Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in Sex and Gender

by Paul, Elizabeth L.

• ISBN13: 9780072489255
• ISBN10: 0072489251
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-08-31
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill/Dushkin

Summary

This debate-style reader is designed to introduce students to controversies in gender studies. The readings, which represent the arguments of leading sociologists and social commentators, reflect a variety of viewpoints and have been selected for their liveliness and substance and because of their value in a debate framework. Taking Sides actively develops critical thinking skills by requiring students to analyze opposing viewpoints and reach considered judgements.

Table of Contents

Preface	1	(1)
Introduction: Sex and Gender: Knowing Is Believing, but Is Believing Knowing?	xii
PART 1 DEFINITIONS AND BOUNDARIES: A MOVING TARGET	1	(68)
Are Humans Naturally Either Male or Female?	2	(18)
YES: J. Richard Udry, from ``The Nature of Gender,'' Demography (November 1994)	4	(6)
No: Will Roscoe, from ``How to Become a Berdache: Toward a Unified Analysis of Gender Diversity,'' in Gilbert Herdt, ed., Third Sex, Third Gender: Beyond Sexual Dimorphism in Culture and History (Zone Books, 1994)	10	(10)
Does the John/Joan Case Prove That Gender Identity Is Innate?	20	(24)
Yes: Milton Diamond and H. Keith Sigmundson, from ``Sex Reassignment at Birth: Long-term Review and Clinical Implications,'' Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine (March 1997)	22	(10)
No: Bernice L. Hausman, from ``Do Boys Have to Be Boys? Gender, Narrativity, and the John/Joan Case,'' NWSA Journal (September 30, 2000)	32	(12)
Is Gender Variation a Psychological Illness?	44	(25)
Yes: John B. McDevitt, from ``A Childhood Gender Identity Disorder: Analysis, Preoedipal Determinants, and Therapy in Adolescence,'' in Albert J. Solnit et al., eds., The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, vol. 50 (Yale University Press, 1995)	46	(11)
No: Katherine K. Wilson, from ``Gender as Illness: Issues of Psychiatric Classification,'' Paper presented at the Sixth Annual ICTLEP Transgender Law and Employment Policy Conference (July 1997)	57	(12)
PART 2 THE QUESTION OF DIFFERENCE	69	(80)
Does Evolutionary Theory Explain Psychological Sex Differences in Humans?	70	(22)
Yes: David M. Buss, from ``Psychological Sex Differences: Origins Through Sexual Selection,'' American Psychologist (March 1995)	72	(7)
No: Anne Fausto-Sterling, from ``Beyond Difference: A Biologist's Perspective,'' Journal of Social Issues (1997)	79	(13)
Are Sex Differences in the Brain Primarily Responsible for Males' and Females' Differing Cognitive Abilities?	92	(18)
Yes: Doreen Kimura, from Sex and Cognition (MIT Press, 2000)	94	(3)
No: MaryAnn Baenninger and Nora Newcombe, from ``Environmental Input to the Development of Sex-Related Differences in Spatial and Mathematical Ability,'' Learning and Individual Differences (1995)	97	(13)
Do Women and Men Communicate Differently?	110	(39)
Yes: Philip Yancey, from ``Do Men and Women Speak the Same Language?'' Marriage Partnership (Fall 1993)	112	(6)
No: Mary Crawford, from Talking Difference: On Gender and Language (Sage, 1995)	118	(12)
Should We Continue to Study Sex Differences?
Yes: Alice H. Eagly, from ``The Science and Politics of Comparing Women and Men,'' American Psychologist (March 1995)	130	(6)
No: Bernice Lott, from ``The Personal and Social Correlates of a Gender Difference Ideology,'' Journal of Social Issues (1997)	136	(13)
PART 3 CULTURE SAYS: ``GENDER MATTERS''	149	(56)
Should Title VII Apply to Sexual Harassment Between Individuals of the Same Sex?	150	(22)
Yes: Catharine A. MacKinnon, from Joseph Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Incorporated, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (August 12, 1997)	152	(12)
No: Equal Employment Advisory Council, from Joseph Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Incorporated, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (October 14, 1997)	164	(8)
