Gender, sex, sexuality, and other things you aren't supposed to think about.

Gender is an issue that is rarely openly discussed, and when it is, it tends to be found in Those Magazines, with scantily clad, skinny blonde women on the cover, with article names like "The Female Brain: How Differences Can Improve Your Sex Life!" Although these articles clearly offer some opporunities for anthropological analysis of how our culture views sex and gender, I will mostly be bypassing this pop culture viewpoint for alternative ways of looking at sex and gender.

Traditionally sex and gender are used interchangably, with forms offering amusing choices such as :
   
      What is your gender: Male
                                      Female

 Feminist scholarship has claimed, and some still claims,  that sex, as meant by such terms as male and female, refer to body parts, and gender refers the social constructions that use biology as a basis for cultural differences such as division of labor and the near universal oppression of women (As for who is a woman, feminism offers a less than cohesive answer).

 Queer theory and gender theory are the twin offspring of feminist scholarship, perhaps even conjoined twins in many cases. The gender theory explanation of gender is not compatible with the traditional Western view of the gender binary. Neither does it settle for the slightly different, but still binary, feminist explanation. Rather, it is an ongoing dialogue of scientists, scholars, and advocates that does not offer up one Right Answer to the question of "What is gender?"

 In this blog I will be exploring the concepts of gender, sex, and sexuality from an anthropological perspective, but through the lens of queer theory and gender theory. Much of my background in these disciplines is heavily influenced by modern feminist scholarship, though I do not take the  "Women's Studies" perspective.

This blog will most likely contain open and frank discussion of things that are not suitable for children. If you are offended by the anthropological principle of cultural relativity (that cultures should be understood on their own terms), or by the discussion of any of the above topics, please feel free to read on. However, please refrain from posting offensive comments. I welcome all other comments.