Sex vs. Gender

GENDER-RELATED BEHAVIOR Concepts Sex vs. Gender Biological vs. Social Male Biological vs. Social Female Berdache fa’afafines Third Genders Hijras Guevodoche Eunuchs Castrati Pseudo-hermaphroditism Patriarchal Society Uniformitarianism Correlation does not prove causality. Institutionalized Homosexuality Matriarchal Society Occam's Razor Typical does not mean "natural." A constant cannot explain a variable.

Dichotomous vs. Continuous Sexual Paradigm Ethnobiology Aristotelian vs. Galilean essentialist vs. conditional Infrastructure



Structure



Superstructure

Calpernia Addams is a pre-operative transsexual

Hermaphrodites

a.k.a.

Intersexuals

Jamie Lee Curtis

* * * * *

Male or Female?

Dr. Anne Fausto-Sterling has proposed that we replace our system: two-sex system with a five-sex

1. Males 2. Females, 3. Herms ("true" hermaphrodites) 4. Merms (male "pseudohermaphrodites") 5. Ferms (female "pseudohermaphrodites")

From a Dichotomous to a Continuous Model of Sexuality Male Dicho tomous Female Co

nti nuo

us Male Female

Forms of Sexuality In Nature

Typological Approach:

•

The categories are real.

•

Race, species, sex, cultures, etc.

•

Behavior is explained in terms of the categories.

(Aristotelian) Population Approach:

•

Individuals are real.

• •

Categories are only abstractions.

Behavior is explained in terms of conditional factors. (Galileian)

Classification of the Cassowary among the Karem of New Guinea SOURCE: “Why the Cassowary is not a bird”, R. Bulmer, Man, Vol. 2, Issue 1, (Mar. 1967)

Species Hybridization Mallard – Pintail Hybridization

Coyote Gray Wolf Species Hybridization Red Wolf

Circular Overlap

Female Male NO Asymmetrical Sterility YES Female Male

•

Homosexuality

• • •

64% of human societies surveyed either condone of encourage same sex relationships.

•

Platonic love in ancient Greece Presentation of the body (with women)

• •

Presentation of the mind (with men) Greek soldiers brought young boys on military campaigns

• •

Azande military homosexuality Warriors have boy-wives Boy wives become warriors with their own boy-wives

• • •

The Sambia of Highland New Guinea Boys Fallate older men Build up store of semen Prohibition against masturbation

Third Genders Hijras Two Spirits (Berdache) Guevodoche Castrati Sworn Albanian Virgins Fa’afafines Eunuchs Sunflowers

Gender-Related Behavior

GENDER-RELATED BEHAVIOR Concepts Sex vs. Gender Biological vs. Social Male Biological vs. Social Female Berdache Third Genders fa’afafines Hijras Eunuchs Guevodoche Castrati Pseudo-hermaphroditism Patriarchal Society Uniformitarianism Correlation does not prove causality. Institutionalized Homosexuality Matriarchal Society Occam's Razor Typical does not mean "natural." A constant cannot explain a variable.

Dichotomous vs. Continuous Sexual Paradigm Ethnobiology Aristotelian vs. Galilean essentialist vs. conditional Infrastructure



Structure



Superstructure

The issue is not whether differences exist between men and women --which of course they do-- but rather whether those differences are relevant for explaining differences in behavior from one society to the next.

“There are more methodological problems in regards to the study of cognitive sex differences and sex differences in general than there are actual sex differences.

” --Dr. Caroline Jaklin

• • • • • •

The Role of Prediction in Science.

(Given a, . . . Then b.) The goal of scientific research is to develop theories and models that lead to better and better predictions of behavior. Predictability is, thus, fundamental to doing science. Yet, predictability is severely lacking in sex-difference research.

“We gain little in prediction by knowing the sex of a child.” (Jacklin) Differences generally range from 1- 5% when, in fact, they differ (Caplan & Caplan) Which means that between 95 - 99% of sex-related behavior is indistinguishable

Why Does Sex-Difference Research Persist?

• • • •

Given all of the methodological problems associated with such studies and the consistently small (and frequently non-existent) differences found, it is reasonable to ask why such research persists? Would we continue to conduct such inconclusive research in physics, chemistry, biology or medicine? Would we continue to fund research that after 30 years could not point to conclusive results? Whose interests might be served by such research?

