Chapter 12: Gendered Power and Violence
Multiple Choice
1. Meagen decides to wear a short skirt and tight shirt to class. As she walks there, a
group of males whistle, comment on her legs, and make sexual gestures to her. Which
of the following best describes Meagen experiences?
A. gender intimidation
B. hostile environment harassment
C. sexual assault
D. informed consent, since Meagen chose what to wear
E. none of these
2. Which of the following examples meets the definition of informed consent?
A. Vidhi is sold by her family and is forced to work as a prostitute.
B. Jake drinks alcohol until he passes out and then is sexually fondled by his romantic
partner of 5 years.
C. Brittany agrees to have sex when she is 15-years-old with her 18-year-old romantic
partner.
D. Amber is mentally disabled and lives in an assisted living facility. While checking
on her, a nurse touches her breasts, unrelated to the care he is providing.
E. None of the above.
3. Christina goes on a date with Todd. After dinner at a nice restaurant, Christina invites
Todd back to her apartment for a drink. They open a bottle of wine and start to make out.
After a while, Christina is uncomfortable and asks Todd to stop. He ignores her, pulls off
her clothes, and has sex with her. After he leaves, although upset, Christina begins to
wonder whether she had been “asking for it.” The next day she tells a friend what
happened and the friend asks her what she had been wearing and how much she had been
drinking. This event reflects which of the following?
A. gender intimidation
B. informed consent
C. sexual harassment
D. the rape culture
E. corrective rape
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4. By their senior year, approximately what percentage of college women have reported
one or more unwanted sexual interactions during their college careers?
A. 33%
B. 25%
C. 10%
D. 50%
E. 75%
5. In this form of genital surgery, a female’s entire clitoris and parts of the labia minora
are removed:
A. femilectomy
B. sunna
C. infibulation
D. clitoridectomy (excision)
E. revaganilization
6. Which of the following is NOT true about rape?
A. Rape is motivated primarily by sexual desire.
B. Rape is common on college campuses.
C. A husband can rape his wife.
D. Men and women can be victims of rape.
E. The majority of rape victims do not report and seek to prosecute their rapes.
7. Physical, verbal, emotional, sexual, and visual brutality that is inflicted
disproportionately or exclusively on members of one sex is best defined as
A. sexual slavery.
B. a rape script.
C. intimate partner violence.
D. gender intimidation.
E. gendered violence.
8. Topic or question should by authored by a student. See pages 7-8 of this manual for
details on this activity.
True/False
9. Lewd remarks made in public spaces, while annoying, are not considered gendered violence.
10. Intimate partner violence typically follows a cyclical pattern.
11. Sexual slavery is a thing of the past.
12. Children who grow up in families with one or more abusive adults are generally not affected
by that violence.
13. State-funded programs to limit women’s rights to reproductive choice never existed in the
United States.
14. The “reasonable person” standard is used to determine if sexual harassment has occurred.
15. Genital mutilation does not occur in the United States.
16. Victims of battering would be safer if they left abusive relationships.
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Identification
17. Cycle of abuse
18. Hostile environment harassment
ANS: A pattern of unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature that interferes with a person’s ability
19. Infibulation
ANS: The most radical form of genital surgery where the clitoris and labia minora are removed.
20. Informed consent
ANS: Agreement given by:
21. Pornography
ANS: Sexually explicit material that includes violence against women. Pornography often
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22. Blaming the victim
ANS: Holding a person responsible for the harm that another person has inflicted. Part of rape
23. Rape culture
ANS: Attitudes found on many college and university campuses about who is responsible for
24. Femicide
ANS: The killing of women, which may also include female fetuses. This often takes place in
25. Gender intimidation
ANS: This occurs when someone is made to feel humiliated, unsafe, or inferior because of their
26. Sexual assault
ANS: Sexual assault is any sexual contact that occurs without informed consent from at least one
27. Sexual harassment
ANS: Sexual harassment is unwelcome verbal or nonverbal communication of a sexual nature
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REF: pp. 263-264
28. Quid pro quo
ANS: Quid pro quo is a type of sexual harassment that occurs on a “this for that” basis. For
29. Intimate partner violence
ANS: The most common form of violence committed against women in the United States,
30. “Corrective” rape
ANS: A practice found in South Africa, “corrective rape” involves raping lesbians to punish
Essays
31. Define gendered violence, and discuss the ways in which society normalizes gendered
violence. Your essay should identify 3 specific social foundations or institutions that allow or
encourage both women and men to regard certain kinds of gendered violence as normal or
acceptable. Include concrete examples.
ANS: Gendered violence is defined (page 254) as physical, verbal, emotional, sexual, and visual
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32. Define sexual harassment. Then, identify and evaluate the two different legal forms of
sexual harassment and standards for determining whether it occurred. Your response should
explain which standard, if any, you favor and why.
ANS: Sexual harassment is unwanted and unwelcome verbal or nonverbal behavior of a sexual
nature that links academic or professional standing to sexual favors, or that interferes with work
33. Define informed consent. Do you think this is an appropriate definition of informed
consent? Why or why not?
