EWRT1A 27 and 65: Reading Response 5

Reading Response 5

Aaron Devor “Becoming Members of Society: Learning the Social Meanings of Gender”

In all the prompts below, I want you to explain and evaluate an idea from Devor’s essay using another text (or texts) in the class as evidence for that evaluation.

• Explain Devor’s distinction between “I” and “me” (121, paragraphs 7 and 8). How may this separation contribute to problems with finding one’s own voice? Use another text from the class to illustrate this.

• Devor claims that most people believe that gender roles are “natural” (123, para. 13) and so we believe that women are naturally better parents and men are naturally dominant (para. 14). Devor then states that this leads to inequality and oppression. How? Please use one of our other texts as an example to demonstrate how.

• Devor states that “masculine values become the ideological structure of the society as a whole” (125). What does he mean by this? Do you agree? If so, provide examples from another class text. If not, what examples from our texts contradict Devor’s conclusions?

• Devor refers to the process of gendering that he describes as a “patriarchal gender schema” and ends the essay by stating that “gender roles are the result of systematic power imbalances based on gender discrimination” (126). Do you see examples of this imbalance in our texts? If so, show the examples. If not, what examples contradict Devor’s conclusions? Please use another text in the class as evidence for your response.

• Come up with your own focus, but try to show how another text from the class relates to Devor’s essay.

-----

Also, Devor has an article on his website at the University of Victoria called "How Many Sexes? How Many Genders? When Two Are Not Enough." It covers some of the same ideas as the essay in our reader, but in a different context and using more first-hand testimony.