1. Chapter 2: Gender Development
Biology, Sexuality, and Health

2. Chapter 2: Gender Development - Concepts
Essentialism
Margaret Mead
Sex hormones/chromosomes
Sociobiology
Infant-father bonding
Freud
Intersexed & Sexual Dimorphism
Transsexual & Transgender
Gender Identity
Sexual scripts
Queer theory
Sexual Orientation
Teens & Sexual intercourse
Gender and mortality
PMS/menopause
Freud
Double Standard

3. Essentialism/Nature vs. Nurture
Essentialism: is the belief that males and females are inherently different because of their biology and genes.
Although research does not discount the role of biology in gender development, it clearly demonstrates that culture is greater barrier to equality than biology

4. Essentialism/Nature vs. Nurture
Nature and Nurture: Margaret Mead
1930’s, Sex and temperament in Three Primitive Societies, New Guinea—
Arapesh—gentle, and peace loving
Mundugumor—fierce and aggressive
Tchumbuli—demonstrated (what would be considered) reverse gender role
Concluded: Masculine and feminine are culturally, rather than biologically, determined.

5. >Mead’s work challenges the “it’s only natural” argument
>In fact, no existing theory, especially those grounded in essentialism, can explain the immense variety of meanings attached to being male and female.
>Therefore, we can identify biological differences and similarities between female and male, but to determine how these relate to what is considered “masculine” and “feminine” the world over is difficult.

6. Sociobiology

7. Sociobiology Evolution, Genetics, & Biology:
Genetics endow females and males with different capacities to allow adaptive advantages for species survival to unfold productively
Other biological differences, such as prenatal androgens, reinforce genetic patterns.

8. Sociobiology Sociobiology:
Rooted in the nature side of the debate, the field of sociobiology also addresses questions of sex differences in its examination of the biological roots of social behavior.
Originally developed out of research based on insects (Edward Wilson— social insects), sociobiologists argue that evolutionary theory can be used to draw conclusions about humans from studies of animals.

9. Sociobiology Cognitive Biology:
>The biological basis for sex differences stems from research on prenatal hormones and brain development.
>Androgens help determine how our bodies, including our brains, becomes sexually differentiated.
>Higher levels of androgens predict more male-typical than female- typical behavior.

10. Sociobiology Cognitive Biology:
Cognitive sex differences related to stronger spatial ability for males and stronger verbal ability for females, for examples, may have biological roots since these differences show up very early in life before strong environmental influences kick in.
These are stables differences that persist over times for individuals regardless of gender role change.
Hormones may accounts for some sex differences in gender identity and sexual orientation, for example, but cannot account for gender differences in other roles such as nurturing, love, and crime behavior.

11. Sociobiology Cognitive Biology: Is sexuality a choice?
Video: UHYoY

12. The Hormone Puzzle Males possess one X and one Y chromosome XY = Male
Females possess two X chromosomes
The extra X chromosome is associated with a superior immune system and lower female mortality at all states of the life cycle.
XX = Female
Males possess one X and one Y chromosome
XY = Male
Is it the lack or presence of the Y chromosome that determines if a baby will be male or female

13. The Hormone Puzzle

14. The Hormone Puzzle We know that sex hormones have two key functions:
1) They shape the development of the brain and sex organs
2) They determine how these organs will be activated.
Ex: During fetal development, when certain tissues are highly sensitive to hormones, the secretion of testosterone both masculinized and effeminized key cellular structures throughout the brain and reproductive organs.
The fetus first starts to develop female organs but later masculinizes itself if it possesses a Y chromosome, under the influence of testosterone.

15. The Hormone Puzzle The Hormone Puzzle:
Theory on the influencing factors of sexuality:
Video:

16. Aggression

17. Aggression
The debate on the influence of hormones on gender behavior is further complicated when studying se differences and aggression.
Aggression is linked to testosterone.
Girls and boys are about equal in learned aggressiveness.
Girls are more likely to suppress their anger and carry it out verbally. They also use ore relational aggression—purposely harming others, usually other girls, through manipulating peers, family members, and friends. Girls cause harm when a relationship suffers.
Boys and young men are more likely to show aggression, but they carry it out in physical way—confronting adversaries, usually other males, with fistfights, bullying, and shouting matches coupled with pushing and shoving.

18. Motherhood

19. Motherhood
Animal studies of primates focusing on hormones released during pregnancy that allegedly fuel mother-infant bonding have been used to suggest the existence of a maternal instinct in human females
But, the notion of a maternal instinct is not supported by available research.
Leta Hollingworth (1916) discounted the maternal instinct belief and suggested that “social devices” are the impelling reasons for women to bear and rear children. Socialization of females maximizes attachment to the young, whereas for males it is minimized.

