Sex vs.

Gender

GENDER-RELATED BEHAVIOR
Concepts
Sex vs. Gender
Biological vs. Social Male
Biological vs. Social Female

Third Genders
Berdache
Hijras
faafafinesGuevodoche
Eunuchs
Castrati

Pseudo-hermaphroditism
Institutionalized Homosexuality
Patriarchal Society
Matriarchal Society
Uniformitarianism
Occam's Razor
Correlation does not prove causality.
Typical does not mean "natural."
A
constant cannot explain a variable.
Ethnobiology
Dichotomous vs. Continuous Sexual Paradigm

Aristotelian

vs.

Galilean

essentialist

vs.

conditional

Infrastructure

Structure

Superstructure

Calpernia Addams is a
pre-operative transsexual

Hermaphrodites
a.k.a.

Intersexuals

Jamie Lee Curtis

* * * * *

Male or Female?

Dr. Anne Fausto-Sterling has proposed that

we replace our two-sex system with a five-sex
system:
1. Males
2. Females,
3. Herms ("true" hermaphrodites)
4. Merms (male "pseudohermaphrodites")
5. Ferms

(female "pseudohermaphrodites")

From a Dichotomous to a Continuous

Model of Sexuality
Dichotomous
Male

Female
Continuous

Male

Female

Forms of Sexuality
In Nature

Typological Approach:

The categories are real.

Race, species, sex, cultures, etc.

Behavior is explained in terms of the

categories. (Aristotelian)

Population Approach:

Individuals are real.

Categories are only abstractions.

Behavior is explained in terms of
conditional factors. (Galileian)

Classification of the Cassowary

among the Karem of New Guinea

SOURCE: Why the Cassowary is not a bird, R. Bulmer, Man, Vol. 2, Issue 1, (Mar. 1967)

Species Hybridization

Mallard Pintail
Hybridization

Species Hybridization

Coyote

Red Wolf
Gray Wolf

Circular Overlap

Asymmetrical
Sterility

Male
Female

YES

NO
Female
Male

Homosexuality

64% of human societies surveyed either condone of encourage samesex relationships.

Platonic love in ancient Greece

Presentation of the body (with women)

Presentation of the mind (with men)

Greek soldiers brought young boys on military campaigns

Azande military homosexuality

Warriors have boy-wives

Boy wives become warriors with their own boy-wives

The Sambia of Highland New Guinea

Boys Fallate older men

Build up store of semen

Prohibition against masturbation

Third Genders
Hijras

Two Spirits

Faafafines

(Berdache)

Guevodoche

Castrati

Sworn Albanian Virgins

Eunuchs
Sunflowers

Gender-Related
Behavior

GENDER-RELATED BEHAVIOR
Concepts
Sex vs. Gender
Biological vs. Social Male
Biological vs. Social Female

Third Genders
Berdache
Hijras
faafafinesGuevodoche
Eunuchs
Castrati

Pseudo-hermaphroditism
Institutionalized Homosexuality
Patriarchal Society
Matriarchal Society
Uniformitarianism
Occam's Razor
Correlation does not prove causality.
Typical does not mean "natural."
A constant cannot explain a variable.
Ethnobiology
Dichotomous vs. Continuous Sexual Paradigm

Aristotelian

vs.

Galilean

essentialist

vs.

conditional

Infrastructure

Structure

Superstructure

The issue is not whether differences exist

between men and women --which of course they
do-- but rather whether those differences are
relevant for explaining differences in behavior
from one society to the next.

There are more methodological problems in

regards to the study of cognitive sex differences
and sex differences in general than there are
actual sex differences.
--Dr. Caroline Jaklin

The Role of Prediction in Science.

(Given a, . . . Then b.)

The goal of scientific research is to develop theories and

models that lead to better and better predictions of behavior.

Predictability is, thus, fundamental to doing science.

Yet, predictability is severely lacking in sex-difference

research.

We gain little in prediction by knowing the sex of a child.

(Jacklin)

Differences generally range from 1- 5% when, in fact, they

differ (Caplan & Caplan)

Which means that between 95 - 99% of sex-related behavior

is indistinguishable

Why Does Sex-Difference Research Persist?

Given all of the methodological problems associated

with such studies and the consistently small (and
frequently non-existent) differences found, it is
reasonable to ask why such research persists?

