Lecture 8 Gender Flashcards
what is gender
the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activists, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women
what is sex
the biological and physiological characteristics that define men and women
what is the difference between sex and gender
gender is something that is performed, sex is an innate feature of our bodies
what is gender identity
an inner sense of belonging to one, several, or no particular gender(s)
what are gender roles
the behavior, attitudes and markers ascribed to men and women by society
what is an example of male gender roles
authoritative, and confident
what is an example of female gender roles
emotionally expressive, traditional femininity, (bad bitches)
how do we learn gender
an early age, and over the life course, we imitate, reject, and approximate different gender roles via primary and secondary socialization
how does media reinforce gender expectations (specific example)
movies like top gun link masculinity to power
who do we perform gender for
audience members ranging from friends, family and intimate partners to workplace colleagues, the states, medical professionals..
what do sociologists understand gender as
something that is accomplished, not something innate
what two main sociologists published work on gender
West and Zimmerman
how does gender perform relate to crime response
police may use “risk taking behavior” as a way to show a failure to perform gender rather than blaming a particular crime
how media portrayals of white women vs indigenous women differ
When gender conforming white women go missing, they’re pictures tend to be profiled larger, they are given first and last name, as well as an extensive description on their life. While indigenous women who may not conform to gender roles, stories are brief, news reports are brief, and posters do not communicate as well
how is gender accomplished
clothes, hairstyles, speech, vocal pitch, word choice, tastes, emotional expressiveness
how does gender roles affect sexual assault victims
Many sexual assault victims may be deemed as not “doing gender” correctly resulting in the crime
what are negative gender assessments of men
Imperiled job security
Imperiled sexual capital
Fragile social status
what are positive gender assessments of men
Feminine capital
Enhanced sexual capital
Social status/cachet/competency
explain the example of tom and gender roles
Tom, may own his own construction company, unaware of the web of actors, he’s single and lives a tame life in vancouver. He identifies as gay, and from a young age he is mistreated for not conforming to masculine standards. “Real boys don’t cry”, “be a man”. The impossible to obtain masculine standards to never express emotion, have a very profound negative mental health impact. Can lead to self-esteem issues
what are the negative gender assessments for women
Imperiled job security
Imperiled sexual capital via feminization and homophobia
Fragile social status
what are the positive gender assessment for women
Masculine capital
Patriarchal dividend
social status/cachet/ ad competency
what is jock insurance
Young men who don’t conform to bodily and character traits of masculinity, if they were good ad sports, jock insurance prevents negative gender attributions
who coined the term jock insurance
Pascoe
what is hegemonic masculinity
configuration of gender practice which embodies the currently accepted answer to the problem of the legitimacy of patriarchy
how coined the term hegemonic masculinity
Connell
what is subordinate masculinities
masculine gender practices that are deemed inferior
what is an example of subordinate masculinites
not straight identifying
what is marginalized masculinities
gender practices taken up by men in subordinated racial and ethnic social locations
what is complicit masculinities
which support gender hegemony and reap the patriarchal dividend without being “on the frontlines” of the status quo defense
how doe toxic masculinity and hegemonic masculinity differ
hegemonic masculinity changes over time, and toxic masculinity doesn’t
what is emphasized femininities
configurations of gender practice that are organized as an adaption to men’s power
what are examples of emphasized femininities
emphasizing compliance, nurturance, and empathy as womanly virtues
how do women have access to the patriarchal dividend
it is indirect
what is heterosexual matrix
a hegemonic discursive/epistemic model of gender intelligibility through which bodies, genders, and desires are naturalized as heterosexual
who coined the term the heterosexual matrix
Judith Butler
what are examples of the heterosexual matrix
anti-gay sentiment, particularly homophobic bullying of gay teens and discrimination against gay men
what does intersectionality provide
framework for theorizing intergender relationships of power between masculinity and between femininities
how does racism and classism relate to gender
Racism and classism shape which gender scripts are available to whom, and upon whose bodies certain scripts are “legible”
how does the assessment of male gender affect society
The assessment of male gender creates positive cultural valorization, productive work as master status, instrumental role; absence of emotionality. Will experience patriarchal dividends: wealth, prestige, social cachet associated with masculinity. Mental health impacts of impossibles masculine norms
how does the assessment of female gender affect society
The assessment of female gender creates negative cultural valorization, “motherwork” (broadly defined) as master status, “expressive” role; emotionality. Will experience marginalization in the paid labor force; unequal access to wealth, prestige, social cachet, and symbolic and physical violence
how is gender related to social life
gender is an embedded feature of social life, gender shapes life chances
what is cissexism
discrimination against transgender people
what is cisnormativity
cultural/societal bias, often implicit, that assumes all people are cisgender and so privileges cisgender identities and ignores of underrepresents gender variance
what is gender binarism
the idea that only two genders exist
how does gender effect the patriarchy and cissexism
Patriarchy and cissexism is built off of male domination, gender binarism, and the notion of stable unitary gender identities “natural”
what is gender fluid
describes a person whose gender identity changes over time and contexts
how would a conflict theorists see gender difference
romanticizing gender difference, women’s dependence on men, and marriage keeps a flexible low or no wage labor force ready to subsidize productive work
how would a functionalist theorist see gender difference
A functionalist theorist might say the social genderings is universal and inevitable as most effective and efficient to carry out a society’s tasks of reproduction and socialization
how would a symbolic interactionism theorist see gender difference
representations are useful artifacts with which to understand and theorize the state of play in gender relation and inequalities at a given moment and place
how would a feminist theorist see gender difference
representations blunt the potential for a liberatory multiracial feminism
what are men and women’s experience in industrial societies
men were more likely to be paid in employment while women were more likely to be homemakers
what is pay gap between racialized women and white women
racialized women earn 12% less than white women
what is the pay gap between immigrant women and Canadian born women
immigrant women earn 23.2% less
what group of women earn more than typical women
lesbian women
