Goodbye to Sex and Gender

1996 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Hood-Williams
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
History Of ◽  
Natural Base ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Biological Differences

The sociological distinction between ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ has been paradigmatic for twenty years and is still taken for granted within the discipline. However it is a distinction that will no longer serve. Doubts about its continued usefulness surfaced as a result of a variety of influences. This paper refers specifically to the history of sex and to recent work in genetics in order to demonstrate that sex, like gender is a discursive construction. I argue that the sex/gender problematic is wrong to assume biological differences are naturally given and that sex cannot operate as a natural base in a theory of difference.

Reproductive Citizens

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nimisha Barton
Keyword(s):  
Historical Record ◽  
Child Rearing ◽  
Social Citizenship ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Foreign Born ◽  
Mass Migration ◽  
Shared Goal ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Gender ◽  
French Nation

In the familiar tale of mass migration to France from 1880 onward, we know very little about the hundreds of thousands of women who formed a critical part of those migration waves. This book argues that their relative absence in the historical record hints at a larger and more problematic oversight — the role of sex and gender in shaping the experiences of migrants to France before the Second World War. This compelling history of social citizenship demonstrates how, through the routine application of social policies, state and social actors worked separately toward a shared goal: repopulating France with immigrant families. Filled with voices gleaned from census reports, municipal statistics, naturalization dossiers, court cases, police files, and social worker registers, the book shows how France welcomed foreign-born men and women — mobilizing naturalization, family law, social policy, and welfare assistance to ensure they would procreate, bearing French-assimilated children. Immigrants often embraced these policies because they, too, stood to gain from pensions, family allowances, unemployment benefits, and French nationality. By striking this bargain, they were also guaranteed safety and stability on a tumultuous continent. The book concludes that, in return for generous social provisions and refuge in dark times, immigrants joined the French nation through marriage and reproduction, breadwinning and child-rearing — in short, through families and family-making — which made them more French than even formal citizenship status could.

scholarly journals ‘'Sex Changes'? Paradigm Shifts in ‘Sex’ and ‘Gender’ following the Gender Recognition Act?’

2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Whittle ◽  
Lewis Turner
Keyword(s):  
Sex Change ◽  
Gender Recognition ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Gender Variance ◽  
Paradigm Shifts ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Legal Understanding

Gender transformations are normatively understood as somatic, based on surgical reassignment, where the sexed body is aligned with the gender identity of the individual through genital surgery – hence the common lexicon ‘sex change surgery’. We suggest that the UK Gender Recognition Act 2004 challenges what constitutes a ‘sex change’ through the Act's definitions and also the conditions within which legal ‘recognition’ is permitted. The sex/gender distinction, (where sex normatively refers to the sexed body, and gender, to social identity) is demobilised both literally and legally. This paper discusses the history of medico-socio-legal definitions of sex have been developed through decision making processes when courts have been faced with people with gender variance and, in particular, the implications of the Gender Recognition Act for our contemporary legal understanding of sex. We ask, and attempt to answer, has ‘sex’ changed?

scholarly journals What Does it Mean to be a Woman in Sports? An Analysis of the Jurisprudence of the Court of Arbitration for Sport

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 387-411
Author(s):  
Lena Holzer
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Structural Elements ◽  
Sports Law ◽  
Legal Studies ◽  
Caster Semenya ◽  
History Of ◽  
Scientific Dispute ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Definition Of

ABSTRACT This article explores the definition of ‘sportswoman’ as put forward in the Caster Semenya case (2019) and the Dutee Chand case (2015) before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). It analyses the structural and discursive factors that made it possible for the CAS to endorse a definition that reduces sex and gender to a matter concerning testosterone. By relying on the concept of intersectionality and analytical sensibilities from Critical Legal Studies, the article shows that framing the cases as a matter of scientific dispute, instead of as concerning human rights, significantly influenced the CAS decisions. Moreover, structural elements of international sports law, such as the lack of knowledge of human rights among CAS arbitrators and a history of institutionalising gendered and racialised body norms through sporting regulations, further aided the affirmation of the ‘testosterone rules’.

scholarly journals The puzzle of sex, gender and Alzheimer’s disease: Why are women more often affected than men?

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 174550651881799 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa K Andrew ◽  
Mary C Tierney
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Gender Differences ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Functional Roles ◽  
Dementia Research ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Gender Influences ◽  
Sex And Gender Differences ◽  
Biological Differences

Objective: There are impressive differences in the incidence, prevalence and experience of women and men with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Notably, two-thirds of those with AD, the most common form of dementia, are women. Our objective was to provide a literature-based framework to understand these sex and gender differences in AD. Methods: We conducted a narrative review to examine sex and gender influences on AD. Results: We present a framework to understanding why these sex and gender differences exist in AD. This includes the influence of longevity (women live longer than men), biological differences (hormonal differences, epigenetics and frailty), differences in cognitive performance (women and men tend to perform differently on some cognitive tests), and gendered social roles and opportunities (educational and occupational opportunities, functional roles post-retirement). Our review clearly indicates the complex interaction of these sex and gender differences and variability within each. Conclusions: Given these important sex and gender differences in AD, we provide recommendations and steps forward describing how both sex and gender should be considered in dementia diagnosis and management and in the design and implementation of dementia research, including studies of caregiving interventions and models of dementia care.

scholarly journals Feminist theory in Feminism & Psychology [Part I]: Dealing with differences and negotiating the biological

