Lecture 6: Gender and Sexuality

1. SC2218: Anthropology and the Human Condition Lecture 6: Gender and Sexuality Eric C. Thompson Semester 1, 2008/2009

3. What makes boys and girls different?

6. Boy Meets Girl?

10. How do we go about producing Systems of Gender and Sexuality? The Cultural Process . . General Concepts of Masculinity and Femininity

11. Sari Business Pretty Clothes Dress Things (without Meaning) Masculine Feminine T-Shirt Shirt Girl Tall Guy Petite Strong Gentle Jeans Aggressive Work Architecture Engineering Nurturing Sports Shopping Arts Home Boy Ovaries Breasts Handsome Muscles Skirt Pondan/ Ah Kwah Make-Up Man Woman Sissy Activities Bodies Signifiers Dispositions Androgen Estrogen Testes

12. Sari Business Clothes We pick out “ meaningless things” and give them meaning by associating them with masculinity (or femininity ) Chinese Dress Masculine Feminine Batik Shirt Batik Dress T-Shirt Chinese Shirt Tall Guy Petite Strong Gentle Jeans Aggressive Architecture Engineering Nurturing Sports Shopping Arts Home Boy Ovaries Breasts Handsome Muscles Skirt Pondan/ Ah Kwah Man Woman Sissy Activities Bodies Signifiers Dispositions Estrogen Testes

13. Sari Business Clothes The things we associate with masculinity or femininity are largely arbitrary. Chinese Dress Masculine Feminine Batik Shirt Batik Dress T-Shirt Chinese Shirt Tall Guy Petite Strong Gentle Jeans Aggressive Architecture Engineering Nurturing Sports Shopping Arts Home Boy Ovaries Breasts Handsome Muscles Skirt Man Woman Sissy Activities Bodies Signifiers Dispositions Estrogen Testes Pondan/ Ah Kwah A skirt is feminine not masculine!! (Isn’t it?)

14. Tell that to these guys…

15. Difference and Distinction are essential to Meaning Mapping things onto a gendered structure gives them meaning.

16. Sari Pretty Dress Masculine Feminine T-Shirt Shirt Girl Tall Guy Petite Strong Gentle Jeans Aggressive Work Engineering Nurturing Sports Shopping Arts Home Boy Ovaries Breasts Handsome Muscles Skirt Make-Up Man Woman Androgen Estrogen Testes A Gendered Structure of Meaning Pondan/ Ah Kwah Sissy ?? A Two Gender System: Binary Oppositions

17. A Three Gender System Masculine Feminine T-Shirt Shirt Girl Tall Guy Petite Strong Gentle Jeans Aggressive Work Engineering Nurturing Sports Shopping Arts Home Boy Ovaries Breasts Handsome Muscles Skirt Make-Up Man Woman Androgen Estrogen Testes A Different Gendered Structure of Meaning Dress Feminine Pretty Dress Pondan/ Ah Kwah Sissy

33. Fact: Human Offspring Require Substantial Care, Feeding and Investment of Resources Who is going to do this?

40. Adult Male Adult Female Infant Surplus Resources Sexual Gratification Surplus Resources Human Pair Bonding & Sexual Exchange System Be VERY Clear: This is only one part of human exchange, sexuality, and bonding systems. For example, Fathers very commonly give resources to children (in the absence of any relationship to the Mother). Men and Women very commonly exchange things other than sex for resources ( pure love does exist ; but, it to is only one small part of the human system).

43. Straits Times 11 Feb 2005 True Stories!!!!! Ripped From The Headlines!!!

44. Straits Times 11 Feb 2005 As many as 1% to 2% of humans are born with “ ambiguous” genitalia.

45. Straits Times 11 Feb 2005 “ Ambiguous bodies” create a cultural problem of interpretation .

46. Straits Times 11 Feb 2005 Different cultures have different means of incorporating people with “ambiguous genitalia” into their own system. How would he have been treated in a society with the concept of berdache? How would he have been treated in Singapore?

47. Straits Times 11 Feb 2005 Social systems and institutions are so deeply and thoroughly gendered by our cultural models that “ambiguous” bodies cause chaos

48. Bye-bye . . . See you next week in two weeks!