Would we continue to conduct such inconclusive

research in physics, chemistry, biology or medicine?

Would we continue to fund research that after 30

years could not point to conclusive results?

Whose interests might be served by such research?

Aristotelian approaches to
the study of Sex and Gender

Commonly used
Aristotelian
Concepts:

Maternal Instinct
Patriarchal Society

Male Aggressiveness

Machismo

Human Nature

Matriarchal Society

Aristotelian concepts of Gender cannot explain . . .

1. Why Net-hunter Pygmy women enjoy a higher social status than
archer women.
2. Why Yanomamo women have much lower social status than
Dobe !Kung women, or why they also have a lower social status
than women in most other Amazonian societies.
3. Why Inuit (Eskimo) women have among the lowest social status
of all women in hunter-gatherer societies.

or . . .

. . . why the role of women and their status in both the

domestic and political economy changed dramatically
among the Plains Indians as they moved onto the Great
Plains and became increasingly dependent on mounted
bison hunting.
1. Among the Sioux, the Cheyenne and other eastern tribes,
the family structure changed from being matrilocal and
matrilineal extended kin groups to individualized
patrilocal and polygynous ones.
2. Among the western Plains Indians, such as the Blackfoot,
which had previously been organized along extended
patrilocal and patrilineal lines evolved male-focused
independent polygynous households.

or . . .

 . . . why most of those executed for witchcraft in

Europe and North America during the Great Witch
Craze were women, whereas most of the Pueblo Indians
in the Southwest that were executed as witches by the
early Spanish Conquistadors were men.
. . . or why most witches among the Pueblo, Apache
and Navajo in the American Southwest are believed to be
men.
. . . or why among the Yoruba of Nigeria, not only
do most men suspect their wives of witchcraft, but most
women suspect their co-wives and their mothers-in-law
of witchcraft.
or . . .

. . . Or why . . .
1. 47% of the 95 societies she surveyed were "rape-free",
while 17% proved to be "unambiguously rape-prone.
2. The Ashanti of West Africa and the Mbuti Pygmies of
the Ituri Forest are rape-free societies, whereas 47.2
rapes per 100,000 persons were recorded for the Gusii
of Kenya.
3. The highest rape rate among Industrial societies occurs
in the U.S. at 13.5 rapes per 100,000 inhabitants. In
contrast, the incidence of rape in Japan, a more
patriarchal society than the U.S., is far below that of
the U.S.
_________________________________________
SOUCE: B. L. Benderly, Rape Free or Rape Prone Science 82 (1982)

. . . why female income relative to male income in the U.S.

increased from 59 to 60 per dollar between 1960 and 1980,
whereas it increased from 60 to 73 per dollar between 1980
and 1990 (during the politically conservative Reagan and
Bush administrations), and only increased from 73 to 76
per dollar between 1992 and 2000, when Bill Clinton and Al
Gore were in office.
. . . or why average female income increased 10% from
1979 to 1990, while average male income decreased by 8%.
. . . or why White female employment increased 72%
between 1974 and 1977 at the same time that Black male
employment declined by 11%.

. . . or why there was a dramatic increase during the 1970s

and 1980s in the number of individuals in the U.S. claiming:
1. to have recovered memories of childhood sexual
abuse by family members
2. to have recovered memories of sexual abuse
by members of satanic cults
3. to believe that they possessed multiple personalities.
. . . or why:
1. this was a distinctly American phenomenon
2. the overwhelming majority (over 90%) of these
individuals were white middle class females.

. . . why M. Konner reports that 57 out of 94 studies of

aggression showed "statistically significant sex differences" in
aggressive behavior.
1.

in 52 of the 57 studies that showed gender differences

in aggressive behavior,boys were more aggressive
than girls.

2. In 5 of the studies, girls were more aggressive than

boys.
3. In 37 studies there were no gender difference in
aggression.

Gender Differences in Wages

Discrimination
Or

Adaptation?

