Transcript Gender
Gender
Two Primary Issues 1.The Cultural construction of Gender 2.Gender Relations
Sex Versus Gender
Sex refers to biological differences,
Gender refers to the cultural construction of male and female characteristics.
“The ways members of the two sexes are perceived, evaluated and expected to behave.” ( what different cultures make of sex.)
Gender Boundaries
We demand that the categories of male and female be discrete
since gender is culturally constructed the boundaries are conceptual rather than physical
the boundaries are dynamic, eg. now it is acceptable for men to wear earrings.
Boundaries require markers to indicate gender such as:
Voice Physique Dress Behaviour
Hair style
Kinetics
Language use
Gender identity Why is it important How do we react when someone seems to have traits of each category?
social intercourse requires that the interacting parties know to which gender category `the other' belongs Felicita Vestvali 1824 - 1880 New York opera star who specialized in singing contralto "trouser roles."
Is he a he? Or is he a she? Or is she a he?
How does your reaction to this image compare to the earlier one of a woman dressed as a man?
Is there a double standard?
Women cross dress all the time.
The difference is perception.
Acceptance or Rejection by society
The Relativity of Gender
If the categories `man' and `woman' are culturally constructed what are the implications?
There can be no universal meaning to the category woman or man.
What it means to be a man or a woman in a particular society is relative to that society.
we do not have to be restricted to two genders Cross-dressing often retains clues to the underlying gender base and the resulting image appears to exist somewhere between the polarities of male and female – containing elements of both – as if a third gender had been created.
Third Genders
transsexual – gender/ sex incongruent, “trapped in wrong body” but with the gender identity of their organs/sex change operation
transvestite – dressing as other gender, biological sex (cross-dresser)
homosexual
bisexual
eunuch – castrated male
hermaphrodite – both sets of biological organs
Virgin?
Boy/Girl?
The Hijras of India and Pakistan
Hijra means “impotent ones” in Urdu
Some are born hermaphrodite, most are born with a male body but with a feminine gender identity and undergo voluntary castration
Hijras wear colourful women’s clothes and prefer men or other hijras as sexual partners
Perceived neither as men nor women but as a third gender
estimates range from 50,000 to 5,000,000 in India.
A third gender has existed in the Indian subcontinent from the earliest Vedic period (2000 BCE), and throughout the history of Hinduism
They are also viewed as the cultural descendants of the court eunuchs of the Islamic Mughal Empire (1526 1858)
typically live together in a traditional commune arrangement of five or more "chelas" (disciples), supervised by a "guru." (teacher)
Unrecognized in law as either male or female they face extreme discrimination in health, housing, education, employment.
Hijras now earn their living as beggars, prostitutes and by dancing at carnivals, weddings and births that require their blessing getting dressed for a job entertaining at a wedding Blessing a newborn
Hijras are both feared for their supposed ability to place curses, and pitied for being outcast children of Allah.
Believed to hold great power because of their worship of the Hindu Mother Goddess - Mata Bahuchara
have recently modelled designer clothes at upbeat fashion shows
And begun training as beauticians
faced with health concerns and discrimination, many have become politically active
A few hijras have been elected to high political positions (1 st Hijra MP elected 1999)
Berdache George Catlin (1796-1872)
Dance to the Berdache
Drawn while on the Great Plains, among the Sac and Fox Indians, the sketch depicts a ceremonial dance to celebrate the “two-spirit person”. The men tease him but vie for his recognition, which is deemed an honor .
Common among many native N. American groups
In everyday life the two-spirit male typically would wear women’s clothes and do women’s work.
He would be accepted as “one of the girls.” He might take a husband, or might have affairs with several men.
Generally two-spirit males were not expected to have sexual relations with women.
Multigendered people were/are usually presumed to be people of power.
Because they have both maleness and femaleness in one body, they are thought to be able to ‘see’ with the eyes of both men and women.
They are often called upon to be healers, or mediators, or interpreters of dreams.
Besides their spiritual abilities, their capacity for work also figured into the high status of two-spirit people.
