WMNST 464Feminine/Masculine

3 credits · Women's Studies · Penn State

Study of sex role learning; investigating feminine/masculine labeling; implications for contemporary society. BE SC 464 BE SC (WMNST) 464 Feminine and Masculine (3) (US) This course provides a critical examination of the concepts of masculinity and femininity through a consideration of how these have shifted and changed historically and cross-culturally. It considers a variety of theories of gender difference. It investigates how gender is socially constructed and practiced. Thus, it examines how gender is enacted in interpersonal relationships and defined, reinforced, and challenged through processes of socialization as well as through the various institutional spheres of social life. The course addresses the diversity of masculinities and femininities within a single society. Thus, attention is given to race and class-based differences as well as to trans-genderism and homosexuality.