Women & Gender Studies Midterm by Kallista Alderink

Asexuality

kallistaalderink — 2025-03-02 02:06:19 UTC

This short story does a great job showing what an asexual person desires in a relationship. Asexuality means that people are not sexually attracted to others, but they can feel emotional attraction. Those who are asexual likely don't understand why other couples feel excited to be physically intimate since it can simply lack excitement and pleasure for them or even cause stress. They still want to have connections with others and can fall in love, though not with the traditional aspects that people typically think of.

Asexual Story

Gender Expression

kallistaalderink — 2025-03-02 02:32:35 UTC

Gender expression is shown in this picture by people choosing how they express themselves. Pronouns is one way that people communicate to others their gender, either by using the pronouns from their birth sex, choosing to go by they/them, or preferring to not use pronouns and just be called their name. This image describes this concept by showing that some people express their gender by just being a human.

https://c8.alamy.com/comp/2X48JJ6/supporting-gender-expression-freedom-concept-joyful-allies-championing-the-right-to-gender-identity-with-positivity-and-unity-embracing-humanity-beyond-labels-2X48JJ6.jpg

Cultural Norms

kallistaalderink — 2025-03-02 02:32:56 UTC

Cultural norms affect gender because they alert people to what society deems masculine and feminine. They also influence gender roles as in the caretaker for a couple's children and who should make a high income. Cultural norms have also made cisgender heterosexual couples the expectation, which causes hardships for those who don't fit that mold.

The Impact of Culture on Gender Roles and Identities » Gender Studies

Transgender

kallistaalderink — 2025-03-02 02:33:58 UTC

This image shows what a transgender person feels like before or during transitioning. Transgender people have gender identities and expressions that are different than the sex they were born. The question on the image does a good job of describing the struggle some people feel when their appearance doesn't reflect their internal identity.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1684813382i/159159267.jpg

Nonbinary/Gender Nonconforming

kallistaalderink — 2025-03-02 02:34:31 UTC

Those who identify as nonbinary or gender nonconforming don't recognize a single gender within themselves. As the video states, they can either feel feminine and masculine at times, or neither. They don't feel represented by the gender binary and don't comply to societal norms. Since there are many ways to define these terms, gender nonconforming is sometimes used for those who identify with their sex but don't display it in the typical way by dressing or behaving differently.

NON-BINARY, QUEER, GENDER NONCONFORMING AND + DEFINITIONS OF GENDER 🌈 LGBTIQ+ | Draw My Life

Intersex

kallistaalderink — 2025-03-02 02:34:50 UTC

Intersex individuals are not born only male or female since they have combinations of chromosomes or genitalia. At times, they are given an unnecessary surgery to make them have a single sex when they are very young. Intersex people can live perfectly healthy lives without this "normalizing" surgery. Being intersex is different from being transgender because the first is about biological characteristics from birth while the second is about changing characteristics to match gender identity.

What It's Like To Be Intersex

Bisexuality

kallistaalderink — 2025-03-02 02:36:00 UTC

Being bisexual means that one is attracted to two or more genders. Some may view bisexuality as reinforcing the gender binary since it can be generalized to attraction towards men and women and nothing more. This is not true though as some bisexual people are attracted to nonbinary or transgender folks, for example. There are many other assumptions about bisexuality, such as when a bi man dates a woman, he is "being straight," but this ignores that their sexuality doesn't stop or change when they start a relationship with someone.

What Is Bisexual? 17 Things to Know About Sex, Attraction, and More

Social Scripts

kallistaalderink — 2025-03-02 02:36:12 UTC

Social scripts for sexuality are the learned societal frameworks that people assume they should follow. These can act as guidelines for what might be appropriate for certain situations. Scripts vary between cultures and genders. Men's sexuality is seen as wanting variety and harder to control while women's sexuality is connected to emotions.

What Are Sexual Scripts: Free Yourself From Sexual Scripts

Dimensions of Sexual Orientation

kallistaalderink — 2025-03-02 02:37:27 UTC

The three dimensions of sexual orientation are identity, attraction, and behavior. Identity refers to the label that someone considers for themselves, as in gay, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, etc. Attraction is the type of person that someone finds attractive, while behavior is about who someone has sex and is intimate with. Seeing as sexual orientation has many layers, it is complex and different for everyone.

https://wjhall.web.unc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/11637/2019/04/Sexual-Orientation-encyclopedi-of-social-work.pdf

Counter Cinema

kallistaalderink — 2025-03-02 02:43:58 UTC

Counter cinema refers to the type of movies that purposefully go against the mainstream ideas in media. Relating to gender, some films are created to go against the sexist portrayals of mostly women, but men as well. These movies don't look through the male gaze, as in assume the audience is wider than heterosexual men and views women as worth more than just their bodies. The stereotypes of gender roles can also be challenged, for example, by showing men as the caretakers for children ("stay at home dads") and women as the income earner.

Counter Cinema - Film Theory

Women in Film

kallistaalderink — 2025-03-02 02:44:22 UTC

The image gives multiple percentages to describe the hardships that women in film experience compared to men in the top 500 films. Not even a third of characters that talk in movies are women, which shows that women are typically pushed to supporting roles. Over a quarter of women wore revealing clothing or had to show partial nudity onscreen. This reveals what is deemed important for women to do to be worth screen time. Only about 10% of the 500 movies had a balanced cast of men and women, demonstrating that men dominate the field of the media.

https://womensagenda.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/how_women_are_represented.jpg

Censoring Gender and Sexuality

kallistaalderink — 2025-03-02 02:48:36 UTC

In the 1920's, films were allowed to show many things that were later censored, including suggestive sexual scenes. After the Motion Picture Production Code was created and accepted by studios, movies had limitations as to what was allowed for the screen. This impacted gender because many of the censors limited what women could do and how they could dress. These limitations also led to women becoming side characters and being less as a focus in films.

How the Catholic Church censored Hollywood's Golden Age

Popular Culture

kallistaalderink — 2025-03-05 21:53:33 UTC

Popular culture is the collection of widespread ideas and practices in multiple forms of media. Gender is often represented in popular culture by reinforcing stereotypes about what men and women should do and look like. This also encourages social conformity for masculine and feminine ideals. However, popular culture can also showcase those who challenge gender norms, which can be eye-opening and inspiring.

978-1-5275-4055-2-sample.pdf

The Male Gaze

kallistaalderink — 2025-03-05 22:00:33 UTC

The male gaze in media is the idea that films and videos view women through a man's eyes. This means that women are overly sexualized in the media, and the camera lingers on their bodies, which are typically wearing revealing clothing. Viewing through the male gaze also assumes that the audience feels pleasure from seeing those types of images. Lastly, men are seen as the strong ones that fight and do the action sequences, which is another thing that the audience of heterosexual men would like to see.

Media Studies - Laura Mulvey’s Male Gaze / Feminist theory - Simple Guide

Sexual Double Bind

kallistaalderink — 2025-03-05 22:08:47 UTC

This image shows the contradicting idea of a double bind in the way that there is no way to do something right. For women, there is a sexual double bind for how they should approach sex. The idea is that they should be open to sex because if they aren't, they are a prude, but they shouldn't have too many sexual partners otherwise they are seen as a tramp. Whatever a woman does, is something that they shouldn't do, as the picture shows.

https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.p9hzE3XaWOVgtMtoi1P9aQHaC6?w=274&h=137&c=7&r=0&o=5&dpr=1.5&pid=1.7

kallistaalderink — 2025-03-09 18:49:25 UTC