Gender & Culture

[blueerica]

I'm choosing a topic for a paper I'm writing on "Gender & Culture," or basically, cultural practices that treat one gender differently from another. For example, "Domestic Violence Against Women" and "Male Circumcision." I'm looking at either doing a paper on "Honor Killing" or "Sex-Selective Abortion," and I'm wondering if there's anything out there that might be a little more different or unusual that I'm not looking at.

Any other ideas? I could do great papers on either of those subjects, but I'm wondering if there's another topic out there that would give it a little more oomph, or at least make it a little less mainstream.

Side note: I thought of sex-selective abortion due to our discussion last week. It could make great source material.

(I can move this thread to another forum, if need be.)

[Prudence]

Maternity leave.

[Alex]

When I was taking human sexuality the topics I found most interesting were those cultures that had developed interesting sub-genders or additional genders (such as the Bugis in Indonesia) and how this reflects the almost entirely subjective definition of gender roles.

Another topic I find of interest is how the linguistic concept of gender intersects the sociological concept of gender.

[Gemini Cricket]

I don't know if you could use this or if it even applies, but I've been thinking often about something.
I noticed that a lot of the men I have met who have issues with gays are also the men who have problems with women in general. They seem to be disturbed not so much that a man is sleeping with another man, but that the gay man is thinking, acting and (sometimes) looking like a woman. Like being like a woman is a bad thing. Like if a woman is dressing in men's clothes it's okay because she's trying to look like a man, but if a man was to wear a dress it's disturbing to them.

It's like the beginning of that Madonna song "What it Feels Like for a Girl" the song starts off with a quote:

Girls can wear jeans
And cut their hair short
Wear shirts and boots
cause its ok to be a boy
But for a boy to look like a girl is degrading
cause you think that being a girl is degrading
But secretly you'd love to know what its like
Wouldn't you?

I don't know if these men I am thinking about actually were curious about themselves, but the issue of men thinking that being a woman is degrading is a valid one...

Like how some straight men are okay with lesbians because they (lesbians) may act more manly and are physically attracted to what straight men area attracted to... But gay men? Not so much.

[alphabassettgrrl]

Originally Posted by Gemini Cricket

I noticed that a lot of the men I have met who have issues with gays are also the men who have problems with women in general. They seem to be disturbed not so much that a man is sleeping with another man, but that the gay man is thinking, acting and (sometimes) looking like a woman. Like being like a woman is a bad thing.

In our masculine culture, the feminine *is* degraded, and degrading. Insults like "you throw like a girl", when all untrained children throw like "girls". Dads start very early to teach their sons to throw properly, to the point that it seems like the kid's a "natural". Images of strength are all male. Success? Male, money, power.

Female is seen as weak, whining, dysfunctional. If that were true, nobody would want to be a girl.

Makes me sad. I think being a girl is a wonderful thing. I'm sure the men in the group are just as happy to be guys. That's fine, too. I just dislike promoting one over the other.

[Gemini Cricket]

I think that is such a crock. Just look in nature, female animals are usually bigger and more powerful... like in ant and bee colonies. In fact, in the insect world, males are often food after they bang their wives.



I like being a gay guy. I feel like I have the best of both sexes in me. Male tools and female intuition.

[innerSpaceman]

Originally Posted by Gemini Cricket

I like being a gay guy. I feel like I have the best of both sexes in me. Male tools and female intuition.

In a related way, I like being on a sort of intermediary step in my reincarnational cycle between incarnations as male and subsequent incarnations as female.

The preferences alphabassetgrrl alluded to that are prevelent in our language and thankfully getting slightly less prevelent in society are actually attributes of maleness which are, for the most part, negatives.

I am blessed to have very many feminine attributes (though - as I discussed with Gemini Cricket at the Cemetary last weekend - it was a bit confusing to me in my young adolescence).

Strength, Power, um, what else were those masculine qualities deemed positive? How about violence, greed, disloyalty, immaturity, stubborness, slovinliness, pride, lust, glutony and a few more deadly sins?


Feminine attributes are, despite the bias of our language perpetuated for centuries by patriarchal societies, much more desireable and beneficial to all society.


If my hunch is right, this is my last incarnation as a boy. I will miss the "tools" and some of the other perks ... but I'll be glad to be a girl going foward. A bunch of inconvenience is definitely worth the higher level of consciousness.



I dunno if that can be boiled down to a "topic," but whateva.

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by Gemini Cricket

I like being a gay guy. I feel like I have the best of both sexes in me. Male tools and female intuition.

Actually, we all have masculine and feminine aspects, it is just that Western society squishes the feminine from men and the masculine from females. When one realizes this and works to get both sides in balance, it is amazing what can be accomplished.

This is something that Susan and I both work on and we sometimes joke how we have swung past each other: there are many ways where she is more masculine and I am more feminine. No, this isn't just about sex; it is/can be played out in all parts of life.

[CoasterMatt]

Originally Posted by Kevy Baby

This is something that Susan and I both work on and we sometimes joke how we have swung past each other: there are many ways where she is more masculine and I am more feminine. No, this isn't just about sex; it is/can be played out in all parts of life.

Yeah, I do almost all the cooking and some of the cleaning around here...

[Capt Jack]

but to at least some extent, do you see these stereotypical images and lopsided thought processes changing? perhaps not globally, but to some extent?