We didn’t have enough time in class last week to watch this video excerpt, in which Judith Butler briefly explains her ideas about how gender is something that we do, rather than something we are or something we have.

In my morning news reading today, I came across this article about the role sex hormones play in how the brain’s neurotransmitters communicate chemical signals of pain, explaining why women and men feel pain differently and pain treatments often work differently for women and men.

While this isn’t technically a gender communication difference, Dr. Marcus says this indicates that women aren’t just bigger complainers: Research studies consistently show that women are more sensitive to pain than men. They show that women feel pain at a lower stimulus than men, and pain becomes intolerable to women sooner than men.

Here’s one of the new “Legos for Girls” sets on offer for Christmas 2011:

And here’s an advertisement for Legos from 1981, when Legos first tried to capture the girl market:

Source: Lisa Wade, Beauty and the New Lego Line for Girls, Sociological Images, Jan 1, 2012.

We briefly mentioned how Title IX had improved opportunities for women and girls to play sports in school; a new study shows that the number of female college athletes has reached a record high. Nearly 200,000 female athletes are playing this year on 9,274 NCAA teams, for an average of 8.7 women’s teams per college.

Here are some additional findings from the study:

• There are more women working in college sports than in any of the past 35 years.
• Nearly 4,000 women are coaching women’s teams this year (also a record high).
• More than one in five athletic directors across all three NCAA divisions is a woman.
• Lacrosse is the fastest-growing sport for women.
• Some sports have seen a decline in participation; for example, basketball, which is the most popular women’s sport, lost several teams last year.

The growth of women’s sports has not come at the expense of opportunities for male athletes, the data show. You can read the full report [pdf] here.

In class last week, someone (I think it was Eric, but I’m not positive) mentioned the controversy about a 7-year-old transgender girl admitted to a Girl Scout troop in Colorado. In response, a 14-year-old California Girl Scout has joined with some parents and scouting alumni to organize a boycott of Girl Scout cookies, claiming the money raised from cookie sales is used by the national organization “to push a radical homosexual agenda at the expense of the Scouts’ safety.”

Trans man and activist Buck Angel made this video in response, to support the Girl Scouts and encourage people to buy cookies, not boycott:

Hey guys, today in class Dr. Kissling mentioned about the GRE workshop. I have attached the flyer to this post, click on the link below.

GRE Seminar flyer Winter 2012

Here is a pdf of the article from Rolling Stone by John Colapinto about the tragic John/Joan story. It was originally published in 1997.

And for those who didn’t know what we were talking about, here’s the video of Riley in the toy store, already pretty astute about gendered marketing at what appears to be the age of about four.

I’ve just learned that the EWU bookstore has listed the 9th edition of Gendered Lives as required for our class, and I know that at least two of you have already purchased the 9th edition.

Given this, it’s OK with me if *everyone* uses the 9th edition. I don’t think the 9th and 10th are terribly different, and I will try to get my hands on a copy of the 9th edition for myself to use.

I’m terribly sorry for the confusion.

Welcome to the interactive web site for CMST/WMST 414 – Gender & Communication. This site has our schedule, reading assignments, course policies, class notes, and more. It’s also interactive, which means you can post course-related material here and comment on things other members post — basically, it’s a course blog, with extra features. Use the registration link to the right to get started.