Questions to Guide Your Readings (2/3-2/5):

Start with the Garfinkel reading, proceed to West and Zimmerman, then Gutman, and then Epstein.

• Who is Agnes? Can you relate to her? What is it about her situation that reveals the construction of gender identities? What is constructed? What aspects of her life does she have to work on to be gendered? Which examples show this gender construction the best? Why does she care if her past is revealed? What is ethnomethodology? How does it help us reveal the social norms and structures that usually remain invisible to us in our everyday lives. How does Garfinkel make the distinction between sex and gender?
•  Read the West and Zimmerman article.- "Doing Gender." As you read about Agnes and you read the article, some of the key terms referenced included sex, sex category, sex display, gender. What do they mean by essentially female in the context of the previously defined terms?
• Then read the Meanings of Macho Intro and Chapter 1. What is the focus of his study? What does the author mean by the diversity of gender meanings, institutions, relations within and between social groupings? How does Guttman make the distinction between sex and gender? Is it different than Garfinkel's distinction - why? In Mexico what do you think are the essential elements defining men?
• From the above perspectives, who is doing the defining and creation of gender identities?
• How do the two methodological approaches differ (Garfinkel vs. Gutmann)? How are they similar?
• Deceptive Distinctions, is an older classic theoretical piece that reviews the sociobiological perspective and critiques it. In your own words, how would you describe the sociobiological perspective? Does it have any appeal to you? Why? What is meant by the term: lateralization? In current discourses about men and women or about race what is the laterization argument?