Dance 370

GENDER RECAP

1.      Gender is defined by culture rather than biology

a.       Biology = sex (XX/XY)

b.      Gender = personal identification/presentation

c.       Both sex and gender are present on a continuum (not black & white)

2.      Actions of patterned behavior over time offer versions of behavior that become known as “male” or “female”

3.      Margaret Mead – what counts as culturally appropriate conduct for men and women can be very different across cultural settings

4.      Judith Butler- “gendered performativity” – references “…how it is only through individual performances of gender identity that ‘gender,’ as a social construct, is created (Griffith and Marion forthcoming).

5.      We can thus research the “performance” of gender in multiple settings/disciplines, dance, as teachers, as gymnasts, inside the field of psychology/what constitutes “female” “male” performance, in beauty pageants, etc.