soiciology
Sex &Gender
Week 11,soci 1125
A Question about final quiz
Would you like to:
Have the final quiz begining after the final class( week 13th) and ending after 24 hours ( from Dec 2nd 12.30PM till Dec3th 12.30PM)
And have three chances to submit the quiz instead of two chances.
Gender refers to…
Sex refers to…
Sex and Gender
3
Clothing, Hair styles (length, colour, etc
Dominance & Subordinationg
Social/Family Roles
achieved Identity through socialization
Physical anatomy
Hormones, chromosomes
So, biology, basically
given Identity
Gender Binary System
It assumes There are only two gender types of people, male bodies people and female bodies people. These two types are fundamentally different and contrasting.
Gender binary results in making gender stereotypes.
And we learn this stereotypes during socialization and police each other to adhere to this stereotypes.
https:// www.youtube.com / watch?v =nWu44AqF0iI
What is the problem with the gender binary system?
Hegemony
Hegemony refers to the cultural dynamics through which a group claims and sustains a leading position in social life.
An idea is hegemonic only when it is widely endorsed by both those who benefit from the social condition it supports and those who do not.
Hegemony refers to a state of collective consent to inequality
Hegemonic Masculinity
Hegemonic Masculinity is referred to a type of man, idealized by men and women alike, which functions to justify and naturalize gender inequality.
Hegemonic masculinity is not a fixed character type, always and everywhere the same.
However, its function remains the same: Preserving the Patriarchy.
Hegemonic masculinity, in each spatiotemporal situation, embodies the currently accepted answer to the problem of the legitimacy of patriarchy.
Hegemonic Masculinity
When conditions for the defense of patriarchy change, the basis for domination of a particular masculinity is eroded as well.
However, hegemonic masculinity always have two fix characteristics:
it should be in service of epochal patriarchy
It should be hegemonic
Practically, Hegemonic Masculinity in the North American society is based on:
Domination of men over women
Domination of heterosexual white men over homosexual and racialized men.
https:// www.youtube.com / watch?v =4KmwWk9Tq0A
Well, what percentage of men do have all of these criteria?
Hegemonic masculinity is a normative definition of masculinity that quite small numbers of men can meet its normative standards.
Thus, it is quite oppressive for men and established a Hierarchy of Men.
The intersectionality of gender with other structures such as class or race also creates further hierarchical relationship between masculinities.
The modern ideal man of hegemonic masculinity is a “well -educated, tall, affluent, white, heterosexual, able-bodied, fit, Christian, nonimmigrant with hair. “.
https:// www.youtube.com / watch?v =RbX76n6A160
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb1_4FPtzrI
Hierarchy of masculinity
Hegemonic masculinity
Subordinated masculinity (maybe bald or an immigrant)
Racialized masculinities
Gender-fluid/genderqueer masculinities
Dis-abled masculinities
Other subordinated masculinities (Maybe poor or overweight)
Emphasized Femininity (Connell, 1987)
Emphasized femininity is an exaggerated form of femininity “oriented to accommodating the interest and desire of men” .
Based on women’s compliance with their subordination to men
Requires women to be supportive, enthusiastic and sexually attractive
Unlike hegemonic masculinity, no version of femininity is considered to be desirable for both men and women.
Reproducing Gender: Families, Education and Media (1 of 3)
Families
Gender expectations begin before or at birth
Child-rearing practices are deeply gendered
Parents spend more time talking to girls while leaving boys alone; punish their sons more often than daughters
Gendered divisions of household labour
Reproducing Gender: Families, Education and Media (2 of 3)
Education
Hidden curriculum: Girls learn that they are not as important as boys
Teachers tend to interact with boys more than girls in classroom
Praise girls for being congenial and neat while boys praised for intellectual quality
Chilly climate: Women’s experiences on university campuses differ from those of men
Reproducing Gender: Families, Education and Media (3 of 3)
Gender divisions reflected in and reinforced by all forms of media
Television shows
e.g., Big Little Lies, Scandal, Game of Thrones, Grey’s Anatomy
All women are beautiful, heterosexual, and with few exceptions, leading women are white and women of color are their maids.
Black men tend to be portrayed as frightening, scary characters
Reality television glorifies competitive cutthroat behaviour
Commercials
What does feminism mean?
“Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression” (Bell Hooks: 2000, p. 1).
OR : Feminism is a movement that believes women has been suppressed by patriarchal system all the way through history.
What is Patriarchal system?
What is suppression?
What is Women?
Marry Wollstonecraft- A first wave feminist
Dorothy Smith – A Second Wave feminist
Chandra Mohanty, bell hook, Kimberli Crenshaw– A Third Wave feminist
The first wave of Feminism
Began in late 19th and early 20 century, the first wave of feminism was primarily led by white middle class women.
Focused on women’s inferior position in legal aspects of gender relations ( with the main focus on suffrage, education and property right)
Marry Wollstonecraft and J.J Rousseau
Concept of “emphasized femininity” that we nowadays call as a prototype of “good woman” promoted by enlightenments’ philosophers such as J.J Rousseau.
Mary Wollstonecraft ( 1759-1797) was one of the earliest feminist philosophers who criticizes this modern notion.
She mainly wrote the book in response to enlightenment philosophers who_ in the name of reason__ legitimize and conceptualize “ gender complementary roles” in modern science and philosophy.
J.J Rousseau In “Emile” argues men should be educated “to attain a degree of mind perfection” , whereas women should be educated merely in order to be “source of pleasure for men”.
Wollstonecraft criticized this view and argued that __even for the benefit of traditional family__ education should play the same role for women that it plays for men.
Second wave of feminism
Began in 1960’s( it include liberal feminism ,radical feminism, socialist feminism, )
Was theoretically Based on the critical/ existential heritage of Simone de Beauvoir. https:// www.youtube.com / watch?v =Dgc0-Cn4AAs
Second-wave feminism covered wide range of issues based on discursive/ cultural/ psychological oppression of women in both public and private spheres. ( The Personal is Political)
Dorothy Smith Criticisam to sociological knowledge production system
Women’s exclusion from the emerging public discourse, associated with the Enlightenment and with the rise of capitalism as a general economic form of life, was essential to men’s capacity to sustain in what Joan Landes( 1996) calls “ the masquerade of universality “
The “Masquerade of universality” refers to the socio-political situations( including masculinization of public sphere) leads white middle class men to ignore their different situation with other humans ( especially women) and consequently generalize their standpoint__ as white middle class men who are free of household pragmatic concerns__ to the normal ”modern human condition”.
Dorothy Smith Criticisam to sociological knowledge production system
Masquerade of universality paves the way for the “androcentric definition of human subjectivity” and “
“Masquerade of universality” has led to “androcentric” definition of modern human subjectivity and “objectified form knowledge”
Androcentric definition of humanity put hegemonic masculinity as ideal type modern human
Objectified form of knowledge emerges from the ignorance of the male subject of their own particular subject-position (masquerade of universality) resulting into the epistemological assumption that their understanding of the social reality represents the best (scientific) way of understanding social reality.
"I think, therefore I am" has been spoken by men; “I do sex, I give birth, I care for children, I clean house, I cook, therefore I am not” has been the unspoken of women ….”
(Dorothy smith 2005: 20)
Masculinization of public sphere
Masquerade of Universality
Androcentric definition of human subject
Devaluation of Femininity
The third wave of feminism
Third wave of feminism has begun since 1990; but, cannot be considered as a cohesive approach.
It is theoretically based on critical engagement of feminists with post -structural , post modern theories.
This wave Includes post-structural feminism, queer theory, postcolonial feminism, black feminism, etc.
The movement represents different voices of women who has been regarded as marginalized and condemned to silence in the first and second waves of feminism. ( black women, working class women, third world women, indigenous women, lesbian women, etc.)
These women criticize their “white middle class sisters” for creating a patriarchal discourse within feminist movements.
Kimberle Crenshaw: intersectionality
“Black women are regarded either as too much like women or Blacks and the compounded nature of their experience is absorbed into the collective experiences of either group or as too different, in which case Black women's Blackness or femaleness sometimes has placed their needs and perspectives at the margin of the feminist and Black liberationist agendas”.( 1989:150)
bell hooks
A critical figure in Black feminist thought
Argued that Black women are rarely recognized as separate from Black men
Criticized feminist theorizing that automatically positions households as places of patriarchal oppression for women
hooks argues against universal assumptions about women’s experiences
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