Aristotelian approaches to the study of Sex and Gender

Commonly used Aristotelian Concepts:

Maternal Instinct Male Aggressiveness Machismo

Patriarchal Society

Human Nature Matriarchal Society

Aristotelian concepts of Gender cannot explain . . .

1. Why Net-hunter Pygmy women enjoy a higher social status than archer women.

2. Why Yanomamo women have much lower social status than Dobe !Kung women, or why they also have a lower social status than women in most other Amazonian societies.

3. Why Inuit (Eskimo) women have among the lowest social status of all women in hunter-gatherer societies.

or . . .

. . . why the role of women and their status in both the domestic and political economy changed dramatically among the Plains Indians as they moved onto the Great Plains and became increasingly dependent on mounted bison hunting. 1. Among the Sioux, the Cheyenne and other eastern tribes, the family structure changed from being matrilocal and matrilineal extended kin groups to individualized patrilocal and polygynous ones. 2. Among the western Plains Indians, such as the Blackfoot, which had previously been organized along extended patrilocal and patrilineal lines evolved male-focused independent polygynous households.

or . . .

. . . why most of those executed for witchcraft in Europe and North America during the Great Witch Craze were women , whereas most of the Pueblo Indians in the Southwest that were executed as witches by the early Spanish Conquistadors were men .

. . . or why most witches among the Pueblo, Apache and Navajo in the American Southwest are believed to be men .

. . . or why among the Yoruba of Nigeria, not only do most men suspect their women suspect their wives co-wives of witchcraft, but most and their mothers-in-law of witchcraft.

or . . .

. . . Or why . . .

1.

47% of the 95 societies she surveyed were "rape-free", while 17% proved to be "unambiguously rape-prone .” 2. The Ashanti of West Africa and the Mbuti Pygmies of the Ituri Forest are rape-free societies, whereas 47.2

rapes per 100,000 persons were recorded for the Gusii of Kenya.

3. The highest rape rate among Industrial societies occurs in the U.S. at 13.5 rapes per 100,000 inhabitants . In contrast, the incidence of “patriarchal” rape in Japan society than the U.S., is , a more far below that of the U.S.

_________________________________________ SOUCE: B. L. Benderly, “Rape Free or Rape Prone” Science 82 (1982)

. . . why female income relative to male income in the U.S.

increased from 59¢ to 60¢ per dollar between 1960 and 1980 , whereas it increased from 60¢ to 73¢ per dollar between 1980 and 1990 (during the politically conservative Reagan and Bush administrations), and only increased from 73¢ to 76¢ per dollar between 1992 and 2000, Gore were in office.

when Bill Clinton and Al . . . or why average female income increased 10% from 1979 to 1990 , while average male income decreased by 8%.

. . . or why White female employment increased 72% between 1974 and 1977 at the same time that Black male employment declined by 11%.

. . . or why there was a dramatic increase during the 1970s and 1980s in the number of individuals in the U.S. claiming: 1. to have recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse by family members 2. to have recovered memories of sexual abuse by members of satanic cults 3. to believe that they possessed multiple personalities .

. . . or why: 1. this was a distinctly American phenomenon 2. the overwhelming majority (over 90%) of these individuals were white middle class females .

. . . why M. Konner reports that aggressive behavior.

57 out of 94 studies of aggression showed "statistically significant sex differences " in 1. in 52 of the 57 studies that showed gender differences in aggressive behavior, boys were more aggressive than girls . 2. In 5 of the studies, girls were more aggressive than boys . 3. In 37 studies there were no gender difference in aggression .

Gender Differences in Wages Discrimination

Or

Adaptation?

RE: the Census Bureau statistic that women earn 76% of what men earn.

“Among women and men aged 27 to 33, who have never had a child, the earnings of women in the

National Longitudinal Survey of Youth

men’s.” are close to 98 percent of --June O’Neill, Director Congressional Budget Office “It’s the vast majority of us who become mothers who are responsible for dragging the average down.” --Danielle Crittenden

New York Times (1995)

Effect of the Differential Opportunity Costs

of Men’s vs. Women’s labor

1. ”Although the role of children is typically ignored in studies of male labor supply and wage discrimination, fatherhood has quantitatively and statistically significant effects on both outcomes.” 2.

