I Was Thinking ALL Of The Major Genders

[bloodyrosemccoy]

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I think I’ve been misled.

 

When I signed up for this anthropology class, I was basing my interest on the title: Gender in a Cross-Cultural Perspective. “Say,” I thought to myself. “That could be a good broadening topic, and as someone who has been writing stories that feature cultures with interesting new gender definitions, perhaps I should take a look at some of the existing cultures’ definition of gender! This was touched upon in my introductory class, but it would be good to explore in greater detail.”

 

I was going upon the theory—which I thought was a pretty good inference, considering that title—that it would discuss the construct of genders, delving into gender identity issues across culture. We could take a look at how our and other societies divide and perceive gender, noting the challenge it presents to those who claim that gender is biologically defined. I wanted to know about all of it: women, men, heterosexuality, homosexuality, transgenderism, transsexualism, androgeny, puberty, intersexuality, the differing definitions cultures applied to gender, anything I could think of. Clearly, I thought, this course cannot cover all of that, but it could be a good start.

 

Well.

 

It turns out that I forgot to check my secret college-course-title decoder ring. It could have reminded me of one of the most important codewords of college courses: gender studies = women’s studies.

 

And now I’m eight weeks into a course on women around the world.

 

Now, clearly I’m still interested, or I would have transferred out. The women’s studies course has been informative and fun. But it’s not what I was expecting or hoping for in any sense. I wanted something much broader.

 

I guess this will have to do for now. But you’d think a school like this one would have at least some study of the rest of it. I guess I’ll have to keep looking, and remember to take along my decoder ring when I do.

Comments

[nixve.livejournal.com]

oh, grar, that would piss me off, too. Gender does not equal women! I mean, I'd love to take a women's studies class, but if I'm taking a gender studies class, I want a gender studies class!

I started reading a great library book (which sadly I didn't finish and had to return) and I think it was even called something like "Gender does not mean women". If I figure out what it was, I'll let you know.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it always made it sound like men are the default, and women are the deviation. "We had to invent the term gender because there were all these non-men around!"