Three studies explored the binary distinctions in research on literacies and gender. The first study sought to identify and describe any multiple subjectivities that might be interrelated with gender in the development of reading, writing, and orality. Participant informants were 10 adults enrolled in a graduate seminar entitled "Gender, Culture and Literacy." Data included participants' five "thought papers," questionnaires, and class projects. The two themes that emerged from data analysis were geography, and family background or parenting as influences on gender and the development of literacies. The second study identified additional influences on gender and culture in the development of literacies. Participants were seven graduate students. Data were similar to that in the first study. Results indicated that students' perceptions about gender and about self and identity varied by the biological sex of the participants. The third study investigated language patterns in classroom discussion when classes were composed primarily of African-American students. Subjects were students in a seventh-grade and an eighth-grade language arts class. Direct observations were made of the two classes for one and a half weeks. Interviews were also conducted. Two themes emerged--female dominance in class discussions and females' presence of authority. Findings suggest a wide range of influences that counted as context in determining the development and practice of literacies; and the multiple layers people possess and were positioned by were impossible to partial out. Investigators will need to turn their attention to identifying and describing the plethora of influences that interact with gender to impact reading and writing. (Contains 32 references.) (RS)