Gender & Sexuality

Lifespan Development

Dr. Giobbi

Sequence of Topics

• Gender

• Sexuality

• Relationships

GENDER

Sense of “maleness” or “femaleness”.

Other -The Third

Dichotomy fallacy

SEX

Sexual anatomy

Sexual behavior

Performance

Performing (acting) a social role.

Judith Butlerhttp://bigthink.com/videos/your-behavior-creates-your-gender

At Birth

• Fathers interact more with sons

• Mothers interact more with daughters

• Boys receive rougher play from parents.

(Parke, 1996)

Attitudes Towards Genders

• Researchers showed video of baby.

• S’s told baby was either “John” or “Mary”.

• John was viewed as “adventurous”.

• Mary was viewed as “fearful” and “anxious” (Condry & Condry, 1976).

GIOBBI

BIOLOGY

• Male infants tend to be more active than female infants at birth (Eaton & Enns, 1986)

• Male sleep tends to be more disturbed

The Fine Print…

“Differences between M & F infants, however, are generally minor. In most

ways infants seem so similar that usually adults cannot discern whether a

baby is a boy or a girl…”

(Feldman, 2012).

Infants Awareness of the M/F Dichotomy

• By the age of 1 year, infants are able to distinguish between males & females (Caldera & Sciaraffa, 1998).

By age 2 years…

• Girls behave more compliantly than boys (Kuczynski, et al., 1990)

Reactions to the First step

• Boys are encouraged to keep going, girls are embraced & hugged (Poulin-Dubois, et al., 2002).

Androgen

• Male hormone.

• Girls who were exposed to high levels of androgen while in utero were more likely to play with boy preferred toys (Levine, et al., 1999).

Dr. Louann Brizendine Talks The Female Brain

• http://evolvify.com/dr-louann-brizendine-the-female-brain/

Biology

• Corpus callosum is larger in females than in males (Benbow et al., 1997)

• Evolutionary pressures for reproduction & survival

Gender Identity

Boys Awards

• Best thinker

• Most eager learner

• Most imaginative

• Most scientific

• Hardest worker

Gender Identity

Girls Awards

• All-around sweetheart

• Sweetest personality

• Cutest personality

• Best helper

• Best manners

(Deveny, 1994)

Gender Identity

• Gender (n) from stem of Latin genus (genitive generis) "race, stock, family; kind, rank, order; species," also (male or female) "sex”

• Gender (v) "to bring forth," late 14c., from Old French gendrer, from Latin generare "to engender"

Gender Identity

• As sex took on erotic qualities in 20c., gender came to be the common word used for "sex of a human being," often in feminist writing with reference to social attributes as much as biological qualities; this sense first attested 1963. Gender-bender is first attested 1980, with reference to pop star David Bowie.

Gender Identity

• Gender is established by the age of 2. (Coltrane & Adams, 1997)

• Children show preference for same-sex playmates by at 2-3 years of age.

Gender Identity

• Preschoolers hold very rigid gender conceptions.

• By age 7 the conceptions relax

(Eichstedt, et al., 2002)

Psychoanalysis

• Penis envy• Castration anxiety• Oedipus• Antigone• Phalocentrism• PsychosexualDevelopment

Cognitive Psychology

• Gender schema (Martin, 2000)

Cognitive framework that organizes information relevant to gender.

• Gender constancy people are permanent M or F, fixed by biology (Warin, 2000).

AISAndrogen Insensitivity

Syndrome• http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Androgen-i

nsensitivity-syndrome/Pages/Introduction.aspx

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKWK7vhspS4

Me, My Sex, & I (BBC)

• http://watchdocumentary.org/watch/me-my-sex-and-i-video_97eba7f1e.html

Sex Unknown (NOVA)Intersexuality

• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/gender/

• Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1yT9apMepQ

Gender as Spectrum

• http://video.pbs.org/video/1897204646/