Gender & Identity
Lesson Plan
• Gender Schema Theory & sex typing (cont.)
• Readings: I/1 (transnational, historical,
multicultural approach to gender)
• Readings: III/4, 7 (representations:
colonialism, orientalism/Africanism)
Exercise:
feminine : masculine
• sort the following attributes and behaviors
into masculine / feminine categories:
• nightingale, tender, flower, motorcycle,
assertive, eagle, weak, strong, computer
games, Barbie, barrettes, skirt, Mary,
butterfly, blushing, bikini, gorilla, hurling,
trousers, ant, stepping, sweater
Exercise:
feminine : masculine
• add additional attributes to this list and then
create meaningful narratives out of the
associative networks related to cultural
categories of feminine : masculine that you
have established
Exercise:Readings
• In groups of 3-4, take an article from our
textbook and provide the following:
• brief summary
• respond to the questions distributed in class
• present your arguments as a group to the class
Readings: Women’s Bodies in
Science and Culture
• historical and medical knowledge
influential in spreading information about
bodies male and female and influencing
society
• meanings shift over time but rooted in
society’s organization of knowledge
• emergence of notion of sex differences as
primary explanation for human diversity
• how difference turns into inequality
Readings: Women’s Bodies in
Science and Culture
Reading A: Sex and the Body (Oudshoorn)
• List the bio/technology paradigms related to
the changing concept of the female body in
the last 300 years.
• Why scientific definitions can (and are)
harmful in creating cultural stereotypes
about men and women?
Readings: Women’s Bodies in
Science and Culture
Reading B: The Egg and the Sperm (Martin)
• Give examples that show how social
imagery can be imposed on biology.
• Do you agree with the author that
biological images create negative
associations with female reproductive
organs?
Readings: Women’s Bodies in
Science and Culture
Reading C: A Welcoming Soil: Islamic
Humoralism (Laderman)
• Using Islamic humoralism as example,
explain the process by which one quality
transferred to others, can create cultural
definition of sex.
Readings: Women’s Bodies in
Science and Culture
Reading D: Androgynous Males and Deficient
Females: Biology and Gender Boundaries in
Sixteenth-Century China (Furth)
• Present the argument related to androgynous
males and deficient females in 16th century
Chinese culture.
• Do you agree with the author’s feminist
explanation of this historical condition?
Readings: Women’s Bodies in
Science and Culture
Reading E: Social Construction Theory:
Problems in the History of Sexuality (Vance)
• What is natural and what is constructed in
terms of sexual identity? (natural corresponds
to essential & universal; cultural corresponds
to frames that are imposed by society to
determine how reality is organized)
• Do you agree with the author?
Readings: Gender in Relation to
Class, Nation, Race
• Gender in relation to race, class, nationality,
culture, religion, sexuality
• Transnational approach to gender (focus on
differences & inequalities rather than
continuity)
• Global economy (national and local
identities questioned by movement of
goods, money, and media images)
Readings: Representing Women
in Colonial Contexts
Reading A: Woman is an Island: Femininity
and Colonization (Williamson)
• What is the meaning of the ‘other’ mentioned
by the author? Why is ‘other’ an abstraction,
an ideal, and also a symbol for all that the
West is not?
• How can that type of thinking affect the lives
of those that are not in the West?
Readings: Representing Women
in Colonial Contexts
Reading B: Excerpts from Reading National
Geographic (Lutz-Collins)
• Images have been influential in promoting
representations of people. What are the
stereotypes of women promoted in National
Geographic?
• Give own examples of how illustrated magazines
represent women and ‘the people of the world’?
Readings: Representing Women
in Colonial Contexts
Reading C: Feminism and Difference (Lazreg)
• Why are the categories, ‘Islamic women’ or
‘Muslim women’ insufficient?
• Give your own examples of similar typing of
groups.
Readings: Representing Women
in Colonial Contexts
Reading D: Excerpt from Images of Women:
The Portrayal of Women in Photography of
the Middle East (Graham-Brown)
• Discuss the issue of controlling visibility of
women in the Middle East and other
Mediterranean society.
• Why is it a problematic concept to most
European cultures?
Readings: Gender in Relation to
Modernization, Globalization
• Effect of modernization policies: population
control, increased industrialization, use of
technology in agriculture
• Transnational networks (new social movements
and non-governmental organizations; new
international communities and identities-connections)
Readings: Cyberculture
Reading A: Feminism for the Incurably
Informed (Balsamo)
• Histories of technology exclude gender and
gendered technologies (technologies related
to nursing, food preparation, etc.). Why is that
a problem?
• Why is it important that women give their
contribution in the area of information
technology, shaping it in accordance with
Readings: Cyberculture
Reading B: The Internet and the South:
Superhighway or Dirt-Tracks? (Panos Inst.)
• What are the implications of the gender gap in
access and use of technology bw North and
South?
Readings: Cyberculture
Reading C: Using Information Technology as a
Mobilizing Force: The Case of the Tanzania
Media Women’s Association (Alloo)
• Give other examples from your own
experience that show how information
technology can be used to mobilize a
community and contribute to social change
that reflects the interests of that community.