Gender Roles, Female Sexuality, and Male Sexuality Chapter 14 Gender Roles, Female Sexuality, and Male Sexuality Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display. 1-1

Gender Roles and Stereotypes Gender role - set of norms, or culturally defined expectations, that define how people of one gender ought to behave Stereotype - a generalization about a group of people that distinguishes them from others Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display. 1-2

Gender Roles and Ethnicity Gender-role stereotypes vary among various ethnic groups of the United States African Americans Latinos Asian Americans American Indians Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display. 1-3

Gender Schema Theory Sandra Bern’s theory about a set of ideas that we associate with males and females Socialization - refers to the ways in which society conveys to the individual its norms or expectations for his or her behavior Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display. 1-4

Male-Female Psychological Differences Males and females differ in aggressiveness Males are generally more aggressive than females Males and females differ in their style of communicating, both verbally and nonverbally There are gender differences in self-disclosure Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display. 1-5

Male-Female Differences in Sexuality Masturbation - men are more likely to have masturbated than women Attitudes about casual sex - men are more approving of casual sex Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display. 1-6

Male-Female Differences in Sexuality Arousal to erotica - men are more aroused by erotic materials Orgasm consistency - men are more consistent than women at having orgasms during sex Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display. 1-7

Why the Differences? Biological factors Cultural factors Anatomy Hormones Cultural factors Double standard Gender roles Marital and family roles Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display. 1-8

Why the Differences? Other factors Women get pregnant and men do not Ineffective techniques of stimulating the woman Fewer women masturbate than men Gender differences in orgasm consistency Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display. 1-9

Beyond the Young Adults Person-centered sex - sexual expression in which the emphasis is on the relationship and emotions between the two people Body-centered sex - sexual in which the emphasis is on the body and physical pleasure Adolescent male sexuality is body-centered, and the person-centered aspect is not added until later Adolescent female sexuality is person-centered, and body-centered sex comes later Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display. 1-10

Transsexualism Transsexual - is a person who believes he or she is trapped in the body of the other gender; also known as a transgender person Gender dysphoria - unhappiness with one’s gender; another term for transsexualism Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display. 1-11

Transsexualism Sex-change operations - the surgery done on transsexuals to change their anatomy to the other gender Male-to-female transsexual - a person who is born with a male body but who has a female identity and wishes to become a female biologically in order to match her identity Female-to-male transsexual - those with female bodies who think they are males Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display. 1-12

The Sex-Change Operation Gender reassignment is complex and proceeds in several stages: Counseling Hormone therapy Real life test Surgery What causes transsexualism - no definite causes are known Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display. 1-13

Other Issues Buccal smear - a test of genetic sex, in which a small scraping of cells is taken from the inside of the mouth, stained, and examined under a microscope Barr body - a small, black dot appearing in the cells of genetic females; it represents an inactivated X chromosome Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display. 1-14

Criticisms of Sex-Change Surgery Meyer found no significant differences in adjustment of transsexuals who received surgery and those who did not Other studies found Meyer’s scale “peculiar” Approximately 7% of the cases have tragic outcomes suicide requests for re-reversal Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display. 1-15