1/27(四) 思，英語討論會：Separating the Sexes

Discussion Question: Why is it so important that men and women dress differently?

Questions to Ponder:
1. Why is it important to know if someone is a man or a woman?
2. Why is it okay for women to wear pants, but it’s not okay for a man to wear a skirt?
3. What do you feel when you find out that someone who appeared to be a man is a woman? Or vice versa?
4. Why are some people so uncomfortable with transvestites, transsexuals and those with fluid gender identity?
5. Why are people offended if they are treated like a person of the opposite sex?
6. Is it more offensive for men or for women to be treated like a person of the opposite sex?

Discussion Question: Why is it so important that men and women dress differently?

Choose a position:
Position A) Because if men and women didn’t dress differently, we wouldn’t know how to treat them. You have to treat men and women differently. (explain why)
Position B) Because if people wouldn’t dress differently, we wouldn’t know who to be sexually attracted to. (explain why this is important)
Position C) I think it’s strange that it’s so important, and don’t like following these rules. (explain why)
Position D) ___. _________________________.

Excerpt 1:http://echidneofthesnakes.blogspot.com/2010_12_26_archive.html
From the book Delusions of Gender by Cordelia Fine (pp 209-210):


1: “Imagine, for a moment, that we could tell at birth (or even before) whether a child was left-handed or right-handed. By convention, the parents of left-handed babies dress them in pink clothes, wrap them in pink blankets, and decorate their rooms with pink hues. The left-handed baby's bottle, bibs and pacifiers -- and later, cups, plates and utensils, lunch box, and backpack -- are often pink or purple with motifs such as butterflies, flowers and fairies. Parents tend to let the hair of left-handers grow long, and while it is still short in babyhood a barrette or a bow (often pink) serves as a stand-in. Right-handed babies, by contrast, are never dressed in pink, nor do they ever have pink accessories or toys. Although blue is a popular color for right-handed babies, as they get older any color, excluding pink and purple, is acceptable. Clothing and other items for right-handed babies and children commonly portray vehicles, sporting equipment, and space rockets; never butterflies, flowers or fairies. The hair of right-handers is usually kept short and never prettified with accessories.

2: Nor do parents just segregate left- and right-handers symbolically; with color and motif, in our imaginary world. They also distinguish between them verbally. "Come on left-handers!" cries out the mother of two left-handed children in the park. "Time to go home." Or they might say, "Well, go and ask that right-hander if you can have a turn on the swing now." At playgroup, children overhear comments like, "Left-handers love drawing, don't they," and "Are you hoping for a right-hander this time?" to a pregnant mother. At preschool, the teacher greets them with a cheery, "Good morning, left-handers and right-handers." In the supermarket, a father says proudly in response to a polite enquiry, "I've got three children altogether, one left-hander and two right-handers."

3: And finally, although left-handers and right-handers happily live together in homes and communities, children can't help but notice that elsewhere they are often physically segregated. The people who care for them -- primary caregivers, child care workers, and kindergarten teachers, for example -- are almost all left-handed, while building sites and garbage trucks are peopled by right-handers. Public restrooms, sport teams, many adult friendships, and even some schools, are segregated by handedness.

4: You get the idea.

5: It's not hard to imagine that in such a society, even very young children would soon learn that there are two categories of people -- right-handers and left-handers -- and would quickly proficient in using markers like clothing and hairstyle to distinguish between the two kinds of children and adults. But also, it seems more than likely that children would also come to think that there must be something fundamentally important about whether one is a right-hander or a left hander, since so much fuss and emphasis is put on the distinction. Children will, one would imagine, want to know what it means to be someone of a particular handedness and to learn what sets apart a child of one handedness from those with a preference for the other hand.

6: We tag gender in exactly these ways, all of the time.”