Discussion

Over the decades, scholars have taken rather divergent positions on the degree of influence particular categories of difference may have on the way a certain culture values or understands gender.

For example, some might say the intersection of race/ethnicity and gender is a powerful social cocktail that determines not only how we think about gender but also how we expect it to be expressed and represented in art and culture. Similarly, others contend the intersection of religion or belief system and gender is the key to understanding how a culture views and treats women.

For the sake of practicality, we can simplify the scholarly perspectives into five positions:

1. Ethnicity or "race" provides the strongest point of intersection with how gender is understood and valued in culture.

2. Religion, "world view," or belief system is the strongest intersecting factor with how gender is understood and valued in culture.

3. Social or economic class is the most powerful influence over how gender is understood and valued in culture.

4. A combination and interplay of cultural differences affect how gender is understood and valued in culture.

5. Other areas of cultural difference only minimally affect how gender is understood and valued in culture; gender itself is the strongest component of culture.

Based on the course learning,  explain which scholarly position you are most likely to agree with and why, as well as why at least one other position is not as compelling. (This part of your post should be 5 complete sentences.)

Then  support that position with an example from the textbook that we have not yet discussed or written about as a class. (That means figures like Phillis Wheatley, and Anne Hutchinson and Susan B. Anthony, etc. should NOT be used as your example).

Please refer to specific historical artifacts and/or specific people and particular events to support your perspectives. (So for example, rather than talking about suffragists broadly, name a specific suffragette or artifact from their campaign.) Include the page number and/or section of the textbook (e-books may not have page numbers) to help you be precise.

The example you include for support could be from further ahead in the chapters we have not gotten to yet, or from material in chapters we already covered yet didn't discuss as a group.  Consider using the book's index to help you discover topics related to the position you want to support in your post.

Part of what we are trying to accomplish in this discussion is to bring into our conversation the wide range of material the textbook includes, not only in the chapters but in all the primary sources and images section (the blue pages).

If you are motivated, some of these artifacts could even be included in your paper later in the course.

Finally,  respond respectfully to at least two of your peers with thoughtful questions and comments to further discussion.

I don't expect this is a question to be resolved in a single online discussion thread, but we can become clearer about how these cultural factors seem to function in human culture and why we think or believe what we do about their roles and how that might influence how we (and others) express ourselves.