Even though a two-spirit male would have taken on the gender identity of a woman, he would still have the endurance and strength of a man We'wha (1849-96), a Zuni berdache, lived in New Mexico. He is shown holding a ritual vessel, dressed in women's clothing.
Western societies label third sexes and genders a “problem” and therefore feel compelled to “fix” them Deification, ostracization, and medicalization are common coping strategies for societies with strong gender dichotomies, and are often based on reproductive potential
These systems do not always have to be harmful to the third gendered/sexed individual, but often are
As we move out of an age where reproduction was our main purpose in life maybe we need to revise and expand our ideas about how gender and sex roles work with each other
Is it possible to have a genderless society?
Gender roles:
tasks and activities a culture assigns to the sexes – expected ways of behaving based on society’s definition of masculine and feminine Gender stereotypes:
oversimplified but strongly held ideas of the characteristics of men and women.
Gender stratification:
an unequal distribution of rewards (socially valued resources, power, prestige, and personal freedom) between men and women, reflecting their different positions in social hierarchy – a division in society where all members are hierarchically ranked according to gender Gender ideology
A system of thoughts and values that legitimizes sex roles, statuses and customary behaviour
Gender roles:
Gender Roles
Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb, "Rosie the Riveter," (New York: Paramount Music Corp., 1942
ROSIE THE RIVETER All the day long, Whether rain or shine, She's a part of the assembly line.
She's making history, Working for victory, Rosie the Riveter.
Keeps a sharp lookout for sabatoge, Sitting up there on the fuselage.
That little girl will do more than a male will do.
Rosie's got a boyfriend, Charlie.
Charlie, he's a Marine.
Rosie is protecting Charlie, Working overtime on the riveting machine.
When they gave her a production "E," She was as proud as she could be.
There's something true about, Red, white, and blue about, Rosie the Riveter.
In the 1940s, women were encouraged to help the war effort by getting a job outside the home. But it was family and country rather than money, status, or power that they were encouraged to toil for .
Coke 1942 November 1942
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For whether she rears a family or mans a rangefinder, a woman needs the physical support of a good foundation." and "Amongst other munitions of war, Berlei are still making foundations.".
1950s - mass consumption in high gear, TV ads idealized the woman as the wife and homemaker, and the man as the bread winner. But also the sex kitten
Cascade Dishwashing Detergent 1958 issue of Lady's Home Journal.
The man in this advertisement is envious of his hostess' spotless drinking glasses.
Rather than giving him advice on how to get his glasses just as clear, she advises him to tell his wife to use Cascade.
The designers of this ad assume that washing dishes is a woman's chore.
The roles are strictly defined; it never crosses the woman's mind that Jean's husband might have something to do with dishwashing in his household.
1960s Educated women started exhibiting their discontent with the status quo. Armed with diplomas and new sophisticated birth control methods, they demanded for the right to have both career and family. The great social change in the sixties allowed a variety of depictions of women: sex kitten, nurturing mother and independent working girl. 1970s Issues like woman's lib, ethnic heritage, and critiques of capitalism. Women are shown as independent only when inexpensive items or simple decisions were involved Advertisers realized that not just white people were buying products. Ethnic people were placed in advertisements.
1980s independent woman freedom
1990s 2000s She is a "multifaceted success machine”. She is a nurturer and a seducer. She is the twenty-four hour a day woman, and she never sleeps. Men are domesticated. Sex objects
Images of women improving?
From June 1999 issue of Glamour
Part of an ad campaign that accompanied the Women’s World Cup
“You pass on more to your children and your grandchildren than your eye color, . . . You provide the living example that they can become more than they ever thought they could. Because you did.
“Just do it.”
This ad is striking because it shows a man in what is typically thought of as a woman’s role.
What does the fact that he can open the pail “without passing out” say about men?
What Men and Women Really Think
What do the models’ thoughts suggest?
What does this say about the roles of women? And of Men?
Crutchfield; Catalog for audio and video equipment.
