The concept of "cultural diffusion" begs all the important questions of how ideas and practices get transmitted from one class or group to another and how those ideas get accommodated and transformed under different circumstances. "Cultural" theorists of fertility trends assume that techniques get introduced among elite groups and then, by means never quite specified, […]
День: 03.11.2015
The Hype
On August 31, the day following the publication of LeVay (1991), Science News scooped the other large popular periodicals and reported: “A comparison of 41 autopsied brains has revealed a distinct difference between homosexual and heterosexual men in the brain region that controls sexual behavior” (Ezzell, 1991, p. 134). Even though the article went on […]
Whose Opinion?
Revisionist historians of the Revolution have sketched an equally disturbing portrait of how revolutionary politics strove toward absolute consensus, monitoring and expelling all instances of division within the revolutionary public. Rather than a contest over interests, revolutionary politics became the site of symbolic legitimations.48 Benjamin Nathans aptly relates the challenge that recent historiography poses to […]
Chapter development
Freud held that his paper ‘On Narcissism: An Introduction’ displayed all the signs of a difficult labour, an appropriate metaphor no doubt when we consider narcissism’s troubled adoption within the broader psychoanalytic community.3 In Chapter 1 I begin with a reading of Freud’s paper of 1914, identify some of its major difficulties, and explore some […]
Male Sexual Anatomy
and Physiology Sexual Anatomy What are the major external and internal male sex structures, and what functions do they serve? Why is it important to conduct regular genital self-exams, and what should a man look for? Male Sexual Functions What physiological processes cause an erection? How do psychological and physiological factors interact to influence erections? […]
Pressures to Preserve Class Privilege
Equally ironic, a set of concerns found exclusively among the professional middle-class parents has to do with precisely what it is that parents are doing to ensure their childrens success. In their efforts to secure status reproduction by preparing their children to seize advantage, parents move to neighborhoods with demanding public schools, pressure their children […]
The Prolog
The original outlet for LeVay’s study, Science, holds a premier reputation, but it clearly emphasizes the natural, life, and physical sciences with less emphasis on the social and behavioral sciences. The journal was no stranger to the debate concerning a biological basis for sex differences in the human brain. Science previously had published at least […]
Limitations to seeing gender as ‘done’: gender performativity
The most influential current theories about gender by Judith Butler (for example, 1990), sound very similar to socialization theories (Hood- Williams and Harrison, 1998: 89) and to symbolic interactionist approaches about doing gender, but could more accurately be described as arguing that gender ‘does us’. Her work has been important because she has outlined how […]
Participant Observation
Participant observation research involves researchers going into an environment and monitoring what is happening naturally. For instance, a researcher who wants to explore male and female flirting patterns and alcohol might watch interactions between men and women in bars. This would entail several visits and specific note taking on all that occurs. However, it is […]
Ann’s Flip-Flop Syndrome
On this question of sharing the work at home, Ann listened to two contradictory inner voices. In her “better moments,” as she saw them, she wanted to relieve Robert of the work at home, to do it herself. When this voice spoke loudest, Ann spoke appreciatively about the heavy demands of Robert’s career and his […]