Gender Issues

In class on Thursday we discussed a model that is broken up into the three criteria of a conflict which are issues, behaviors, and attributions. From there we broke down the issue criterion and explored all of the different types of issues related to gendered conflict. This list was quite extensive as it was first broken into five categories each with several examples of each although I think it would take a very extended period of time to encompass all of the possibilities. The types of issues included facts and data, interests, communication, values, and basic human needs. When we were exploring the topic of basic needs we discussed how identity is something that males and females need to establish and if they do not then they will be in conflict. This discussion brought up a question of whether or not a change in the "female box" would cause a change in the "male box." If the definition of what it means to be a female changes then does the definition of what it means to be a male also change? The conclusion to this question was that a change in one box will result in a change in the other box because the boxes are by definition in opposition to one another. This became more clear to me when thinking about how the spectrum and masculine and feminine traits are separate from each other and you can have many traits from one and none from the other, you could have many from both or various combinations.