Wardell 1

Keaton Wardell
Professor Baird
Eng. 1010
21 Nov, 2014
Annotated Bibliography
Introduction
The main issue examined and presented in this paper is gender. Ive decided to ask the
profound question, does gender really exist? With all the chaos and trouble going on with
gender-roles and the thought of gender as a whole, too many people are feeling like they have to
abide by the rules so many of us believe go along with gender, even if we realize it or not. Being
a gay man, I have had the pleasure of getting to step out of those gender-roles, and I have
noticed, too many people feel like gender is a dead set thing that they were born with and cannot
ever change. In our culture today, most people believe that there are only two genders, male
(masculine) and female (feminine). Up until the Renaissance however, around the 1450s, men
and women were seen as much more alike than different. The main problem today is that, most
people get the word gender, confused with the word sex. Also, believe it or not, gender has a
different meaning from country to country, and some places even have up to a total of seven
genders. So, my big question is, does gender really exist?
Annotation 1
Butler, Judith, and Jonathan Stowers. "Queer Theory Butler." Https://slcc.instructure.com/. Web.
15 Nov. 2014.
<https://slcc.instructure.com/courses/263093/files/40038470?module_item_id=2293143>

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Summary 1
Judith Butler wrote a very influential book in 1990 called, Gender Trouble. Butler
argues that people reinforce a binary view of gender where we divide ourselves into two groups,
women and men. She also explains how we put on a performance or an act to make sure we stay
in one of these two groups. Rather than opening up possibilities for us to choose our own
identity, society forces us to act as one specific kind of person. Butler also argues that sex is
seen to cause gender, which is then linked to desire. Butler also agrees with the famous
sexologist Foucault on this matter and believes that gender and desire are versatile and
changeable; not dead set. Even though I cant fit all of her research on the subject into this paper,
she still has plenty more to say on the matter.
Rhetorical Analysis 1
Judith Butler mainly uses ethos and logos when presenting her research. This reading
however is a summarization of Butlers work by Jonathan Stowers, who is a Queer Studies
professor at Salt Lake Community College in Utah. Butler is a leading scholar of gender and
sexuality studies, feminist theory, political philosophy, critical theory, and cultural criticism. In
addition to all of her areas of study, she is a member of the Berkeley faculty at the University of
California and had taught at Wesleyan University, George Washington University, and Johns
Hopkins University. All of this helps her with her credibility on the subject of gender and sex.
Reflection 1
If anyone is going to help answer our question about gender really existing, Butler would
most definitely be the biggest contributor. Now think about it, have you ever done or started to
do something that is seen as a characteristic of the opposite gender and then caught yourself
and re-corrected it? Well, this is sort of what Butler is talking about. We take what society has

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showed us in terms of gender roles, and we perform that certain way; we arent all born with
these gender roles. She also talks about how we perform our gender roles and push them to the
extreme. Because we do this, we now believe all guys have to be the big manly man whos the
bread winner, and all the women have to be the stay at home mom who cares for everyone else
and is dainty and fragile. So in the end, Butler really helps answer our question and shows that
gender is nothing other than something we perform.
Annotation 2
Foucault, Michel, and Jonathan Stowers. Queer Theory Foucault. Https://slcc.instructure.com.
Web. 15 Nov. 2014.
<https://slcc.instructure.com/courses/263093/files/40038456?module_item_id=2293114>
Summary 2
Michel Foucault discusses the idea of a Panopticon as an allegory, which is a picture or
idea that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning. The Panopticon is a building with a
tower at the center from which it is possible to see each cell that the prisoners are in. Each
prisoner is seen but cannot see the prison guards. The Panopticon convinces the prisoners that
they are permanently visible; this ensures the operation of power. The prisoners can always see
the tower but never know if anyones inside watching them. For Foucault, the Panopticon
represents the way in which discipline works in todays society. It shows how power is in action
and how we start to self police ourselves because we are convinced that everyone and god are
always watching us. Foucault doesnt specifically talk about gender or sexuality however, but his
theories and ideas help break down and answer our question of gender existing.

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Rhetorical Analysis 2
Michel Foucault mainly uses pathos and logos when presenting his research. This reading
however is a summarization of Foucaults work by Jonathan Stowers, who is a Queer Studies
professor at Salt Lake Community College in Utah. The Panopticon that Foucault presents was
an actual prison designed in 1785, by an English philosopher and social theorist named Jeremy
Bentham. Foucault however, uses pathos and logos to turn this prison design into a more
profound idea.
Reflection 2
Foucaults allegory of the Panopticon prison can be used to help explain why gender
doesnt really exist, but only if seen in a certain way. By realizing and knowing that we all self
police, we can then understand why most people in todays society believe that gender is
hardwired into the brain at birth. If we then step back and look at the whole situation, it is
prevalent that gender is everything but hardwired into our brains at birth. Because we all self
police and believe that we are supposed to act a certain way and follow our gender roles, we
almost never fray from this way of acting. Furthermore, because we always follow our gender
roles, most kids grow up seeing everyone else following these so called gender roles. This causes
the children to act in the same manner as all other people who share their same sex. Also, when
people self police their actions, they get so caught up in gender roles that they never think that
maybe a little boy may like dolls and a little girl might like trucks. So, what we need to realize is
that the only reason why people perceive gender to be real, is because we self police and never
open up to the idea of there not being just men and women.

