Solving The Gender Puzzle Analysis

Kate Bornstein wrote the first reading that was assigned to us. Solving the Gender Puzzle highlighted the differences between gender and sex. This is where I read the first real meaning of gender: categorization. Bornstein writes that sex is the act in which people perform together, and gender is the separation of people by mannerisms, behavior, appearance, biology, etc. Anything that separates people is called gender. Then there are gender roles, assignment, identity, and attribution. Gender attribution is probably the most common act we all are guilty of doing every time we meet someone. Humans naturally attribute behavioral norms or physical appearances of societies idea of a man or woman and immediately latch them to every person they …show more content…
She is the temptress, her body is sin and she represents earth. Man is closer to God and Men have the most beautiful body (Greek belief). Even in the reading titled The Bodies of Women, you will find that a woman’s body was measured in accordance with a mans. In order for doctors to understand what/how a woman’s body operated, they consulted with midwives. These midwives were considered Ancient doctors. They even examined female monkeys to familiarize themselves with a woman’s anatomy. A woman’s contribution to procreation was a vessel. Their belief was that life was carried in a man’s sperm so he was the bringer of life to this world. In the beginning of Bodies on women, Greek women were able to pass off the idea that sex was to be performed in identical motion and that man/woman must orgasm at the same time in order for a baby for be formed inside the womb. Unfortunately for these women, Aristotle discovered that women could conceive without reaching orgasm. His discovery also set scientific observation back when he also rejected the idea that women produced sperm. Aristotle was not a doctor, he was a naturalist and it’s amazing to read how accurate he was on his findings about the female body. One thing for certain, he still measured a woman by a man’s body calling their bodies lacking of sort, incomplete, inferior and weaker. The article continued on to talk about menstrual cycles and how different Roman and Greek thinking led to young girls getting married and having children before puberty. They thought a child’s body was at its healthiest between 12-14yr olds and this is the time they married these young girls off to older men. How unfortunate and lucky we are to be in this current timeline as opposed to the suppression/abuse millions of women suffered that allowed the rest of us to sit in class now and enjoy our