After reading both of the articles, I was surprised that I had never noticed the influence of sexuality and gender on how scientific findings are presented to the world. Although I understood the basic concepts of fertilization (the joining of sperm and egg), I never took notice of the wording in which the subject matter was taught. After reading Segal's Body Matters: Cultural Inscriptions, it was much easier to see how the perspective of a male may affect the manner in which this topic is presented. In my opinion, it is somewhat surprising that science, a topic that we hope to be seen in an objective view, is not. It makes me wonder what else is said to be "fact" when in reality, is just a representation of a phenomena that has been skewed from social and cultural influences as well as from personal experiences.
I also found the commercials we viewed in class to be eye-opening. The stark difference between the two emphasizes how society today separates the male from the female. Whereas the commercial for Lyriana targeted how female sexual problems is more of a personal issue that should not be disclosed, the advertisement for Viagra highlighted male sexual problems in a more glorious manner. For the women, the commercial focused on the problem, and for the men, it focused on achieving the end result. Perhaps this different approach stems from the fact that Viagra is more of an advertised product than Lyriana? Either way, I feel that this variation demonstrates how differently both genders are viewed in society.
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Yes! Is there a way for us to avoid subjective research in science? As we discussed in class, we all have our own standpoints that inform how we perceive the world. Can they be extracted from how we do science? If not, how do we begin to acknowledge these biases? What does that do to our understandings of truth?
The Lyriana and Viagra commercials troubled me as well. I think that it is unfortunate that women have to be embarrassed about their sexuality. The tone of the commercial for Lyriana was so depressing which was emphasized by the background music.
I definitely think that women take sex more seriously as it is a personal problem that they want to take care of without being exploited. In the Viagra commercial, the situation was more at ease and lighthearted as the men are playing their instruments in a band, singing about how they would return home to their wives (in hopes of having sex). To the men it seemed that erectile disfunction was not that big of a deal and could easily be fixed, while the woman was isolated and troubled/stressed by her low libido even though medication is available.
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