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Analysis Of The Youtube Video 'Gender And Bullshit'

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I chose to write my reaction paper on the Youtube video, “Sex, Gender and Bullshit Part 6: Are Science and Gender Studies in Conflict?” because as a WGSS minor taking this course which highlights the biological differences in men and women, there are unique differences between the two areas of study. This video is essentially features two individuals, Lou Perez and Dr. Debra Soh, having a conversation on why Dr. Soh finds gender studies courses to be problematic. Primarily, Dr. Soh addresses the question of how many genders there are, the difference in the brain structures of men and women, her critiques of feminism, and how gender studies courses need to be more aware of science and biology. Because this short video was packed with controversial …show more content…

Soh’s conclusion that gender studies courses conflict with science and biology is problematic as it relies on the assumption that science and biology classes are taught with the same objectives as gender studies courses. Whereas, I believe comparing the two fields of education is like comparing apples and oranges. While one primarily relies on empirical studies the other centers around socialization and culture. With this being said, I do not think that because gender studies are not empirically-led, they are not valuable. For example, a course I took—Perspectives on Women, was about women of different cultures, races, ethnicities, in different time periods. For instance, one writer was an Asian-American woman who wrote about regularly being pursued by white men who were seeking to fulfill an oriental fetish—an issue white women do not face. While her experiences may not be an occurrence faced by many people in this country or demonstrated in a scientific study, does it make this woman’s experiences or perspective less valuable or valid? No. It still has a place. Largely, I believe a lot of what college is about is teaching studies how to think rather than what to think, which is largely what gender studies courses do. Gender studies courses largely promote the notion that everyone’s experiences are not universal, providing a more individualistic framework to humanity whereas science is more broad. At the very least, gaining insight to the experiences …show more content…

For example, my sophomore year, I took a course called Perspectives on Sexuality which was taught by a professor with a PhD in Public Health. The course was largely about sexual and reproductive health. We regularly looked at studies on topics such as male and female differences in sexual wants, sexual health risks, pregnancy and fertility, contraception, STI’s, etc. While I am not an expert myself, the fact that we regularly looked at empirical studies conducted by doctors and health professions, leaves me to believe the class was taught in agreement with science and biology. The most politically controversial thing we learned about was sex. We learned that sex is not always dichotomous, specifically referring to intersex individuals. I did not believe that the argument our professor provided for why sex is not always dichotomous was political or scientifically inaccurate as evidently, there are individuals who fall in between male and female— possessing ambiguous genitals, abnormal genitals, abnormal mixes of hormones, and/or chromosomes. Accordingly, I did not interpret this course to be at all denouncing or conflicting with other areas of

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