FEM 1100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Femininity, Masculinity, Essentialism

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Women's Studies
• Course: FEM 1100
• Professor: Corrie Scott

Document Summary

Suffrage: the right to vote for women. The encyclopedia entry about suffrage in canada is eurocentric and racist because not all women could vote federally; indigenous men and women could not vote until 1960, as well not all asian women could vote until 1948. Sex: the biological designation of male or female. Gender: the culturally/socially constructed roles of femininity or masculinity. Being born male or female some how determines whether a person should be masculine or feminine. Gender binary: being nonconsensually assigned male or female at birth and are expected to grow up as such and be attracted to the opposite sex. Any one whole fails to abide by this will be marginalized in society. It is the belief that biology determines all behaviours and actions, it defines who you are. Essentialism: the reduction of a group of people to an essential idea of what it means to be that group of people (example: indigenous groups or women in general).