1

Conferences ◦ 8:35 – 9:25 Arts 150 ◦ 9:35 – 10:25 Burnside 1B23◦ Attendance & participation

Contact◦ E-mail: andrew@carvajal.ca◦ Office hours: Mondays 10-11:30 in

Leacock 822A, or by appointment ◦ Site: www.soci270.carvajal.ca

E-mail picture and/or blurb about yourself

2

A bit about my self My teaching style

◦ I’m here to help!◦ Become as involved as you want in the topic of

gender◦ Gentle Socratic method◦ The importance of your time

You PAY for my pay cheques

3

1. Should gender matter in our society?2. Can we raise gender-neutral children?

“We don’t believe in pressuring the children. When the time is right, they’ll choose the appropriate gender?”

4

Our culture distinguishes our identity on the basis of sex from the moment of birth, not our nature

Ways to retard gender education: ◦ Alternate between spouses traditional

female/male roles around the house◦ Introduce kids to both male and female

experiences (e.g. male/female toys)◦ Monitor and censor TV and books◦ Treat sex as merely a physical trait◦ Focus on other sources of diversity

5

Mothering capacities and desire to mother built into women (object-relational experiences):◦ Girls have a longer attachment with their mothers past

their first 2-3 years◦ Stronger mother-daughter identification◦ Girls maintain a more affective connection with familial

objects and others past their adolescence Femininity develops as a sense of connection

and relationship; masculinity as its rejection Nurturing, empathy and parenting is curtailed

in boys, while it is emphasized on women While these characteristics are not innate, we

develop them so early and so “naturally” that they are unavoidable

6

Gender as a belief that one’s sex at birth determines who we are, what we like, how we behave, etc.

Gender differences may be strong today and important in analyzing our social reality ◦ BUT: Is it because men and women are

naturally or inevitably different?◦ Or because we believe in gender, we care

about it and thus reinforce the binary

7

Sex is something we more often take for granted, but:◦ Determining someone’s sex at birth by

observing physical traits is sometimes impossible

◦ Sex-assingment may also be an arbitrary imposition Based on the belief of a bipolar system of sex

Normal Normal Clitoris Penis0 0.9 2.5 GIRL BOY

??? (Up to the Doc or others)

8

Phallometer

All cartoons are property of cartoonbank.com

9