Women's Studies 1020E Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Gloria Steinem, Determinism
Document Summary
Women"s studies lecture 2- constructions of gender, language and play. Sex and gender are often used interchangeably, but have distinct definitions sex refers to biological characteristics: female/male/intersex. Gender refers to personality traits, behaviours and attitudes attributed to or expected of individuals based on sex: feminine/masculine. Persons sex is fundamental to their identity. We apply gender to ourselves based on our sex. Makes us believe gender and sex have a correlation that is natural. We tie behaviours to sex when it"s a gender behaviour strong association with sex and gender characteristics. Biological determinism: we are who we are based on biology. Because of our strong association between gender and behaviour we hold on to specific ideas about individuals based on their gender (or more accurately, on our perception of their gender) We are all capable of exhibiting the full range of human emotions, yet we impose and foreclose certain attitudes, behaviour, and characteristics based on someone"s sex.