ANT 101 Intro to Anthropology

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 In the article “Night to his day: the social construct of gender” Lorber argues that gender

is the construct of the society. She further opines that people are conditioned to act as expected

of their gender from birth. Those who do not act according to their gender, are classified as

gender deviants. The conditioning is rather subtle are quite difficult to identify. In the

introductory paragraph, Lorber compares evaluating gender to a fish talking about water (Lorber,

1991). We live gender in our every day lives. The article illustrates how people ‘do gender’ in

their day to day lives. For example, Lorber narrates about how she witnessed two men taking

care of their infant babies in New York. Onlookers were appreciative of the gesture especially

since such duties have been traditionally been delegated to women. In this narration, Lorber does

a good job to show how gender roles are independent of sex or physiology. Men taking care of

their children does not mean change their sex. Moreover, the act is now common place in New

York. This indicates that gender roles are slowly being revised and new roles being adopted by

both men and women.

The need for classifying people according to their gender, as opined by Lorber, comes

from the need for humans to organize their lives. She gives two methods of prescribing duties.

One method is according to skills, while the other one is according to gender, race, or ethnicity.

Lorber also refutes the claim by the west that gender comes from physiology. To counter this

claim, Lorber gives examples of communities that have more than two genders. For example, in

India there are males, females, and Hijras. Hijras are med who take up female gender roles and

dress as women. Were gender a product of sex, then such genders would not exist. Moreover, in

the west, there are people of opposite sex that have taken up the different gender’s roles in secret

for long periods of time. One example, as given in the article is the jazz player Billy Tipton, a

woman who lived her life as a man and married a woman and adopted three sons.
 In the article “The Social Construct of Sexuality”, Hubbard links heterosexual sex and the

push to have it as the acceptable form of sexuality to the bible and its view of sexuality as a tool

for procreation. Hubbard therefore opines that there was need to make taboo any other form of

sexuality that was not in lone with the Bible teachings. According to Hubbard, there is no natural

or unnatural form of sexuality. The society pushes us towards a predetermined sexuality. In

western couture, heterosexuality is the widely accepted sexuality. Therefore, everyone is

expected to conform to heterosexuality. To popularize heterosexual relationships further, sexual

reformers such as Havelock Ellis, biologized sexuality. Homosexuals were classified as different

from heterosexuals and therefore their responsibility and decision to engage in sexual intercourse

with any person of their choice was taken away from them and blamed on their nature.

Hubbard raises a fundamental argument that a person does not engage in sexual activities

with a certain group but rather, with an individual. To combat the social construct of sexuality,

Hubbard suggests allowing children and adolescents to freely experiment and explore their

sexuality with themselves and with their peers without restriction. This comes from the fact that

sexuality is not only a tool for procreation but can also be enjoyed however an individual desires.

By doing so, Hubbard aims to empower children and adolescents to be fully aware of their

sexuality, accept it and enjoy it without any religious, or institutional limitations. Moreover, in

such age, procreation is impossible and therefore sex is less risky. Hubbard also claims that

doing so will also advantage girls who only learn about the clitoris as an organ of pleasure later

on in life. Doing so also eliminates contradictions such as teaching children that sex should only

be enjoyed for procreation, especially by a married couple but later expect them to have relations

as adolescent while taking care rest they get pregnant at a very young age.
 Hubbard references women who have been married to men and had children and later in

life fall in love with other women. According to her, this shows that sexuality should not be

restricted by gender and that and individual should be free to explore their sexual desires without

any restrictions.

Katz discusses the history of heterosexuality in “the invention of sexuality” (Ferber,

2016). Katz argues that heterosexuality is as old as humanity. However, since the late 19th

century, there has been a push to view heterosexuality as the normal and natural form of sexual

engagement and therefore discriminating against any other form of sexual interaction. The view

of heterosexuality as the natural form and any pother form as unnatural, people deny themselves

the opportunity to understand how people in the past viewed their sexuality, lust, and intercourse.

Katz discusses the true love era (1820-1860) where men and women sought true love for the

purpose of procreation and not as a form of enjoyment. The Victorian true love did not involve

kissing or enjoyment. In these societies, males and females sought purity. Human genitalia were

considered as tools of procreation rather than pleasure.

Katz posit that heterosexuality and homosexuality were born in the late Victorian sex-

love period which occurred between 1860 and 1892. Eroticization of the United States society

occurred due to the convergence of a number of factors. Families became consumers while they

were considered producers in the previous eras. The human body was introduced to a new

economy where it was considered a tool of pleasure and consumption. While the earlier

Victorian true love era taught the body as a tool for procreation to foster production, the late

Victorian era brough about the sex ethics of erotic pleasure for both men and women. Moreover,

during this era, the medical profession became advances with physicians prescribing the new

normal sex where men and women had normal libido. The normal sexual ethics had its opposite
as the sexual pervert. The heterosexual and homosexual were developed by the American doctors

between 1892 and 1900.

In the three articles, gender and sexuality are argued to be constructs of society. Lorber

argues that people are not born gendered but are assigned gender roles at birth. The gender roles

are continuously forced on the individual as they are forced to conform to societal expectations.

Lorber’s argument is supported by (Wandschneider et al., 2020). Wandschneider et al., 2020

argues that gender roles begin immediately after birth and continue till death. Moreover, gender

roles seem to be intertwined with everyday life that it becomes seamless. Lorber clearly shows

the difference between gender and sex. While sex is inherent, gender is learnt. As mead (1930,

slide 20) found out, different cultures have different gender roles, behavior, and expectations.

The difference in the genders lead to different behavior and demeanor. Some females in certain

cultures are aggressive and dominant while others are submissive. On the other hand, Katz and

Hubbard posit that heterosexuality is a recent classification of sexuality. They both claim that

viewing heterosexuality as the normal sex while any other form of sex as abnormal limits one the

opportunity to understand other sexualities, explore their bodies and seek pleasure. studies also

support the need for having the ability to explore ones sexuality without having limitations

(Ussher, 2017).
 Reference

Ferber, A. L. (2016, August 2). Privilege: A Reader (4th ed.). Routledge.

Lorber, J., & Farrell, S. A. (1991). The Social construction of gender. Sage Publications.

Mead, M. (1935). Sex and temperament in three primitive societies. New York, NY: William

Morrow.

Ussher, J. M. (2017, February 21). Unraveling the Mystery of “The Specificity of Women’s

Sexual Response and Its Relationship with Sexual Orientations”: The Social Construction

of Sex and Sexual Identities. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 46(5), 1207–1211.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-017-0957-x

Wandschneider, L., Batram-Zantvoort, S., Razum, O., & Miani, C. (2020, September 1).

Measurement of gender as a social construct in quantitative health research – a critical

review. European Journal of Public Health, 30(Supplement_5).

https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckaa165.331