WOMENST 1A03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Medical Model, Polymerase Chain Reaction, Medicalization

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Women's Studies
• Course: WOMENST 1A03
• Professor: Jennifer Askey

Document Summary

Women, culture and power= the name of our course. Power is found in: agency, language, symbols, control, having the truth and experiences heard, creativity. Frigidity is no longer used; female sexual arousal disorder. Its performance is the sole indicator of male power/potency. Potency is a diffuse term; implying not only sexual potency but overall effectiveness. We make no attempt to separate impotence from the total personality. then we expect the personality to perform like a machine. Feminism and women"s studies focused on the constructedness of femininity and the ideal woman . Gender studies= a shift toward acknowledging that both masculinity and femininity are social constructions. The constructedness of masculinity (as, for example, only apparent in sexual performance) is just as damaging to men as the constructedness of femininity as docile and self-sacrificing was damaging to women. Masculinity is not reducible to the male body and its effects. Masculinity is constructed across myriad bodies, both male and female.