EGE 311 - Gender and Society: Module 1 PDF

EGE 311 – GENDER AND SOCIETY MODULE 1 Module 1 14 | Page  EGE 311 – GENDER AND SOCIETY Module Overview Module 1 G...

EGE 311 – GENDER AND SOCIETY MODULE 1 Module 1 14 | Page  EGE 311 – GENDER AND SOCIETY Module Overview Module 1 Gender and Sexuality as a Social Reality UNIT 1 The topics included in this unit are: Sex, Gender and Sexuality Gender and Sexuality Across Time Gender and Sexuality as a Subject of Inquiry Gender and sexuality can be very complicated issues for young people. Everyone expresses their sexuality differently with various levels of diversity. Often sexuality and sexual identity changes at different times of our lives. Some of us are oriented toward the opposite gender, others toward the same gender, to both genders and many more. To broaden our understanding of how gender and sexuality differs from each other, this module will present key concepts that will explain and categorize these topics. It is expected that at the completion of this module you should be able to:  differentiate Gender from Sexuality;  explain Gender socialization;  identify Gender stereotypes and the problem stereotyping brings;  analyze the sexual orientation and gender identity and expressions. 15 | Page  EGE 311 – GENDER AND SOCIETY Lesson Sex, Gender and 1 Sexuality Learning Outcomes Discuss Sex, Gender and Sexuality Differentiate Gender from Sexuality Explain gender socialization Identify gender stereotypes and the problem stereotyping brings Analyze the sexual orientation and gender identify and expression Time Frame: Week 1 Introduction: Sex, Gender and Sexuality affects our life choices. These influences our identity, taste and style as a person. To begin, recall your prior knowledge about how your childhood experiences influence your perception of gender and sexuality.  EGE 311 – GENDER AND SOCIETY Abstraction INDEPENDENT READING Reading Sources: Rodriguez A (2019) Gender and Society: The Ways of Women, Their Oppressions and Paths to Liberation, C and E Publishing Incorporated, Page 11-19 Basic Definitions: Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression (SOGIE) Retrieved on: July 20, 2020 from https://www.chp.edu/-/media/chp/departments-and- services/adolescent-and-young-adult-medicine/documents/gender-and-sexual- development/basic-definitions- sogie.pdf In this activity, you will have your independent reading of the terms associated with gender and sexuality. This will help you get familiar with the terms Sex, Gender, Sexuality, Gender Stereotyping, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression. Sex and Gender: Its Difference Sex is a biological term. We use it often to refer to the act of mating between two organisms- an act which is part of the process of biological reproduction. A more technical term for this is coitus. The concept of “sex” may also be expanded to include other behavior associated with the act of mating: animal courtship rituals, human “foreplay”. Gender refers to the differentiated social roles, behaviors, capacities, and intellectual, emotional and social characteristics attributed by a given culture to women and men- in short, all differences besides the strictly biological. There are two genders: Masculine, ascribed to the male sex, and feminine, ascribed to the female. The way a society is organized according to sex is referred to by some social scientist as the “sex-gender system”. Gender roles are justified by gender stereotypes about the different personality traits, skills and capacities that men and women have. Men said to be physically stronger than women, thus more fit to take on work outside of the home. Women, on the other hand, are perceived as fit only for household work that does not require great physical exertion. Women are supposed to be better equipped for minute, detailed manual work, because their fingers are smaller and therefore nimbler that men’s. 18 | Page  EGE 311 – GENDER AND SOCIETY Table 1: Main Difference between Sex and Gender Sex Gender  Physiological  Social  Related to Reproduction  Cultural  Congenital  Learned Behavior  Unchanging  Changes over Time  Varies within culture/Among culture Figure 1: Sex versus Gender  EGE 311 – GENDER AND SOCIETY Gender and Sexuality across Time Perception on Gender and Sexuality had changed across time. Nowadays more and more people are accepting the fact that each sex and gender has their own strengths and capabilities uniquely different from one another. Before, men usually referred as the dominant sex but at this point in time the rights, opinions of women, young and old and the members of the LGBTQIA community are now being considered. Gender Role Socialization is defined as the process of learning and internalizing culturally approved ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving. It starts as soon as one is born and manifests from the color associated with one’s gender to the roles one sees his or her gender performs the most. Socialization affects all parts of one’s identity by dictating what is acceptable to do because of one’s educational background, class, religion, and gender. Thus, female and male gender roles develop. Gender Stereotypes develop when different institutions reinforce a biased perception of a certain gender’s role. The institutions include the family, the church, the school, the state, and the media. Gender Stereotypes are of four types: 1. Sex Stereotypes are generalized view of traits that should be possessed by men and women, specifically physical and emotional roles. These stereotypes are unrelated to the roles women and men actually perform. 