How gender and culture shape identity

Gender and culture concerns the social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man, woman, or portraying a third gender. These lessons help readers understand how gender relates to language, economic hardship, social analysis, and organizing, and how it takes shape across different areas of life.

2 articles, 1 video, 1 book · about 1 hr 23 min of reading and viewing

The reading path

1. Read
   gender and culture · Wikipedia · 60+ min read

   Grammatical gender, a feature of some languages, assigns every noun a gender, often with no direct relation to its meaning. For example, "girl" is grammatically feminine in Spanish, grammatically neuter in German as Mädchen or grammatically feminine as the older Maid, and grammatically masculine in Irish. Gender and culture shape economic hardship: a 2013 study of the transgender community found that transgender people were four times more likely than cisgender people to live in extreme poverty, defined as income of less than $10,000 a year. Ann Oakley, a feminist scholar, made gender a critical analytical tool in her book Sex, Gender and Society (1972). By 1980, most feminist writings had agreed on using gender only for socioculturally adapted traits.

2. Read
   

   Gender Identity in Weimar Germany - JSTOR Daily · JSTOR Daily · 2 min read

   In 1933, the Nazi party made Hirschfield's Institute of Sexology one of its first targets. Despite all their self-policing, the transvestite movement came under attack when the Nazis gained power.

3. Watch
   

   What is gender identity?: Sex Ed #4 · YouTube · 11 min watch

   Sex and gender are different, and a gender assigned at birth may not match who a person is. Gender identity, gender norms and transition are covered.

4. Book
   

   The Left Hand of Darkness · Bookshop.org

   The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin follows Genly Ai, sent to Gethen as an envoy, whose limited understanding of its culture stymies his mission. Individuals there have no fixed sex, a situation that influences the planet's culture and creates a barrier of understanding for Ai.

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