Gender Stereotypes
A woman walked into the kitchen to find her husband stalking around with a fly swatter.
she: "What are you doing?" she: Intrigued, "How can you tell he: "Hunting Flies" she: "Oh. Killing any?“ them apart?" he: "3 were on a beer can, 2 were on he: "Yep, 3 males, 2 Females," the phone."
Why are these cartoons humorous?
Be a Man
What does this statement mean? What comes to mind • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Men never cry Should not show emotion Not quitters Physically brave Independent Heroic and patriotic ideals Adventurous Shaving First day at work - earning a wage Initiations tough Courageous Drinking Physical strength Sex
Personality
Masculine Traits
Cognitive Physical
Competitive Daring Adventurous Aggressive Courageous Rational Analytical Problem Solving Quant. Skilled Good Reasoning Rugged Muscular Phys. Strong Handsome Phys. Vigorous Dominant Mathematical
self promotion & achievement
Brawny
Do you Agree?
How has this Changed during the past few years?
“Men are Supposed to be Strong”
What message does this ad send to men? Women?
Do we usually see more scantily clad men or women?
Is this what a man looks like? Should men look like this? Why or why not?
Where do our ideals of beauty come from?
Act like a Lady
What does this phrase mean? What comes to mind?
Personality Affectionate Sympathetic Gentle Sensitive Supportive Kind
Feminine Traits
Cognitive Imaginative Intuitive Artistic Creative Expressive Tasteful Physical Cute Gorgeous Beautiful Pretty Petite Sexy
focus on others, community
How has this changed in the past few years?
Victoria’s Secret is Revealed
What does this ad suggest women should look like?
Are these women, “Acting like Ladies?” How / Why or why not?
The current ideal of female beauty is difficult to achieve. The ideal being a young Caucasian female, height 5'8"- 5'10", weighing 110-120 pounds or less. Make-up, lighting and air brushing are used to slim down the images even more. Less than 10% of the female population are genetically destined to fit this ideal.
Victoria’s Secret, “Angels’ Collection”
Healthy Women
• What does this ad suggest about women? About men?
• Why aren’t the men drinking the orange juice?
Dove Evolution
Slob Evolution
Changing beauty standards
•
In 1957, Miss America was 5'7" and weighed 150 pounds.
Marian McKnight Manning, S.Carolina
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In 2002 Miss America was 5'9 " and weighed 117 pounds Katie Harman Gresham, Oregon
• • •
Recent advertising trends are just as harmful to men Unforgiving & unrealistic images Men’s magazines encourage obsession with body image, aging & sexual prowess
Gender Relations
Gender is an important dimension of social inequality
Gender stratification frequently takes the form of patriarchy whereby men dominate women
Do women in our society have a second class status relative to men?
If so How?
How do we measure gender stratification?
How do we measure gender stratification ?
Economics
Politics
We can also look
Religion
Legal rights
prestige
Autonomy
Education
Employment
Health
ideology at the roles played by women and the value society places on them roles
Generally: Differential access to Wealth, Power, and Prestige
How deferential they are expected to be towards men.
Freedom to choose marriage partner, profession, and conception. Etc.
Labor Force Participation for U.S. Women and Men, aged 25-55 1950-2000
Women’s increased participation in paid work is a central change in gender relations over the last 50 years.
Labor force participation is often seen as the prime indicator (and cause) of changes in women’s status.
Social theory often focuses on women’s employment because employment determines access to resources and ability to make independent decisions.
Gender Stratification
unequal distribution of wealth, power and prestige between men and women
In the 1970s it was argued that women are universally subordinate to men in political, economic, and public life
i.e cultures everywhere give man, as a category opposed to women, higher social value and moral worth.
Is the secondary status of women a cultural universal?
Women’s Power in Global Perspective
Are women universally or always subordinate to men?
Explanations for the Universal subordination of Women
1 . The biological argument
women's status relative to men is natural and due to biological differences:
Men’s testosterone naturally leads them to be more aggressive Women’s oestrogen makes them more compliant
Women are biologically programmed to bear and raise children which affects their economic roles
Can these differences explain male aggression
•
juvenile delinquency, for violent
• •
crime in general the biological basis of warfare the political and economic dominance of men
1. Biologically men are physically stronger than women 2. therefore this results in a sexual division of labour with men doing the harder work 3. In other words biology influences behaviour 4. implies that the relationship between biology and social life is one of cause and effect.