“Because we observe increases in both hourly wages and annual hours of work for fathers, increased specialization of husbands and wives in response to parenthood is the dominant pattern for both early (pre-1950) and later (post 1950) cohorts.” --Lundberg & Rose (2002)

“Tests indicate that housework has approximately the same impact on wages for men and women who are not currently married, but that the negative relation is somewhat stronger for married women as compared with married men. Evidence suggests that this differential could be due to gender differences in the type of housework performed by married persons.

” --Hersch and Stratton (2002)

Gender Stereotypes

Women and Violence

• • • • •

Women commit the majority of child homicides in the U.S.

Women commit the majority of physical child abuse in the U.S.

Women commit about 25% of the child sexual abuse in the U.S.

Women are primarily responsible for infanticide.

30% of the women who killed men in one Chicago study had previous arrest records for assault, battery, and weapons charges.

Domestic Violence

in

Gay and Lesbian Relationships

Domestic Violence in Gay and Lesbian Relationships

Kelly & Warshafsky (1986): 46% of gay and lesbians reported using physical aggression for conflict resolution with their partners.

Brand & Kidd (1986): 25% of lesbians surveyed reported that they had been physically abused by their lesbian partners.

Coleman (1990): Of 90 lesbian couples surveyed, 46% experienced “repeated acts of violence in their relationships.” Reyes (1991): 26% of lesbians reported physical, sexual and emotional abuse in their current same-sex relationship .

Renzetti (1996): 22-46% of all lesbians have been in a physically violent, same-sex relationship.

“Arm Candy”

Are these women “victims” of “patriarchy”, or active participants in socially accepted gender roles?

Are they being “exploited”, or are they using the resources they have to their own advantage?

1960

Comparing the State of Children

1990 5% 7% 1% 17% 10% Children born to unwed mothers Children under 3 living with one parent Children under 18 experiencing the divorce of their parents Mothers returning to work within one year of a child’s birth Children under 18 living in a one-parent family 28% 27% 50% 53% 25% 19% Married women with children under 6 years old in the labor force 60% ______________________________________________ SOURCE: New York Times

Females are capable of taking up arms . . .

One-third of Columbian rebel soldiers are female.

. . . and killing people

Jenny Metcalf Circle Piru Blood

Violent Women

Pearl Hart

French Undercover Policewoman

Children’s Military Training in China

Afghan Military Parade

The Widow’s Battalion

Black Widows

Helen Bonham, 1917

Rodeo Champion

Champion Cowgirls 1920

Bonnie McCarroll Pendleton Roundup, 1915

Annie Oakley, 1890s

May Lillie, 1908 Sharpshooter

Southwestern Cowgirl 1880s Female Army Scout 1896

Women in Politics

We need more women in politics because women are more nurturing and will transform the political arena.

--Katherine Brown, 1992 Democratic Convention

• • • • • •

Margaret Thatcher Indira Gandhi Golda Meir Madeleine Albright Queen Elizabeth Katherine the Great

• • • • •

Gale Norton Christie Whitman Phyllis Schlafly Condolezza Rice Biljana Plavsic

Ashoura

Women participate in rituals promoting “manhood”.

GENDER-RELATED BEHAVIOR Concepts Sex vs. Gender Biological vs. Social Male Biological vs. Social Female Third Genders Berdache fa’afafines Eunuchs Hijras Guevodoche Castrati Pseudo-hermaphroditism Patriarchal Society Uniformitarianism Correlation does not prove causality. Institutionalized Homosexuality Matriarchal Society Occam's Razor Typical does not mean "natural." A constant cannot explain a variable.

Dichotomous vs. Continuous Sexual Paradigm Ethnobiology Aristotelian vs. Galilean essentialist vs. conditional Infrastructure



Structure



Superstructure

The Cost of Being a Male

Men Commit Suicide at a Much Higher Rate than Women

Male suicide is significantly higher than female suicide among the elderly as well.

The suicide rate for men over 85 is 1,350% higher than for women of the same age.

Men are also far more likely than women to be the victims of violent crime . . .