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 357-377 ◽  
Author(s):  
H Lorraine Radtke
Keyword(s):  
Feminist Psychology ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Critical Scholarship ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Introductory Article ◽  
History Of ◽  
Primary Focus ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Theoretical Issues

Theory is an important preoccupation of articles published in Feminism & Psychology. This Virtual Special Issue includes 10 of those published since the journal’s inception that have a primary focus on theoretical issues related to two related topics – differences and the biological. The concern with differences includes the socially constructed categories sex and gender, as well as sexuality and social class. Those articles addressing the biological represent critical scholarship that is working to negotiate a place for the biology within feminist psychology and entails moving away from the view that the biological is natural and innate. This introductory article addresses how theory fits within feminist psychology and offers a brief history of debates concerning differences and the biological before offering summaries and observations related to each selected article. The featured articles can be located on the Feminism & Psychology website and are listed in Appendix 1 at the end of this article.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosemary L. Hopcroft
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Ethnic Relations ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Race And Ethnic Relations ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Family ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Gender

This chapter provides an overview of The Oxford Handbook of Evolution, Biology, and Society. Chapters in the first part of this book address the history of the use of method and theory from biology in the social sciences; the second part includes chapters on evolutionary approaches to social psychology; the third part includes chapters describing research on the interaction of genes (and other biochemicals such as hormones) and environmental contexts on a variety of outcomes of sociological interest; and the fourth part includes chapters that apply evolutionary theory to areas of traditional concern to sociologists—including the family, fertility, sex and gender, religion, crime, and race and ethnic relations. The last part of the book presents two chapters on cultural evolution.

Feasting and Fasting

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hasia R. Diner ◽  
Jonathan Safran Foer
Keyword(s):  
Animal Studies ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Food Studies ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Theoretical Issue ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
History Of Religions ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Gender

This book explores how the making of Judaism and the making of Jewish meals have been intertwined throughout history and in contemporary Jewish practices. It is an invitation not only to delve into the topic but to join in the growing number of conversations and events that consider the intersections between Judaism and food. Seventeen original chapters advance the state of both Jewish studies and religious studies scholarship on food in accessible prose. Insights from recent work in growing subfields such as food studies, sex and gender studies, and animal studies permeate the volume. Encompassing historical, ethnographic, critical theoretical, and history of religions methodologies, the volume introduces readers to historic and ongoing Jewish food practices and helps them engage the charged ethical debates about how our food choices reflect competing Jewish values. The book’s three sections respectively include chronologically arranged historical overviews (first section), essays built around particular foods and theoretical questions (second section), and essays addressing ethical issues (third and final section). The first section provides the historical and textual overview that is necessary to ground any discussion of food and Jewish traditions. The second section provides studies of food and culture from a range of time periods, and each chapter addresses not only a particular food but also a theoretical issue of broader interest in the study of religion. The final section focuses on moral and ethical questions generated by and answered through Jewish engagements with food.

scholarly journals Men of Parts: Masculine Embodiment and the Male Leg in Eighteenth-Century England

2015 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 797-821 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Harvey
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Sexual Difference ◽  
Visual Representations ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
The Body ◽  
Material Objects ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
The Public ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Gender

AbstractThis essay explores changes in eighteenth-century male clothing in the context of the history of sexual difference, gender roles, and masculinity. The essay contributes to a history of dress by reconstructing a range of meanings and social practices through which men's clothing was understood by its consumers. Furthermore, critically engaging with work on the “great male renunciation,” the essay argues that the public authority that accrued to men through their clothing was based not on a new image of a rational disembodied man but instead on an emphasis on the male anatomy and masculinity as intrinsically embodied. Drawing on findings from the material objects of eighteenth-century clothing, visual representations, and evidence from the archival records of male consumers, the essay adopts an interdisciplinary approach that allows historians to study sex and gender as embodied, rather than simply performed. In so doing, the essay not only treats “embodiment” as an historical category but also responds to recent shifts in the historical discipline and the wider academy towards a more corporealist approach to the body.

scholarly journals Męska trwoga Otto Weiningera

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 107-137
Author(s):  
Nina Gładziuk
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual History ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Modern Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Gender ◽  
State Of Affairs

Otto Weininger’s work entitled Sex and Character is an important text in the intellectual history of Viennese modernism of the f‌in de siècle period. The author makes a pessimistic diagnosis of modern culture, which, according to him, is infected by anti-cultural feminine values. With desperate passion, he looks for a way to heal this state of affairs and finds it in the project of male reorientation in culture. To make this plan a reality, he thoroughly redef‌ines sex and gender. The aim of the article is to investigate various paradoxes and contradictions contained in this famous work.

scholarly journals ENGINEERING, DESIGN AND GENDER: A REVIEW OF APPROACHES AND POSSIBLE INFLUENCES

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Burns
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Female Students ◽  
Design Engineering ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Holistic Thinking ◽  
Left Handedness ◽  
Hunting And Gathering ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
And Gender

This paper is intended to promote discussion of the human processes involved in Engineering and Design. For the convenience of discussion, a distinction is proposed, between ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ - ‘males and females’ and ‘masculine and feminine’. Recent work studying the participation of female students in the currently male dominated profession of engineering is reviewed. The paper thus explores engineering and design, left-handedness, hunting and gathering, communication, collaboration, sustainability, nurture, holistic thinking, the Kyoto Accord, and how developments in the masculine and feminine aspects of design and engineering may well be essential to the future of Design Engineering.

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