CHPT 4 GENDER AND SEXUALITY TEXT AND LECTURE STUDY NOTES .doc
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Chapter 4 : Gender and Sexuality
Terms
Compulsory Heterosexuality: assumptions that individuals should desire only mem-
bers of the “opposite” sex
Essentialists: observe male-female differences in sexual scripts and interpret these dif-
ferences as natural and universal
Gender: encompasses the feelings, attitudes and behaviors that are associate with be-
ing make or female as conventionally understood
Gender Identity: refers to identification with or sense of belonging to a particular sex,
biologically psychologically and socially
Gender Roles: comprise the repertoires of behaviors that match widely shared expec-
tations about how males and females are supposed to act
Hostile Environment Sexual Harassment: involves sexual jokes, comments, and
touching that interfere with work or create an unfriendly work setting
Quid Pro Quo Sexual Harassment: involves sexual threats or bribery used to extract
sexual favor as a condition of employment decisions
Sex: refers of being born with distinct male or female genitalia and a genetic program
that releases either male or female hormones to stimulate the development of one’s re-
productive system
Sexual Orientation: refers to the way a person derives sexual pleasure, including
whether desirable partners are of the same or a different sex
Sexual Pluralism: assesses sexual acts only by their meaning for the participants
Sexual Scripts: assumptions that guide sexual behavior by telling us whom we should
find attractive, when and where it is appropriate to be aroused, what is sexually permis-
sible and so on
Sexuality: involves actions that are intended to produce erotic arousal and genital re-
sponse
Social Constructionism: argue that gender differences are not the product of biologi-
cal properties, whether chromosomal, gonadal or hormonal; instead gender and sexuali-
ty are products of social structure and culture
Sociobiology: holds that all human beings instinctually want to ensure that their genes
get passed on to future generations
Transgendered: when gender identity does not exactly match the sex assigned to them
at birth
Transsexual: identity with the opposite sex from that assigned to them at birth, causing
them to change their appearance or resort to a sex-change operation
Text Book Notes:
CASE:
-David Reimer; “erotic functioning” burned off the penis of David when trying to get cir-
cumcised
-“gender identity gate”-- the time after which a child is “locked” into an identity as a male
or female
-because of the incident David became known as Brenda and in 1979 decided to stop
living as a girl .. he got married two years later and at 38 committed suicide
Defining Male and Female: Sex and Gender
-your sex depends whether you were born with distinct make or female genitalia and a
genetic program that released male or female hormones to stimulate the development of
your reproductive system
-(xx patten = female) (xy pattern=male)