Gender And Society Reviewer PDF

Gender and Society Reviewer development impacting how individuals feels as gendered persons and constraining their Gender: As a Social Construct behavior based on...

Gender and Society Reviewer development impacting how individuals feels as gendered persons and constraining their Gender: As a Social Construct behavior based on what they think and “Gender is so pervasive in our society that we assume it experience as acceptable for their given is bred in our genes… gender is constantly created and gender. re-created out of human interaction, out of social life Masculinity and is the texture and order of that social life” ▪ A socially constructed component of gender Sex/Gender that is typically associated with men and male characteristics (behaviors and practices) “Physiological sex” and “Social Gender” ▪ Hegemonic Masculinity (Strength, Ann Oakley’s Sex, Gender, and Society (1972) aggression, courage, independence, and virility); Often associated with heterosexual Sex white, middle class status in Western cultures (Noble, 2004; Schippers, 2007) ▪ Categorization of people into male and female groups based on biological characteristics. ▪ High expectations (work responsibilities, finances, family obligations) effect on health. ▪ Universal, biological differences between men “risky” health behaviors; being tough, drinking and women. behaviors of your men. ▪ Characteristics that categorize someone as ▪ Masculinity as a “floating signifier”, because it either female and male. is not stagnant and must be constantly ▪ Differences are very few and unimportant in maintained and reproduced through various terms of determining gender inequality. gendered practices and behaviors; given ▪ It is a basic fact of nature and does not fairly meaning by human-constructed language and assign its biological roles the bodies that reproduce it (Shippers, 2007) Gender Femininity ▪ Socio-cultural interpretation of sex (expected ▪ A gender associated with femaleness, behavioral pattern of being a socially constructed and reproduced through appropriate man or woman); masculinity and individuals’ practices and behaviors in their femininity daily lives. ▪ Socially created ideas and practices of what it ▪ “Emphasized femininity” (not hegemonic is considered to be female or male femininity, concept discussed by Connell & Messerschmidt, 2005; Schippers. 2007) ▪ The social roles and relationships between men and women, they are context-specific and ▪ “Emphasized femininity” as a prioritized form can change according to circumstances and of femininity characterized by its domination from generation to generation. by masculinity, which is a crucial component in men’s supremacy over women in the gender ▪ It is influenced by other factors as wealth, order. class, age, education, race, ethnicity, religion, and ideology ▪ In this way, all femininities are constructed as subordinate to masculinities (hegemonic ▪ It is imposed by human society, which masculinity); through this subordination generates some deep and far-reaching sense of gender hegemony is created and maintained inequality between the sexes ▪ While masculinity is prioritized as the “gold Gender Identity standard”, both masculinity and femininity are ▪ Identity as reflexive self-relation (Butler, constructed through their differences to each 2004; de Beauvoir 1953, 74) other. ▪ Physical embodiment, people’s relative ▪ Femininity health impacts encouraging location within their social environment and feminine individuals to prioritize the health of how they are judged by others children and other family members above their ▪ Ultimately how people view themselves with own, as part of a nurturing and caring ideals. respect to gender ▪ Human need to “sort” individuals according to ▪ Positioning of femininity as “other”, distinctly the two-gender system (dyadic gender model) different from masculinity as opposed to a ▪ Reinforcing of gender order function of the gender system in its own right, ▪ Combined influence of internal feelings and both within society and reproduced in gender social pressures guides gender identity theorizing and research. Gender Stereotypes ▪ Rules may take the form of formal (with the ▪ One sided and exaggerated images of men and enactment of laws) or may be informal (social women which are deployed repeatedly in norms) that exist to maintain heterosexual everyday lives. privilege, or heterosexism. ▪ Child socialization into sex roles-children Colonial Modernity and the Production of literature, toys and games Heteronormativity ▪ Adults and Children are denied opportunities ▪ Criminalization of same-sex activity in not an Ancient Indian Tradition ▪ Personal traits, behaviors occupations, hobbies, appearance, family, functions, ▪ Ruth Vanita and Saleem Kidwai – Same Sex communications, sports activities and Love in India – traces writings in India preferences languages about love between women and love between men who are not biologically related. ▪ It shapes people’s behaviors, expectations and roles. ▪ The Persian aesthetic traditions prior to the European encounter considered the male body ▪ Stereotyping as a normal cognitive process, as and the love of men for men as beautiful a categorization, stereotypes mean and women, (Najmabadi, 2005) role of religion and culture. ▪ British Colonial Govt introduced this legal ▪ Challenging gender stereotypes- “Take our provision in the nineteenth century (Nivedita daughters to work”- replacing gendered terms Menon, pg.95) (in 1861 as section as section with gender neutral terms (mailman- mail 377 of Indian Penal Code) carrier /chairman-chairs)- roles of parents ▪ “Voluntary Carnal intercourse against the Gender Discrimination order of nature, with any man, woman or ▪ The unjust or prejudicial treatment of different animal” categorizes of people, especially on the ground ▪ Victorian notions of proper sexual of race, age or sex relationships which delegitimized everything ▪ How this prejudice develops? Engrained in but the heterosexual, patriarchal, social structure? monogamous, family unit. ▪ In the form of women health and child ▪ It structures institutions like marriage and malnutrition produces a set of ideals and ideas about how ▪ Universality of gender discrimination- public sexuality should be organized. and domestic domain, patriarchal ideology ▪ Particular understandings of sexuality and produced specific rules, roles and regulations – gender get to be embedded in and woven “The second sex” – link with subordination through the very fabric of our institutions and Gender Division of Labor everyday lives in way that are powerful, discriminatory and exclusionary. ▪ It is the consequence of how a particular society divides work among men and women ▪ A heteronormative culture establishes the according to what is considered appropriate to coherence and validity of social order in order each gender to perpetuate the norm of heterosexuality ▪ Material