Post on 20-Aug-2020
Culture and Identity: Gender
Key Questions from the Readings 146-‐51 Femininity���
• Why do you think that a fatter female shape is desirable in Niger?
• How does this illustrate the idea that culture construct what the ideal female body is?
• What are 5 things you like from the video?
• What are 3 things you don’t like from the video?
Masculinity
• How is masculinity culturally constructed in Canadian society?
• What are some of the rules that boys learn to follow in order to be accepted as men?
• How are those rules changing?
Haka • The Haka is a traditional ancestral war cry,
dance and challenge from the Maori people of New Zealand.
• It is performed before All-Black rugby games.
• In the lead-‐up to the Rugby World Cup in 2011 it was done in flashmobs all over New Zealand and some Maori leaders thought it was “inappropriate”
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vlm6OfXzH78
• Compare the idea of masculinity here with our notions of masculinity in North America
• Do you think that this is an inappropriate appropriation of native culture?
Gender vs. Sex
• Biology is sex where as gender is the role given by the society we live in
• You internalize the qualities attributed to your gender
• Intersex is sometimes referred to as a third gender: someone born with both male and female sexual characteristics
Alternate-‐Gender Identity
• Third gender can include people who are intersexed, transgendered or homosexual people
• Cultures other than Western culture have historically accepted and recognized third gendered people as a distinct group who fulfill valuable and necessary roles in society
• Aboriginal peoples adopted the term two-spirited to refer to alternate gender people
• http://www.ted.com/talks/io_tillett_wright_fifty_shades_of_gay.html