Help me brainstorm for a psychology assignment?

[darkblade]

Hey everyone,

I'm taking a class on culture, and our major assignment is to conduct an interview on a subject of our choice and then analyze the data using theories on culture. Anyways, after a conversation with my professor I decided to do mine on the subject that currently makes me feel the most vulnerable, and so I'm tackling the constructs of masculinity and femininity. My hope it to get at the person's (I don't know who I'm interviewing) own concepts of masculinity and femininity, which inevitable should differ from the stereotype.

I'm having quite a bit of trouble coming up with questions I could ask that wouldn't get answers that just repeat the stereotypes. I'm trying to think of what someone would have to ask me that would make me reveal information that extend beyond gender conventions, but I keep drawing a blank. Professor suggested asking about the person's own experience and avoiding abstractions.

The few potential questions I've got are: what separates a boy/girl from a man/woman? Tell me about a time where you felt masculine/feminine the most?

I'll keep on thinking of course, but any thoughts from you guys would be very much appreciated. I'm hoping by using a topic that is so sensitive to me, it'll help me make sense of myself better.

[Ms Grace]

What theories on culture are you analysing the data against? And on which culture are you basing it? If you interviewed someone who has migrated from a different country it might be interesting to see what their perception of gender between the two cultures is.

[darkblade]

The ethnic/national culture of whatever you could call it isn't as important to me as the person's own notions on the topic. People in our school come from very diverse backgrounds (I think we have people from over 80 countries) so really, I don't know what background that person would come from. As for the theories themselves, it's more of an analysis with respect to our readings (Carol Gilligan being the most famous person we read I think). Seeing a person's perception of gender across cultures is an interesting idea though.