RE: the Census Bureau statistic that women earn 76% of

what men earn.
Among women and men aged 27 to 33, who have never
had a child, the earnings of women in the National
Longitudinal Survey of Youth are close to 98 percent of
mens.
--June ONeill, Director
Congressional Budget Office

Its the vast majority of us who become mothers who

are responsible for dragging the average down.
--Danielle Crittenden
New York Times (1995)

Effect of the Differential Opportunity Costs

of Mens vs. Womens labor
1. Although the role of children is typically ignored in
studies of male labor supply and wage
discrimination, fatherhood has quantitatively and
statistically significant effects on both outcomes.
2. Because we observe increases in both hourly
wages and annual hours of work for fathers,
increased specialization of husbands and wives in
response to parenthood is the dominant pattern for
both early (pre-1950) and later (post-1950) cohorts.
--Lundberg & Rose (2002)

Tests indicate that housework has approximately

the same impact on wages for men and women
who are not currently married, but that the
negative relation is somewhat stronger for married
women as compared with married men. Evidence
suggests that this differential could be due to
gender differences in the type of housework
performed by married persons.
--Hersch and Stratton (2002)

Gender Stereotypes

Women and Violence

Women commit the majority of child homicides in the

U.S.

Women commit the majority of physical child abuse in

the U.S.

Women commit about 25% of the child sexual abuse in

the U.S.

Women are primarily responsible for infanticide.

30% of the women who killed men in one Chicago study

had previous arrest records for assault, battery, and
weapons charges.

Domestic Violence
in

Gay and Lesbian

Relationships

Domestic Violence in Gay and Lesbian Relationships

Kelly & Warshafsky (1986):

46% of gay and lesbians reported using

physical aggression for conflict resolution
with their partners.

Brand & Kidd (1986):

25% of lesbians surveyed reported that they had

been physically abused by their lesbian partners.

Coleman (1990):

Of 90 lesbian couples surveyed, 46% experienced

repeated acts of violence in their relationships.

Reyes (1991):

26% of lesbians reported physical, sexual and

emotional abuse in their current same-sex
relationship.

Renzetti (1996):

22-46% of all lesbians have been in a physically

violent, same-sex relationship.

Arm Candy

Are these women victims of

patriarchy, or active participants
in socially accepted gender roles?
Are they being exploited, or are
they using the resources they have
to their own advantage?

Comparing the State of Children

1960
5%

1990
Children born to unwed mothers

28%

7%

Children under 3 living with one parent

27%

1%

Children under 18 experiencing the

divorce of their parents

50%

17%

Mothers returning to work within

one year of a childs birth

53%

10%

Children under 18 living in a

one-parent family

25%

19%

Married women with children under

6 years old in the labor force

60%

______________________________________________
SOURCE: New York Times

Females are capable of taking up arms . . .

One-third of Columbian
rebel soldiers are female.

. . . and killing people

Violent
Women

Jenny Metcalf
Pearl Hart
Circle Piru Blood

French
Undercover
Policewoman

Childrens Military Training in China

Afghan Military Parade

The
Widows
Battalion

Black Widows

Rodeo Champion

Helen Bonham, 1917

Champion Cowgirls
1920

Bonnie McCarroll
Pendleton Roundup, 1915

Annie Oakley, 1890s

May Lillie, 1908

Sharpshooter

Southwestern Cowgirl
1880s

Female Army Scout

1896

Women in Politics
We need more women in politics because women are more
nurturing and will transform the political arena.
--Katherine Brown, 1992 Democratic Convention

Margaret Thatcher

Gale Norton

Indira Gandhi

Christie Whitman

Golda Meir

Phyllis Schlafly

Madeleine Albright

Condolezza Rice

Queen Elizabeth

Biljana Plavsic

Katherine the Great

Ashoura

Women participate in rituals promoting manhood.

GENDER-RELATED BEHAVIOR
Concepts

Sex

vs.

Gender

Third Genders

Biological vs. Social Male

Biological vs. Social Female

Berdache
Hijras
faafafinesGuevodoche
Eunuchs
Castrati

Pseudo-hermaphroditism
Institutionalized Homosexuality
Patriarchal Society
Matriarchal Society
Uniformitarianism
Occam's Razor
Correlation does not prove causality.
Typical does not mean "natural."
A constant cannot explain a variable.
Ethnobiology
Dichotomous vs. Continuous Sexual Paradigm

Aristotelian

vs.

Galilean

essentialist

vs.

conditional

Infrastructure

Structure

Superstructure

The Cost of Being a Male

Men Commit Suicide at a Much Higher Rate than Women

Male suicide is
significantly higher
than female suicide
among the elderly as
well.

The suicide rate for

men over 85 is
1,350% higher than
for women of the
same age.

