Assignment task: Answer the questions associated with these four readings:
1. Not just a performance: Cheerleading and the politics of sport: According to Grindstaff, why is "performance" important to understand the debate over whether cheerleading should be recognized as a sport?
2. Night to his day: The social construction of gender: How would you explain in your own word gender as a social institution? Give some examples in your own life of "doing gender."
3. Not just bodies: Strategies for desexualizing the physical examination of patients. The authors argue that "female patients are protected by chaperones, but men must be protected from chaperones." What do they mean? This article focuses mostly on what practitioners do to desexualize physical exams. In your experience, what role does the patient play in desexualizing physical exams? Do you believe the patient's response is gendered? That is, do men play their roles as patients during the physical exam differently from how women play their roles?
4. Unbuttoned: The interaction between provocativeness of female work attire and occupational status: The authors assert that particularly for women in high-status roles, provocative clothing choices may perpetuate stereotypes and promote negative evaluation of work competence as judged by other women. Do you agree with the conclusions of this study? Do you feel similar results would be found if a U.S. study was completed? Why or why not?