homonculus

Wow, it's pretty great that your gf had a class with Don Kulick. Does she go to NYU? I applied there because I hoped to work with him....but I was rejected. Oh well!

What do you study in graduate school?

Yeah, the funny thing about Butler is that when I first read her, I thought she was a goddess....and now, as I'm learning enough to become comfortable with the idea of critiquing her, I'm finding that I don't agree with many things she says.

What are you studying at U of A?

I accidentally responded to you in my own journal....I copied and pasted it here for you though:

homonculus, I always appreciate your comments in my journal. You keep me on my toes.

I know we can't deny that some differences between the sexes are biological. But I do think that our ideas about the category of sex are to a great degree influenced by our ideas about gender. They become so intertwined that it becomes tricky to talk about "sex" without bringing to the discussion gender baggage.

I usually also argue that sex also shouldn't be seen as binary because some people are born who do not fit into either category (with various combinations of chromosomes, hormones, and genitalia), but surgeons and parents often make the decision for them and mutilate them so that they'll fit into a box of "male" or "female."

Although I still hold to this argument, I also recognize that I tend to sometimes go too far with saying that everything is socially constructed. When I was studying psychology, I was much more balanced about the whole nature/nurture thing, but since I started studying anthropology, I've gradually started thinking that most things are social, and that even when there are biological "givens," they are not as strong as social forces.