr.mvnu.edu/faculty/trearick/english/rearick/introlit/RealEducation/gender_dif.htm
Group Discussion:
Since men and women were in
some ways created profoundly
different and all that God
creates has a purpose, what
purpose do these differences
accomplish?
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Terms to know for next Quiz:
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short story
patriarchy
negative capability
willing suspension of disbelief
marginalized
antifeminist literature
misogynist
Works Relating to this Subject to be Covered
in the Future:
Novel
• Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Short stories:
• The Wife of Bath’s "Prologue" [e-text] [audio] by Geoffrey Chaucer
[Handout] Note: the audio contains both prologue and tale.
• The Wife of Bath’s Tale" [e-text] [audio] by Geoffrey Chaucer [Handout]
• "A Jury by Her Peers" [e-text] [audio] by Susan Gadspell (398-408)
• "Roman Fever" [e-text][audio] by Edith Wharton (409-434)
• "A Rose for Emily" [e-text] by William Faulkner (556-5640)
Not covered but in text: "Hills Like White Elephants" [e-text] [audio]
by Earnest Hemingway (268-272)
Play:
• The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare (viewed Oct. 8)
Poems:
• "If" by Rudyard Kipling [Handout]
• "The Wife" by Emily Dickinson [Handout]
• "The Lady of Shalott" [e-text] by Alfred Lord Tennyson [Handout]
• "My Last Duchess" [e-text] by Robert Browning (775-777)
Some Examples Appearing in Text
"So God created man in his own image, in the
image of God created he him;
male and female created he them."
Genesis 1: 27 (English-KJV)
". . .neither was man created for woman, but
woman for man."
1 Corinthians 11:9 (English NIV)
"And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall
upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his
ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
And the rib, which the LORD God had taken
from man, made he a woman, and brought her
unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone
of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall
be called Woman, because she was taken out of
Man."
Genesis 2: 21-13 (English-KJV)
From Othello:
EMILIA
'Tis not a year or two shows us a man:
They are all but stomachs, and we all but food;
To eat us hungerly, and when they are full,
They belch us.
OTHELLO
Why did I marry?. . .curse of marriage,
That we can call these delicate creatures ours,
And not their appetites!
DESDEMONA
. . . .O, these men, these men!
EMILIA
Responding to the Desdemona’s question if there really are women out there who
would betray their husbands?
(negative capability?)
But I do think it is their husbands' faults
If wives do fall: say that they slack their duties,
And pour our treasures into foreign laps,
Or else break out in peevish jealousies,
Throwing restraint upon us; or say they strike us,
Or scant our former having in despite;
Why, we have galls, and though we have some grace,
Yet have we some revenge. Let husbands know
Their wives have sense like them. . .
Then let them use us well: else let them know,
The ills we do, their ills instruct us so
Definition of the Problem
(Is there a Problem?)
• One of the central reasons why men and
women frustrate one another is that in some
ways we are just plain different. For a lighthearted look at this check out Men vs.Women:
For a light-hearted look at this check out
Men vs.Women:
by Matt Groening
NEWS BULLETIN! - Men and women are NOT alike. Sure, you thought you
already knew that. But now we have proof! After countless hours of
surveys and studies on the following topics, these facts have emerged:
Maturity:
• Women mature much faster than men. Most 17year-old females can function as adults. Most 17year-old males are still trading baseball cards and
giving each other wedgies after gym class. This
is why high school romances rarely work.
Hats:
• Women look good in hats; men look like dinks.
Comedy:
• Let's say a small group of men and women are
in a room, watching television, and an episode
of "The Three Stooges" comes on.
Immediately, the men will get very excited;
they will laugh uproariously, and even try to
imitate the actions of Curly, “man's favorite
stooge.” The women will roll their eyes and
groan and wait it out.
Handwriting:
• To their credit, men do not decorate their
penmanship. They just chicken-scratch.
Women use scented, colored stationary and
they dot their "i's" with circles and hearts.
Women use ridiculously large loops in
their "p's" and "g's". It is a royal pain to
read a note from a woman. Even when
she's dumping you, she'll put a smiley face
at the end of the note.
Cats:
• Women love cats. Men say they love cats,
but when women aren't looking, men kick
cats.
Mirrors:
• Men are vain; they will check themselves out in the
mirror. Women are ridiculous; they will check out their
reflections in any shiny surface--mirrors, spoons, store
windows, toasters, Dr. Rearick's bald head.
The Telephone:
• Men see the telephone as a communications tool. They
use the telephone to send short messages to other
people. A woman can visit her girlfriend for two weeks,
and upon returning home, she will call the same friend
and they will talk for three hours.
Low Blows:
• Let's say a man and a woman are watching a boxing
match on television. One of the fighters is felled by a
low blow. The woman says "Oh, gee, that must hurt."
