Exam 1 Flashcards
What are some of the reasons for studying gender?
How we view and understand gender cuts
across all aspects of society & its institutions
– interpersonal relationships, work, school,
the media, and more
It provides an entranceway into studying human behavior,how society is organized, and possibilities for change.
Example:
careers = health care, education, business, publishing,
entertainment, law, social services, public government
service, and the arts (to name a few)
What is feminist theory?
attempts to understand gender equality
and how it affects individuals and groups
in society.
What is the difference between theory and activism?
Theory is based on academics and activism is based on
What are the characteristics of the 3 waves of feminism?
1.
1830s – Issues= slavery and women’s right to vote
1865– 13th Amendment abolished slavery
1920 – 19th Amendment guaranteed women the
right to vote
(Suffrage = the right to vote gained through a democratic process)
Why are they referred to as waves?
How might generational differences affect one’s perceptions of gender?
What are the myths commonly associated with feminism?
- Feminist hate man
- Feminist are said to be lesbians
3 offshoots of 3rd wave feminism are: postmodern feminism, queer theory, and transgender theory
– what makes each distinct from each other?
– what views do all 3 share in common?
What is patriarchy?
Where males dominate because power and authority are in the hands of adult men.
How does opposing patriarchy differ from being anti-male?
What is privilege?
What is intersectionality?
– to simply focus on one aspect of oppression means
missing the various other systems of oppression.
– demonstrates why this complex system is often invisible, yet always immobilizing
What are some of the dimensions of intersectionality?
What do adherents of understanding intersectionality work toward?
How can intersectionality explain the roles of gender in class in math and science education?
What is Jane O’Reilly arguing in The Housewife’s Moment of Truth?
– what are some of the examples she uses to make this point?
What are Baumgarderner and Richards arguing in A Day Without Feminism?
– what are some of the examples they provide from life in the 1970s,
particularly in relation to dating, relationships families, and sexuality?
Why were “pep” products marketed specifically to females?
What are the main things that feminists typically agree on?
the importance of gender;
the importance of change;
the importance of personal choice;
the need to eliminate patriarchy;
the need to eliminate violence; and
the importance of sexual autonomy
What is normality?
– assumes a standard by which things are measured
– tends to reflect the identities of those in
power
– what are 2 characteristics of employing the concept of normality?
Sometimes a variation in kind or frequency
Other times, a subjective judgment
What is hierarchy in society?
– in society, how differences are viewed, ranked, and institutionalized
What are institutions and what does it mean for a practice or belief to be institutionalized?
Institutions – social organizations that involve patterns
of behavior organized around particular purposes.
Institutionalized
– officially placed into a structured system
or set of practices.
EX: Standardized tests as a predictor of
future achievement (gender, culture)
What is ideology?
Beliefs
What is the main point that Patricia Hill Collins is making in “Toward a New Vision?
– what does she mean by the “symbolic dimension” of systems of domination?
EX: stereotypes, myths, attitudes
In what ways can hierarchies of gender, culture, etc. be institutionalized?
– give an example
What is prejudice?
– to pre-judge
– making premature judgments without adequate information
or with misinformation
How can oppression be internalized?
How can language shape our reality?
What is horizontal hostility?
– after prejudice is internalized, individuals direct their anger and resentment about their situation onto those who have equal or lesser status
Why is oppression, not diversity, the problematic issue to be addressed?
– it isn’t just that people differ from one another.
The trouble is produced by a world organized in ways that encourage people to use difference to include or exclude, reward or punish, credit or discredit, elevate or oppress, value or devalue, leave alone or harass
What are unearned entitlements?
– things that all people should have like feeling safe in public, being accepted, valued for what they can contribute.
When unearned entitlement is restricted to certain groups, however, it becomes a form of privilege (what McIntosh calls “unearned advantage”)
How does Marilyn Frye characterize oppression?
– The Flip Side of Privilege
– Social forces tend to “press” upon people and hold them down, mold them, and block their pursuit of a good life.
Belonging to a privileged category that has an oppressive relationship with another isn’t the same as being an oppressive person who behaves in oppressive ways.
– why does she claim that the root word of oppression significant?
– what is her birdcage analogy of oppression meant to illustrate?
– How does this relate to intersectionality?
What does Audre Lorde say is necessary to fight oppression and why does she state this?
Audre Lorde – calls for alliances across differences
What is the difference between acute and chronic need?
A) Acute – characterized by severity and/or having a sudden onset
EX: famine & starvation
B) Chronic – persistent or long-lasting in effect;
– marked by long duration or frequent recurrence
EX: malnutrition, lack of medical care,
lack of educational opportunities,
Shortened lifespan
How has poverty risen or fallen in relation to the Dow Jones Industrial average of the stock market?
How has the pay ratio between Chief Executive Officers and their workers changed over the past 30 years?
Is the income gap between rich and poor narrowing or widening?
What are the statistics with regard to how much the wealthiest 1% of people globally? What about the bottom 40% of the world’s population?
Globally, the richest 1% of the population controls 40% of the wealth
– the bottom 40% of the world’s population combined control 1% of the wealth
What is gender coding?
assign traits to males and females
What is a binary system?
a system involving only 2 elements
Describe the naturalist approach to gender
Gender is primarily man/woman
masculine/feminine viewed as binary
What is the nature vs nurture debate?
Describe the Sex/Gender binary introduced in the 1960s and 1970s
– how do notions of “feminine” and “masculine” change from the naturalist view?
Define human sexuality
– the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses
– being attracted to someone in a sexual manner
Define intersexuality
being born with elements of
both male and female physical characteristics
such that a single sex is not distinct
(see Fausto-Sterling)
– what controversial practices were previously administered by parents and physicians with regard to intersex children?
Describe the social construction view of gender
– we start with a societal idea of gender and
then retrofit our definitions of “sexual difference” to fit it.
EX: Pressure on intersex children/parents to “pick one.”
EX: The sexual hierarchy – woman become gendered as that
which is not male (Simone de Beauvoir)
How does intersexuality present a scientific exception to essentialist theories of gender, such as naturalism?
What does it mean to say that gendered is performed?
Define cisgender
– when one’s self-perception of their gender matches the sex they were assigned at birth
Define transgender
– when one’s gender identity (self-identification as woman, man, neither or both) does not match one’s assigned sex
In the U.S., what is required in order to obtain official documents when transitioning from one biological sex to another?
Birth Certificate