2. Sexual Stereotypes involve assumptions regarding a person’s sexuality that reinforce dominant views. For example a prevalent view is that all men are sexually dominant. Another notion is heteronormativity, or the assumption that all persons are only attracted to sex opposite theirs. 3. Sex-role Stereotypes encompass the roles that men and women are assigned to base on their sex and what behaviors they must possess to fulfill these roles. 4. Compound Stereotypes are assumptions about a specific group belonging to a gender. Examples of groups subject to compounded stereotypes are young women, old men, single men or women, women factory workers and the like. 20 | Page  EGE 311 – GENDER AND SOCIETY Gender and Sexuality as a Subject of Inquiry The abbreviation SOGIE stands for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and expression. Sexuality is different form sex, as the former is the expression of a persons’ thoughts, feelings, sexual orientation and relationships, as well as the biology of the sexual response system of that person. The different terms standing for SOGIE are further defined below. 1. Sexual Orientation coverts the three dimensions of sexuality, namely: A. sexual attraction, sexual behavior, sexual fantasies; B. emotional preference, social preference, self- identification and C. heterosexual or homosexual lifestyle. Sexual orientation involves the person to whom one is attracted and how one identifies himself or herself in relation to this attraction which includes both romantic and sexual feelings. 2. Gender Identity refers to one’s personal experience of gender or social relations. It determines how one sees himself or herself in relation to gender and sexuality. A person could identify himself on herself as a masculine or feminine. 3. Gender Expression determines how one expresses his or her sexuality through the actions or manner of presenting oneself. Basic Types of Sexual Orientation 1. Asexual - not sexually attracted to anyone and/or no desire to act on attraction to anyone. Does not necessarily mean sexless. Asexual people sometimes do experience affectional (romantic) attraction. 2. Bisexual - attracted to people of one’s own gender and people of other gender(s). Two common misconceptions are that bisexual people are attracted to everyone and anyone, or that they just haven’t “decided.” Often referred to as “bi.” See also Pansexual/Fluid and Queer. 3. Gay - generally refers to a man who is attracted to men. Sometimes refers to all people who are attracted to people of the same sex; sometimes “homosexual” is used for this also, although this term is seen by many today as a medicalized term that should be retired from common use. 4. Lesbian - a woman who is attracted to women. Sometimes also or alternately “same-gender-loving woman” or “woman loving woman.” See also Gay. 21 | Page  EGE 311 – GENDER AND SOCIETY 5. Pansexual/Fluid - attracted to people regardless of gender. Sometimes also or alternately “omnisexual” or “polysexual.” See also Bisexual and Queer. 6. Questioning - one who may be unsure of, reconsidering, or chooses to hold off identifying their sexual identity or gender expression or identity. 7. Queer - traditionally a derogatory term, yet reclaimed and appropriated by some LGBTQ individuals as a term of self-identification. It is an umbrella term which embraces a matrix of sexual preferences, gender expressions, and habits that are not of the heterosexual, heteronormative, or gender- binary majority. It is not a universally accepted term by all members of the LGBT community, and it is often considered offensive when used by heterosexuals. 8. Straight - attracted to people of the “opposite” sex (see below); also sometimes generally used to refer to people whose sexualities are societally normative. Alternately referred to as “heterosexual.” Gender Identity and Expressions Gender Identity and Expression refers to the ways in which a person identifies and/or expresses their gender, including self-image, appearance, and embodiment of gender roles. One’s sex (e.g. male, female, intersex, etc.) is usually assigned at birth based on one’s physical biology. One’s gender (e.g. male, female, genderqueer, etc.) is one’s internal sense of self and identity. One’s gender expression (e.g. masculine, feminine, androgynous, etc.) is how one embodies gender attributes, presentations, roles, and more. 1. Heteronormativity – is defined as a notion that being heterosexual, or attraction to the opposite sex, is the standard of correctness. 