WOMENST 1AA3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Heteronormativity, Semiotics, Gender Role

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Women's Studies
• Course: WOMENST 1AA3
• Professor: Jessie Forsyth

Document Summary

Lecture 2: the social construction of sex & gender. Semiotics: sign and signification (tree) the world, giving an image a sign; natural green. Signification, all of these signification can be deconstructed and rely on ideologies about what is. Natural and what is fresh air and green living . We understand these trees in juxtaposition with a computer: this helps us understand the concept of mythologies. Hijabi woman (oppressed, forced), nun (pious, angelic, pure), both signs are similar but the significations are completely different. For the hijabi woman to be considered oppressed, there is an underlying mythology that the women are forced to wear hijabs. For the nun to be considered pure, there is an underlying mythology that christianity is a pure religion. As an ideology: a system that normalizes and reinforces gender roles and gender binaries. The idealogy of heteronormativity normalizes getesrosexuaty as the only sexual orientation,