7 8 9 10 4 5 6 2 3 Rank 1 24 81 134 Healthy Life Expectancy Rankings World Health Organization Disability Adjusted Life Expectancy (DALE) Country Japan Australia France Sweden Spain Italy Greece Switzerland Monaco Andorra Total 74.5

73.2

73.1

73.0

72.8

72.7

72.5

72.5

72.4

72.3

Male 71.9

70.8

69.3

71.2

69.8

70.0

70.5

69.5

68.5

69.3

* * * * * Female 77.2

75.5

76.9 74.9

75.7

75.4

74.6

75.5

76.3

75.2

U.S.A

China India 70.0 67.5

62.3

53.2

61.2

52.8

72.6 -5.1

63.3

53.5

-2.1

-0.7

M/F -5.3

-4.7

- 7.6

-3.7

-5.9

-5.4

-4.1

-6.0

-7.8

-5.9

Titanic Death Toll

Death on the Titanic

Significantly, of the 1,513 passengers who lost their lives, 1,352 were men , but only 161 were women and children .

While 80% of the men perished , only 26% of the women lost their lives. The survival rate of the women was 3 times that of the men .

Breaker Boys in the Coal Mines

These men lost their legs due to the Taliban.

The Taliban also cut off this boys arms.

Only men are expected to be prepared to die for their country.

* * * Imagine what would happen if an Affirmative Action policy were put in place to draft only women?

Bloody Lane at Chancellorsville

The Slaughter at Gettysberg

Men Waiting to be Sent into Battle at Petersburg

The Cornfield at Antietem

Military Casualties in World War I (1914-1918 ) Belgium British Empire France Greece Italy Japan Montenegro Portugal Romania Russia Serbia United States Austria-Hungary Bulgaria Germany Ottoman Empire

_______________ TOTAL

45,550 942,135 1,368,000 23,098 680,000 1,344 3,000 8,145 300,000 1,700,000 45,000 116,516 1,200,000 87,495 1,935,000 725,000

_________ 9,180,283

Vietnam War Death Toll

Combat Area Casualties Current File (CACCF) [Southeast Asia] in the Records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense CACCF Record Counts by Sex Sex Female . . .

Male . . . . .

_____________ Total No. of Records 8

58,185

___________ 58,193

Iraq War

• • •

Over 600 soldiers have died in the Iraq war.

How many have been male ?

How many have been female ?

Over 17 million

men

died in combat during World War II.

Amount Spent on Gender-Specific Cancer Research by National Cancer Institute (NCI) Prostrate Cancer (male)

$1,574 per death

No. of Deaths 35,000 Amount Spent (in millions) $ 55.1

Breast Cancer (female)

$4,645 per death

46,000 * * * * * $ 213.7

3 times

as much money is spent per death on breast cancer research as is spent on prostrate cancer research.

Finis

GENDER-RELATED BEHAVIOR Concepts Sex vs. Gender Biological vs. Social Male Biological vs. Social Female Berdache fa’afafines Third Genders Hijras Guevodoche Eunuchs Castrati Pseudo-hermaphroditism Patriarchal Society Uniformitarianism Correlation does not prove causality. Institutionalized Homosexuality Matriarchal Society Occam's Razor Typical does not mean "natural." A constant cannot explain a variable.

Dichotomous vs. Continuous Sexual Paradigm Ethnobiology Aristotelian vs. Galilean essentialist vs. conditional Infrastructure



Structure



Superstructure

Somewhere, deep in the Batcave . . .

Batman: Did you know, Robin, that women's earnings relative to men increased from 59 to 60 cents on the dollar between 1960 and 1980; from 60 to 73 cents on the dollar between 1980 and 1990, and from 73 to 76 cents on the dollar between 1990 and 1998. That means that women's earnings increased annually some 26 times during the conservative Reagan and Bush Administrations as it did during the largely liberal democratic administrations of Kennedy, Johnson and Carter, and at more than twice the rate in which it has increased during the present Clinton Administration, despite our President's "special relationship" with women.

Robin: Holy Hilary, Batman!! How can this be? I have been raised as a true and loyal liberal to believe that the Republican Party represents the epitome of greed, cruelty and evil!

Batman: The Lord works in mysterious ways, my young friend.