Socialization & identity (Week 6) Social identities Flashcards
Social Identities
Social identities
are collective or group identities applied to important roles in society.
Class identities
Social class - those who possess the same socioeconmoic status.
Occupation is a general measure that can help us define class groupings and can help us see how different identities develop out of different work-related experiences.
Class identities
Working class & New working class
- Traditional working class identities are fixed around manual work (manufacturing industry).
- Traditionally working class lived in close communties where everyone had the same occupation.
- There has been changes due to the decline in industry and manufacturing in the UK.
- Rise in the service industry > led to emergence of a new working class
- Goldthorpe (1968) argued that this section of the working class developed new forms of identity.
- Devine (1992) Suggested there are still important differences between the new working class and the middle classes.
Class identities
Middle class
- Constructed around a range of occupational identies.
For example:
Professions such as doctors - identities combine high levels of educational achievement with personal autonomy and decision making.
Managers - running private and public companies. Brooks (2006) suggests this combines career progression, decision-making, power and control over others.
Intellectuals - reflect an academic identity (information services) eg. Uni Lecturers
Consultants - Selling knowledge
Routine service workers - bottom of middle class eg. Shop assistants
Class identities
Upper class
Based on two major groupings:
1. **The landed aristocracy **- small group whose traditional source of power is it’s historic ownership of land and connections to monarchy. Was significant in the past but has declined recently.
2. The business elite - great income and wealth based on ownership of national/international global companies.
Gender Identities
- Connell et al (1987) argued that we are not born a ‘man’ or a ‘woman’ we become them through social construction of gender identites.
Biological sex - physical characteristics
gender - social characteristics given to each sex - Lips (1993) argued that differences in male and female identities don’t naturally occur from biological differences.
- Gender identities differ historically and cross-culturally which means that they are both learnt and relative.
Two main dominant Gender identities
Connell (1995)
Hegemonic masculinity - men are encouraged to adopt a particular body shape, emphasising physical strength. Encourages men to be leaders, providers, unemotional ect.
Emphasised feminity - women should accommodate the needs of men and be passive, nurturing beings.
Male identities
Hegemonic masculinity is dominant there are 3 other types Shauer (2004) suggests:
**Subordinate **– those who are unwilling or unable to perform hegemonic masculinity eg. those with physical disabilities
Subversive – a type that undermines hegemonic masculinity such as ‘serious student’ who pays attention in school as opposed to messes around.
Complicit – the ‘new man’, more feminised, does their share of unpaid work and see women as equal.
* Connell (1995) argues that ‘as women have become more powerful, male identities have begun to change.’
Marginalised masculinity – men who feel they have been pushed to the margins of family life. They are unable to perform the traditional masculine roles of money earner and provider.
* Wilott and Griffin (1996) noted this type of masculinity developed among the long term unemployed working class.
How female identites are shaped - Ann Oakley
- Ann Oakley (1972) suggested that female identities were shaped in childhood.
- Girls and boys are socialised differently into gendered roles.
Oakley suggests 4 main ways in which children are socialised into gendered roles:
1. By manipulation – stressing importance of appearance for girls & being brave and strong for boys.
2. By canalisation – channelling children’s time and attention into different activities: girls helping to cook with mum, boys playing sport with dad
3. By verbal appellation – how they are spoken to, for example, telling a girl they are pretty to reinforce that attractiveness is important
4. **By different activities **- what children see their parents and others doing leads to ideas about what is appropriate for each sex.
Forms of female identity
Oakley
3 main forms of feminine identity in contemporary societies:
1. Contingent feminities - framed/shaped by male beliefs and demands.
2. Normalised identities - women learn to play a secondary role to men
3. Sexulised identities - made through male eyes. Women are sexual objects that exist for males.
* Chambers et al (2003) argue that such identities struggle with the problem of ‘producing a femininity that will secure male approval.’
Female identites - Assertive identities
Assertive identities > They involve women breaking free from traditional ideas and femininity but not completely.
Froyum (2005) suggests that assertive femininities are to ‘resist male power without threatening to overthrow such power.’ Different types of assertive identity include:
Girl power identities – represent a way of ‘coping with masculinity’ (older women are excluded).
Modernised femininities - relate to a slightly older age group. Female economic and cultural power within the context of family relationships. The assertive aspect here is a desire for personal freedom and expression – McRobbie (1996) termed ‘individualism, liberty and the entitlement to sexual self-expression’ – within the context of traditional gender relationships.
Autonomous femininities – these involve competition with men on female terms. Evans (2006) points to female individualism as part of a ‘new gender regime that frees women from traditional constraints’ such as pregnancy and childcare.
Autonomous women are likely to be: Highly educated, Successful, Professional middle class, Career-focused.
Ethnicity
Ethnicity as a source of personal and social identity is built on ideas that include referring to:
* Country of birth and the sense of a common geographical location
* Traditions and customs that contribute to unique cultural practices that distinguish one group from another.
* Shared histories and experiences – e.g victims of slavery.
* Religious beliefs, celebrations and traditions that connect people.
Ethnic identities
- Winston (2005) says that ethnic identities develop when people see themselves as being ‘distinctive in some way from others’ because of a shared cultural background and history.
- Song (2003) claims that this is expressed in terms of distinctive markers such as common ancestry and ‘memories of a shared past’.
- An ethnic identity can be based on kinship, family, religion, language, territory, nationality and appearance.
- It’s a concept, not based on any actual evidence of cultural distinctiveness as a group.
Negotiation of Ethnic identites
Ethnic identities can be negotiated.
Their nature and meaning can change because of external and internal factors.
* External might include contact with other cultures
* internal factors might be a clash of ideas and experiences between different age, class and gender groups within a particular ethnic group.
* They require constant maintenance through collective activities such as festivals, celebrations or religious gatherings and a variety of material and symbolic cultural artefacts. eg. traditional clothing, food and crafts.
Ethnic identities - boundaries
Ethnic boundaries may be positive - a sense of belonging or may protect – a way of fighting racism and discrimination.
* Boundaries may also be imposed through cultural stereotypes about ethnic groups and identities; this may, in fact, reinforce a stereotyped group’s sense of identity.
