Reflection 1

After reading the Social and Historical Constructions of Gender, I agree with the belief that science is divided between nature and culture.  Nature is the pure, unchanged world, and culture reflects the way humans behave overtime.  The behavior of humans overtime creates stereotypes between men and women, races, ect.  Politics appear to have had a great influence in the roles that men and women assumed over history.  Throughout history, men were held to be superior to women.  Men were considered to be the providers, had the stronger bodies, and were known to be physically more fit.  Women on the other hand, were seen as domesticated, and ideal for motherhood. 

            The early study of the sexes indicated that men and women had similar bodies with very few differences.  However, as time went on the male and female bodies were described by there differences not their similarities.  Finally, in the twentieth century, female and male sex hormones characterized femininity and masculinity.  It was this hormonal approach, which was characterized male and female behavior. 

            The same historical view of males being superior is also seen in the way the female’s menstruation cycle has been defined.  The monthly cycle usually ends in failure while the males produce millions of sperm that are prepared to impregnate a woman.  Women’s ovaries become old and worn while men do not have that issue.  It is also interesting that the egg is seen as something that does not move, while the sperm swims fast, is aggressive, and penetrates the egg.  This stereotype confirms the notion that men are strong and dominant while females are passive and weak.  During the Byzantine Empire, there were three different genders; male, females, and eunuchs.  They assumed that the behaviors that we believe are learned were actually inherent in the physical being of the individual.