20. Motherhood
What? And I wanted to live with this so bad…

21. Motherhood
NOOOOOOOO……

22. Motherhood Examples that defy “maternal instinct”:
> Women that suffer from postpartum depression & may even reject their child
>Infanticide, voluntary abortion, and neglect by mothers
>Number of voluntarily childless women also continues to increase.

23. Motherhood
There is little support for “maternal instinct” but much support that attachment to infants is socialized
In fact, when new fathers take part in birthing, measures of infant-father bonding are as high as infant-mother bonding.
Consider, once more, Mead’s study of the gentle Arapesh primitive society, where both sexes enjoyed child care.

24. Gendered Sexuality—Sigmund Freud: Anatomy is Destiny

25. Gendered Sexuality—Sigmund Freud: Anatomy is Destiny
Developed the 5 Stages of Psychosexual Development—oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital.
The one that has received the most attention is the phallic stage (ages 3-5) as it relates to gender socialization—recognize anatomical differences between the sexes.
It is also the phallic stage in which gratification focused on the genitals.

26. Gendered Sexuality—Sigmund Freud: Anatomy is Destiny
The fact that a boy possesses a penis and a girl does not is the dominant factor in Freud’s theory of psychosexual development.
“Penis Envy”—Freud argued that girls come to believe that they penis, unlike the barely noticeable clitoris is a symbol of power denied to them. The result is “penis envy” which culminates in a girl's with that she could be a boy.
‘Castration Anxiety”—hen a boy discovers that a girl does not have a penis, he developed “castration anxiety”—the fear he will be deprived of the prized organ.

27. Ambiguous Sex, Ambiguous Gender

28. Ambiguous Sex, Ambiguous Gender
Research on infants born with sexual anomalies helps to clarify the biological basis of sex differences
Intersexed describes the approximates 1-3% of infants born with both males and female sex organs or who have ambiguous genitals (such as a clitoris that looks like a penis)
They violate the principles of sexual dimorphism, the separation of the sexes into two distinct, nonoverlapping categories.

29. Ambiguous Sex, Ambiguous Gender
Transsexuals & Transvestites:
Unlike intersexed people, transsexuals are genetic males or females who psychologically believe they are members of the other sex.
They feel “trapped” in the wrong bodies and many undergo SRS (sexual reassignment surgery) to “correct” the problem. Only then can their gender identity and their biological sex be consistent.
Transsexuals are not homosexuals. They are newly minted males or females who desire sexual intimacy with the other gender.
Transvestites, mostly males who are sexually aroused when they dress in women's clothing, are not transsexual.

30. Does Nature Rule? A Sex Reassignment Tragedy

31. Does Nature Rule? A Sex Reassignment Tragedy
John/Joan Case
(1963) 7-month old identical twins.
Routine circumcision
Unfortunately, the physician burnt off the penis of one of the boys.
22-months, his parents decided to have a sex-change operation.
Renaming their child Brenda.
So, the former I mentioned, A medical accident:

32. Does Nature Rule? A Sex Reassignment Tragedy
John/Joan Case
Initially, Brenda's parents noted that she was progressing as any normal girl.
Then, Brenda began imitating her father and favoring “boy” toys.
At 14, her father told her about the medical accident and subsequent sex change.
After this, Brenda renamed herself David.
Testosterone shots & surgical reconstruction of a penis.
Unfortunately, David committed suicide in 2004.
Initially, Brenda's parents noted that she was progressing as any normal girl.
Then, Brenda began imitating her father and favoring “boy” toys.
At 14, her father told her about the medical accident and subsequent sex change.
After this, Brenda renamed herself David and began to live like a man
He later took Testosterone shots & surgical partial reconstruction of a penis.
David eventually married a woman and adopted children
Unfortunately, David committed suicide in 2004.
The book you see listed here (and on the previous page) was written about his specific story.
If you’re interested, you can check it out. It tells how he came to terms with his gender identity.
Now, in another example of the “nature vs. nurture” debate is THE VIETNAM VETERANS STUDY that details how differences in testosterone levels ALONG with social class association influence

33. Sexual Scripts: Double Standard

34. Sexual Scripts Sexual scripts:
As we know, sociologists emphasize how sexuality is based on prescribed roles that are acted out like other socially bestowed roles—these come in the forms of sexual scripts
Sexual scripts are shared beliefs concerning what society defined as acceptable sexual thoughts, feelings, and behaviors for each gender.
Gender roles are connected with different sexual scripts—one considered more appropriate for males, and the other considered more appropriate for females.

35. Sexual Scripts: The Double Standard
Sexual scripts continue to be based on beliefs that for men sex is for orgasm and physical pleasure, and for women sex is for love and the pleasure that comes from intimacy.
Double standard—refers to the idea that men are allowed to express themselves sexually and women are not.
The double standard isn’t necessarily reflective of sexual behavior but of sexual attitudes.

