GENDER DIFFERENCES

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GENDER DIFFERENCES

• Gender Role
• culturally expected behaviour for males and
  females.
• Socialization
• acquisition of cultural norms, through parents,
  peers, school, media, etc. Children who watch
  more hours of TV have more stereotypical views of
  gender roles.

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GENDER DIFFERENCES

• Gender Schema
• cognitive set associated with gender roles.
  Internalized cultural expectations.
• Stereotype
• generalized views about a group of people,
  usually rigid.

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GENDER DIFFERENCES

• Gender differences in sexual behaviour are mostly
  culturally induced.
• Cultural expectations in patriarchal societies
• interest in sex males high/females low
• sexual experience males positive/females
  negative
• initiators males
• sexual gatekeepers females

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GENDER DIFFERENCES

• Read Sandra Byers research in NB. Which of the
  above were supported? Which were not?
• Male/females psychological differences
• level and type of aggression
• communication style
• emotional expressiveness
• decoding non-verbal cues
• But also within group variability.
• These gender differences will affect sexual
  behaviour. However, if cultural expectations
  change, these differences tend to disappear.

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Bogus Pipeline Technique

• Used in self-report studies to assess degree of
  veracity
• Bogus pipeline condition use of a polygraph (in
  reality not working) but makes participant
  believe a lie will be detected
• Anonymous condition experimenter wont see the
  answers
• Exposure threat condition experimenter could see
  answers.
• In 1. sex differences were negligible
• 2. moderate differences
• 3. greatest differences
• So self-reports can be misleading

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GENDER DIFFERENCES

• Gender Differences in Sexuality
• 1. Masturbation
• Largest difference. Practically all men, but less
  than 60 women (NORC survey)
• 2. Casual Sex
• Second largest difference.
• Women sex as part of relationship
• Men self-satisfaction

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GENDER DIFFERENCES

• Gender Differences in Sexuality (Contd)
• 3. Response to sexual stimuli
• Both men and women are most aroused by
  heterosexual sex.
• Both men and women most aroused by tapes of
  female-initiated sex.
• Women often (50) not aware of their own arousal.

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GENDER DIFFERENCES

• Gender Differences in Sexuality (Contd)
• 4. Orgasmic Consistency
• 75 men vs. 29 women (NORC) during intercourse
  (80/60 by masturbation).
• Possible explanations
• Anatomical differences men more obvious and
  accessible.
• Physiology
• Pelvic vascularization differences in women pre-
  and post-pregnancy.
• Hormones
• NOT! Women dont need 10 times the testosterone
  to become aroused.

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GENDER DIFFERENCES

• Gender Differences in Sexuality (Contd)
• Culture
• religious legacy
• Victorian legacy
• gender stereotypes
• literature (XIX century)
• media (XX century)
• other cultures (past and present) women same sex
  drive
• our culture still double standard, conflicting
  messages.

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GENDER DIFFERENCES

• Gender Differences in Sexuality (Contd)
• Fear of pregnancy.
• Ineffective stimulation by partner.
• The age variable
• changes in sex drive, arousal speed, orgasmic
  capability, frequency and duration of refractory
  period (men).

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GENDER DIFFERENCES

• Gender Differences in Sexuality (Contd)
• Role of early masturbation
• men learn what gives them pleasure, many women
  dont.
• Person-centered vs. body-centered sex
• male/female opposites (Reiss, Kaplan).
• Read Male Sexuality (Zilbergeld).

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GENDER DIFFERENCES

• Gender Differences in Sexuality (Contd)
• Androgyny (Sandra Bem)
• An androgynous person has both masculine and
  feminine psychological characteristics and will
  use either according to situational demands.
  Androgynous women, compared to feminine
  (stereotypical) women
• orgasm more often
• report higher sexual satisfaction
• are more comfortable with sex

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GENDER DIFFERENCES

• Gender Differences in Sexuality (Contd)
• Gender dysphoria
• unhappiness with own gender.
• Behaviourally
• transsexual.
• No details of sex change surgery.
• Male-to-female vs. female-to-male
• 31 ratio
• Causes unknown
• prenatal hormones? early learning?
• No questions re. testing for biological sex.

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GENDER DIFFERENCES

• Gender Differences in Sexuality (Contd)
• Criticisms
• Most important
• many people feel they are in the wrong-sex body
  because the gender stereotypes are too narrow.
• Gender dysphoria can also be caused by sex
  reassignment surgery.
• Male babies born with very small or unformed
  penises have been surgically turned into girls,
  and reared as such even though genetically XY.

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GENDER DIFFERENCES

• Gender Differences in Sexuality (Contd)
• A few cases have been, so far, relatively
  successful, but the majority have caused many
  problems, even suicide.
• The majority of these girls feel and act like
  boys, and many choose to be reassigned as boys
  when they are older.
• Like with transsexuals, these intersex individual
  have different environments which partly account
  for either positive or negative outcomes.

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GENDER DIFFERENCES

• Examples of cultures and sanctioned intersex
• Zapotec in Oaxaca, Mexico the muxes (MOOshess)
  are biological men who consider themselves women
  from childhood on.
• Cultural acceptance there were cross-dressing
  Aztec priests and Mayan gods that were both male
  and female.
• Most muxes dress as women, others as men. They
  are believed to have special intellectual and
  artistic gifts.

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GENDER DIFFERENCES

• Examples of cultures and sanctioned intersex
• Rural Northern Albania many wars and feuds, men
  die. Some women take on the male role but they
  have to forsake sex, marriage and children.
  Since women not allowed to be heads of households
  or own property, the solution is to turn into
  men, sanctioned by the culture male clothes,
  gestures, customs, male friends.