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Sex And Temperament Analysis

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Critique of “Sex and Temperament” and “From Undoing Gender” Margaret Mead’s “Sex and Temperament” is an essay to explain how there are differences between genders everywhere but they are not the same throughout the world. While Judith Butler’s excerpt from “Undoing Gender” is about the existence of gender normalities effects on how people are viewed in society. These two essays are very similar because of the similar presentations of ideas and the similar ideas of the two women. I chose to compare these two because of the similarity in their topics and how they presented them. Such as the ideas of gender differences, their research is based on analysis of different situations , and the effect the idea of gender norms have on society and they way we view others. Mead and Butler both think there are something they call “gender norms” or “temperaments.” These are the traits of an individual society sees as either more masculine or feminine. Butler reveals this in her summary of the David …show more content…

Like Mead analyzing each culture she experienced and their different societies she created her ideas of gender temperaments. “The Arapesh believe that painting in color is appropriate only to men, and the Mundugumor consider fishing and essentially feminine task.” (713) These two examples illustrates her idea that different cultures and societies have different gender temperaments and vary throughout the places you visit. Butler uses a story about David Reimer to further simplify her ideas of gender normalities. She analyzes his ideas of himself anther ideas of the case as a whole. Such as, speaking on his words of himself “…David understands that there is a norm of how he was supposed to be, and that he has fallen short of the norm.” (753). But, not only that the norm or what society says that is exists but it makes others feels as if there is an expectation to live up to these

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