Sociology Exam 3 Flashcards
Race
constructed upon phenotypical differences that impact individuals’ lives
typically constructed in the dominant groups’ concepts - did not exist before western colonialism
far-reaching consequences/implications for life outcomes
differs across time and space
racial bio-essentialist approach
assumes racial categories are authentic, real and natural - perceived differences
ignores that genetics and conceptions of race are fully squared
Blumenbach
created five categories - Caucasian (white), Mongoloid ( yellow), Malayan (brown), Ethiopian (black) and American (red)
craniometrics
correlating skull shape with skin pigmentations
affects how we perceive race today
Racial Variation - USA
one drop rule
Individuals could not be considered white and enjoy the privileges of whiteness if they had only non-white blood in them
Racial Variation -South Africa
Apartheid
separation of races with immense inequality between races
however, could belong to the dominant white group if they looked white enough or had wealth and power
Racial Variation - Brazil
40-50 different recognized racial categories that hold life implications - some hierarchy based upon skin tone but mainly based on wealth and prestige
miscegenation
marriage/mixture of people of two different races - one is white
racialism
an individual or a society sees individuals as belonging to a particular category - social differentiation
racism
arbitrarily perceiving one racial category as being superior to another
Ethnicity
people with common cultural characteristics
socially constructed
focused more on “cultural” than “biological” attributes
does often overlap with race
Ethnic Identity
internalization of ethnic roles into self-concept
Minority Category
Share a distinct identity
on the whole experience subordination
prejudice
preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience
discrimination
the unjust treatment of different categories of people especially on the grounds of ethnicity, age, sex, or disability
Prejudice versus Discrimination
attitude versus action/behavior
judging categories unfairly versus harmful treatment based on group membership
Pre-Civil Rights Racism
overt - prejudice and discrimination were allowed in the open and were formally codified into laws
overt racism - is readily apparent in social life and one does not have to conceal racist sentiments
Post-Civil Rights racism
covert - prejudice and discrimination so normalized and routinized they are institutionalized
racism is now concealed and many who help sustain inequality don’t even know they’re doing it
institutional racism
Bonilla Silva & Color Blind Ideology
covert form of racism specific to Post-Civil Rights Era:
abstract liberalism
naturalization
cultural racism
minimization of racism
Abstract Liberalism
rationalizes racial outcomes by assuming equal opportunity
merit belief that most meritorious are rewarded
opposing to government intrusion
naturalization
suggest that racial phenomenon is a natural occurrence
idea that segregation is ‘natural’ or self-selecting
Cultural Racism
the culture frame but no longer biological racism but lack of hygiene, family disorganization or lack of morality have replaced it
minimization of racism
suggests discrimination is no longer a central factor affecting minorities life chances
whites acknowledge that discrimination exists but they deny its impact on group standing
Majority - Minority interactions
pluralism
segregation
genocide
assimilation
pluralism
separate racial and ethnic groups maintain their distinctiveness even though they are perceived as being on equal footing
segregation
physical and social separation of categories of people
genocide
process by which one ethnic or racial group exterminates another group
Assimilation
the process by which minorities gradually adopt patterns of the dominant culture and become like the dominant
Gan’s Symbolic Ethnicity
typically 3rd or 4th gen which attempts to preserve and participate in disappearing ethnic roles and culture through the performance of rituals and actions that do not broadly impact identity and social life
straight line model
the first gen is the most “ethnic” and the behavior over time will become increasingly similar to the dominant/native population
Gan’s Criticisms of the Straight Line Model
1.) immigrant culture can affect mainstream culture as much as mainstream culture can affect immigrant groups
2.) The straight-line model treats all groups as similar
3.) cannot handle ethnic models
Cornell & Hartman - Thick vs Thin
Thick - powerfully shapes most aspects of social life and identities may be imposed by others or asserted and chosen (immigrants)
Thin - relatively little on social life
Cornell & Hartman - Assignment vs. Assertion
circumstance don’t just assign identities on passive subjects
people assert their own identities
accept, resist, choose specify redefine and defend identities
