MIDTERM Flashcards
SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONISM
- Linked to interactionist perspective
- Emphasis on meaning and social interaction
- The way we present ourselves to others is partly based on our interaction with others and our life experiences
- What is real depends on what is socially acceptable
- Sees the world as something that is constantly being shaped and reshaped by the people in it
- We decide what behaviours are against the law, and what is allowed, including sexual behaviours, and they will change
- Shaped by culture and social interactions
- Everyone has a status and role in which guides our behaviour, but each individual has leeway and to shape what happens
- Social con of reality Identifies the process in which ppl creatively shape their reality through social interaction
- Things only have meaning because we give them meaning through social interaction
- Ex: masturbation and lawyers are constructed differently, therefore we have different reactions to them
WHAT MAKES A SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONIST? (4)
- Critical stance towards taken for granted knowledge
- we need to be critically examining our taken for granted
- The ways we understand the world depend on culture
- Relates to paramount
- Childhood example: first children were working until child labours were put in place - Knowledge is sustained by a social process
- Nothing is objectively true to a social constructionist so depends on social interaction
- somethings are true, but everything can change - Knowledge and social action to go together
- How we respond to it
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO SAY REALITY IS SOCIALLY CONSTRUCTED?
- Things wouldn’t have existed w out society
- Something has meaning because we have given it meaning
- Culture is paramount: we are born into a system of meanings
- Our culture shapes our interpretations and the meaning we ascribe to things, how we feel, etc.
CULTURE
a normative system of behaviour instructing persons on the proper way to behave
- Some of these preserve society
FOLKWAYS
the normal habitual ways of doing things
- Associated w manners
- Parents socialize children to prepare them
- Same with teachers; being on time, neatness etc
- Violations aren’t super serious
MORES
behaviours or customs that must be followed to prevent the destruction of the common culture of a society
- If violated; led to the destruction of society and therefore carry much more serious repercussions
- So serious laws were created to prevent these rules from being broken
- Example of sex: some marriages are strictly for procreation, others for fun, others non-consensual the act is the same, but we view it completely differently
SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF SEXUALITIES (4)
- Approach an otherwise familiar topic from an unfamiliar angle
- Some look at it as a biological stance
- How do we define our sexuality?
- Sexuality as cultural rather than strictly personal
- Sexuality is not about the individual
- We may see our own desires as personal, they are a reflection of cultural assumptions of whats acceptable, not, natural and not, etc
- We understand our sexual behaviours through social context - Emphasis on the cultural assumptions surrounding sex behaviours
- Emphasises the emergence of sexual identity - Emphasis on the myriad ways social control is exercised
IS SEXUALITY INNATE?
- Nature vs nurture
- Combination of genetic predisposition and environmental factors
- Sexual binary
- Homo vs hetero binary
- Not an “either or” deal, some in the middle
- Wide spectrum of diverse sexual experiences
- The invention of heterosexuality and homosexuality
- Ex: losing virginity “penial vaginal penetration” makes for a very socially constructional heterosexual view
- Emerged in a historical time period when we did not categorize
- Only in the 1920’s that we started hearing hetero and homo terms and that hereto was the “natural” because men and woman could lead to a baby
SEXUAL REVOLUTIONS
1. VICTORIAN ERA (britian and the US)
- Very repressive
- Doctors say sexual desire in women was pathological
- Doctors also; masturbation was said to led to criminality
- Small free love movement happening: people should have the right to have sex w whoever they want IF they love them, even w out marriage
- There was an advocacy to get women these same rights
- At the time, any woman having sex to not her husband; a prostitute
SEXUAL REVOLUTIONS
2. 1930’s (US and Germany)
- The first sexual revolution in the US
- Lots of changes in education etc in woman, were allowed to do more things
- Lots of arguing that sexual desires did not make them crazy
SEXUALI REVOLUTIONS
3. 1960’s AND 70’s (the US)
- Increased emphasis on sexual liberation
- Development of tech that would facilitate these things; ex the birth control pill
- Premarital sex became normative
- Schools offering sex education (alr had but more so informative, not using scare tactics)
SEXUAL RELATIONSHIPS; POLY AND MONO
DOMINANCE OF MONORMATIVITY
- The “natural” way of doing this; being married/with to one person
- Emphasis on heterosexual romance
POLYAMORY
- Multiple relationships
- Sometimes referred to “ethical non-monogamy”
SEXUALITY ACROSS A LIFECOURSE
CHILDHOOD SEXUALITY
- Society very uncomfortable w this topic
- Children are seen to have a sexual innocence (socially constructed) and should not know anything about sexuality
- Puberty is seen as the line from childhood to more sexually accepted
- Masturbation increases (boys higher than girls)
ADOLESCENT SEXUALITY
- My gen is having less sex than the last, and that less than the last
SEXUALITY AND THE AGED
- Less represented so you don’t think of it
- Socially constructed
SEXUAL STANDARDS;
The statistical standard
- Numbers tell the story
- Validates the normalcy of that typical behaviour
- Can be difficult- can define law breaking as normal
- Not tied to any cultural morality
SEXUAL STANDARDS;
The cultural standard
- Culture dictates
- Ex; littering, who cares, plagiarising, BAD!!!
- Who the person is matters!!!
- We judge the behaviours and person engaging according to the standards that we have as a culture
SEXUAL STANDARDS;
Religious normalcy
- Adherence to religious standards
- Huge role in developing their actions
SEXUAL STANDARDS;
The subjective standard
- Personal level
- Rationalize the acts in ourselves
- We have to feel ourselves that what we are doing is not that bad
- Defines for the person; the appropriate of the actions and how those actions fall within the range of appropriate behaviours
- We are considering in our cultural context
- Justifies these acts so that the deviancy is then reinterpreted as “not that bad”
- Changing all the time
ELEMENTS OF SEXUAL BEHAVIOUR (4)
FANTASY:
- To engage in sex, you must have a sexual fantasy
- Most fantasize on consensual sex, some on violence and destruction
SYMBOLISM:
- Regards fetishes (inadement object to with one has attached sexual feelings, ex stockings, high heels)
- Partialism: a body part, maybe feet
- Only gets problematic when the fetish per say HAS to be part of it, even worse when it’s a problematic want
RITUALISM:
- Sex offenders tend to be ritualistic
- Can be in relationships (body language “it’s on”)
- Tricky: if the ritual has to be preformed in exactly the same manner + sequence
- If it gets interrupted, they must find someone else and start over
COMPULSION:
- Sex offenders (serious) “compulsive” feelings that draw them to do these things
4 FAMILY TYPES: HEBREW
- BCE ancient Hebrew family had char that grew out of necessity
- Social status Hebrew people at the time: low
- Ancient Jewish tribes roamed around for centuries
- Persecuted by other cultures
- Patriarchal (father raise supreme)
- patrilocal (traced the bloodline through father’s side of the family; males were desired in the family male children could provide for the family property= father to eldest son, lived close to his father)
- patrilineal and
- polygynous (women can’t have divorce, but men can have multiple wife) (sex only for procreation or for male pleasure, women pleasure to raise children)