ANS: Informed consent is given when someone knowingly agrees to something. Only a legal
34. What is rape culture? How does it affect victims of sexual assault? What should be done to
eradicate this problem in our culture?
ANS: Rape culture is when myths are perpetuated in a culture that allow rape to persist. Some of
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REF: pp. 256-257
35. As made clear by the material presented in your textbook, gendered violence is prevalent in
the United States and around the world. What are some of the personal and social efforts we can
engage in and/or support in an effort to lessen the prevalence of gendered violence?
ANS: There are numerous things individuals can do to stand up against gendered violence.
Most basically, of course, is not to engage in or tolerate gendered violence in one’s own personal
36. What is reproductive violence? What are some specific examples of reproductive violence in
action?
ANS: Reproductive violence is coerced or discriminatory infringement on reproductive rights.
Epilogue: Looking Backward, Looking Forward
Multiple Choice
1. Which of the following is true of relationships between individuals and cultural views
of gender?
A. Individuals may reinforce cultural views of gender.
B. Individuals may embody cultural views of gender.
C. Individuals may remake cultural views of gender.
D. Individuals may challenge cultural views of gender.
E. All of the above.
2. Which of the following is true about taking voice and enacting change?
A. Change comes primarily through the use of direct power – making people do what
they would not do on their own.
B. The only people with the ability to engage in agenda setting have formal power, such
as newspaper editors and television producers.
C. Taking voice and enacting change are processes.
D. The responsibility for taking voice and enacting change around gender norms rests
primarily with men.
E. The responsibility for taking voice and enacting change around gender norms rests
primarily with women.
3. Your Gendered Lives textbook states that the forms of influence you have on cultural
views of gender include
A. individual choice, policy change, and political movements.
B. traitorous identity, teaching children, and empowering others.
C. addressing backlash, profeminist movements, and feminist movements.
D. direct power, agenda setting, and voice.
E. participating in backlash, personal choice, and agenda setting.
4. Which of the following are metaphors that seek to recognize diversity in the United
States without obscuring difference?
A. a melting pot
B. a cake mix
C. a Venn diagram
D. a quilt
E. all of the above
5. Which of the following statements about difference does your book support?
A. Difference causes strife in organizations.
B. We should seek to minimize differences and emphasize commonalities.
C. Diversity already exists, and it can be a tool to enrich relationships and organizations.
D. Diversity is declining in the United States.
E. The melting pot is the best metaphor to describe difference in the United States.
6. Topic or question should by authored by a student. See pages 7-8 of this manual for
details on this activity.
True/False
7. The current generation will have very little opportunity to enact change concerning gender.
8. Differences are valuable and desirable.
9. Agenda-setting is an important way to influence cultural views of gender.
10. Making time to think about issues raised in this book is part of developing your voice.
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Identification
11. Direct power
ANS: Direct power is a method of influencing cultural definitions of gender through the ability
12. “Salad bowl” metaphor
ANS: Flora Davis (1991) coined this metaphor to describe our society in the United States. A
13. Voice
ANS: Voice is a concept that refers to having, stating, and working from one’s own opinions and
14. Agenda-setting
15. Topic or question should come from “class business.” See pages 7-8 of this manual for
details on this activity.
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Essays
We have not provided essay bullets for the following essays because the answers should attempt
to synthesize the entire course. We hope these questions provide helpful examples to provoke
such responses.
1. Identify one issue you consider especially important in the ongoing cultural conversation
about gender. Explain why you regard this issue as particularly pivotal now and how
different resolutions of it might affect social life.
2. Throughout your Gendered Lives textbook and especially in the final chapter, Julia T. Wood
encourages you to become an active and critical member of society. Explain what this means
pertinent to individual and social views of gender.
3. Discuss how laws and organizational policies that regulate leaves from work influence
gender roles in families. In your essay, explain both how laws and policies shape family life
and how family life sculpts the kinds of laws and policies that are endorsed in the society.
4. Queer performative theory argues that gender is performed; at the same time, gender
performances are enacted within a context that defines the possibilities that exist and what
gender means. Reflect on an instance of gender performance that you think may broaden
gender norms and discuss how this performance works with cultural norms to push gender
boundaries. This gender performance may be real (Lady Gaga comes to mind) or
hypothetical.
5. Drawing on all of your readings and class discussions, and especially on Chapters 3 and 4,
define and discuss the sameness-difference (or sexual equality-sexual difference) debate.
What are the positions in this debate and what are the social, legal, and personal implications
of the different positions?
6. Class discussions and the textbook have emphasized this point: gender is constructed.
Explain what it means to claim that gender is constructed. Your response should define
gender and describe HOW gender is constructed and how it is changed over time. In
addition, your response should discuss what viewing gender as a social construction implies
for individual action and agency. Include specific examples of how gender is constructed,
reproduced, and changed.
7. What does feminism mean to you? Are you a feminist? Consider the conversations and
readings that we have done over the semester.
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8. The textbook and the class have discussed ways gender norms have changed as a result of
feminist and men’s movements. Name what you believe to be the three most significant
changes that have resulted from these movements and explain why you believe they are
significant.