**The+End+of+Gender+_A+Psychological+Autopsy

==**Thurer's book is largely a waste of time, but here are the essentials from Chapters One and Two which you can reference for your Writing Assignment when making a point about gender in education. My comments are in italics. I think this is enough to fulfill the requirement of "referencing" the book in our writing.**==


 * Intent**: To synthesize and critique the various theories about sexual orientation and gender identity. "I focused on psycholanalytic theory and post-modern gender theory, but included biology, evolution, data-based psychology, anthropology, sociology, history and linguistics, as well as inferences from art, literature, ad pop culture.

"Once there were only two genders: male and female. It was easy to tell them apart. These days, it's not so easy. Men wear ponytails and earrings; women sport tattoos and flaunt their biceps. Everywhere we look -- on television, at the movies, in glossy magazines, in self-help books -- we see not two genders, but something more like a crossbreed, a point on a continuum. The genders are leaking into each other. And these are just the most obvious examples." (p.1)


 * "Homosexuality** has become downright reputable." "If the new visibility of homosexuality derails our conception of orderly gender arrangements, then the new visibility of **bisexuality** amounts to an intellectual train wreck." "All attributes once considered specific to a particular sex, including the very eeling of being either male or female, are now, for some, up for grabs, and may yo-you back and forth. Gender-bending is the new beat of pop stars, Olympic athletes, fashionistas, perfumemakers and young intellectuals..." (p.2)

[**Harvey Milk High School** in Manhattan's East Village is a [|high school] designed to be a safe space for [|lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning] (LGBTQ) students, and named after [|Harvey Milk], the first openly [|gay] [|supervisor] of [|San Francisco, California], who was [|assassinated] in [|1978]. "The mission of Harvey Milk High School ("HMHS") is to establish and promote a community of successful, independent learners by creating a safe, supportive, engaging and meaningful educational environment. HMHS is a transfer school for students in grades 9-12 who have not felt successful in at least one other high school prior to admission and who are committed to taking full ownership of their learning. The school seeks to provide a rigorous academic program with all the necessary support systems to foster the development of an individual's character, self-respect and ability to succeed in a diverse community." //First two lines are from wikipedia. Quote is from Harvey Milk HS website.//]

Definitions: **Sex** refers specifically to a person's anatomy or to an erotic act. **Gender**, as distinguished from sex, refers to the social expectations for a person's sex." (p.3)

"For a whole generation, the meltdown of gender categories is a given and not a problem. We are witnessing the end of gender, or at least the end of gender in the way it has been customarily defined." (p.6) //Essentially, to quote a song lyric from "Finian's Rainbow," "when I'm not near the one I love, I love the one I'm near."//

"[W]hile recent studies in genetics may have resulted in new cancer treatments, better forensic evidence, and disease-resistant crops, those in evolutionary psychology (viewed as a science by some) seem to have revived an interest in an exclusively biological explanation for virtually all human actions or feelings, including depression, homosexuality, religion, and consciousness." //In fact, recent articles in National Geographic and Psychology Today provide persuasive arguments that love is, in fact, due to biological factors beyond our control and have little to do with things like "he's so handsome" or "she's so hot" explanations by lovers.// (p.8)

Queer Theorists argue that "there is no missing story about gender difference because there is no such thing as gender. They contend that dividing people up into two groups based on the shape of their genitals is but a cultural invention, and a poor one, for it creates a false dichotomy...So our particular idea of what constitutes gender is just that: an idea, not an eternal verity." (p.13) //Obviously, these Theorists never had children.//

"The gender binary is not writ in the stars. Ours is an age of fluid boundaries. At the very least, we will be able to construct a theory that ismore inclusive and that revolkes some painful inequities. But first there needs to be a dialogue across disciplines." (p.17) //Lesbians of the Crimean War? Briliant transgender mathematicians? Gimme a break.//


 * Post-modernism** fits in here: "Truth can't be pinned down. Reality just isn't out there. We continually make it up; that is, we organize 'reality' into arbitrary categories according to ourown unconscious blueprints, which is how we give it meaning. So, for example, we designate on plant a week and another a flower." (p.29)


 * Poststructuralists**: They believe "you can't freeze frame meaning. The structures that underlie words and social phenomena perpetually break down and collapse into each other. Words are unable to stop evolving, revolving, resolving, and dissolving into other terms and concepts." //Think of how the word "gay" can no longer be used with "divorcee" since homosexuals have co-opted it. And of course, "green" has taken on a whole additional meaning thanks to environmentalists.//