Cornell & Hartmann - Boundaries
who is “us” versus “them”
Cornell & Hartmann - Perceived Positioning
belief in positions between groups
Cornell & Hartmann - Meaning
qualities attached to groups
Primordialism
belief that racial and ethnic identities are elementary or that they existed at or from the very beginning
Double Consciousness
-possessed by members of the subordinate group when a condition of dominant/subordinate group relations is present
-subordinate & dominant groups interpret the world differently
-subordinate groups - understand the dominant culture and their own to survive
-knowledge oppressed groups get to survive
Mary Waters - Experience & Race
-whites encounter more situations where they don’t think of themselves with race
-having a race is hard to escape for nonwhites
-whites can escape negative qualities of race frequently
Gender
personal traits and social positions a society attaches to being things like male, female or other
typically involves a hierarchy
gender stratification
unequal distribution of wealth, power, and privilege between
sex
biological differences between male and female
either XY or XX ( excusing chromosomal mutations)
Intersex
individuals who possess both male and female biological sex characteristics
commonly treated as a birth defect in the west
Gender Bio-essentialism
a condition where one believes that perceived differences between gender categories are authentic, immutable, and natural
Margaret Mead’s New Guinea Study - Arapresh
both sexes feminine by Western standards
cooperative, unaggressive, empathetic
Margaret Mead’s New Guinea Study - Mundugmor
both sexes masculine by Western standards
ruthless and unresponsive to other’s needs
Margaret Mead’s New Guinea Study - Tchambuli
biological females masculine by western standards and biological males feminine by western standards
gender role
behavior society expects from its genders
Gender Socialization
process of learning social attitudes and expectations associated with sex
Gender Marker
symbols and signs that identify a person’s gender
Patriarchy
social arrangement in which men dominate women
Matriarchy
the social arrangement where women dominate men
sexism
belief that one sex is innately superior to the other; often the justification for patriarchy
Hochschild’s “gender strategy”
a person reconciles the gender ideologies they are socialized into with their behavior
the connection between their conception of their gender role and how they act
Feminism
counter-ideology to sexism that typically seeks gender equality and independence
Liberal Feminism
accept gender categories, capitalism and the current structure of American society but they envision a world where men and women can exist on equal footing
Socialist Feminism
true categorical equality between men and women can happen until structural means to achieve dominance and power are erased from society
Radical Feminism
the only path to an egalitarian society is by eliminating gender altogether
Intersectional Theory
the interplay between race, class, sexual orientation, and gender as they can mix in unique ways to produce multiple dimensions of disadvantage
Matrix of domination - Pat Hill Collins
depending on context, an individual may be an oppressor, a member of an oppressed group, or be simultaneously oppressor and oppressed where each person experiences varying amounts of privilege and subalternity from the multiple frames of oppression that frame and shape everyone’s lives
Kessler & Mckenna - Gender Attribution
- more than inspection but a process of inculcating gendered roles, self-concepts, and feelings of being man or woman
- deciding whether someone is male or female when we see a new person - basically just assumptions
Risman - Gender Structure
1.) Macro - ideologies, institutions - birth certificates
2.) Individual - socialized gender and one’s relation to it
3.) Interactional - orientation toward others and the world
true believers
old school traditionalists believe in gender binary, even invested it it - mostly all cis- heterosexual
‘gender is God-given or rooted in nature”
Macro - ideologies fused within conventional cis-gender order - bio-essentialism or religion
Individual - fully internalized cis-gendered masculine & feminine personalities and orientations
Interactional - somewhat judgmental of when norms are breached, taboos against same-sex mixing
Innovators
see old gender norms as oppressive and strive to lead gender egalitarian lives ( about half are not straight)
“feminism is a normative part of life”
Macro - reject the notion that men & women ought to be different
Individual - comfort in mixing & matching stereotypically masculine and feminine attributes
Interactional - seek to expand or undo gender beyond interactional expectations
Rebels
genderqueer, transgress against gender structure ( many reject labels)
“overt transgression against gender structure”
