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The thesis explores the theological implications of intersex conditions (those involving the congenital development of ambiguous genitalia, a congenital disjunction of the internal and external sex anatomy, sex chromosome anomalies, or variations in gonadal development) and their medical treatment. Christian theology has valued the integrity of the body and the goodness of God reflected in creation, but has also set much store by the “complementarity” of “normal” male and female physiology (and gender as mapped onto these). It has been threatened by liminality, shifts in sexed and gendered identity, and non-marital sexual activity. However, a deconstruction or querying of male and female as essential or all-embracing human categories changes conceptions of legitimate bodiliness and of what it means for human sex to reflect God. Theologies based too unmovingly in sex or gender complementarity are dubious in light of intersex, and fail to resist imperialism, hegemony and heteronormativity. Theologies which value incarnation and bodiliness must speak with stigmatized or marginal bodies too: the Body of Christ is comprised of human members, and each member changes the Body’s definition of itself as well as being defined by it. Accepting the non-pathology of intersexed and otherwise atypical bodies necessitates a re-examination of discourses about sex, marriage, sexuality, perfection, healing and the resurrection body. Informed by existing theologies from three marginal areas (transsexualism, disability and queer theology), this beginning of a theology from intersex demonstrates the necessity of resisting erotic domination in defining bodies. Theology is always self-queering, since it contains tools for hermeneutical suspicion, for overturning religious and cultural practices which do not meet the demands of love and justice. Although intersexed people do not always align themselves with the politically queer, intersex is, unavoidably, theologically queer. The ongoing erasure of intersexed bodies and experiences demands theological responses motivated not by fear but by a desire to expand the ways in which human lives and bodies tell stories. Until theologians, medics and others accept that the male-and-female world is not the only “real” world, and that the normalizing procedures of surgery and signification which bolster it are themselves grounded in something partial and arbitrary, the silencing and devaluing of otherness in human bodies will go on. This cannot be justified.

Drawing from the extensive research that has been performed recently within the sociology of religion on gender and conservative American Protestants, I examine gender ideology among American evangelicals as well as gendered family practice to determine if traditional gender essentialist perspectives remain plausible among evangelicals and whether they serve as normative scripts for their gender practice in everyday life. Through descriptions of evangelical family experiences, it becomes clear that while many aspects of traditional gender essentialist views were found to remain within the language about family life, evangelicals have shifted toward more egalitarian interpretations and gender practices performed within the family--including parenting and the distribution of household labor--demonstrating that evangelicals are far more egalitarian and more closely resemble their liberal Protestant and non-religious counterparts in family practice than might be expected. Utilizing subcultural identity theories as presented by Christian Smith et al. (1998), and ethnographic studies of conservative Protestant women, I assert that gender essentialist language and traditional gender symbolism persist in evangelical dialogue on the family because they remain central to evangelical identity as a means by which they can maintain group boundaries that separate them from mainstream American culture, thus fulfilling the evangelical precept to remain "in" the world, but not "of" it.

In ihrem Beitrag mit dem Titel Gefühlvolle/leibliche Körperlichkeit(en) in Die Philosophie im Boudoir (1795) widmet sich Laura Hommers der Frage nach der Materialität des Geschlechts (Judith Butler) und geht auf die von Barbara Duden initiierte Debatte ein, ob sich der Vorwurf einer ‚Entkörperung durch Verkörperung von Theorie‘ aufrechterhalten lässt. Um die Konstruktion der Butler’schen Materialität aufzuzeigen, werden sexuelle Tableaux von Marquis de Sades Die Philosophie im Boudoir untersucht. In diesen sexuellen Handlungen wird die Materialität durch die Neuinterpretation von erogenen Zonen sichtbar, welche gleichzeitig eine Vielfalt von Geschlechtsidentitäten und sexuellen Begehren aufzeigen. Laura Hommers greift dabei auf Paula Irene Villas Plädoyer für eine Leibperspektive in der Geschlechterforschung zurück und argumentiert, dass durch den körperlichen Leib und die Leibphänomenologie nach Hermann Schmitz eine Leibperspektive in den sexuellen Tableaux verhandelt werden kann, die zu einem Empfindungs- und Verhaltensprogramm führt. Daran anknüpfend argumentiert der Beitrag, dass die leiblichen Gefühle beziehungsweise Regungen, welche bei Marquis de Sade sprachlich (auf einer körperlichen Ebene) geäußert werden, sich durch vielseitige körperliche Ausdrücke manifestieren und so eine (anatomische) Materialität in die Untersuchung dieser Tableaux zurückgebracht werden kann.