Men are also far more likely than women to be the victims
of violent crime . . .

Healthy Life Expectancy Rankings

World Health Organization Disability Adjusted Life Expectancy (DALE)
Rank

Country

Total

Male

Female

M/F

Japan

74.5

71.9

77.2

-5.3

Australia

73.2

70.8

75.5

-4.7

France

73.1

69.3

76.9

- 7.6

Sweden

73.0

71.2

74.9

-3.7

Spain

72.8

69.8

75.7

-5.9

Italy

72.7

70.0

75.4

-5.4

Greece

72.5

70.5

74.6

-4.1

Switzerland
-6.0

72.5

69.5

75.5

Monaco

72.4

68.5

76.3

-7.8

10

Andorra

72.3

69.3

75.2

-5.9

*
24

U.S.A

70.0

67.5

72.6

-5.1

81

China

62.3

61.2

63.3

-2.1

134

India

53.2

52.8

53.5

-0.7

Titanic
Death Toll

Death on the Titanic

Significantly, of the 1,513 passengers who lost their lives,
1,352 were men, but only 161 were women and children.
While 80% of the men perished, only 26% of the women
lost their lives.
The survival rate of the women was 3 times that of the
men.

Breaker Boys in the Coal Mines

These men lost their legs

due to the Taliban.

The Taliban also cut off this boys arms.

Only men are expected to

be prepared to die for
their country.

Imagine what would

happen if an Affirmative
Action policy were put in
place to draft only
women?

Bloody Lane at Chancellorsville

The Slaughter at Gettysberg

Men Waiting to be Sent into Battle

at Petersburg

The Cornfield at Antietem

Military Casualties in World War I

(1914-1918)
Belgium
45,550
British Empire
942,135
France
1,368,000
Greece
23,098
Italy
Japan
Montenegro
Portugal
Romania
Russia
1,700,000
Serbia
United States
116,516
Austria-Hungary

680,000
1,344
3,000
8,145
300,000
45,000

Vietnam War Death Toll

Combat Area Casualties Current File
(CACCF)
[Southeast Asia]
in the Records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense
CACCF Record Counts by Sex

Sex
Female . . .

Male . . . . .
_____________

Total

No. of Records
8
58,185
___________

58,193

Iraq War

Over 600 soldiers have died in the Iraq war.

How many have been male?

How many have been female?

Over 17 million men

died in combat
during World War II.

Amount Spent on Gender-Specific Cancer Research

by National Cancer Institute (NCI)
No. of Deaths

Amount Spent
(in millions)

Prostrate Cancer (male)

35,000

$ 55.1

46,000

$ 213.7

$1,574 per death

Breast Cancer (female)
$4,645 per death
*

3 times as much money is spent per death on breast cancer

research as is spent on prostrate cancer research.

Finis

GENDER-RELATED BEHAVIOR
Concepts
Sex vs. Gender
Biological vs. Social Male
Biological vs. Social Female

Third Genders
Berdache
Hijras
faafafinesGuevodoche
Eunuchs
Castrati

Pseudo-hermaphroditism
Institutionalized Homosexuality
Patriarchal Society
Matriarchal Society
Uniformitarianism
Occam's Razor
Correlation does not prove causality.
Typical does not mean "natural."
A constant cannot explain a variable.
Ethnobiology
Dichotomous vs. Continuous Sexual Paradigm

Aristotelian

vs.

Galilean

essentialist

vs.

conditional

Infrastructure

Structure

Superstructure

Somewhere, deep in the Batcave . . .

Batman: Did you know, Robin, that women's earnings relative to men increased
from 59 to 60 cents on the dollar between 1960 and 1980; from 60 to 73
cents on the dollar between 1980 and 1990, and from 73 to 76 cents on
the dollar between 1990 and 1998. That means that women's earnings
increased annually some 26 times during the conservative Reagan and
Bush Administrations as it did during the largely liberal democratic
administrations of Kennedy, Johnson and Carter, and at more than
twice the rate in which it has increased during the present Clinton
Administration, despite our President's "special relationship" with
women.

Robin:

Holy Hilary, Batman!! How can this be? I have been raised as a true
and loyal liberal to believe that the Republican Party represents the
epitome of greed, cruelty and evil!

Batman: The Lord works in mysterious ways, my young friend.