Macro - the binary is oppressive, and idealizes an alternate structure containing an immense choice
Individual - proud to mix& match and exist outside the gender binary
Interactional - receive & confront constant policing from others
straddlers
mix & match, accept some aspects of gender structure but reject others
” I care less for gender and want everyone to be who they are”
hodgepodge of all the other types in a loose fashion
less prideful than innovators
mostly heterosexual
Berdache
were not homosexual ( no relations with same-sex), hermaphrodites ( not assigned a specific special sex category at birth), and transvestites ( not taking the role of the other gender)
gender categorization different from our own society
primary sex characteristics
organs necessary for biological reproduction
secondary sex characteristics
bodily differences that distinguish males and females
transgender - old term transexual
depart from common gender conceptions of femininity and masculinity by rejecting biology as a determinant for their gender identity
incest taboo
norm forbidding sexual relations between certain kin
sexual orientation
one’s preference for and/or emotional and physical attraction to other persons
heterosexuality
individual’s sexual orientation revolves around them being physically and emotionally attracted to members of the opposite sex in the 2 gender system of the western world
homosexuality
individual’s sexual orientation revolves around them being physically and emotionally attracted to members of the same sex in the 2 gender system of the Western world
homophobia
discomfort over close personal interactions with people to be gay, lesbian, or bisexual (non-heterosexual) in Western cultures
Sexual Bio-Essentialism
regarding sexual identity in the US posits that categories of sexual orientation like homosexual and heterosexual are authentic and natural
Levay Study
measured brains of cadavers only presumed to be exclusively homosexual and heterosexual - only 35
no verification that the 16 non-homosexual cadavers were practicing heterosexual
all homosexual cadavers had died of AIDs related complications
no information on life histories
Levay Study - brain
a cluster of cells in the hypothalamus that is larger in heterosexual men than in heterosexual women or homosexual men
Foucault
homosexual not in the Western language until the 19th century
compulsory heterosexuality
individuals are coerced into heterosexual practices through processes of socialization as well as broader societal values that deem heterosexuality to be “normal” while other modes of sexual orientation are deemed to be inherently deviant and stigmatic
Lancaster - Cochone
1.) passivity in intercourse - male or female
2.) not defined by oral or manual sex
3.) do not have sex with each other
4.) sexual practices and identity stigmatized
5.) object through which power and valorization is gained by machistas
Lancaster - Machista
1.) active role in intercourse - always male
2.) not defined by oral or manual sex
3.) DO NOT have sex with one another
4.) sexual practices and identity valorized
5.) identity and practices support masculinity
6.) socially expected to be aroused and have sex with both men and women
Western - homosexual
1.) defined by sexual activity with/attraction to members of the same sex - M-M, F-F
2.) oral/manual sex can play a defining role
3.) have sex with another - gender appropriate
4.) sexual practices and identity stigmatized generally
5.) do not support masculinity for men
Western - heterosexual
1.) defined by sexual activity with members of the opposite sex
2.) Oral/manual sex can play a defining role
3.)have sex with another - M-F
4.) sexual practices and identity for men valorized
5.) sexual identity and practices support masculinity (for men)
6.) (men) socially expected to be aroused by and penetrate women
7.) A female heterosexual is an object through which power and valorization is gained for men
queer theory
challenges an alleged heterosexual bias in society; namely that our society is characterized by heterosexism
heterosexism
view that the heterosexual perspective is privileged in American society since it stigmatizes anyone who is not heterosexual
heteronormativity
constraints, demands, and expectations of people in a society where heterosexuality is the norm
Queer Theory hallmarks - Pascoe
1.) Sexuality and Sexual Power pervade social life
2.) Sexual and gender categories are always problematic
3.) willing to examine heteronormativity and heterosexuality as products of society
Pascoe - fag discourse
heteronormativity supported in interaction and by school administration
“fag” is an epithet that marks a discursive and social position of “failed masculinity” that regulates boys’ interactions
plays a role in perpetuating heterosexual norms and disciplines boys’ interactions, participation in “compulsory heterosexuality”