2. Heterosexual –or straight, refers to people who have sexual and romantic feelings mostly for the opposite gender- men who are attracted to women, and women who are attracted to men 3. Androgyny - The mixing of masculine and feminine gender expression or the lack of gender identification. The terms androgyne, agender, and neutrois are sometimes used by people who identify as genderless, non- gendered, beyond or between genders, or some combination thereof. 4. Cisgender - A gender identity that society considers to “match” the biological sex assigned at birth. The prefix cis- means “on this side of” or 22 | Page  EGE 311 – GENDER AND SOCIETY “not across from.” A term used to call attention to the privilege of people who are not transgender. 5. Crossdresser - Cross-dressing refers to occasionally wearing clothing of the “opposite” gender, and someone who considers this an integral part of their identity may identify as a crossdresser (note: the term crossdresser is preferable to transvestite and neither may ever be used to describe a transsexual person). Cross-dressing is not necessarily tied to erotic activity or sexual orientation. 6. Genderqueer/Third Gender/Gender Fluid - These terms are used by people who identify as being between and/or other than male or female. They may feel they are neither, a little bit of both, or they may simply feel restricted by gender labels. 7. Intersex - A general term used for a variety of genetic, hormonal, or anatomical conditions in which a person is born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male. Some intersex individuals identify as transgender or gender variant; others do not. (Note: hermaphrodite is an obsolete term that is not currently considered appropriate.) 8. Transgender - First coined to distinguish gender benders with no desire for surgery or hormones from transsexuals, those who desired to legally and medically change their sex, more recently transgender and/or trans has become an umbrella term popularly used to refer to all people who transgress dominant conceptions of gender, or at least all who identify themselves as doing so. The definition continues to evolve. 9. Transsexual - The term transsexual has historically been used to refer to individuals who have medically and legally changed their sex, or who wish to do so. Most transsexual people feel a conflict between their gender identity and the sex they were assigned at birth. Other labels used within this group are MtF (maleto-female) or trans woman, and FtM (female-to- male) or trans man. 10. Two-Spirit – A person who identified with the Native American tradition of characterizing certain members of the community as having the spirit of both the male and female genders. 11. Biphobia - Aversion of and/or prejudice toward the idea that people can be attracted to more than one gender, and/or bisexuals as a group or as 23 | Page  EGE 311 – GENDER AND SOCIETY individuals, often based on negative stereotypes of bisexuality and the invisibility of bisexual people. 12. Coming Out – The process of acknowledging one’s sexual orientation and/or gender identity or expression to oneself or other people. 13. Gender Binary - A system of classifying sex and gender into two distinct and disconnected forms of masculine and feminine. It can be referred to as a social construct or a social boundary that discourages people from crossing or mixing gender roles, or from creating other third (or more) forms of gender expression. It can also represent some of the prejudices which stigmatize people who identify as intersex and transgender. 14. Heterosexism - The presumption that everyone is straight and/or the belief that heterosexuality is a superior expression of sexuality. Often includes the use of power of the majority (heterosexuals) to reinforce this belief and forgetting the privileges of being straight in our society. 15. Homophobia - Negative attitudes and feelings toward people with non- heterosexual sexualities; dislike of, or discomfort with, expressions of sexuality that do not conform to heterosexual norms. 16. Internalized Oppression - In reference to LGBTQ people, internalized oppression is the belief that straight and non-transgender people are “normal” or better than LGBTQ people, as well as the often-unconscious belief that negative stereotypes about LGBTQ people are true. 17. LGBTQ - An acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer. This is currently one of the most popular ways in U.S. society to refer to all people who are marginalized due to sexual orientation and/or gender identity, although other letters are often included as well to represent identities described above. 18. Transphobia - Negative attitudes and feelings toward transgender individuals or discomfort with people whose gender identity and/or gender expression do not conform to traditional or stereotypic gender roles. 24 | Page