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Strengths and weaknesses of gender categorization
Strengths and weaknesses of gender categorization
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A Space for Intersexuality
In the video Hermaphrodites Speak, many of the individuals present stated that they felt something was missing and wished to convey to others that the surgery is unnecessary and a violation of their bodies, that something is now missing from their lives. In my paper, I will be looking at the circumstances and policies surrounding the birth reassignment surgery to which they are referring. In addition, I want to examine how this relates to our need for categories, specifically the gender categories of male and female. Why is it that we need to perform surgery on babies with ambiguous genitalia in order to somehow make them fit into these black and white gender categories? What would be the consequences of allowing hermaphrodites to make their own decisions regarding their individual sexuality? How problematic is it if they don't fit into a concrete category, and who is it that feels this is a problem?
Inspired by the intersexual character of Cal/Callie in Jeffrey Eugenides Middlesex, I decided to turn to the dictionary (Oxford English Dictionary Online) to see if perhaps the definitions of "intersexual" and "hermaphrodite" had changed since the book was published. I was curious to see what the accepted, supposedly educated, view on intersexuals and hermaphrodites was these days. When I looked up the meaning of "intersexual" in the Oxford English Dictionary, I was surprised to see that there was no independent listing of the noun form of the word but only the adjective which was defined as: 1. Existing between the sexes 2. Biol. Typified by or having both male and female characteristics; having some characteristics proper to the other sex. Also absol. as n., an intersexual individual. Aha! There wa...
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...surgeries for people born with an anatomy that someone decided is not standard for male or female." Maybe we should listen to what individuals and families dealing with intersex believe is a step in the right direction for society, that the problem of intersexuality is not one of gender but of stigma and trauma. It is not intersexuality and intersexuals that are the problem but normality and mainstream society that must be "fixed."
Works Cited:
1. Oxford English Dictionary Online http://www.oed.com/
2. Blackless, Melanie, Anthony Charuvastra, Amanda Derryck, Anne Fausto-Sterling, Karl Lauzanne, and Ellen Lee. 2000. How sexually dimorphic are we? Review and synthesis. American Journal of Human Biology 12:151-166. Available from http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/issuetoc?ID=69504032
3. Intersex Society of North America http://www.isna.org/drupal/
In How Sex Changed by Joanne Meyerowitz, the author tell us about the medical, social and cultural history of transsexuality in the United States. The author explores different stories about people who had a deep desired to change or transform their body sex. Meyerowitz gives a chronological expiation of the public opinion and how transsexuality grew more accepted. She also explained the relationship between sex, gender, sexuality and the law. In there the author also address the importance of the creation of new identities as well as how medication constrain how we think of our self. The author also explain how technological progress dissolve the idea of gender as well as how the study of genetics and eugenics impacts in the ideas about gender/sexuality and identity. But more importantly how technology has change the idea of biological sex as unchangeable.
While communicating with another human being, one only has to examine the other’s face in order to comprehend what is being said on a much deeper level. It is said that up to 55 percent of a message’s meaning can be derived from facial expression (Subramani, 2010). These facial manipulations allow thoughts to be expressed in ways that are often difficult to articulate verbally, with the face demonstrating “the thoughts of the mind, and the feelings of the heart” (Singla). Many expressions are said to universal, particularly those showing happiness, sadness, fear, anger, disgust, and...
“… The photographs of American facial expression were judged more accurately and quickly than were the photographs of Chinese facial expressions. This is likely due to differences in the methods that the researchers used for creating these sets of stimulus materials. Whereas Ekman and Friesen (1976) created their American photographs with the goal of portraying intense versions of prototypical facial expressions that would be highly recognizable, by contrast Wang and Markham (1999) created their Chinese photographs with the goal of eliciting situationally appropriate facial expressions that would be relatively natural. These differences in the method of posing the facial expressions likely led to American expressions that were more intense but less authentic than the Chinese expressions…. These factors likely contributed to the main effects in our study, in which American photographs were generally better recognized than the Chinese photographs” (Elfenbein & Ambady, 2003)
First; comes, the notion of nature. West and Zimmerman term this as sex, referring to a person’s biological makeup through genitalia, having a penis or vagina, or simply chromosomal pairing of XY or XX (29). Although there is no escape or control an individual has, if their foetal tissues formed into a penis or vagina, biology does play an underlying role in an individual’s identity and personality formation which is socially constructed. What is the correlation between biology and socially constructed gender then? The case study West and Zimmerman present of “Agnes, a transsexual person who was born (31), ” and raised a boy, but went through sex reassignment surgery, and identifies as a female, shows that although biology may result in a certain genitalia, an individual’s response to that may be one that is conforming or opposing to it. By the terms conforming and opposing I mean to say that Agnes could have either continued to
However, many of our questions still remain. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the physical aspect of gender differences in humans, otherwise known as sexual dimorphism, it’s evolutionary history in our species, and some behavioral and societal trends that are associated with it. To accomplish this, I will begin by outlining the anatomical structures that are commonly used in measuring sexual dimorphism in our species. After establishing these criteria, I will expand upon the evolutionary history of sexual dimorphism in humans beginning with the anthropoids in the Oligocene and ending with present day trends.
Swaab, Df. "Sexual Differentiation Of The Human Brain: Relevance For Gender Identity, Transsexualism And Sexual Orientation." Gynecological Endocrinology 19.6 (2004): 301-312. Informa Healthcare . Web. 7 Apr. 2014.
