eading Response # 1: Submit to Moodle
1. What is the commonly understood definition of gender difference? (max 100 words) /1
The term gender is generally thought of as a socially constructed difference between male and female. It is an identity or role associated with feminine and masculine traits that are prescribed based on one’s sex. When we see femininity, we assume female, as well, we see masculinity and we assume male. Gender is relational based and is defined by how we speak to and receive others. Within gender, there is space for agency and freedom.
2. What is the commonly understood definition of sex difference? (max 100 words) /1
The term sex is most commonly understood as a biological difference between male and female. …show more content…
Chapter 11 introduces the various ways that scientific discourse has determined the similarities and differences between genders and sex. What are three different ways that science has determined the gendered body? (max 300 words) /3
Until the late eighteenth century, medical texts described the male and female bodies as essentially homogeneous. Women were thought to have the same genitals as men, but located inside the body rather than outside.
In the 1750’s a female skeleton was published in medical textbooks for the first time, and is considered the first part of the human body to become gendered. From here, attention was placed on the skulls of females and it was proven that females were less intelligent than males.
Throughout the centuries, differences in the bodies of males and females continued to shift from skeleton, to cells, to organs. Medical science focused on reducing femininity to one specific organ of the female body. Up until the nineteenth century, the uterus was seen as the essence of femininity, but in the mid nineteenth century focus shifted to the ovaries. In 1848, Virchow, a man described as the founding father of physiology, stated that without ovaries a woman would become masculine and that a woman’s femininity solely relies on her having …show more content…
One significant implication of these definitions is that women and women’s reproductive systems are less worthy than men and their reproductive systems. The language used to illustrate the egg consists of words such as “swept”, “drift”, and “dormant”. Whereas the wording detailing the events of sperm uses words like “penetrate”, “launches”, and “propel”. The connotation these words deliver is that the male process is masculine and strong, while the female process is feminine and
1. What is the commonly understood definition of gender difference? (max 100 words) /1
The term gender is generally thought of as a socially constructed difference between male and female. It is an identity or role associated with feminine and masculine traits that are prescribed based on one’s sex. When we see femininity, we assume female, as well, we see masculinity and we assume male. Gender is relational based and is defined by how we speak to and receive others. Within gender, there is space for agency and freedom.
2. What is the commonly understood definition of sex difference? (max 100 words) /1
The term sex is most commonly understood as a biological difference between male and female. …show more content…
Chapter 11 introduces the various ways that scientific discourse has determined the similarities and differences between genders and sex. What are three different ways that science has determined the gendered body? (max 300 words) /3
Until the late eighteenth century, medical texts described the male and female bodies as essentially homogeneous. Women were thought to have the same genitals as men, but located inside the body rather than outside.
In the 1750’s a female skeleton was published in medical textbooks for the first time, and is considered the first part of the human body to become gendered. From here, attention was placed on the skulls of females and it was proven that females were less intelligent than males.
Throughout the centuries, differences in the bodies of males and females continued to shift from skeleton, to cells, to organs. Medical science focused on reducing femininity to one specific organ of the female body. Up until the nineteenth century, the uterus was seen as the essence of femininity, but in the mid nineteenth century focus shifted to the ovaries. In 1848, Virchow, a man described as the founding father of physiology, stated that without ovaries a woman would become masculine and that a woman’s femininity solely relies on her having …show more content…
One significant implication of these definitions is that women and women’s reproductive systems are less worthy than men and their reproductive systems. The language used to illustrate the egg consists of words such as “swept”, “drift”, and “dormant”. Whereas the wording detailing the events of sperm uses words like “penetrate”, “launches”, and “propel”. The connotation these words deliver is that the male process is masculine and strong, while the female process is feminine and