36. Sexual Scripts: Premarital/ Nonmarital Sex
This is reflective in the attitudes toward premarital/ nonmarital sex. Today the differences between men and women in premarital sex have all but disappeared.
Men have sex earlier than women, but by the time they graduate from college virtually all mea and women are sexually experienced.
About half of all teenagers aged have had sexual intercourse at least once.
However, people are surprised to learn that sexual activity among teens has significantly declined
Wait!!!!!

37. Gender and Health

38. Gender and Health
Various measurement techniques have been developed to determine the patterns of health and well-being related to sex and gender.
Mortality rate—expressed as a percentage of the total number of deaths over the population size in a give time period, usually a year.
Morbidity rate—amount of disease or illness in a population. These are often based on treatment.

39. Gender and Health
A clearer and consistent inverse pattern emerges in comparing gender differences in mortality and morbidity.
Women have higher morbidity (sickness) rates but live longer than men
Men have lower morbidity (sickness)/chronic conditions rates but do not live as long as women
Ex: Table 2.1 (pg. 40): Heart disease (1.4), cancers (1.5), accidents (1.3), suicide (4.1), and homicide (3.8).
Men also have higher mortality (death) rates at every stage of life.

40. Health and Work

41. Health and Work Men and Morbidity:
Males are prone to certain physical and mental illnesses and injury categories in which women tend to be exempt.
Men are more likely to suffer from personality disorders (antisocial behavior or narcissism) than women
As a buffer against mental and physical illness for both men and women, it is better to be married.

42. Health and Work Men and Morbidity:
For men, it is much better to be married. Single men have the highest mortality and morbidity rates for both physical and mental disorders.
Never married, divorced, and single men have higher rates of mental illness when compared to all marital categories or women.
Health and Work

43. Health and Work Women and Morbidity:
Morbidity appears to gradually merge in females especially noticeable in preadolescence—reports of asthma, migraine headaches, and psychological and eating disorders than boys.
Females of all ages report more daily and transient illnesses such as colds and headaches and a higher prevalence of nonfatal chronic conditions such as arthritis, anemia, and sinusitis.
Employed women are healthier than the non- employed
Sedentary work has many negative health effects.

44. Health and Disease

45. Health and Disease Menopause and Hormone Replacement Therapy:
Misinformation and cultural stereotypes surround menopause, when menstruation permanently ceases.
This causes women to have many disorders related to reproduction
Robert Wilson (1966) referred to menopause as the “disease of estrogen deficiency”
Deemed treatable by hormone replacement therapy (HRT).
Discovered that HRT significantly increased the risks of invasive breast caner, stroke and blood clots. In fact, it showed that HRT raised (not lowered) coronary heart disease (CHD)risk in healthy postmenopausal women.

46. Health and Disease: Eating Disorders

47. Health and Disease Eating Disorders:
There are other serious health effects in the quest for youth and beauty.
Such beliefs translate to eating disorders, especially anorexia nervosa—a disease of self- induce severe weight loss, primarily in young women along with bulimia—which alternates binge eating and purging.
The rate of these ”fear of fat” diseases have steadily increased since the 1950’s, affecting over 7 million women today.

48. Health and Disease Eating Disorders:
Males are not immune to weight obsession with their concerns focusing on body shape and muscularity.
The objectification of the male body in the media form is a key factor in the rapid increase of eating disorders and abuse of anabolic steroids and supplements for all age categories of males.
Like women, men's psychological well-being is associated with body image norms related to masculinity.

49. Health and Disease Eating Disorders:
Chronic dieting and excessive physical exercise are reinforced by other health messages publicizing the obesity epidemic in the United States.
Americans are obsesses with thinness at the same time as an obesity epidemic has emerged.
Conflict theory perspective: This has resulted in a form of the medicalization of beauty—a process that legitimized medical control over parts of a person's life.

50. Health and Disease Eating Disorders:
Combined with cosmetic surgery, unhealthy body weight norms the social pressure for thinness is supported by a billion-dollar advertising and medial industry.
Ultimately, the industry perpetuates and sustains culturally accepted belief that women’s bodies—and increasingly men’s bodies—are unacceptable as the are.

51. Health and Disease: HIV/AIDS

52. Health and Disease: HIV/AIDS
A decade ago, acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) focused on the high mortality rate of men with the disease.
For all categories of men and women today, AIDS mortality has significantly decreased. In the U.S.& developed world, HIV infection rates have stabilized or are declining since 1990’s.
AIDS mortality is re-focused to HIV morbidity. New cases of HIV are declining.

53. Health and Disease: HIV/AIDS
The sharpest declines are for white males.
Over 2/3 of females living with HIV/AIDs are African American.
Poor men and women lining in the South account for a significant proportion of new cases.
Taking all these factors together, poor, heterosexual, minority women are at greatest risk for HIV/AIDs in the United States.

54. Chapter 2: Gender Development
Biology, Sexuality, and Health