Gender and Sexuality Part 1: Gender

Questions of gender identity and sexual self-expression have recently come to the forefront of discourse in popular culture. But gender and sexuality have always been crucial to culture–and vice versa. Both have biological components, but cultures imbricate them into larger systems of meaning. So, while our genders or sexualities can feel natural, even instinctual, they have been significantly shaped by the cultures in which we have been raised–and have implications far beyond the bathroom or the bedroom.

Part One: Gender will address cultural variations in gender performance, gendered labor, gender fluidity and gender beyond the binary.

Part Two: Gender Fluidity will address the way different cultures allow for shifts in gender identity and are changing their own constructions of gender.

Part Three: Sexuality will explore sexual liberation, gendered sexual violence, and sexual subcultures.

Watch the full episode:

Resources:

Gender and Difference in a Globalizing World by Francis E. Mascia Lees

Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective by Caroline B. Brettell and Carolyn F. Sargent

Understanding Transgender Identities by Beilby

Travesti: Sex, Gender, and Culture Among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes by Don Kulick

Films:

Berkeley Professor explains gender theory with Judith Butler by BigThink

Theories of Gender: Crash Course Sociology #33 by CrashCourse

The Origin of Gender by PBS Origins

How Parents Influence Kids’ Gender Roles by The Atlantic