Chapter 5
Option 1: Briefly discuss the difference between sex and gender in your own words (but based on the definitions in the text). As you do so, briefly explain what is meant by the contention that gender is “socially constructed”. In the following video, how do you see the contention of gender social construction demonstrated?
Chapter 7
2. How has the dating scriipt been altered by changes in generational perspectives on relationships as well as the presence of communication technology like online dating apps (including the fact that they are manipulated by the app developers and the users)? Hypothesize two areas in which communication technology and differences in generational perspectives are likely to have the largest impact on dating in the next 10 years.
3. There are several optional videos posted in the “Watch and Consider” section of this module that may help add perspective for this last question: Take a look at the following NPR piece on Racism in Online Dating: https://www.npr.org/2018/01/09/575352051/least-desirable-how-racial-discrimination-plays-out-in-online-datingLinks to an external site. OR a more recent piece of research out of Boston University: https://buexperts.medium.com/its-a-match-or-is-it-how-online-dating-has-created-a-new-form-of-digital-racism-643c40255941Links to an external site. Also, take look at the CNN Style piece in the Desexualization of Asian American Men: https://www.cnn.com/style/article/andrew-kung-asian-american-men/index.html Links to an external site. Given the increased overall acceptance of interracial and inter-ethnic dating, what factors (aside from the prevalence of endogamy in general) explain the continued biases against African American women as well as Asian men by all races – including by potential partners within their own racial groups? Do you think that the increased cultural awareness including increased allyship of other racial groups will decrease the dating/marriage squeeze for Black women and Asian men in the near future?