Gender and sexuality - a summary of chapter 12 of Understanding human sexuality by Hyde and DeLamater

Sexology
Chapter 12
Gender and sexuality

Gender is one of the most basic status characteristics.
Gender binary: the classification of people into on of two categories, male or female.

Gender roles and stereotypes

One of the basic ways in which societies codify this emphasis on gender is through gender roles.
Gender role: a set of norms , or culturally defined expectations, that define how people of one gender ought to behave.
Stereotype: a generalization about a group of people that distinguishes them from others.

Gender roles and ethnicity

Gender roles are a product of culture.

Intersectionality: an approach that simultaneously considers the meaning and consequences of multiple categories of identify, difference, and dis-advantage.
According to this approach, we should not consider the effects of gender in isolation.
We should consider the effects of gender, race, social class, and sexual orientation simultaneously.

African Americans

Two factors are especially important in the cultural heritage of African Americans

• The heritage of African culture
• The experience in America of slavery and subsequent racial oppression.

African American culture emphasized the collective over the individual.

Stereotypes about black women are complex and contradictory.
Black men’s sexuality also has been stereotyped.
The stereotypes tend to be negative.
These stereotypes and discrimination that results can be a source of severe stress.

Latinos

Acculturalisation: the process of incorporating the beliefs and customs of a new culture.
Mexican American culture is based on the Mexican heritage, modified through acculturalsation to incorporate Anglo components.

The family is the central focus of Hispanic life.
In traditional Latin American cultures, gender roles are sharply defined.

Asian Americans

The cultural values of Asian Americans are in some ways consistent with white middle-class American values.

• Share an emphasis on achievement and the importance of education
• Asian Americans place far more value on family and group interdependence
• Asian Americans tend to hold more conservative sexual attitudes and to experience more anxiety about sex

The sexuality of Asian Americans is stereotyped.
The Asian American women has been stereotyped as a sex toy.

American Indians

Some Indian tribes had relatively egalitarian gender roles.
The process of acculturation hand adaptation to Anglo society seems to have resulted in increased male dominance.

Socialization

Socialization: the ways in which society conveys to the individual its norms or expectations for his or her behaviour.
Occurs especially in childhood, as children are taught to behave as they will be expected to in adulthood.

• Children may be rewarded for behaviour that is appropriate for their gender
  Or punished for behaviour that is not.
• The adult models children imitate contribute to the socialization

Socialization continues in adulthood, as society conveys its norms of appropriate behaviour for adult men and women.

Gender socialization comes form multiple sources

• Parents
  Treat boys and girls similarly in many ways, with the exception that parents strongly encourage gender-typed activities
• Peers
  Can be effective in enforcing gender-role standards
• Media
  How the genders are shown.

All societies have gender roles.
The exact content of those roles varies.

Psychological gender differences

Males and females differ in aggressiveness.
Males are generally more aggressive.

Men and women differ in their style of communicating, both verbally and non-verbally.
Girls tend to self-disclose more.
Norms about self-disclosure are changing.
Traditional gender roles favoured emotional expressiveness for females, but emotional repressiveness and avoidance of self-disclosure for males.

Women are better than men at decoding non-verbal cues.

Gender differences in sexuality

Differences do exist, but they are in a rather small number of areas.

• Masturbation
• Attitudes about casual sex
• Use of pornography
• Consistency of orgasm during sex
• Sex drive

In many ways men and women are quite similar in sexuality.
And gender patterns may be similar or different in other cultures.

Masturbation

The largest gender difference is the incidence of masturbation.
Fewer women masturbate, and, in general, those who did begun at a later age than men.
Almost all men said they had masturbated before age 20.

Attitudes about casual sex

Men are considerably more approving of casual sex and women tend to be disapproving.
Many women feel that intercourse is ethical or acceptable only in the context of an emotionally committed relationship.

Use of pornography

Men are considerably more likely to report using porn than women.

Arousal to erotica

Traditionally in our society most erotic material has been produced for a male audience.
Men are more aroused by erotic materials, but the gender difference is not big.

• Explicit heterosexual sex is most arousing for both men and women.
• Both men and women find female-initiated female-centred arousing
• Women are sometimes not aware of their own physiological arousal

Men and women are quite similar in their responses to erotic material but women can sometimes be unaware of their own physical arousal.

Penile strain gauge: a device used to measure physiological sexual arousal in the male; it is a flexible loop that fits around the base of the penis.
Photoplethysmograph: an acrylic cylinder placed inside the vagina to measure physiological sexual arousal in the female.

Orgasm consistency

Men are more consistent than women at having orgasms during sex.
The gap is narrower for orgasm during masturbation.

Sex drive

Men, on average, have a stronger sex drive than women do.
The differences form one man to the next and one women to the next are far greater than the average difference between women and men.

Why the differences?

Five differences in male and female sexuality

• The lower percentage of females who masturbate
• Women’s more disapproving attitudes toward casual sex
• Women’s lesser orgasm consistency
• Men’s greater use of porn
• Men’s greater sex drive

Are the differences bogus?

It might be that people report what is expected of them.
Findings of gender differences obtained by self-reports are probably exaggerations of the truth.