discussion Gender Continuum and LGBTIQ Heteronormativity ▪ The variations people experience biologically, feel emotionally and express outwardly with ▪ Micheal Warner first coined this term to refer respect to gender, gender identity and sexual to the overwhelming power of the assumption orientation. that ___________ is natural and normal and is the norm to be emulated – grew out of queer ▪ It is an umbrella concept. theory. ▪ Gender Identities that transcend the two ▪ It is taken for granted and is universalized. traditional classes of male and female. ▪ Regarded as the norm and moral way to be and ▪ A collection of gender defining characteristics carries with it such pressures that some non- that vary by minute degrees accounts for the heterosexuals may not feel comfortable presence of multiple variations and publicly acknowledging their sexual combinations of gender and even includes a preference. genderless variant, THE AUTHENTIC DIVERSITY OF HUMAN GENDERS ▪ Societal expectations or standards are reinforced with rules and structures  ▪ Seeing gender identity on a continuum, some ▪ Institutional perspective focus on gender as people could be born male but feel female and aspects of social structure and culture, roles vice versa. positions and expectations for individuals. ▪ LGBTIQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, ▪ Gendered Institutions: “Rules of the game” Transgender, Intersex, Queer) ▪ According to Acker (1992) institutions o Lesbian: A woman who is primarily constitute and embody aspects of gender to say attracted to other women that an institution is gendered means “that o Gay: A person who is primarily gender is present in the processes, practices, attracted to members of the same sex images and ideologies and distributions of (for example: gay man, gay woman, power in the various sectors of social life. gay person.) Taken as more or less functioning wholes, the ▪ Both lesbian and gay are institutional structures of the societies are considered homosexual organized along the lines of gender… these institutions have been historically developed o Bisexual: Attraction to both men and by men, currently dominated by men, and women as sexual partners. symbolically interpreted from the stand point o Transgender: A person does not of men in leading positions, both in the present identify with the biological sex they and historically.” assigned at birth. ▪ Aspects of social life which are treated as o Intersex: Persons who posses both gender neutral or genderless in fact are male and female reproductive organs expressions of gender organization, structure, in a variety of combinations. and practices of social institutions. o Queer: An umbrella term sometimes ▪ Entrenched, powerful, and taken for granted used by LGBTI people to refer to the aspects of the social order produce and entire LGBTI community; queer is an reproduce gender distinctions and inequalities. in-group term, and a word that can be considered offensive to some people, ▪ Example: Sports (Differential opportunities depending on their generation, and resources for each gender to be involved geographic location, and relationship in sport; ideas about male and female bodies to the word (because of its historically and their capabilities), discuss work and derogatory use) family as gendered institutions. ▪ One sex model-woman’s unopened genitalia Patriarchy as an Ideology and Practice ▪ Role of Chromosomes and hormones (XX- ▪ Patriarch means “rule of father”; a societal female & XY- male) elder, has legitimate power over others in the ▪ Different stages of development: Testis social unit. (testosterone) or Ovary (estrogen and ▪ Acc 2 Feminist writers – social system of progesterone masculine domination over women power relation in both public and private spheres. ▪ Brain sex – the development of potentialities ▪ The concept helps us to understand women’s ▪ Pubertal hormonal sex but there are variations realities. like XXY, XXYY, etc. ▪ According to Sylvia Walby, “patriarchy is a Social Institutions and Gender Reproduction system of social structures and practices in ▪ Institutions- As those parts of social life that which men dominate, oppress and exploit are complex ongoing and organized. women” (1990:20) ▪ Important source of cultural beliefs about the ▪ According to Lerner, Patriarchy is the social world, including beliefs about gender. manifestation and institutionalization of male dominance over women and children in the ▪ Institutions provide scripts for actions, regular family and in society in general. It implies that and permanent that they often accepted as just “men hold power in all the important “the way things are”, self-perpetuating; rarely institutions of society” and that women are challenge and scrutinized. Because they are deprived of access to such power”. However, it taken for granted, they produce shared account does not imply that “women are either totally of their existence and purpose. powerless or totally deprived of rights, ▪ Gender is not something individual possess, influence, and resources” rather an aspect of social organization. Origins of Patriarchy ▪ Traditional – men are born to dominate and women to be subordinate; hierarchy always existed and will continue; as rule of nature, it cannot be changed. ▪ Aristotle – female was mutilated male (someone who doesn’t have a soul); biological inferiority of woman makes her unable to reason, make decisions etc. ▪ Sigmond Freud – normal human was male (women’s biology determines their psychology) ▪ These theories never had any scientific or historical evidence ▪ Patriarch is manmade; historical processes have created it. ▪ Frederick Engels (1884) – “The Origins of the Family, Private Property and the State” ▪ Acc 2 him, women’s subordination began with the development of private property, when the world historical defeat of the female sex took place. He says both the division of classes and the subordination of women developed historically. ▪ To ensure inheritance, mother-right was overthrown. ▪ In order to establish the right of the father, women had to be domesticated and confined and their sexuality regulated and controlled. ▪ It was in this period, both patriarchy and monogamy for women were established. ▪ Acc 2 Radical Feminist, patriarchy preceded private property; the original and basic contradiction is between the sexes and not between economic classes. They consider all women to be a class. ▪ Social feminist uses the basic principle of Marxism: regards it as the struggle between women and men as changing historically with changes in modes of production. ▪ Hartmann links patriarchy and capitalism; both men and capital benefits from women’s labor defines patriarchy as a set of relations which has a materials base and in which there are hierarchical relations between men and solidarity among them, which in turn enable them to dominate women. ▪ The material base of patriarchy is men’s control over women’s labor power.