Anne Fausto-Sterling Gender Summary

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In a chapter on gender, written by Anne Fausto-Sterling, there is an argument that “Western culture is deeply committed to the idea that there are only two sexes.” That our culture can only see women as feminine, caring, soft, and emotional. While men, on the other hand, are see as aggressive, authoritative, and the breadwinner of a family. This is far from truth in other societies around the world though. Anne discusses Margaret Meed and her anthropological work with Samoans and their concepts of gender. Meed found that the gender roles were more fabricated by culture than anything else, that in Samoan societies women could be manly and aggressive and men could be feminine and caring. Facts such as this complicate the ideas of gender and sex