María Victoria Carrera

Sex/gender identity: Moving beyond fixed and ‘natural’ categories

Despite feminist understandings of the socially constructed nature of sex and gender and anthropological studies of alternative constructions, western societies tend to understand sex and gender in terms of mutually-exclusive hierarchical categories. We analyze the process by which a heteronormative sex-gender-sexuality system is constructed and legitimized to the exclusion of those whose physiology and/or behaviors do not conform to it. We provide some insights into ways in which the extraordinary diversity of sex-gender can be recognized and valued on various social planes, through activism, the production and critique of popular culture, and education.

The mass media exposure and disordered eating behaviours in Spanish secondary students

The aim of this study was to investigate the association between disordered eating behaviours/attitudes and mass media exposure in a cross-sectional national survey of 1165 Spanish secondary students (age between 14 and 16 years). A battery of questionnaires were used to investigate mass media influence, body dissatisfaction, physical appearance, sociocultural attitudes and self-esteem. Likewise, the EAT-26 questionnaire was used to assess disordered eating behaviours/attitudes, identifying that 6.6% (n = 32) of the male and 13.6% (n = 68) of the female students reached a cut-off point of 20 or above. The main finding was that female and male adolescents with disordered eating showed an increased exposure to TV and magazine sections related to body image, specifically regarding music video channels, in comparison with those without eating disordered, gender-matched counterparts. However, findings indicate that media exposure was different to some degree between males and females with disordered eating behaviour. Males with disordered eating behaviours and attitudes were associated with higher TV and magazine exposure to health sections and also greater body dissatisfaction, internalisation of the thin-ideal and social and appearance comparison. In females, disordered eating was associated with higher TV and magazine exposure to dieting, fashion and sport sections, greater body dissatisfaction, internalisation and awareness of the thin-ideal and lower self-esteem. Understanding the mechanism involved in the media exposures influence on adolescents is critical in preventing disordered eating.

Evaluación de las actitudes sexistas en estudiantes españoles/as de educación secundaria obligatoria

El objetivo principal de esta investigacion es identificar el nivel de sexismo interiorizado tanto hacia mujeres como hacia hombres por estudiantes de Educacion Secundaria Obligatoria, como variable independiente se tiene en cuenta la tipologia del centro educativo y se analiza tambien la relacion entre las distintas escalas de sexismo moderno. La muestra representativa a nivel nacional, esta compuesta por 1113 estudiantes espanoles de Educacion Secundaria Obligatoria (49.9% chicos y 50.1% chicas), con un rango de edad de 14 a 18 anos. Se aplicaron las siguientes escalas: ASI, Escala de Sexismo Ambivalente (Glick & Fiske, 1996); AMI, Escala de Actitudes ambivalentes hacia hombres (Glick & Fiske, 1999); MOS, Escala de Viejo Sexismo y Sexismo Moderno (Swim et al., 1995); y Escala de Neosexismo (Tougas et al., 1995). Los resultados muestran que los chicos independientemente de la tipologia del centro, son mas sexistas hacia las mujeres y tiene mayores actitudes benevolentes hacia los hombres; por su parte las chicas tienen actitudes mas hostiles hacia los hombres. En cuanto a la relacion de las escalas, la escala de Neosexismo se relaciona tanto con la de MOS y como con la de Sexismo Hostil, pero no con la de Sexismo Benevolente, al igual que la escala de Viejo Sexismo, mientras que la escala de Sexismo Moderno se relaciona con la de Sexismo Benevolente.

Pathologizing gender identity: An analysis of Spanish law and the regulation of gender recognition

Despite recent worldwide legal advances in the protection of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) rights, legal systems continue to take the categories of ‘male’ and ‘female’ to be based on a fixed and permanent natural order. Taking the current Spanish law regulating changes in gender identity as an example, we analyze how this recent (2007) legal advance still imposes medical criteria that pathologize the trans person and reinforce sexist assumptions. Although it is no longer up to a judge to determine a persons legal gender, the criteria for modification of official documents still implicitly support inaccurate and oppressive understandings of sex/gender/sexuality by, for example, relying on diagnostic criteria that support the imposition of gendered stereotypes on children and traditional social roles on adolescents and adults. Only through reconceptualizing our very notion of sex and gender can the law be revised to protect the rights of everyone no matter what their lived sex/gender histories and experiences.

Evaluación del uso del preservativo femenino promovido desde un programa de educación para la salud: un enfoque cualitativo

El trabajo aqui recogido se aborda desde un estudio de caso, a traves del enfoque cualitativo, mediante la tecnica del grupo de discusion con la participacion de 9 grupos, conformados por un total de 83 estudiantes universitarios del noroeste de Espana, con edades entre 19 y 42 anos. Los objetivos principales de este trabajo son conocer la satisfaccion de los y las participantes con el uso del preservativo femenino, asi como las ventajas y obstaculos encontrados en su utilizacion que ha sido promovida a traves de un programa de promocion de la salud. Como resultados y conclusiones destacar que las mujeres enfatizan en mayor medida que los varones la satisfaccion y ventajas obtenidas con la utilizacion del metodo. Como puntos fuertes sobre el uso del preservativo femenino los y las participantes destacan la alta resistencia a la rotura y entre las debilidades apuntan los problemas ligados a su colocacion y estetica. El estudio sobre el uso del preservativo femenino revela la necesidad de continuar desarrollando intervenciones de formacion encaminadas a la promocion de este metodo, sin excluir el empleo de otros, asi como de reforzar la incorporacion de estrategias educativas que permitan avanzar en la eliminacion de estereotipos de genero.