WGS 240 Exam 2 Questions with Correct Answers Graded A+
anthropology - Answers study of humans across space & time (study of human species and their
immediate ancestors); how things are percieved is more important that what things are
interpretive anthropology - Answers meaning-centered explanations
qualitative anthropology - Answers collection and analysis of non-numerical data about opinions, ideas,
and practices; builds theory from the "ground up"
humanistic/ person-centered anthropology - Answers emphasis on the subjective experience of others;
what do real individuals say, think, feel
ethnographic research - Answers an anthropological and qualitative research method that uses
interviews and participant observation to "provide an intimate view of what is being studied"
social construction of sexuality - Answers if gender and the body are socially constructed through a
complex interplay between our internal sense of ourselves and the regulatory norms in our society, why
would sexual desire and sexuality be any different
sexual scripts - Answers guidelines for how we are supposed to feel and act as sexual persons
sexual self-schemas - Answers ideas and beliefs about sexual aspects of the self that are established
from past and present experiences and that act to guide sexual feelings and behaviors (individual and
subjective)
heteronomative - Answers belief that all people naturally fall into distinct and complementary genders
(man and woman) with associated gender roles-- the natural relationship between genders is
heterosexuality-- only sexual orientation or only norm
intersection of gender and sexuality - Answers gender as a structure of sexual policing: sexual policing as
a method of gendered oppression
queer definitions - Answers - umbrella term that identifies people of minoritized sexual
orientation/identification or gender identification LGBTQIA+
- historically derogatory term for lesbians, gays, bisexual, transgender people, intersex people
- a more recently recuperated or "resignified" term describing a politics, theory, and field of inquiry that
challenge formations of normalizing power, especially with regard to sex, sexuality, and gender
- anti-normative, anti-identitarian theory
queer critiques - Answers - too capacious: some LGBT people argue that the term loses its specificity
when it's not used to describe people who don't practice "same-sex" acts or who don't disidentify with
normalized gender paradigms
, - imperialist: some theorists argue that it imposes a "western" LGBT politics and labels onto bodies and
experiences that remain outside of legible LGBT norms
- Exclusive: some argue that it has failed to mobilize a radical coalition politics because it imposes too
strict a binary between "queer" and heterosexual
western sexual exceptionalism-- "Disrupting narratives about queer and trans folk around the world"
(khan) - Answers assumption that "the rest of the world is lagging behind or failing to make progress on
LGBT rights, creates a false binary between the west (progressive, free, equal, civilized) and the rest of
the world (backward, repressive patriarchal, barbaric)
politics of sexuality - Answers - politics, here, implies "issues associated with the distribution of power in
sexual relationships"
- sexual relationships occur in "the context of a society that assigns power based on gender and other
system of inequality and privilege"
- ex. sexual consent & its role in sexual assault, obstacles to adoption for nonheterosexual individuals
and couples
heteropatriarchy - Answers the dominance associated with a gender binary system that presumes
heterosexuality as a social nrom
compulsory heterosexuality - Answers expectation that everyone should be heterosexual; central to
regulation of sexual scripts
ethics of passivity - Answers women are morally defined by what they don't do
pleasure activism/principles - Answers 1. you deserve to feel good-- physically, mentally, spiritually
2. moderation is key-- the idea is not to be a heady state of ecstasy at all times, but rather to learn how
to sense when something is good for you
3. when i am happy, it is good for the world
4. pleasure isn't related to money, at least not in a positive way. having the resources to buy unlimited
amounts of pleasure leads to excess and excess totally destroys the spiritual experience of pleasure
5. the deepest pleasure comes from riding the line between commitment and detachment--
commitment to your process to what you are doing, paired with detachment from outcomes. this is true
Audre Lorde, "The Uses of the Erotic" - Answers - discusses the cost of the detachment of the erotic as a
source of power and the effect its loss has on women's existence
- erotic is a source of power that has the ability to create change.
anthropology - Answers study of humans across space & time (study of human species and their
immediate ancestors); how things are percieved is more important that what things are
interpretive anthropology - Answers meaning-centered explanations
qualitative anthropology - Answers collection and analysis of non-numerical data about opinions, ideas,
and practices; builds theory from the "ground up"
humanistic/ person-centered anthropology - Answers emphasis on the subjective experience of others;
what do real individuals say, think, feel
ethnographic research - Answers an anthropological and qualitative research method that uses
interviews and participant observation to "provide an intimate view of what is being studied"
social construction of sexuality - Answers if gender and the body are socially constructed through a
complex interplay between our internal sense of ourselves and the regulatory norms in our society, why
would sexual desire and sexuality be any different
sexual scripts - Answers guidelines for how we are supposed to feel and act as sexual persons
sexual self-schemas - Answers ideas and beliefs about sexual aspects of the self that are established
from past and present experiences and that act to guide sexual feelings and behaviors (individual and
subjective)
heteronomative - Answers belief that all people naturally fall into distinct and complementary genders
(man and woman) with associated gender roles-- the natural relationship between genders is
heterosexuality-- only sexual orientation or only norm
intersection of gender and sexuality - Answers gender as a structure of sexual policing: sexual policing as
a method of gendered oppression
queer definitions - Answers - umbrella term that identifies people of minoritized sexual
orientation/identification or gender identification LGBTQIA+
- historically derogatory term for lesbians, gays, bisexual, transgender people, intersex people
- a more recently recuperated or "resignified" term describing a politics, theory, and field of inquiry that
challenge formations of normalizing power, especially with regard to sex, sexuality, and gender
- anti-normative, anti-identitarian theory
queer critiques - Answers - too capacious: some LGBT people argue that the term loses its specificity
when it's not used to describe people who don't practice "same-sex" acts or who don't disidentify with
normalized gender paradigms
, - imperialist: some theorists argue that it imposes a "western" LGBT politics and labels onto bodies and
experiences that remain outside of legible LGBT norms
- Exclusive: some argue that it has failed to mobilize a radical coalition politics because it imposes too
strict a binary between "queer" and heterosexual
western sexual exceptionalism-- "Disrupting narratives about queer and trans folk around the world"
(khan) - Answers assumption that "the rest of the world is lagging behind or failing to make progress on
LGBT rights, creates a false binary between the west (progressive, free, equal, civilized) and the rest of
the world (backward, repressive patriarchal, barbaric)
politics of sexuality - Answers - politics, here, implies "issues associated with the distribution of power in
sexual relationships"
- sexual relationships occur in "the context of a society that assigns power based on gender and other
system of inequality and privilege"
- ex. sexual consent & its role in sexual assault, obstacles to adoption for nonheterosexual individuals
and couples
heteropatriarchy - Answers the dominance associated with a gender binary system that presumes
heterosexuality as a social nrom
compulsory heterosexuality - Answers expectation that everyone should be heterosexual; central to
regulation of sexual scripts
ethics of passivity - Answers women are morally defined by what they don't do
pleasure activism/principles - Answers 1. you deserve to feel good-- physically, mentally, spiritually
2. moderation is key-- the idea is not to be a heady state of ecstasy at all times, but rather to learn how
to sense when something is good for you
3. when i am happy, it is good for the world
4. pleasure isn't related to money, at least not in a positive way. having the resources to buy unlimited
amounts of pleasure leads to excess and excess totally destroys the spiritual experience of pleasure
5. the deepest pleasure comes from riding the line between commitment and detachment--
commitment to your process to what you are doing, paired with detachment from outcomes. this is true
Audre Lorde, "The Uses of the Erotic" - Answers - discusses the cost of the detachment of the erotic as a
source of power and the effect its loss has on women's existence
- erotic is a source of power that has the ability to create change.
