These slides are meant to offer simple visual tools that can be used to make nuances in theory, rhetoric and ideology apparent. [mashshare]
Ruth Herschberger’s Critique, 1948
Questions to Consider: Herschberger’s Critique
- How are sexed body binaries promoted, maintained and used within our culture?
- How many men have breast reduction surgery each year?
- How many women have breast augmentation surgery each year?
- What other types of surgeries might cisgender MAAB and FAAB people elect to have in order to construct, enhance and/or accentuate what are taken to be normal/natural sexed attributes?
- How much money is spent each year in the US alone on body sculpting workout equipment, hair styling, perfumes/colognes, makeup, etc?
Media to Consider: The Body binary
Why being 6ft 2in tall makes it hard to be a woman by Jes Fernie for The Guardian:
Every bit of social cueing pitched me as an aberration. Every film I had seen, every advertisement, every relationship I witnessed, taught me that the natural order of things is that a woman looks up to a man. This relation of small to tall is so elaborately enshrined in the minutiae of daily life that it is pretty hard to unravel. It sets up a pattern of well-honed oppositional binaries: protector/ protected, masculine/feminine, powerful/powerless. It dictates who we are attracted to, and how our fantasies are constructed. The archetypal photo of a male-female couple (his arm around her, her head nuzzled against his chest) speaks volumes about the strict code of behaviour expected of each sex.
Differences & Similarities
Questions to Consider: Differences & Similarities
- What historical events exemplify the above differences and similarities?
- How might difficulties arise from misunderstanding regarding rhetoric and analytic framework
Sex Essentialist Rhetoric vs Reality
Questions to Consider: Essentialist Rhetoric vs Reality
- Why might it be important to sex essentialist discourse to erase sex essentialist violence and victim blame?
- How might Raymond’s account support sex essentialism?