Gender

There used to be a television industry joke about Lifetime, the self-described "channel for women," that the reason its murder-mystery movies and series kept failing is that there was no suspense: The killers always had Y chromosomes. Behind the joke was almost two decades of one-dimensional characters in dramas that were drawn with heavy hands along stereotypical - and sometimes biased - gender lines. On TV Side Order of Life and State of Mind air at 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. Sunday, respectively, on Lifetime.

From time to time I receive letters from a certain group of individuals that I will describe, for want of a better term, as "women." I have such a letter here, from a Susie Walker of North Augusta, S.C., who asks the following question:"Why do men open a drawer and say, 'Where is the spatula?' Instead of, you know, looking for it?"This question expresses a commonly held (by women) negative stereotype about guys of the male gender, which is that they cannot find things around the house, especially things in the kitchen.

Racial stereotypes are wrong, but gender ones OK?It is interesting how we are taught to avoid generalities and stereotypical references, especially when it comes to race, in education. But it seems to be all right if the subject is gender.Take the unbelievable explanation for test results broken down by gender contained in Mike Bowler's Dec. 3 column.He writes, "Experts disagree on what causes the gender gap." Here are some of the reasons experts give.From birth, girls develop faster than boys.

Men and women have long had separate bathrooms and sports teams. But it may be what they really need is their own stop-smoking classes.In a rare "real life" study conducted outside the laboratory, researchers at the University of California, Irvine, found that men and women smoked for different reasons. Both reached for cigarettes when angry or anxious -- but these urges were stronger for men. And only men used nicotine to combat sadness and exhaustion.Women smoked more often when they were happy.

BOSTON -- When Pat Schroeder first ran for Congress, a pack of skeptical voters and reporters repeatedly asked her the same question: "Are you running as a woman?" Eventually, the frustrated Colorado Democrat came up with a rejoinder: "Do I have any choice?"Fast-forward now to Republican Elizabeth Dole's campaign for president, may it rest in peace. Her quest for the Oval Office was dogged by comments about symbol and substance. Once the woman routinely described as "the first credible female candidate" bowed out, the focus changed -- from whether she was running "as a woman" to whether she lost "as a woman."

The coach from Mars is talking about communicating with players from Venus. "There is a different approach," Tony DiCicco says. "You can't be an in-your-face type coach with women. You have to recognize the differences."The 50-year-old DiCicco, who has directed the U.S. women's soccer team to 93 victories and an Olympic gold medal in five years, has collected enough data -- both empirical and anecdotal -- for a graduate-level seminar on gender subtleties.Female players take criticism much more personally than males do, DiCicco has observed, even if it's not directed at them individually.

THE MATTER is one of fairness and justice: Everyone should be treated equally, regardless of race, age, gender -- or sexual orientation.Everyone should have the same right to apply for a job or to rent an apartment without fear of discrimination. Yet gays and lesbians do not have that right under Maryland law.A bill seeking to ban prejudicial treatment on the basis of sexual orientation is one of Gov. Parris N. Glendening's prime objectives in the legislative session.He has devoted more effort to passing this bill than any other.

Are you a feminist? It's a question that every American female who has come of age since the 1970s has been asked at least once in her lifetime, and it's a question that most thoughtful girls and women have a hard time answering.If you say "no," you're conceding that women are inferior -- or, at least you've been conditioned by the reigning feminists of the world to think so.If you say "yes," those same feminists have, to their detriment, convinced you that you're allying yourself with a group of mostly hateful, hysterical demagogues whose aim for women has never been equality, but power.

American boys and girls do the same number of chores, but not the same kinds of chores, according to a survey in the March/April is sue of Zillions, the Consumer Reports magazine for kids.According to the survey of 1,000 children, gender roles continue to apply in the assigning of tasks. Boys mowed lawns and took out the trash more, while girls dominated in caring for younger siblings, meal preparation and housecleaning.All children surveyed did at least one chore weekly, and more than half performed five or more.

In this era of bitterly confrontational culture wars, virtually no subject seems immune to ideological foment. Anthropology is particularly vulnerable. In the 1960s, the "Man the Hunter" debate raged on university campuses and in ideological tag-team venues ranging from the Loony Left to the Neanderthal Right.That had to do with the contention that in the mainstream of human evolution there is a clear line between males, who go out and hunt for the food that sustains the entire race, and females, who gather fruits and berries or stay home and nurse -- this distinction somehow being taken as making males a superior caste and class.