In this article, Shaw and Lee describe how the action of labels on being “feminine” or “masculine” affect society. Shaw and Lee describe how gender is, “the social organization of sexual difference” (124). In biology gender is what sex a person is and in culture gender is how a person should act and portray themselves. They mention how gender is what we were taught to do in our daily lives from a young age so that it can become natural(Shaw, Lee 126). They speak on the process of gender socialization that teaches us how to act and think in accordance to what sex a person is. Shaw and Lee state that many people identify themselves as being transgendered, which involves a person, “resisting the social construction of gender into two distinct, categories, masculinity and femininity and working to break down these constraining and polarized categories” ( 129). They write about how in mainstream America masculinity and femininity are described with the masculine trait being the more dominant of the two. They define how this contributes to putting a higher value of one gender over the other gender called gender ranking (Shaw, Lee 137). They also speak about how in order for femininity to be viewed that other systems of inequality also need to be looked at first(Shaw,Lee 139).
The construction of human sexuality has been and remains an enigma in today’s society. The prominent and well fought debate can be compacted into one simple title: Nature vs. Nurture. There is no clear answer to how our human sexuality is formed.
This essay concerns emotions and controversial arguments based on whether emotions are universal or a learned phenomenon. Most of the research in to cross cultural Psychology surround their attention on the biological aspect of emotions as being the primary source of the occurrence of emotions and has been the subject of numerous studies. However, culture is also known to affect and provoke emotional experiences. This essay will discuss the position of emotions from a Universalist view and from a cultural view. The following approach will focus on the universality of emotions.
Society today suggest that revealing the “gender” or “sex” of a child from the moment of conception forward is a necessity. But, in all actuality to some this is an invasion of their privacy and beliefs. Many believe that raising a child gender specific is not important to their upbringing or to their growth and development. Gender is defined with several different meanings such as the behavioral, cultural or psychological traits typically associated with the one sex. The sex of an individual, male or female, based on reproductive anatomy (the category to which an individual is assigned on the basis of sex) and the personal traits or personality that we attach to being male or female. Sex is defined as the biological distinctions determined by our genitalia.
Preves, Ph.D., Sharon E. "Intersex Narratives: Gender, Medicine, and Identity." Gender, Sex, and Sexuality. New York: Oxford University, 2009. 32-42. Print.
Gender has been around throughout history; however, within recent years, gender has separated itself from the traditional view of sex, e.i., male or female, and has become centered on ones masculinity or femininity. Of course gender is more than just ones masculinity or femininity, gender has become a way for one to describe, he or she, in a way in which they are different from everyone else. Gender has turned into a sense of identity, a way for one to feel different and fulfilled among all of those around them. Of course gender’s sense of freedom would seem outside of structure and only affected by one’s own agency, however, structure is a key component in establishing gender. We can look into both ethnic Mexican’s culture practices regarding sexuality, children songs and games, and see that cultural traditions still heavily influence gender, creating what is masculine and what is feminine and what is the role of each gender, as well as challenging the notions that gender is solely based on agency.
Facial expressions are definitely the most expressive type between all the nonverbal communication types; so much information can be shown through a smile or a frown. Facial expressions have a universal meaning for smiling, crying, frowning, or showing sadness, anger, fear or disgust so they have a pretty similar meaning all around the world but the difference is that the intensity of those facial expressions varies between cultures (Cherry, n. d.). People in America, especially A...
Gender and sexuality can be comprehended through social science. Social science is “the study of human society and of individual relationships in and to society” (free dictionary, 2009). The study of social science deals with different aspects of society such as politics, economics, and the social aspects of society. Gender identity is closely interlinked with social science as it is based on an identity of an individual in the society. Sexuality is “the condition of being characterized and distinguished by sex” (free dictionary, 2009). There are different gender identities such as male, female, gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual that exists all around the world. There is inequality in gender identities and dominance of a male regardless of which sexuality they fall under. The males are superior over the females and gays superior over the lesbians, however it different depending on the place and circumstances. This paper will look at the gender roles and stereotypes, social policy, and homosexuality from a modern and a traditional society perspective. The three different areas will be compared by the two different societies to understand how much changes has occurred and whether or not anything has really changed. In general a traditional society is more conservative where as a modern society is fundamentally liberal. This is to say that a traditional society lists certain roles depending on the gender and there are stereotypes that are connected with the genders. One must obey the one that is dominant and make decisions. On the other hand, a modern society is lenient, It accepts the individual’s identity and sexuality. There is no inequality and everyone in the society is to be seen as individuals not a part of a family unit...
Facial expressions have been studied for years and continue to be studied now by researchers. From all the studying that has taken place on facial expressions, there have been two major viewpoints that have spawned. The first viewpoint is emotional expression, this viewpoint says that facial expressions are sporadic and come from raw emotions. The expressions only portray emotion and nothing more. The other is the behavioral ecology viewpoint; this states that the expression is not for just emotion, but the opposite. This viewpoint says that expressions are used or enhanced by the actions and expressions of those around you. This viewpoint states that it is more of a social behavior. I conducted a study that contained 10 observations of other people participating in regular actions. I waited and watched their facial expressions and what may have caused them. From this, I determined which viewpoint their facial expressions aligned with. I plan to compare the results and give some generalizations of my findings. I will also share any interesting things I may have found while observing the people. Then, I will conclude by stating my own personal opinion on the two viewpoints judging by what my results were and what I actually believe.