EA 170 Week 0b (intro) Fall 2017

I. Intro to the class website and requirements (website, syllabus)

II. The Difference Between Biological Sex, Gender, and Sexual Preference

A. What do you think "gender" means? How is your gender (masculine, feminine) different from your assigned biological sex (male, female)? How is your gender different from your sexual preference(s)?

YOUTUBE SEARCH FOR "GENDER AND SEX IN SOCIETY"

[video on syllabus]

Terms:

Gender: MASCULINE and FEMININE

Biological Sex: MALE and FEMALE

Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual (however, note that in premodern Japan, these terms would not have meant anything to people, since sexual preference was, for the most part, not culturally connected to identity)

III. Gender vs. Biological Sex and Sexual Orientation

Gender, unlike sex, is not a biological given, but is, in the words of Evelyn Fox Keller, "a socially constructed and culturally transmitted organizer of our inner and outer worlds." Whereas sex roles refer merely to the fixed range of capabilities of female and male genitalia, gender roles are sociohistorical conventions of deportment arbitrarily attributed to females or males. "Women" and "men" are culturally created categories. Our goal is to understand continuity and change in Japanese ideals of femininity, in the processes by which women were trained to approximate those ideals, and in the ways that their actual roles diverged from these ideals. (Gail Bernstein, "Introduction," in Recreating Japanese Women, p. 2)

A. Gender is socially constructed (not equal to assigned biological sex), but recent research has shown that is also not completely arbitrary (i.e. it has some relationship to biology).

1. MRIs of male and female brains do show differences attributable to biological sex, but any individual male or female brain will have a "mosaic" of these sex differences. Only 2.4% of the population has a brain scan that has only male or only female features; everyone else is a "mosaic." So you can be female and be extremely good at math and hate asking for directions; you can be male and hate math and always ask for directions rather than look at a map. [See Scientific American, September 2017: "Is there a 'Female' Brain?"]

2. We can see that gender is socially constructed by the fact that what counts as normative masculinity or femininity is different in different cultures, and even within the same culture can change over time.

3. HOWEVER: Conservatives of any period will tend to try to naturalize or “essentialize” gender by claiming that cultural ideals for masculine = male and feminine = female. The ideas of proper gender behavior for your sex are continuously reinforced by society.

4. Why do we have to consider Gender as a category of analysis at all?

a. Helps us explain instituational sexism and patriarchy, both forms of oppression. Men are also hurt in this system, usually emotionally, although given substantial rewards for participating.

B. Gender does not equal sexual preference.

1. eg. of Tokugawa (16-19th century) highly aestheticized cult of sexual relations between young boys and older men among both samurai and merchant classes. This had little affect on idealized notions of masculinity.

2. eg of The Changelings, in which boy and girl switch gender identities, but sexual preferences remain heterosexual.

C. Gender is relational (on a continuum). Gender roles often reflect the relative power relations of men and women.

1. We will see many cases where normative "feminine" behavior is defined precisely to keep women out of power.

2. Masculinity is often understood as positive or neutral: feminine features are often constructed as the negative counterpart to masculine features. Why?

D. Gender as a category of analysis does not exist in isolation; it is relational.

1. Normative concepts of feminine and masculine change in response to changing political, economic, religious etc. factors. The focus of this course will be on how normative ideals of femininity and masculinity change over a thousand year period in Japan in response to historical changes.

2. Beginning with the development of capitalism in Tokugawa period Japan, race and racism start becoming important, in earlier periods they don't play much of a role.

IV Gender stereotypes

A. Make a list of all the characteristics you can think of that are masculine/feminine. To what extent are these traits natural (innate) or socially constructed?

B. What are some of the common gender stereotypes about Japanese women?

C. What factors have influenced the lives of men and women in Japan?

1. family position:

2. class:

3. dominant religious and social values

4. the prevailing legal, economic, and political institutions

D. Who is it that determines what are the stereotypes for appropriate gender behavior? Who determines it in America today?

1. Who gets to write/produce?

2. How does internalized sexism function?

3. Are individual men the enemey?