The man doubles over and actually feels pain.
Shoes:
• When preparing for work, a woman will put on a Mondi wool suit,
and then slip into Reebok sneakers. She wil carry her dress shoes in a
plastic bag from Saks. When a woman gets to work, she will put on
her dress shoes. Five minutes later, she will kick them off because
her feet are under her desk. A man will wear one pair of shoes for the
entire day.
Toys:
• Little girls love to play with toys. Then, when they reach the age of
11 or 12, they lose interest. Men never grow out of their obsession
with toys. As they older, their toys simply become more expensive
and impractical. Examples of men's toys: little miniature TV's, car
phones, complicated juicers and blenders, graphic equalizers, small
robots that serve cocktails on command, video games, anything that
blinks, beeps, and requires at least six "D" batteries to operate.
What Students Say
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• Emotional
Rational
• Abstract (Transcendent or
Practical (Concrete or
Nebulous)
“Bone headed”)
• Empathetic – feels others
Insensitive
• Uneven (cycles)
Even--Steady
• Communication Addicted
Communicatively
• Physically weaker (but able to
Challenged
handle pain better)
Physically stronger but less
• Able to engage in Simultaneous
able to handle pain.
Multiple Perspectives on Tasks
Single Minded and
Hierarchical in tasks
• Primarily interested in the
Primarily interested in act
emotional nest (romance) needed
of procreation (sex).
to maintain the products of
procreation (children).
A Statement of Disclosure
• I do not stand behind this list as an absolute
definition. At best these are but generalities.
– My blond mother is a former math teacher whose
rational skills have navigated us through many a map
and have left me checkmated more often than not.
– In my own marriage my wife is far better with math
(and money) than I am.
– And when we were joined, she was the one who
brought all the practical power tools to the marriage. I
brought books.
– I’m the talker and communicator—I am also the one
who is aware of children at night.
• What this list does do is show at least the
perceptions of differences between the sexes.
• Differences appear real and if so lead to tensions.
• The question which often confounds scholars
is how much of this difference is artificially
created by culture and how much is biological
innate to our beings. The debate is pretty
heated about this.
• The only true biological differences with
which most agree is that women have the
equipment to bear children and men, in
general, have more upper body strength.
• These differences are enough to lead into the
next question of abuse since lack of strength
and the connection to domestic work has left
women often at the mercy of men.
Abused Power = Breakdown in
Communication
• It is a sad fact that among humans whenever
there is an imbalance of power there is the
potential for abuse. It happens between
grownups and children. But historically it has
especially occurred between men and women.
• When such abuse takes place communication and
understanding break down.
– (One does not usually want to understand those whom
one subjugates.) So in many households there have
been two adults living under the same roof with two
different agendas.
• How the weaker has achieved her ends has caused
for an even greater division between the genders.
• Some may claim that the subservience of
women is God's Law. This is a
debatable point with Christians arguing
on either side. However, what some
might call God's ranking system--which
never condoned the abuse of women-can not explain the world-wide existence
of female inequality.
• There are so many social expectations
around the world which violate JudeoChristian expectations. Why then should
this one quality be nearly universal? It is
based on organic reality.
Let's face it, if
all women were
as strong as this
young lady
(Shelley Beattie)
above appears to
be, the number
of domestic
disturbances
would probably
go waaaay
down
• Thus, to claim God's law is responsible for male
female inequality ignores the simple fact that
even in places where God's will is barely known,
women are still kept at a lower station then
men. Thus I conclude that since Male dominance
is not based in the obedience to God's will: the
cause must the be the reality of physical power
and from this comes use or abuse of power.
• But most women are matched with men who are
physically stronger than they.
• Thus, historically women have lacked the power
to achieve their goals directly. When conflict
interests occurs they have found other means to
reach their ends than via direct conflict.
In the Face of a Patriarchy
What Do Women Do?
• They can confront directly—however since they
lack the physical strength to force a male to act, their
direct actions usually takes on the form of verbal
force (which may explain why women value
communication so very much).
– There is the power of Reason – convince the male that a
different approach is better than his while also also
attempting to help him not feel that he is an idiot.
– There is the power of vocal rage – scolding, nagging,
yelling, making the male uncomfortable to achieve the
said goal.
• However Often Women who do this are call shrews
(or among some evangelicals “feminists” 
Verbal Force is Limited
Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave,
That I, the son of a dear father murder’d,
Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,
Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words,
And fall a-cursing, like a very drab,
A scullion!
Fie upon’t! foh!
Hamlet Act II Scene 2
In the Face of a Patriarchy
What Do Women Do?
• They can maneuver covertly—Many women by
necessity in culture have become adept at
manipulation.
– There is again the power of Reason – convince the male
that a different approach is better and even suggest
somehow that this idea was his originally. -- did anyone
remember seeing My Big Fat Greek Wedding?