Biological factors

Men’s sexual anatomy is external and visible and has a very obvious response.
The female sexual organs are hidden.
The word clitoris is mostly missing form books about sexuality.
The female’s genitals do not have an obvious arousal response.
As a result, she may be less aware of her own arousal.

The anatomical explanation: because the woman’s genitals are not in plain view and because her arousal response is less obvious than that of the man’s genitals, she is less likely to masturbate and less likely to develop her full sexual potential.

Hormones

The hormonal explanation rests on the finding that testosterone is related to sexual behaviour.
Women generally have lower levels of testosterone in their tissues than men have.
The hormonal explanation: is that if testosterone is important in activating sexual behaviour and if females have only one-tenth as much as males have, this might result in a lower level of sexual behaviour.

Problems with this logic

• It may be that cells in the hypothalamus or the genitals of women are more sensitive to testosterone than the comparable cells in men
• We must be cautious about making inferences to human males and females from studies done on animals

Cultural factors

Our culture has traditionally placed tighter restrictions on women’s sexuality than it has on men’s, and vestiges of these restrictions linger today.
It seems likely that these restrictions have acted as a damper on female sexuality.

The double standard: the same sexual behaviour is evaluated differently, depending on whether a male or a female engaged in it.
The sexual double standard gives men more sexual freedom than women.
Generally, there seems to be less of a double standard today than there was in the past.
When cultural forces do not make such a distinction between male and female, males and females become more similar in their sexual behaviour.

Gender roles contribute to differences in male and female sexuality.
They dictate proper behaviour for males and females in sexual interactions, they specify the script.

Marital and family roles may play a part.
Children act as a damper on the parents’ sexual relationship.

Body image contribute to gender differences in sexuality and, in particular, to women’s sexual functioning.
Overall, women feel more dissatisfied with their bodies, which has a bad influence on sexual satisfaction.

Other factors

• Women do get pregnant and men do not
• Ineffective techniques of stimulating the woman may also be a factor
  Coitus may not give sufficient clitoral stimulation
  Perhaps the problem is that women are expected to orgasm as a result of intercourse, when that technique is not very effective for producing orgasms in women
• Women may be not as familiar in sexual stimulation because of a lack in masturbation
  This can also create a kind of ‘erotic dependency’ on men

Beyond the young adults

Much of the research has concentrated on college students or other groups of young adults.

Men begin with an intense, genitally focused sexuality and only later develop an appreciation for the sensuous and emotional aspects of sex.
Women have an early awareness of the sensuous and emotional aspects of sex and develop the capacity for intense genital response later.

These patterns may be culturally, not biologically, poduced.

Person-centered sex: sexual expression in which the emphasis is on the relationship and emotions between two people.
Body-centered sex: sexual expression in which the emphasis is on the body and physical pleasure.

Transgender

Transgender: a term encompassing a broad range of individuals whose gender identity does not match their gender assigned at birth.
Genderqueer: people who see themselves as felling outside gender binary.

Transsexuals: a person who believes they were born with the body of the other gender.
Trans: a broad term encompassing those identifying as transgender, transsexual, agender, and other gender-variant people.

Cisgender: a person whose natal gender and gender identify match.

Gender dysphoria: psychological distress about a mismatch between a person’s gender identity and natal gender.
The brains of these people function more like persons of their gender identity than like persons of their natal gender.

Gender dysphoria in childhood does not always persists into adulthood.
Gender dysphoria in adolescence is more likely to persists into adulthood.

References of transgender are found throughout much of recorded history.

The experiences of trans people

Transphobia: a strong, irrational fear of trans people.
Anti-trans prejudice: negative attitudes and behaviours toward trans individuals.

The experiences of prejudice can take a toll on the mental and physical health of trans people.

Pronouns can be an issue for trans people.
One of the problems is misgendering by others.

Sexual orientation and transgender identity

Gender identity is a separate issue form sexual orientation.

Trans health

Trans individuals need health care for a variety of the same conditions and problems that cisgender people have.

Many services should be available for trans individuals short of medical transition treatment

• Voice and communication therapy
  To help the person speak in the range typical for their gender identity and to communicate non-verbally in ways that match their gender identity
• Supportive therapy and peer support to reduce stress
• For natal males, facial hair removal by electrolysis or other methods
• Supportive therapy for the family

The medical and surgical transition process

Typically transsexuals have a gender binary identity.
Some want gender-confirming therapy.

• Hormone therapy to accomplish pubertal suppression in early adolescents with strong gender dysphoria
  This is reversible if the adolescent decides not to pursue transition.
  If the adolescent decides to transition, it will be a simpler process.
• Hormone therapy to ferminize or masculinize the body.
  Only partially reversible and is typically applied only with older adolescents and adults who are capable of making a definite decision about wanting to transition

Surgical treatments are irreversible and should be chosen only by a mature adolescent over the legal age of consent or an adult.
The typical requirement is that the person has to have lived as a number of the gender with which they identify for at least 12 months, and to ensure that the transition is truly workable and desirable.

• Chest surgery
• Genital surgery

The adjustment of transsexuals who seek surgery is significantly better following surgery.

In many cases, trans people do not seek these medical interventions.
Psychotherapy can be very helpful.

What causes gender variance?

• Processes in prenatal development may be involved
• Different genes