WGS FInal
What is the body?
A cultural contruct, significance is shaped by differeing cultural ideas
Mind....
Is assosiated with spirituality and virtue (Men)
Body...
Is assosiated with earlthy desires and sin (Women)
Body has also...
Been understood as the physical ground of gender differences
Female bodies are created through...
Discourse through practices, representations, commodification, reproduction, and technology
Medical discourse has constructed....
Negative notions of the female body and sexualtiy, representing womens bodies and the natural processes they go through as diseased
Where are bodily needs and desires constructed?
In and inextricable from the market-place
How have people started using their bodies?
Using their bodies and fashion for self-expression and self-enhancement, and to signal political commitments
Beauty standards for men include...
Fitness and weight, and building strong muscles (symbol of attraction for men)
What is the universal idea of a person?
Male and able-bodied
What is the family
The family is an ancient and universal form of social organization
In most societies...
People have formed families based on marital hetero-sexual households
How is marriage often explained?
An economic necessity
What are other reasons for marriage?
Regulating sexuality and having children
Every society has...
Customary rules and expectations about the formation of households
What do marital households usually include?
Husband, wife, children, and often elders
In most societies, wives in traditional marriages are...
Deemed to be subordinate to husbands
Many women now have the option of ____ which will reduce need for marriage/to stay married
Birth control
What have women been assumed/been structually and culturally expected to do?
Primary responsiblity to care for elders and ill family members
Historically, women were punished for _____, whereas men were excused...
Premarital and Extramarital experiences
In North America, divorce tends to...
Result in unfavourable economic consequences for women
Another option for Christian and Buddhist women is...
The Convent
How do utopian communities immagine alternative roles for men and women?
By means of celibacy and eliminating reproduction
What do many women continue to wish for?
Conventional marriage and family
Womens political conciousness has been galvanized around...
Health issues
What has the womens health movement sought to do?
Empower women about their own bodies
Why has womens health been percieved differently from mens?
Because womens bodies/biological processes are different in some respects from mens
What are the biases in the gender dynamics of Western medicine?
Women were considered to be physically defective, and more recently women were viewed as the 'weaker sex'
What has society done?
Medicalized the normal parts of the life cycle/experiences of most women (mensturation, childbirth, menopause)
What do male experts and policy-makers have enourmous influence over?
Womens access to health care and information
Where is control over womens bodies especially politicized?
Birth control and abortion (Roe v. Wade)
Who is often not recognized by the medical system at all?
Women who do not have cisgender "female" bodies
Where does childbrith remain a risk?
In developing countries and among the poor
Stress of racism contributes to...
Physical disease as well as mental health, contributing to un-equal treatment from the health care system and its professionals
Hysterectomies have...
Long lasting negative physical, emotional, and sexual effects for women
Who is especially vulnerable and why?
Refugees, disabled, elderly, and incarcerated women. They are at special risk for violent attacks and neglect and also have limited access to good health care
Womens health movement has...
Made great strides in bringing womens health issues to the public and womens own agendas
What will address the issues and improve womens health?
Working to counter gender, racial, ethnic, sexuality, and class biases
What has every known society done?
Assigned work by gender, and the work done by women has traditionally been valued less
What have women been barred from?
Most trades of skilled labour (by guilds and craft organizations)
Where can immigrants only find work?
In the services sector as nannies, maids, and sex workers
Women find it difficult to compete with men for jobs because...
Their interests are not entirely seperate from those of the men to whom they are some way realted
Why do some men not support womens attempts to gain economic equality?
They believe this would threaten their traditional superior status in the job market and at home
Women on the job may be subject to...
Sexual or gender harrassment (particularily those who experience intersectional inequalities)
Employment equity programs attempt to...
Improve the oppourtunities of those who have suffered from discrimination
The womens movement...
Has raised womens aspirations and brought about some changes in attitude
What will not be achieved without structual changes in the economy and society?
Feminist objectives
What is hegemonic masculinity?
Refers to idealized and accepted forms of masculinity (dominance, emotional restraint, heterosexuality, physical strength)
Diversity in expression of masulinity
Masculinity is not a one size fits all concept
Fluidity and adaptability
Masculinity is not static
Intersectionality
Race, class, and sexuality
Countering hegemonic masculinity
Multiplicity of masculinities challenges the idea of a dominant or "hegemonic" form of masculinity
Individual agency
Each individual has agency in constructing their own masculinity
Strong, hero, successful domiant figure, are all examples of...
Advertisements reinforcing gender stereotypes
"Alpha Male" is...
Confidence, leadership, assertiveness, physical presence, social dominance, competitiveness
Andrew Tate
Andre Tate enforces alpha male mindset and warps the vision of what a man should be and how they should control women
The convent provides oppoutunities for some women to...
Develop skills/talents and to serve their societies in ways unrealized to wives and mothers