I. Problems with Universal Subordination Theory

A. Ortner's model links sexual ideologies, stereotypes, social roles, and cultural meanings
B. Ignores economic explanations
C. Nature/culture distinction isn't universal

1. Taoism, chi, and feng shui
2. Gimi and forest as source of male power

 

II. The Cultural Construction of Sex and Gender

A. Unlike causes can produce like effects
B. Gender relations are cultural, social, and symbolic systems with unique history

 

III. Transsexual, Transgender, and Transvestite

A. Transsexual: a person who changes physical, biological sex, through a sex-change operation
B. Transgendered: a person who changes gender, but who does not change physical sex
C. Transvestite: a person who dresses up as the opposite sex
D. Intersexual: a person born with unique sex identity that seems a combination of male and female traits
E. Continuum of sexes
F. Tom Laqueur and the emergence of two sexes in Western culture

1. Ancient Greece - 18th and early 19th century: one-sexed world

a. Woman is inverted man: illustration
b. One sex, two genders

2. End of 18th century: scientists argue for 2 sexes

a. fundamental biological, psychological, and spiritual differences between men and women

G. Example of the 19th century intersexual Herculine Barbin
H. Medical practices of sex assignment today

 

IV. Hijras in India

A. India: binary sex/gender system, hierarchical, patriarchal, natural
B. Hinduism: intersexuality is possible, powerful
C. Hijras as neither men nor women, but a third

1. Born men or intersexed
2. Undergo ritual surgical transformation
3. Impotent for sex with women
4. Sometimes act as male prostitutes
5. Worship the Hindu mother goddess Bahuchara Mata
6. Dance at marriages and after the birth of a male child
7. Confer blessing of fertility
8. Form kinship communities
9. Liminal, yet have a role in Indian society

 

V. Paris is Burning and Gender as Performance

A. Paris is Burning (1990)

1. Gay African-American and Latino men in Harlem
2. Form "houses" centered on "mothers"
3. Transsexuals, transgendered and/or transvestites
4. Balls: competitive display of "realness"

B. Drag: supporting or subverting gender stereotypes?
C. Gender as performance

1. We choose to act our gender
2. The limits of choice in performance

a. scripts, acceptable roles hard to transgress
b. Performance needs to be "real"

 

VI. Travestis in Brazil

A. Travestis: homosexual men

1. Female names, clothing styles, cosmetic practices, linguistic practices
2. Alter bodies with hormones and injections of silicone

B. Do NOT identify as women
C. Men identified in two ways

1. Penis (Sex)
2. Penetration (Sexuality, Sex act)

D. Travestis

1. Would never remove penis, source of sexual pleasure
2. Sometimes penetrated, sometimes penetrator
3. Role of boyfriends: "They [travestis] don't get sex from their men -- what they get, instead, is gender" (133).

E. Kulick's critique of theories of "third gender"

1. Makes man/woman binary seem clearcut: "there is a real danger that theories of third gender in fact radically naturalize and reinforce traditional understandings of sexual dimorphism, by suggesting that individuals who do not fit the male-female binary fall outside it and transcend it, rather than disturb it, blur it, or reconfigure it" (230).
2. Link between sex and gender seems straightforward, to the point that gender depends on physical body
3. Travestis share elements of female gender identity
4. Instead of body ==> gender, focus on how sexuality ==> gender

a. Brazilian gender system: man/not man
b. Sexual penetration is an engendering act
C. Both women and travestis are "not men"

F. Travestis throw into relief normative Brazilian ideals of gender

 

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