Is Female Circumcision Universally Wrong?	172	(20)
Yes: Loretta M. Kopelman, from ``Female Circumcision/Genital Mutilation and Ethical Relativism,'' Second Opinion (October 1994)	174	(8)
No: Stanlie M. James, from ``Shades of Othering: Reflections on Female Circumcision/Genital Mutilation,'' Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society (Summer 1998)	182	(10)
Can Women's Sexuality Be Free From Traditional Gender Constraints?	192	(13)
Yes: Rebecca Walker, from ``Lusting for Freedom,'' in Barbara Findlen, ed., Listen Up: Voices From the Next Feminist Generation (Seal Press, 1995)	194	(5)
No: Athena Devlin, from ``The Shame of Silence,'' in Amy Kesselman, Lily D. McNair, and Nancy Schniedewind, eds., Women: Images and Realities: A Multicultural Anthology, 2d ed. (Mayfield, 1999)	199	(6)
PART 4 SEX, GENDER, AND YOUTH	205	(20)
Is Fetal Sex Selection Harmful to Society?	206	(8)
Yes: Gail Vines, from ``The Hidden Cost of Sex Selection,'' New Scientist (May 1, 1993)	208	(3)
No: Editors of Lancet, from ``Jack or Jill?'' Lancet (March 20, 1993)	211	(3)
Is Gender the Most Critical Factor in the Recent Spate of School Shootings?	214	(11)
Yes: Michael Kimmel, from ``Snips and Snails...and Violent Urges,'' Newsday (March 8, 2001)	216	(3)
No: Alvin Poussaint, from judge Baker Children's Center, http://www.jbcc.harvard.edu/articles/oct/school_shootings.htm (May 10, 2001)	219	(6)
PART 5 ALL IN THE FAMILY	225	(80)
Is Domestic Violence Best Treated as a Gender Crime?	226	(18)
Yes: Lori Heise, Mary Ellsberg, and Megan Gottemoeller, from ``Ending Violence Against Women,'' Population Reports (December 1999)	228	(7)
No: A. E. Eyler and Marian Cohen, from American Academy of Family Physicians, http://www.aafp.org/afp/991201ap/2569.html (December 1, 1999)	235	(9)
Should Men and Women Have Equal Parental Rights?	244	(22)
Yes: Marjorie Maguire Shultz, from ``Reproductive Technology and Intent-Based Parenthood: An Opportunity for Gender Neutrality,'' Wisconsin Law Review (1990)	246	(10)
No: Martha Albertson Fineman, from ``The Neutered Mother,'' University of Miami Law Review (1992)	256	(10)
Can Fathers ``Mother''?	266	(20)
Yes: Louise B. Silverstein, from ``Fathering Is a Feminist Issue,'' Psychology of Women Quarterly (1996)	268	(9)
No: David Popenoe, from ``Parental Androgyny,'' Society (September/October 1993)	277	(9)
Are Welfare Reforms Ineffective Because Welfare Mothers Are Irresponsible and Lazy?	286	(19)
Yes: Thomas G. West, from ``Poverty and the Welfare State,'' in Larry P. Arnn and Douglas A. Jeffrey, eds., Moral Ideas for America (The Claremont Institute, 1997)	288	(7)
No: Sarah Drescher, from ``Why Welfare Fails: Addressing the Pre-Existing Gender Inequalities Contributing to the Feminization of Poverty,'' The Oregon Advocate (Summer 2000)	295	(10)
PART 6 TRANSCENDING GENDER	305	(63)
Can We Raise ``Gender-Neutral'' Children?	306	(24)
Yes: Sandra Lipsitz Bem, from An Unconventional Family (Yale University Press, 1998)	308	(8)
No: Denise A. Segura and Jennifer L. Pierce, from ``Chicana/o Family Structure and Gender Personality: Chodorow, Familism, and Psychoanalytic Sociology Revisited,'' Signs (Autumn 1993)	316	(14)
Does Transsexualism Solve the Problem of Fixed Definitions of Gender Identity?	330	(20)
Yes: Jennifer Diane Reitz, from ``Entombment: Being the Dysphoria Story of Jennifer Diane Reitz,'' http://transsexual.org/mystory.html (December 29, 1998)	332	(8)
No: Richard Ekins and Dave King, from ``Blending Genders: Contributions to the Emerging Field of Transgender Studies,'' The International Journal of Transgenderism (July-September 1997)	340	(10)
Will the Experimentation With Different Identities in Cyberspace Help Us to Transcend Gender?	350	(18)
Yes: Sherry Turkle, from ``Who Am We?'' Wired (January 1996)	352	(7)
No: Lori Kendall, from ``MUDder? I Hardly Know 'Er! Adventures of a Feminist MUDder,'' in Lynn Cherny and Elizabeth Reba Weise, eds., Wired Women: Gender and New Realities in Cyberspace (Seal Press, 1996)	359	(9)
Contributors	368	(6)
Index	374