SOC 0851 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Penis Envy, Electra Complex, Castration Anxiety
29 May 2018
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Psychological Approaches to Gender
• Freud
o Anatomical differences between boys and girls, and how they
make sense of those differences, are fundamental to the
formation of gender identity
o Oedipus complex – develops eause a youg oy’s attahet
to his mother eventually grows into seeing her as a love object.
The boy wants to have sex with his mother and perceives his
father as a threat stranding in the way of that goal
o Boys see that women lack a penis and, on an unconscious level,
draws the conclusion that penises can be cut off
▪ Boys develop a castration complex, a fear that their own
fathers will castrate them if they act on their sexual desire
toward their mother
▪ Ed result is oys’ ultimate rejection of their mother and
their sexual desire for her
▪ Men learn to look down on women because they lack a
penis and identify with their father; this identification
helps them to develop a masculine identity modeled on
that of their father
o Girls come to realize at some point in development that she
lacks a penis
▪ She sees that her mother also lacks a penis, and therefore,
places the blame for her own lack of a penis on her mother
▪ Woe oe to evy e’s possessio of a peis ad,
like men, disdain their mother and all other women
because of their lack of a penis – penis envy
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