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Annotation 3
Laqueur, Thomas, and Jonathan Stowers. "Queer Theory Thomas Laqueur." Making the
Categories. Https://slcc.instructure.com. Jonathan Stowers. Web. 29 Oct. 2014.
<https://slcc.instructure.com/courses/263093/files/40038485?module_item_id=2293172>
Summary 3
Thomas Laqueur argues that up until the Renaissance around the 1450s, men and women
were seen as much more alike than different. Sex did not always determine a persons character
like aggressiveness, timidity, confidence, neediness, etc. nor did it determine a persons
physicality. By comparing the characteristics that we as a society have assigned to each sex, to
the views of sex during early history, Laqueur states that men and women are much more alike
than our society believes. Before the changes that occurred during the Renaissance period,
people didnt perceive sex as something that was accompanied by assumed behaviors and
appearances.
Rhetorical Analysis 3
Tomas Laquers mainly uses ethos and logos when presenting his research. This reading
however is a summarization by Jonathan Stowers who is a Queer Studies professor at Salt Lake
Community College in Utah. His summarization is of Laqueurs famous book, Making Sex: Body
and Gender from the Greeks to Freud. Also, Thomas Laqueur is an American historian,
sexologist and writer who studied at Princeton University, giving him much credibility on the
subject of sex and gender. Then, to show his logic towards the subject, Stowers presents most of
Laqueurs findings and research about the history of sexuality and gender. Using many quotes

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from Laqueurs book also helped present logic on the subject. All in all, using ethos and logos
really helped the argument against gender being real.
Reflection 3
This summarization of Laqueurs book really helped back up the idea of gender not really
existing, in many ways. Laqueurs research alone cant help us answer our question but it
definitely has a big contribution. By looking at everything he has found about gender and
sexuality, we now know that what we perceive as normal gender today was very different back
then. Knowing this we have to ask ourselves, if gender was so different back then, then how can
it be something thats dead set or something that we can be born with hardwired into our brains?
All of Laqueurs research and findings really make us question if what we think of as gender is
real. One main thing Laqueur says that stuck in my head when he talks about how gender is
perceived today is, Under this new system of sexual dimorphism, women and men were taken
to be one another's opposites in most things. Whereas women were increasingly taken to be
passive and passionless, for example, men were taken to be aggressive and sexually charged.
Most people would agree that this is the main way we perceive gender in todays society.
However, Laqueur finds that this wasnt always true. In earlier history, both sexes werent put
into two different genders because they were seen as more alike than different.
Annotation 4
Messner, Michael, and Jonathan Stowers. "Center Snap." Children Creating the Fiction of
Gender. Https://slcc.instructure.com. Web. 16 Nov. 2014.
<https://slcc.instructure.com/courses/263093/files/40038440?module_item_id=2293128>

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Summary 4
Michael Messner studies kids of all ages and collects data on how they gender themselves
and how others help with that gendering. In his book he explores how sports provide a context in
which the fiction of separate, different, and unequal sexes are constructed and made to appear
natural. However, in this source he only talks about his chapter Children Creating the Fiction of
Gender. Here he gives an example of a kids soccer game involving the boys team The Sea
Monsters and the girls team The Barbies. He watches both teams as they have a big parade right
before their huge soccer game. He then notices that the girls make a Barbie float, play music, and
dance around it during the parade. The boys team then starts chanting NO MORE BARBIE, NO
MORE BARBIE and starts tormenting the girls. Messner noticed that all the boys looked at each
other first before starting this rampage to have reassurance for their actions. The main thing
however is that the girls would start to cry and then the parents would go pick them up and
coddle them. However, with the boys, the parents werent caring and were just saying that boys
will be boys. This shows just a little bit of how parents contribute towards their kids gender
characteristics. Furthermore, Messner also deconstructs how the boys and girls teams decide to
present themselves. Here he notices that the names of each team and their colors are also
gendering the children. With the boys having the name Sea Monsters and having their team color
be a dark green, these boys are surrounded by masculine, tough, and ruthless imagery. Whereas
with the girls, their team name is The Barbies and their team color is a light green. This is
showing the girls that they have to be dainty, materialistic, and fair just like the Barbie figure that
they are constantly surrounded by.

