The Egg And The Sperm Summary

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Critical Summary-“The Egg and the Sperm” by Emily Martin In the article “The Egg and the Sperm: How Science has constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles” ,Emily Martin puts light on how culture shapes the description of the biological scientists on what they discover about the natural world, and how gender stereotypes are hidden in scientific language of biology. Through her study on representation of egg and sperm, Martin reports the marked illustrations from various biological textbooks about the description of these reproductive organs where male reproductive organ or the sperm is considered superior and active while the female reproductive organ or the egg is considered passive, degenerating and wasteful. An example in the article highlights that the male productive organ…show more content…
Implementing socially developed stereotypes in biological science constitutes a powerful message suggesting these ideas are natural and universal as it carries a certain value in the society and it is supposed that what it claims is true. Therefore, if biological science is projecting some messages and illustrations that support social constructions, it is likely that these thoughts will be considered true by the society. These stereotypes further reproduce in the way our body behaves. For example, females are commonly supposed to sit with their legs crossed while male their legs spread further apart. Gender stereotypes can influence the sensory perception. The touch has been historically developed in accordance to gender associated which implies females are associated with soft touch while male are associated with rough and tougher sense of touch. The sensory perception of sound is also associated with gender specifications as loud and harsh sounds carry male connotation while soft and soothing sounds are often perceived as

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