If biology explains the political and economic dominance of men must we not simply accept that fact?
So much for that theory --- in many societies women are the real labourers biological differences cannot provide a universal basis for social definitions of `man' and `woman'
2. Envy theory
men may have political control but women have the power of life - giving birth
Men may arrange or exchange legal rights over women's offspring, but the power of creating life and sustaining it by breast milk remains beyond their grasp.
i.e. men are envious
again linked to biology
3. Psychological
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boys try to dominate others
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girls comply with parents
•
again linked with biology
But so what
it is true, generally men are physically stronger than women
•
this may account for some of the division of labour
But nothing in the biological differences between the sexes can account for the secondary status of women
what is important is the different values placed on being a man or a woman or on the work that is done
An alternative explanation is that there must be some cultural or sociological regularities that account for male dominance.
the inequalities are due to the fact that societies place different values on biological sex
and apparently universally value female sex lower than male sex
Children's socialization or Gender Typing
both sexes must learn behavior that is deemed appropriate to their gender
girls from their mother's model
a boy with his father
Female is to domestic as male is to public The domestic/public opposition is ultimately derived from woman's role as mother and rearer of children.
i.e. identification with the domestic domain is seen as a consequence of their role as mothers
has tended to limit them to certain social functions
i.e. with the rearing of children
Since women are confined to the domestic context, their main sphere of activity becomes familial relations
i.e. women's roles centres around the hearth and home.
domestic are those institutions and activities organized around mother child groups
men, however, operate in the political and public domain of social life.
they are free to form those broader associations that we call `society'
Men thus become identified with society and the public interest
The domestic sphere is considered less important than the public domain
Since women are associated with the domestic sphere and men the public, women are of lower and men of higher value.
Is the domestic sphere devalued in our society?
in Western society the family and the domestic are conceived in opposition to the public sphere of life, business, work and politics
but this cannot be considered universal
this domestic/public association it appears is a Western construct.
These ideas derived from Western thought has been imposed on other cultural situations where it does is not always apply
The Hagen of New Guinea
do associate women with the domestic realm and men with the public sphere
pursuing socially valued goals is acting like a man
pursuing individual family interests is acting like a woman
but these types of behaviour are open to both men and women
the association of the domestic with something demeaning or less than social is not a feature of Hagen thought.
Margaret Mead
Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies (1935)
Male and Female (1949).
sought to discover extent temperamental differences between the sexes were culturally determined rather than innate biological
Mead found a different pattern of male and female behavior in each of the cultures she studied, all different from gender role expectations in the United States at that time.
The gentle mountain-dwelling Arapesh
Arapesh child-rearing responsibilities evenly divided among men and women - both nurturing The fierce cannibalistic Mundugumor
a natural hostility exists between all members of the same sex. Mundugumor fathers and sons, and mothers and daughters were adversaries - both aggressive The “graceful” headhunters of Tchambuli,
While men were preoccupied with arts, gossiping, hair, the women had the real power, controlling fishing and manufacturing,
Relativist Position in the non-western world we find cultural ideologies that
subordinate and exclude women,
extract their labour and child-bearing and rearing and
place them under the legal control of their fathers, brothers and husbands
ideologies which are supported as vehemently by women as by men.
Their religion may consign women to domestic roles and labour to enhance male prestige But women portray themselves in terms of virtue and duty.
men and women, may be equally committed to a system of rules and meanings
even though it gives power and advantage to some of them and subordinates others.
Can we legitimately step outside this system and view it as an ideology without simply imposing our ideology on them.
In other words even though we can see the injustice of the system which polarize the sexes and demean women It does not mean that women live in these societies with the strain, conflict, or negative self-images one would expect them to entail Women are actors
women may themselves become important political actors who
influence the public political affairs of men from behind the scenes
pursue strategies of controlling labour and prestige within the constraints of the system.