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Rhetorical Analysis 4
Michael Messner mainly uses pathos and logos when presenting his research. When he
talks about all of his findings he mostly presents what he has gathered when studying these
children in a more formal tone but also in a story based format.
Reflection 4
Messners finding help answer our question of gender really existing by showing how we
as a society and parents gender kids. This further shows that gender is something that we create
and is not hardwired into our brains at birth. So think about it, if a boy falls and scrapes his knee
more than likely people will say something to the effect of get up and shake it off, youre fine.
However, when a girl falls and scrapes her knee more than likely people will pick her up, hug
her, and coddle her. Now think about these kids biologically; they are both pretty much exactly
the same. So its not like the scraped knee hurt the girl anymore than it hurt the boy, but we are
subconsciously gendering children when doing thing like this. So, in Messners study he said that
most parents were just watching the boys torment the girls, laughed, and thought it was funny.
By doing this however, the parents are encouraging the boys to be aggressive and think of
themselves as better than the girls, in a way. When we do these types of things, this is where we
get the socially constructed idea that men are aggressive, sex driven, dont cry, etc. This is also
the same with the girls as well. When we go and hug them and coddle them we are teaching
these girls that they are supposed to be fragile, emotional, etc. So, Messners research is showing
us that when we are little we are being taught these gender roles and they are not something that
we are inherently born with.

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Annotation 5
McMullin, Dan Taulapapa. "Jerry, Sheree and the Eel." Https://slcc.instructure.com. Web. 18
Nov. 2014.
<https://slcc.instructure.com/courses/263093/files/40038448?module_item_id=2293130>
Summary 5
Jerry, Sheree and the Eel is a poem written by a Samoan-American poet named Dan
Taulapapa McMullin. In this poem/story there is a person named Jerry who lives in American
Samoa. He sits at home, does the dishes, takes care of the children, and cooks. Then the story
continues and Jerry puts on some bright fun clothes, becomes a woman named Sheree and takes
a taxi to the clubs. Here she dancing with all the straight men, and they all love to dance with
her. Then one day Sheree decides to make her own club with all the other faafafine on the
island. They all call themselves The Daughters of Samoa.
Rhetorical Analysis 5
In this poem/story, Dan Taulapapa McMullin is mostly using pathos and logos to help get
his point across. He uses pathos during the whole story by constantly talking about the life of a
real faafafine in Samoa. Then he uses logos by giving real examples of faafafine and Samoan
culture in his story. Also McMullin is from American Samoa, which gives him more credibility
on the subject of faafafine in Samoa. He also lived in Europe, Asia, Hawai'i, and California,
attended Cal Arts, UC Irvine, and Claremont Graduate University. Furthermore, he taught at the
University of the South Pacific, California Arts Council, and American Samoa Arts and
Humanities Councils.

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Reflection 5
First off, fa'afafine in Samoan culture is a third-gender class of people. Samoa's
acceptance of fa'afafine has evolved from the tradition of raising some boys as girls. These boys,
were not necessarily homosexual, or noticeably feminine, and they may never have felt like
dressing as women. They became transvestites because they were born into families that had
plenty of boys and not enough girls. So in families of mostly male children or the only daughter
was too young to help with the women's work, parents would often choose one or more of their
sons to help the mother. Because these boys would perform duties that were seen mostly as the
womans work, these boys would be raised as if they were female. Although their sex was more
than likely known by other people, they would usually be dressed as girls. As they grew older,
their duties would not change and they would continue to perform women's work, even if they
eventually get married.
So by looking at gender roles like the ones in Samoa, we can have a better understanding
of how gender and gender roles are seen in different countries and cultures. The faafafine are a
great example of how gender isnt something we are born with and that its something taught and
created. Knowing that in other cultures being a feminine man or a masculine woman is looked
greatly upon we can unravel the idea that gender is dead set and that gender must go along with a
persons sex.
Conclusion
Throughout the journey to answer my original thesis question of does gender really
exist? there were many things discussed to help bring a solution to this question. There was talk
about how we put on a mask and perform our gender, we self police to make sure we dont fall
out of our assigned gender roles, gender never existed in early human history, we gender our kids

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early in life and gender isnt hardwired into the brain, and that not everywhere is gender and
gender roles seen as extreme polar opposites. From the data that has been compiled, the answer
isnt as simple as just a yes or a no, so we require a more detailed solution. Conclusively, it is
very obvious that gender does exist in todays society but is being seen in the wrong way. Even
though gender might exist, doesnt mean there are any biologically or psychologically set rules
for gender. What we get out of trying to answer this question is that gender is a socially
constructed idea that we are performing everyday out of habit and it is not something that we are
inherently born with.