Hierarchies, Stereotypes, and Gender Diversity

QUESTION

Masculinity and femininity

Respond to one of the following clusters of questions after reading Grazian, Schipps, and Lorde.

■ Can you recall a time when you participated in the collective or ritual performance of gender? How did you feel about it then–was it fun, empowering, uncomfortable?–and what do you think about it now that you have read Grazian’s account of the “girl hunt”?

■ What stood out to you in Grazian’s and Schipps’s description of hegemonic masculinity/femininity? Do these theories make sense to you? What would you add to their theories?

■ Women (particularly women of color) are often criticized when they express anger or confront injustice (further listening: “Serena Williams and the Policing of Anger“). Have you witnessed this? Do you speak out when you are troubled? Lorde argues that [i]f I participate, knowingly or otherwise, in my sister’s oppression and she calls me on it, to answer her anger with my own only blankets the substance of our exchange with reaction.” How do you respond when someone calls you out on your mistakes or oppressive actions?

Nature, nurture, and gender diversity

Answer all of the following questions after listening to Saldivia (Hidden Brain) and viewing Pagonis (“Hi, I’m Intersex”).

■ Have you heard about intersex people before? What was your reaction to Pagonis’s video?

■ Whose ideas made the most sense to you in the Hidden Brain episode? Have you heard of nonbinary gender identity before?

Labels and semantics

After reading Nanda and the excerpt from my master’s thesis and viewing Kornhaber (“Can You Choose Your Own Pronouns?”), respond to one of the following question clusters.

■ Do you think every person has a sexual orientation and a gender identity? Explain and provide examples.

■ In the culture(s) that you grew up in, how were people who did not live up to gender expectations treated? In that context, what would be the most productive way to refer to people with non-normative gender identities?

ANSWER

Hierarchies, Stereotypes, and Gender Diversity

Women (particularly women of color) are often criticized when they express anger or confront injustice (further listening: “Serena Williams and the Policing of Anger”). Have you witnessed this? Do you speak out when you are troubled? Lorde argues that [i]f I participate, knowingly or otherwise, in my sister’s oppression and she calls me on it, to answer her anger with my own only blankets the substance of our exchange with reaction.” How do you respond when someone calls you out on your mistakes or oppressive actions?

It is indeed common for women to be criticized whenever they express their anger or confront justice (Zirin, 2018), especially with women of color. I have witnessed an instance where a woman of color who was treated unfairly at a restaurant was criticized for demanding that she be treated fairly. Despite having sat at the restaurant for some minutes, the waiter kept walking past her table and serving other incoming customers. After serving three tables, the waiter then walked to the woman’s table and asked to serve her. The woman started complaining, as the waiter seemed to have been ignoring her to serve other guests, who were white people, in the restaurant. The occupants of the restaurant started booing and criticizing the lady for raising her voice at the waiter, just because she was demanding an explanation for not being served promptly. When troubled, I mostly keep quiet so as to avoid being criticized or even scolded. When someone calls me out on my mistakes or oppressive actions, I listen to them and apologize.

References

Zirin, D. (2018, September 17). Serena Williams and the Policing of Anger. Retrieved June 17, 2019, from https://www.thenation.com/article/serena-williams-and-the-policing-of-anger/

Have you heard about intersex people before? What was your reaction to Pagonis’s video?

I have heard of intersex people before, even though the topic is somehow a taboo or an avoided topic in society. I have heard of stories of people who were born having both male and female physiological features, including people having both male and female genitalia. Before this study, all I knew was that there were such people in the society, who were rare and hidden. The term intersex was, however, not known to me, as I knew of such people being referred to as hermaphrodites. Pagonis’s video has been very informative and shocking to me, as it has brought to light many issues surrounding the issue of being intersex. Before watching the video, I had quite a negative outlook on intersex people or hermaphrodites as I referred to them. Now I understand that they are just normal people who were born different (Pidgeon, 2016). I was shocked to hear that doctors made decisions on a child’s gender without even involving the child’s parents.

Whose ideas made the most sense to you in the Hidden Brain episode? Have you heard of nonbinary gender identity before?

The ideas of Dr. Debra Soh, in the Hidden Brain episode (Nature, Nurture, And Our Evolving Debates About Gender, 2018), made the most sense to me. Soh explained how biology is responsible for making women and men different, and how exposure to elevated levels of testosterone in pregnancy makes girls associate with, or act like boys while growing up. Soh believes that she was exposed to elevated testosterone levels during pregnancy, which was the reason why she looked and dressed like a boy when she was young. She believes that testosterone masculinizes the brain of an individual, making them associate with, act like, and even dress like a boy. She even refers to various studies that have shown the effect of increased exposure to testosterone in animals and humans. Soh does not believe that gender is a social construct. I have heard of nonbinary gender identity discussions on social media, but I didn’t quite understand what the term meant.

References

Nature, Nurture, And Our Evolving Debates About Gender. (2018, November 19). Retrieved June 17, 2019, from https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=669192536

Pidgeon. (2016, November 21). Hi, I’m Intersex – Part 3 (Clitorectomy). Retrieved June 17, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUmmPftumnU&feature=youtu.be

Do you think every person has a sexual orientation and a gender identity? Explain and provide examples.

I do not think that every individual has a sexual orientation and gender identity. As Pattison explains in the video (Decoded, 2018), not everyone identifies as either male or female. Some people identify themselves as genderqueer, which refers to being between the male and female gender. Other people identify as being agender, which means that they do not have gender. Not everyone identifies as either male or female (Nanda, 2014). For instance, intersex people may identify as genderqueer, which means that they may wish to be referred to using pronouns such as ‘they’ and ‘their’, instead of the commonly used ‘he’ and ‘she’ pronouns. It is polite and respectful to ask people what their pronouns are, as gender identity today is a very controversial issue in society.

References

Decoded, M. (2018, March 21). Can You Choose Your Own Pronouns? Ft. Patti Harrison | Decoded | MTV. Retrieved June 17, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCXY4RVPcW4&feature=youtu.be

Nanda, S. (2014). Gender diversity: Cross-cultural variations. Waveland Press.