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Gender stereotypes have existed since the beginning of modern man. We've all heard them before; male dominance and female weakness, a controlled male and a flustered female, aggression and passion, and many others that all basically boil down to the same thing. Emily Martin, in her essay entitled The Egg and the Sperm, takes this problem of gender stereotype to a new and much more serious level. As an anthropologist, Martin is concerned with the socio-cultural impacts on many different aspects of everyday life, including biology. In doing her research for this article, Martin was trying to uncover suspicions she had about socio-cultural gender stereotypes, and the affects they had on the diction used to describe egg and sperm interactions in numerous biology books and research reports.
Martin believes that if in fact if her suspicions are true, then what we learn in biology class would be more then just biology. We would also be learning about the cultural beliefs the authors where influenced by when they were writing. If Martin's assertions proved to be true, this meant a very scary thing. It would show that silly, but
serious gender stereotypes were making their way in scientific materials and further into our culture.
When doing her research, Martin made sure that nobody would have any room to criticize her credibility or the credibility of the article. The shear volume of research that she did is shown in the fact that there are over seventy end-notes in The Egg and the Sperm. Martin spent her time reading through endless biology books; from not as well known, to national best sellers like Molecular Biology of the Cell, written by Bruce Alberts. She also found (at the time of research) current material from...
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...st makes the reader think, what is she trying to get at then? Leaving that paragraph out of her article would boost the viability of the purpose, and would also get rid of any contradictions that may lie within.
Despite the contradicting citation she offered, Martin makes a valid and noteworthy conclusion in her research. The fact that such an age-old stereotype of the knight in shining armor and the damsel in distress could possibly effect how biology is presented, is scary and disturbing at the same time. It needs to be addressed and erased in the very near future as Martin argued, especially when it gets to the point where it could actually alter known scientific data. Through careful research and close attention to specific diction used, hopefully Martin has brought up a more then valid point that can be dealt with properly before it goes on any longer
11. Through the shift from first to third person and vice versa the technique strengthens his essay. With Gould’s usage of nouns and pronouns which refer to himself, the audience's attention is directed to that idea or concept. Provided that the essay had instead just been in third person, the monotony would have been too overbearing to target and decipher the real purpose. Using first person adds in his personal aspect about this research, ultimately making him seem more relatable and understanding, instead of just the
Keller, Evelyn Fox. Reflections on Gender and Science: 10th Anniversary Edition. New Haven and London: Yale University, 1995.
The article was mainly about how an egg reproduces with a sperm to create new individuals. The article also discussed how at one time the sperm and egg were the same. Over time, the sperm and egg have evolved to be different. The article mentions the challenges with the sperm being able to reach the egg. There is also a discussion about how the protein affects the reproduction and a discussion on reproductive failure.
Martin, C. L., Wood, C. H., & Little, J. K. (1990). The development of gender stereotype components. Child Development, 61(6), 1891-1904. doi:10.2307/1130845
Martin, Emily. "The Egg and the Sperm." Fields of Reading. 6th ed. Ed. Nancy R. Comley et al. New York: St. Martin's, 2001.
Prentice, D. A. and Carranza, E. (2002), What Women and Men Should Be, Shouldn’t Be, Are Allowed to Be, and Don’t Have to Be: The Contents of Prescriptive Gender Stereotypes. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 26: 269–281.
there are thousands of years of evidence to go against these new gender roles, society assumed
...ok goes back and forth between factual writing and narrative making it really confusing. To add to the confusion there is a Glossary for “scientific words” which means if you do not understand something you will have to go back and forth pages. Most of the things touched in the book we have already discussed in classes like General Biology, Molecular Genetics and Bioanalytical Techniques. I feel the book is geared towards people with some degree of knowledge in Biology (like High School students) and an interest in Genetics and honestly society works now on instant gratification, why would I have to pay to hear the opinion of an incredibly accomplished old man when I can look up in the internet the opinion of someone maybe less ignorant than you and form myself an opinion based of someone else’s firm opinion.
Vandermassen spends the first five chapters of her book outlining the scientific theories she feels feminists should pay more attention too. She also describes and critiques feminists who have argued against them. She looks at how Darwinian theories have been interpr...
“Scientists Not Immune from Gender Bias, Yale Study Shows.” Yale News. Yale University, 24 Sept. 2012. Web. 05 Mar. 2014.
Sex role stereotyping and gender bias permeate everyday life. Children learn about sex roles very early in their lives, probably before they are 18 months old, certainly long before they enter school.(Howe, 1). The behaviors that form these sex roles often go unnoticed but their effect is immeasurable. Simple behaviors like: the color coding of infants (blue & pink), the toys children are given, the adjectives used to describe infants (boys: handsome, big, strong; girls: sweet, pretty, precious), and the way we speak to and hold them are but a few of the ways the sex roles are introduced. These behaviors provide the basis for the sex roles and future encouragement from parents and teachers only reinforce the sex roles.
Even after these prejudices were overcome, the education system still maintained sexism in both obvious and subtle ways. Books rein...
Society has planted a representation into people’s minds on how each gender is supposed to be constructed. When one thinks of the word gender, the initial responses are male and female but gender may be represented in many additional terms. As defined, “Gender refers to the social expectations that surround these biological categories.” (Steckley, 2017, pg.256) Gender is something that is ascribed,
Martin, Emily. "The Egg and the Sperm: How Science Has Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles." Gender, Sex, and Sexuality. New York: Oxford University, 2009. 248-53. Print.
Society has formed several stereotypes throughout the past decades, mainly about gender. Gender stereotypes start at infancy and develop drastically through a person’s life seemingly until death (Watzlawik, 2009). Gender stereotypes are classified as a widely held belief about characteristics thought appropriate for males and females (Weisgram, Dinella & Fulcher, 2011). For example, when you walk into the toy section of a store, you don’t need a sign to indicate which section is for the girls and which section is for the boys. These are stereotype for children, usually boy’s toys are dark colors such as blue or green and girl’s toys are colorful such as pink or purple. Society has placed labels on genders which have ultimately led to stereotypes. These gender stereotypes state that men must act “masculine” and women must act “feminine”. Masculine is characterized