On January 14, we considered definitions of terms related to sex and gender. Students broke into small groups to craft definitions of sex and then gender, and then as a large group, we further defined some related terms.
These and other definitions can be found in our ever-growing course glossary.
For students interested in further exploring different aspects of gender in their own lives, I shared the Gender Unicorn handout. A similar handout: the Genderbread Person.
We also considered these and other questions:
- Where does gender come from?
- Is gender a choice?
We reflected on how gender permeates language and images in ways we may not realize, but that has significant repercussions. I referenced, for example, Emily Martin’s 1991 article “The Egg and the Sperm: How Science Has Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles.”
Finally, we considered that gender doesn’t only apply to individuals. It’s also a cultural system that designates roles ad