Forecasters have assigned alternating male and females names to hurricanes since 1979. Since then, Dennis Ferguson of Easton asks, "which 'gender' has caused the most damage?" Hurricane 'gender' is meaningless, so damage totals should be evenly distributed. But Katrina's $81 billion tab was three times the next-costliest storm's $26.5 billion (Andrew, 1992), so I suspect she wrecked the curve.

A few words about identity politics. That's the knock on Sonia Sotomayor, who was nominated to the Supreme Court last week by President Barack Obama. If confirmed, Ms. Sotomayor, who is Puerto Rican, will be the first Hispanic to sit on the nation's highest tribunal. That has traumatized some titans of the right. George Will, for instance, complains that "she embraces identity politics, including the idea of categorical representation: A person is what his or her race, ethnicity, gender or sexual preference is, and members of a particular category can be represented, understood, empathized with only by persons of the same identity."

Should a woman replace Souter? Intheblacklodge: Why does the gender of the appointee make any difference? He should appoint whoever he thinks is best. Dmbfanmd: replace him with a woman? Choosing anyone because of their sex is sexist. FriedBob: Only if she is the most qualified for the position. He shouldn't put a woman on there just to put a woman there. Bryanpatterson: How about the most qualified - why does it always have to be about gender/race/etc.? BaltimoreTom: oprah should replace Souter.

Shelly Mandell, president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization for Women, introduced Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin at a rally recently by saying - in an echo of Gloria Steinem a generation ago - "This is what a feminist looks like." As a women's historian, I would have to disagree. Mrs. Palin, despite her membership in the organization Feminists for Life, is not really a feminist. She is, rather, a "maternalist"- a woman who accepts the gendered division of labor but uses her assignment to home and family to claim the right to public participation.

In her column "In this election, putting gender first" (Commentary, Sept. 14), Lynette Long asserts that "gender trumps everything else." This is a dangerous assertion as our country is preparing to secure leadership for the 21st century. The people of this country are facing too many important issues to choose a candidate based on who this person is rather than what this person's policies represent. And I dare say that the little girl whom the author claims will have her self-perception altered by having a female vice president will be affected more if her parents lose their home in a foreclosure or if her sister is forced to continue an unplanned pregnancy.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin knows what it is like to be a woman, a mother, a daughter, a sister - things the two men on the Democratic ticket can never fully understand. She knows what it is like to grow up invisible in an incredibly sexist society, to be stared at, groped and sexually harassed. She knows what it's like to worry that you are pregnant when you don't want to be or that you are not pregnant when you want to be. Sarah Palin knows what it is to experience the joys and sorrows of motherhood, to nurse a baby while holding down a job, to leave for work in the morning with a toddler tugging at your pant leg, and to have your children calling you at work to defuse squabbles or ask for help with homework.

We seem to have settled the issues of race and gender this election season (although that might be optimistic), so only one rude and divisive issue remains on the table: age. John McCain is old, there's no getting around it. He'd be 72 at his inauguration, the oldest president ever. His hair is white, he protects his cancer-scarred face with a silly hat that makes him look like he is a member of the cast of Cocoon and he moves like the Tin Man because of all the injuries and torture he suffered during his time as a prisoner of war. Barack Obama is young by comparison.

They're known as the "third wave" - the daughters and granddaughters of feminism's pioneering generation. Their style may be less confrontational or political than in past eras. Some of them might not even call themselves feminists. But that's what they are - and they might be surprised to find how much they have in common with their elders. That's what we discovered at a gathering at the University of Baltimore that brought together women from the different "waves" of feminism that have shaped the landscape of gender politics over the years.

Geraldine A. Ferraro sent me to the history books. Her contemptible comments about Sen. Barack Obama prompted my search through old archives and texts for facts about a long-ago political drama. I had not forgotten the details of the 1984 Democratic presidential campaign, with Walter F. Mondale at the top and Ms. Ferraro in the second slot, the first woman on a major party's presidential ticket. I had not forgotten that she was named because of her gender - as she acknowledged, even as she was casting Mr. Obama as an affirmative-action candidate.

"One man, one woman" may be a popular slogan among politicians opposed to gay marriage. But for thousands of Americans for whom sexual identity is anything but straightforward, the phrase is a cruel joke. On Aug. 14, 1956, Brian Sullivan was born to two loving parents in New Jersey. When he was 18 months old, at the advice of Brian's doctor, his parents packed up and moved to a new town. There, they renamed him Bonnie Sullivan and raised him as a girl. Years later, Bonnie found out that just before the move, her gender had been surgically assigned by her parents.