Do cultural standards, norms, regarding sexuality play a crucial role in reinforcing gender inequalities and identities and, if so, how?

Why is sexuality so important to debates about gender?

A major critical discussion that came out of those seminars was around the question of, What is more important to thinking about the impacts of essentialism and deeply en-grained ingrained gender norms – gender or sexuality?

That question gets to the heart of why sexuality is so important to debates about gender, gendered power arrangements, how those arrangements are legitimated (through ideology, through laws, through social and institutional practices, social categories, norms regarding appropriate sexual preferences and dispositions, etc.).

Do cultural standards, norms, regarding sexuality play a crucial role in reinforcing gender inequalities and identities and, if so, how?good to cover a little bit of to essentialism vs social construction-ism, but would like to focus more on sexuality and sexual identity rather than just gender roles.

You are welcome to discuss sexuality as well, develop a more in-depth discussion of the role that sexuality plays in the construction of gender, ideologies about gender, gendered forms of oppression, exclusion, etc.