Gender and sexuality: So

much more than binary

Gender difference research
 Over 18 000 studies have been done examining
gender differences between men and women
 Aggression, social power, social connectedness, etc.
 Harmful physical aggression vs relational aggression
 Leadership being directive & autocratic versus

democratic and welcoming of subordinate ideas

 Pleasure in speaking face to face versus doing

activities side by side

 Clearly, there is an appetite for using a dichotomy of

differences to understand and organize our world
 The Nature-Nurture Debates

 A study of 5,542 three-

year-olds found that
 Children with older brothers had
higher masculinity scores
 Children with older sisters had higher
femininity scores

 These results support the

nurture hypothesis of
gender development
Why Do These Differences Exist?

 Environmental Perspectives
 Males and females have different life experiences
because of how others treat them, that is, how
they are socialized.
 Gender Roles

 Sex-typed behaviors promoted by social learning.

 Gender Schemas
 Beliefs about men and women that influence the way
people perceive themselves and others.
 Children and gender discovery

Teams in the Vaessen House

 Everything shared by a group and transmitted
across generations

Culture
 Gender: A Great Divide?
Why Do These Differences Between
Men and Women Exist?
A Biosocial Theory

 Sex differences develop from an interaction

between nature (biology) and nurture
(environment).

 For example, although biological predispositions

lead to a division of labor, culture has a strong
effect on the work roles of men and women.
Keep in mind the
fluidity within
femininity and
masculinity;
gender is not
historically static
but inequalities
are resistant to
change
 The Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS) has undertaken an effort
across several departments to establish a legal
definition of sex under title IX, the federal civil
Sex = Gender rights law that bans discrimination on the basis
of sex…That definition would be as either male
or female, unchangeable, and determined by
the genitals a person is born with
Crash course sociology
Origins of sexual orientation
 Both biological and environmental theories have been
offered to explain the origins of sexual orientation.
 Twin studies support the theory that sexual orientation

has biological roots.

 A survey of gay men and their twins and adopted brothers
found that 52 percent of the identical twins were gay, while
only 22 percent of fraternal twins and 11 percent of adoptive
brothers were gay.
 The Nature and Nurture Of...
Sexual Orientation
Daryl Bem’s Developmental Theory
 Bem’s developmental theory of
homosexuality states is premised
on the idea that adults are
erotically attracted to the gender-
based class of peers (males or
females) who were dissimilar or
unfamiliar to them in childhood

 This has been a controversial and

unsupported theory
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6AdQghTUis
 https://www.macleans.ca/opinion/i-experienced-conversion-
therapy-and-its-time-to-ban-it-across-canada/
  .

Kinsey scale of sexuality

“If there are
environmental factors that
influence sexual
orientation, we do not yet
know what they are.”
 Size differences (larger in
straight men than straight
women and gay men)
 Other research - an area of the
hypothalamus governing sexual
arousal lit up with men’s sweat
for straight women and gay men
but not straight men

LeVay and brain structure

  Brain structure, genetic factors and prenatal
environment contribute to trait differences tied
to sexuality

Other influences
Change is needed
 In 1973, the APA asked all members attending its convention to
vote on whether they believed homosexuality to be a mental
disorder. 5,854 psychiatrists voted to remove homosexuality from
the DSM, and 3,810 to retain it.
 The APA then compromised, removing homosexuality from the
DSM but replacing it, in effect, with “sexual orientation
disturbance” for people "in conflict with" their sexual orientation.
Not until 1987 did homosexuality completely fall out of the DSM.

But change happens