“Gender identity exists on a spectrum, as does orientation” (Roberta Seelinger Trites: text).

How do ideologies and institutions reproduce and maintain heteronormative sexuality, orientation and gender as a binary inequality? What contemporary norms are associated with the socially constructed traits of “masculinity” and “femininity”? Give examples of the traits and the various institutions (i.e. the Media, the labor market, the political structure) that maintain binary norms. How are dominant notions of masculinity and femininity in the U.S. racialized? How does this intersection help maintain both sexism and racism?