{"id":25,"date":"2015-08-28T19:47:54","date_gmt":"2015-08-28T23:47:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/fyswns17\/?p=25"},"modified":"2015-09-11T21:30:35","modified_gmt":"2015-09-12T01:30:35","slug":"what-is-a-gender-spectrum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/fyswns17\/2015\/08\/28\/what-is-a-gender-spectrum\/","title":{"rendered":"What is a Gender Spectrum?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Lillie Mucha<\/em><\/p>\n

\"gender\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The difference between gender as a spectrum versus as a binary construct is one that is very close to me. I\u2019ve known for several years that I don\u2019t fall perfectly into the category of a \u201cstereotypical female,\u201d and I suspect that nearly every girl feels the same way. Virginia Valian in \u201cWomen at the Top in Science – and Elsewhere\u201d brings to light the harmful effects of establishing male and female stereotypes – \u201cgender schemas\u201d – that attempt to polarize these two groups of humans. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Spectrum vs. the Binary<\/h3>\n

Schemas are of course necessary for social interaction to occur productively, since they can be highly useful in understanding a situation in the world. It would be very difficult to operate in the world if one didn\u2019t have an understanding of the schematic differences between a fifteen-year-old and a fifty-year-old person. However, in the case of gender, people cannot be categorized so neatly.<\/p>\n

The first thing to understand is that gender is not equal to sex. An individual\u2019s sex is determined by their genitalia, and they can be male, female, or intersex, and with modern surgery can change their private parts to match their gender. Having any type of sexual organ does not automatically place a person\u2019s gender, which is why communities of transgender gender people exist. <\/span><\/p>\n

While it is a step in the right direction to understand that people are not 100% female and 100% male, this still gives the false impression of a binary gender system, in which men and women are judged based on their displacement from the average man and average woman. <\/span><\/p>\n

There is no average man. There is no average woman. <\/span><\/p>\n

These fictional people have been produced from the media, social norms, historical representations, personal encounters, and every other human influence. If we were to pretend for a minute that they never did exist, then it would become obvious that the range of human identities is of a much larger scope than the two standards we see so often today. <\/span><\/p>\n

Gender and Science<\/h3>\n

There is a misconception about the science fields that I myself had to overcome. I thought of science as an alien world, completely separate from every other profession. Many people believe in the \u201cmad scientist\u201d stereotype, thinking that only exceptionally gifted people can become scientists. In only a few months of exposure to science at college, it became clear to me that people who work in science are not gods at all, but authentic human beings. <\/span><\/p>\n

When the gender stereotype and the scientist stereotype collide, society finds situations in which women have to prove themselves worthy, and, consciously or unconsciously, others might build assumptions about their abilities even with solid proof in front of them. It\u2019s important to have a good understanding of what a nonbinary gender spectrum is. Sex, the biological determinant of our bodies, unless otherwise altered, does not equate with gender, and – as said by Valian – \u201c[the genders] overlap.\u201d A female-sex person can have a personality just as scientifically inclined as that of a male-sex person. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Next Step: Fixing the Problem<\/h3>\n

Valian says in the final paragraph that gender stereotypes will be \u201ceventually dispelled by education.\u201d I believe the same. It is critical to the success of the feminist movement at large, and especially concerning the underrepresentation of women in science-related fields, to teach the general population why men and women are more alike than we are different.<\/span><\/p>\n

Image\u00a0source: link<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Lillie Mucha The difference between gender as a spectrum versus as a binary construct is one that is very close to me. I\u2019ve known for several years that I don\u2019t fall perfectly into the category of a \u201cstereotypical female,\u201d and I suspect that nearly every girl feels the same way. Virginia Valian in \u201cWomen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2207,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35317,35318],"tags":[31180],"class_list":["post-25","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-posts","category-ceci-williams-reading","tag-fys-wns"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/fyswns17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/fyswns17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/fyswns17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/fyswns17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2207"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/fyswns17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/fyswns17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/fyswns17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/fyswns17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/fyswns17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}