Tuesday's Class

I thought that it was a really good idea to have Dr. Widman speak to our class. He brings a totally different perspective on the topic of gender. Seeing the other side of the spectrum was helpful to me. It really allowed me to decide what I think about gender differences and gender issues in general. I wish that he would have been able to stay on topic a bit more but a certain distraction was ever present. Although this is true, he was able to show us certain evolutionary and biological differences between the sexes. What I found most interesting was the actual brain differences. It was neat to learn about the spatial reasoning differences too but it is hard to say if these differences are a product of socialization and acculturation or if they are biological differences. The brain anatomy is simply indisputable. Even though scientists are not positive what the differences mean, they are positive that they are there. I would have to side with Dr. Widman on the fact that not everyone can be anything. There are clearly limits. However, I side with Professor Cook-Huffman on the idea that socialization is extremely important to our ideas about gender. A happy medium is ideal. We are certainly influenced biologically and we are also influenced sociologically and culturally.

Criticism 3

In the Clatterbaugh reading, I found the third criticism to be most appealing to me. I am a psychology POE and love sociology so it is interesting to read through all of these different critiques of sociobiology. Criticism 3 accuses sociobiology of making rather general statements or far-fetched correlations between certain human behaviors and biology. It is saying that because these behaviors are prevalent within the human race and within the animal kingdom, they must have some biological purpose. However, they do not offer a measurement for prevalence. Also, there is no way of knowing for sure that these behaviors stuck around because they serve a biological function. At best one could say that they are correlated but it is impossible to distinguish a direct relationship between the two. Therefore, it is not at all credible to make such a claim. Maybe someday a direct relationship will be found but for now it is not valid enough to use in any sort of argument. Also, reading this piece definitely helped me with my argument analysis paper. It is a good example of how to pick apart a certain topic and provide explanations and evidence that support the criticisms!

Men as Gendered Beings

I really enjoyed this reading. I had never put a lot of thought into how people view themselves and I certainly did not think that men viewed themselves so differently than women. Maybe it is because men want to fulfill their gender roles while women want nothing to do with them! When I look in the mirror I see a woman and I assumed that when a man looked in the mirror he saw a man. It's so weird to think that they see a just a human instead.. or is it? I mean if society preaches that masculinity is the way to go then I guess it would follow that men would link man and human together. On the other hand, women are constantly reminded of their roles and so they have no choice but to live their lives in light of them whether they agree with them or not! Men do not face this stigma and so they do not even consider their gender in everyday living. Thankfully things are changing for women and so we may not have to live with these pathetic roles forever.. maybe someday soon people will see us as merely human too.

Militarization

I thought that the Byrne reading made a really good point about militarization. Studies have shown that there is definitely more violence against women in times of conflict but why? Why are women raped during war? Why is it swept under the rug and ignored? Byrne answers this last question by pointing out that most women in these situations simply do not have the power to enact change. They are subordinate to men and are expected to respect the fact that men go off to war for their country. However, it can be argued that women suffer more in their passive, subordinate roles of war than men do on the front lines of battle. I have a couple of good friends who are going to Afghanistan this coming year to serve and this article really made me think hard about them. I know that people think it doesn't happen with American soldiers but who really knows? Did anyone expect the violence at Abu Ghraib? No. The military does something to its soldiers that dehumanizes them. I mean I guess you would have to be insensitive to an extent in order to be ready to kill people but where does it stop? Where do one's morals come back into play? When they get back? So doesn't it follow that rape would be "OK" if killing is? Someone needs to address these issues because there surely is no shortage of war in the world.

Bodily Harm

I found this reading..well awesome. I am very interested in serial killers, mass murders (there is a difference), and violence in general. This may sound a little sadistic and frankly, it's a weird thing to be interested in. Although this is true, I love the behavioral sciences and basically I love to dissect why people do what they do. Looking at how behaviors are shaped by the environment is what I am most interested in but then again I've never really looked at it from a gender perspective. Maybe the power that men feel entitled to plays a larger role that I thought. For instance, Martin Bryant was so enthralled by a sense of power that he failed to act properly. How many killers kill because of this sense of power? On the same note, how many kill women explicitly or kill because of women? There are many cases of mass murder as well as serial murder that revolve around women. Why did the Green River Killer only kill prostitutes? Why did BTK bind torture and kill his exclusively female victims? These questions are so interesting in and of themselves but they are even more interesting when trying to discern whether a sense of superiority or obsessive masculinity played a role. I think that this reading gives us a little insight into how masculinity plays a role but I would like to pursue this subject further.

Women's Rights are Human Rights

This reading was definitely an eye opener. I know that there is plenty of violence against women in our society but there were some things that I didn't know. For example, the fact that there is more violence against women in times of political turmoil was interesting to learn. It makes sense that this would be true but I had never really thought about it. Also, it is amazing that we have not made more progress in this area to date. With all of the progress that we have made in other areas, it's shocking that women's rights are still lagging behind. Why are women still penalized for others' faults? Why must women be kept "in check" by men through rape and other forms of humiliation and domination? I honestly had not realized how prevalent these things still were in our society until reading this article. Hopefully, women can continue to make strides toward equality and hopefully they can do it soon.