– There is the power of Sexual Appeal– “You don’t know
how hard it is to be a woman looking the way I do. . .I’m
not bad, I’m just drawn that way.” Jessica Rabbit
• However Often Women who do this are call sneaks,
basically being feminine means being dishonest
From my Big Fat Greek Wedding
• Toula Portokalos: “Ma, Dad is so stubborn. What
he says goes. `Ah, the man is the head of the
house!’”
• Maria Portokalos: Let me tell you something,
Toula. The man is the head, but the woman is the
neck. And she can turn the head any way she
wants.
The Battle of the Lamp from
A Christmas Story
• Much of the action within A
Christmas Story has to do
with power manipulation.
• The “Battle of the Lamp” is
classic gender conflict.
• In this culture she doesn’t
feel comfortable telling her
husband she hates that lamp.
Instead she at first turns it off
to “save electricity” He
doesn’t cat on.
• So eventually she destroys it
“by accident”– acceptable.
With the Dynamics in Place
What Next?
• Literature reveals the importance of the tension
between genders.
• Unfortunately until recently most of the canon
has been determined and created by men.
• So there are few female voices through literary
history to help give alternative perspectives
about the nature of, forgive the cliché, "the
battle of the sexes.“
• Some true artists, however, have tried even
when culture has stood in the way.
The Antifeminist Tradition
• Medieval literature abounds especially with
antifeminist themes which they based on certain
scriptures.
• In a civilization which looked to scriptural narrative to
explain who the world worked as it did, women were
often blamed for the fall of humanity because Eve first
gave in to the serpent.
• Again because they are weaker, women are often
portrayed as using guile and deceit to bring about the
ruin of their opponents.
• In some of the Arthur legends they play the role of
enchantress and temptress. And it is no small matter
that Queen Guinevere love for Lancelot eventually
brings Camelot down.
Stock Character – The Shrew
• There exists also a long tradition negatively
portraying women who contradict their husbands
directly.
• These developed into a "stock character" often
called a shrew. Such characters usually were
only two dimensional and lacked development
beyond just a joke.
• One of the most famous
examples of this appears in
medieval mystery plays
involving Noah's wife who
insisting on her right to
gossip with her friends even
while poor Noah is
attempting to get her safely
on the ark.
• These shrews also are
portrayed as sexually overt.
Thus in The Roman De La
Rose (the Romance of the
Rose) there is an old woman
who gives advice to a young
bride on how to abuse her
husband sexually.
The Wife of Bath in the
Anti-Feminist Tradition
Chaucer's Wife of Bath is both an
affirmation of the medieval
concept of the shrew as well as a
rebuttal of it
The the poet engages in a tour de
force of the male imagination in
"negative capability“ (a term by
Keats describing the artist
emptying him or herself of
personal agenda to create a true
character)
Shakespeare's View in
Taming of the Shrew
• Meanwhile, in Shakespeare's play The Taming of
the Shrew he presents a wonderful study in
contrast between two types of women (two
sisters) with two different ways to deal with a
oppressive patriarchy.
• Bianca is all sweetness and all the men love her.
However, as the play progresses she is shown to
be manipulative and not nearly so honest as her
older sister.
• Katrina meanwhile, confronts directly the male
dominated society she finds herself in, but she
also finds herself trapped in the cage of rage. She
is branded a Shrew and in fact fulfills that nature.
The Modern Feminist Tradition
• Writers within this tradition embrace a wide
variety of approaches to the question of
women's place and power in culture and
society.
• Most of these approaches are allied by their
critical analysis of patriarchal (maledominated) and phallocentric (male-centered)
institutions and practices.
• Furthermore works may be analyzed by their
interests in promoting women's issues and
concerns.
• These concerns rise to the forefront of literary
concerns with the late 18th and early 19th
century and have continued on to the present.
Modern Works
• Among our readings the short story "A Jury by
Her Peers" (written in the first part of the 20th
century) is especially notable since it was written
by a woman (Susan Gadspell). responding in a
subversive way to the domineering and
condescending attitudes of men
• The social parameters clearly shape the course of
action that Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters. At first
glance "Roman Fever" written by another woman,
Edith Wharton, a little later than the first (1934)
does not at first seem to fit the Feminist tradition.
• However, part of the difficulties these two women
share is that in their world, affluent New Yorkers,
they are defined by only their roles as wives and
mothers.
• In "A Rose for Emily" this same gender tension
(complicated still further by the roles of a
daughter to a domineering father) is at the root of
the problems Faulkner depicts the aristocratic
Emily Grierson.
• Finally although not covered overtly in the
class—you can only read so much—consider the
struggle between sexes over what will happen to a
woman's body finds a critical analysis in "Hills
Like White Elephants" by Earnest Hemingway