Lecture 3 October 2 , 2013
Gender Variance and Diversity Over Time
The Sex/Gender Binary
Performing Gender
Regulating the Sex/Gender Binary System
The 5 laws of a bi-polar sex/gender system
Women in science backed by One Who Should Know
- Transgender scientists says women denigrated
- Recalls what happened when he was female
- Stanford neurologist explained that the gender binary and prejudice plays a much bigger role in
university campuses
Doreen Kimura
- Said because there was so many sex differences we should not see equal numbers of engineers
because that’s the way it naturally is
Why the obsession with gender differences?
- … gender diversity and cross-gendered behaviours appear to be as old as humanity
th
- In the late 19 century in the west anxieties over gender roles (as women demanded property
rights, improved working conditions and the vote) led to a renewed interest in identifying the
biological bases to support a… rigid heterosexual patriarchal order
o Scott-Dixon, In Trans/forming Feminisms, 2006 pg. 13
Sex – the categories or male and female and the biological characteristics of bodies placed in these
categories (biological)
Gender – the assignment of masculine and feminine characteristics to bodies categorized as male or
female (social)
Sex can also be socially constructed, through surgery for example. So even this is a flawed concept
Beyond the Sex-Gender Binary
- The Sex/Gender Binary
o The classification of sex and gender into two distinct and biological forms of masculine
and feminine
o A social boundary used to prevent people from crossing or mixing gender roles
o A system that society uses to divide people into male and female gender roles,
identities, and attributes
- Social constructionist
o Tells us that gender is a fluid construct
o It is not determined by our biology, but is a product of our environment, our
performance, our culture, and our society
o We don’t have gender – we do gender
o Drag kings and drag queens embody characteristics of the opposite gender but they
over exaggerate it
Drag describes the discontinuities between gender and sex or appearance and
reality but refuses to allow this disfunctionality to represent dysfunction
However when we talk about the term performing we make it sound that it’s
easy to try on different genders, but that’s not always the case
o How is the sex/gender binary enforced? Lecture 3 October 2 , 2013
Gender Variance and Diversity Over Time
Ma Vie En Rose
A small boy cross dresses and generally acts like a girl and talks about
marrying his neighbour’s son, and doesn’t understand why people are
so surprised about it. But his actions lead to serious consequences from
his family.
People in the neighbourhood becomes very upset, the family becomes
harassed and people want them to leave the neighbourhood
The movie tells us that gender is not fixed, it is regulated, and that it
matters
Gender is not fixed
South African runner’s gender test controversial, complicated
o Caster Semenya
o “too fast to be a woman”
o Up until 1968 female Olympic athletes were asked to stand
naked in front of a bunch of people to verify they were wo
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