Theories of Gender and Sex introduces the theories by which gender and sex is studied. There are three main theories that are introduced; Biological, Psychological, and Critical/Cultural theories. Biological theories are an objective perspective (also known as scientific), while cultural theories are viewed through an interpretive perspective, and psychological theories are in the middle of both.
Biological theories typify sex, meaning they use hormones, brain structure and other common aspects of a specific sex to understand or explain behavior. This has undoubtedly been helpful, but these types of studies indicate that women are more likely to for example, be more nurturing because of their biological nature to give birth, additionally, new studies have shown that this is not true. This further indicates that men are more likely or have aggressive behavior due to their high levels of testosterone. It essentially says that our biological sex determines gender differences. This is a problem because new research suggests that there are more factors that go into determining what is gender, how is constructed and how it is adopted.
Psychological theories focus on the internal development triggered by early childhood experience. This approach focuses on how our unconscious thoughts and memories influence our identity and beliefs. Within this approach there are two very interesting ideas, social learning, and cognitive development. Social learning tells us that gender is learned behavior while cognitive development is identity in stages. This approach uses scientific research along with other resources to understand the complexity of humans. Humans are only so predictable therefore we can only understand so much through this approach. Research that goes into developing these ideas might have a larger margin of error results because of our unpredictability.
Lastly, Critical/Cultural theories introduce us to study the power within society and gender norms. It invites us to look at how gender is viewed in different cultures. All societies have at least a slightly different perspective and therefore experiences of individuals vary. For example, women in the U.S have a different experience than women in Muslim countries or Latin countries because of religion, history, tradition, race, etc., this is called intersectionality.
Gendered/Sexed Bodies gives us a further understanding of all the concepts above and how they are played into reality. I was specifically intrigued by how many ideas are internalized. This was discussed in the explanation of Objectification. This term refers to the view of bodies as sexualized and as an object, but self-objectification goes on further than trying to comply with society’s norms. Self-objectification internalizes those beliefs; that your body is an object.
1 thought on “Journal 3”