Genetic sex -the apparent fundamental biological cause of the two male and female human varieties- is a 20th century construct. Looking down the microscope, the stained chromosomes are concrete countable entities and lend themselves easily to genetic determinism. As the chromosome composition of a person is generally fixed at the time of conception, when a Y- or X-bearing sperm is united with the X-bearing egg, a person’s genetic sex is taken as permanent and unchanging throughout their life. Drawing upon gender theory as well as science and technology studies this thesis explores how our particular construction of the concept of ‘genetic sex’ relies on four features of biological sex (binary, fixed, spanning nature, and found throughout the body) and in addition proposes one unique feature, inheritance. The empirical research is based on an analysis of popular science books as well as two case studies of how genes relate to sex determination and development. The analysis of the metaphors used in these books and journal articles reveals how now, with genomic efforts to explore gene expression profiles, there is a shift away from seeing genes as having ‘responsibilities’ for determining phenotypes towards seeing them play a role along with other genes in genetic cascades where other factors such as timing can be incorporated. The analysis of genomic features such as imprinting and X-chromosome inactivation also provide evidence that such a change should be recognised. Rather than seeing sex in terms of fixed and static differences and similarities, current research offers new ways of conceptualising similarities and differences as dynamic and responsive to environment. This supports wider understandings of ‘biology’ as relying on the interactions between genetic processes, cellular environment, and tissue environment – in which the social physicality of bodies is important in forming and maintaining a person’s biology and genetic processes. Yet as the historical analysis of the shift between the one sex to two sex model indicates, it remains to be seen whether the social sphere will respond by incorporating this new evidence into the tacit, everyday understandings of sex or seek to maintain the binary and fixed relationship(s) between men and women by governing them as males and females.

Our concern in this work was a shared field of study between gender and sexuality in the search of underlying variables of sexual behavior. Basically our scope was to gather data to empirically support one of the theoretical approaches of sex differences in sexual behavior - essentialism, explaining behavior on the basis of biological sex or evolution; or social constructionism applying variables like gender or masculinity and feminity. For this purpose, 602 participants (166 men, 436 women), aged 18-45 yr., filled out the Bem Sex Role Inventory, and the Inventory of Sexual Behavior. Results in general support the social constructionism approaches, as in the most types of sexual behavior we found differences between gender groups, but not between the sexes. However, explanations provided by theories of essentialism should not be discarded, as there were also differences between sexes in few specific areas of human sexuality, namely masturbation, and overall sexual activity. Key words: gender, sexuality, masculinity, feminity, sexual behavior, sex differences

This thesis proposes the relevance of epigenetic research to feminist studies and gender studies, and vice versa, and asks how epigenetics speaks to the so-called sex-gender distinction. It also discusses what epigenetics could potentially tell us about ourselves, and our place in a world where we are all creatures of both nature and nurture. The author proposes that with its promise of insight into the relationship of the body to environment and experience over time, epigenetics could be an inextricable link between nature and nurture. Combining a modified version of diffractive analysis, and gender/sex as an analytical device, the author engages with epigenetic research and its representation in popular science and in the public imaginary. After discussing the striations of feminist discourse on permeable bodies, the author proposes epigenetics as another layer in the strata, placing epigenetics within feminist and gender studies literature and discourse. Noting that as research gains ground the way in which the public imagines and describes epigenetics gives shape to its materialization and development, this thesis asserts the urgent need for social sciences, and in particular feminist and gender studies, to engage in critical discourse

This thesis proposes the relevance of epigenetic research to feminist studies and gender studies, and vice versa, and asks how epigenetics speaks to the so-called sex-gender distinction. It also discusses what epigenetics could potentially tell us about ourselves, and our place in a world where we are all creatures of both nature and nurture. The author proposes that with its promise of insight into the relationship of the body to environment and experience over time, epigenetics could be an inextricable link between nature and nurture. Combining a modified version of diffractive analysis, and gender/sex as an analytical device, the author engages with epigenetic research and its representation in popular science and in the public imaginary. After discussing the striations of feminist discourse on permeable bodies, the author proposes epigenetics as another layer in the strata, placing epigenetics within feminist and gender studies literature and discourse. Noting that as research gains ground the way in which the public imagines and describes epigenetics gives shape to its materialization and development, this thesis asserts the urgent need for social sciences, and in particular feminist and gender studies, to engage in critical discourse with epigenetic research as it is carried out and as it is translated to the wider public.

This thesis deals with gender aspects of teaching at the second grade of primary school. The impetus for the topic was our Bachelor´s thesis in which we have already dealt with gender problematic but from a different perspective. Now we have decided to focus on education and describe gender load of teaching. The main aim of the thesis is to determine whether the approach of chosen male and female teachers in educating at the second grade of primary schools is gender-correct. A partial aim is to bring the topic of gender problematic as such to the readers who are not familiar with that. The theoretical part begins with defining key terms which must be known to understand gender in general. The following chapter deals with the specific gender manifestation in the school environment such as, pedagogical communication between a male/ a female student and a male/ a female teacher, the problematic of school evaluation, gender (in)correctness of textbooks and we also focus on gender (im)balance of teaching staff. In the practical part using the method of observation we examine male and female teachers of two chosen primary schools; namely the gender sensitivity of their pedagogical approach. In the conclusion of the thesis we make a selection of gender-correct textbooks and teaching materials which can serve as a utility for beginning teachers men and women.