Topic 1: Recap Discussion Board
Topic 1: Masculinities and Sociology
SOC. 23 ISSUES OF MASCULINITY IN THE US
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Lecture How To:
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Welcome!!!
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What are Sex and Gender?
Gender
refers to psychosocial and sociocultural elements associated with maleness and femaleness
Sex
is the biological distinction between females and males.
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The Social Construction of Reality
The social construction of reality helps us to develop a gender vision
The world in which we live is a social creation
Culture provides us with categories for organizing the world, creating “reality”
Another way of looking at this concept is through W.I. Thomas’s notable Thomas theorem which states, “If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences” (Thomas and Thomas 1928). That is, people’s behavior can be determined by their subjective construction of reality rather than by objective reality. For example, a teenager who is repeatedly given a label—overachiever, player, bum—might live up to the term even though it initially wasn’t a part of his character.
Externalization- we create cultural products (values, beliefs, material products) through social interaction. These products become external to those who have produced them.
Objectification- is when products created in the first stage appear to take on a reality of their own, becoming independent of those who created them.
Internalization- we learn the supposedly "objective facts" about the cultural products that have been created. This occurs primarily through socialization, the process of social interaction in which one learns the ways of society. (We will get back to this idea of socialization)
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Learning to See Gender
Seeing gender involves more than just identifying the gender of those around you
It is revealing the invisible ways in which gender works
How and why do we behave in ‘gendered’ ways?
We take gender for granted
Gender identity vs gender norms
Gender attribution
The context, content and result of our socialization
When is the first time you became aware of your gender?
How did you learn the appropriate behavior for your gender?
Did the expectations change as you grew older?
Through socialization we learn to be members of our society
Through gender socialization we learn to be gendered members
Socialization is a life-long process
Sociology and gender goals:
Learn to see gender in the world around us
Recognize gender as a social factor that is collectively created and sustained
Recognize that gender is not just an individual attribute
Think about when you walk down a street: Can you identify everyone’s gender?
How do you know their gender?
Has someone’s gender ever been unclear or ambiguous to you?
We believe we are pretty good at gender attribution
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EARLY EFFORTS TO STUDY MEN
THREE BASIC MODELS HAVE BEEN USED:
BIOLOGICAL MODELS
ANTHROPOLOGICAL MODELS
SOCIOLOGICAL MODELS
WE CANNOT SPEAK OF MASCULINITY AS A SINGULAR TERM
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THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF MASCULINITIES
MEN ARE NOT BORN; THEY ARE MADE
TO BE A MAN IS TO PARTICIPATE IN THE SOCIAL LIFE AS A MAN, AS A GENDERED BEING
THE MEANING OF MASCULINITES IS NEITHER TRANSHISTORICAL NOR CULTURALLY UNIVERSAL
VARIES FROM CULTURE TO CULTURE AND WITN ANY ONE CULTURE OVER TIME
SUBCULTURES: RACE, ETHNICITY, CLASS, AGE, ETC.
MATRIX OF MASCULINITIES
The Social Construction of Masculinities:
Masculinity also varies within any one society according to the various types of cultural groups that compose it. Subcultures are organized around other poles, which are the primary way in which people organize themselves and by which resources are distributed. And men's experiences differ from one another according to what social scientists have identified as the chief structural mechanisms along which power and resources are distributed. We cannot speak of masculinity in the United States as if it were a single, easily identifiable commodity. To do so is to risk positing one version of masculinity as normative and making all other masculinities problematic. In the' contemporary United States, masculinity is constructed differently by class culture, by race and ethnicity, and by age. And each of these axes of masculinity modifies the others. Black masculinity differs from white masculinity, yet each of them is also further modified by class and age. A 30-year-old middle-class black man will have some things in common with a 30-yearold middle-class white man that he might not share with a 60-year-old working-class black man, although he will share with him elements of masculinity that are different from those of the white man of his class and age. The resulting matrix of masculinities is complicated by crosscutting elements; without understanding this, we risk collapsing all masculinities into one hegemonic version. The challenge to a singular definition of masculinity as the normative definition is the second axis around which the readings in this book revolve.
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EXAMPLES OF MASCULINITIES
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EXAMPLES OF MASCULINITIES
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Sociological Theories
Biological vs. Social Constructivist Views on Sex
Biological Approach
Sexual dimorphism
Sex precedes gender
Sex produces gender
Sex limits gender
Intersex and transgender must fit into male/female categories
Social Constructionist
Sex and gender are social creations
Sexual dimorphism is not true
Intersex
Transgender
History
culture
Gender produces sex
Gender shapes biology
Essentialists: rely on biological or natural explanations of gender and gender role assignments: gender behavior is shaped by hormones and biology
Perceive biological reality:
The diversity in our physical bodies is greater than our categories would lead us to believe.
Our belief in how bodies should be gets in the way of our perceiving the way bodies actually are.
Because we believe that everyone should have a penis or a vagina, we tend to ignore the repeated cases of people who have both.
Because we believe that the gender you’re assigned at birth should line up with the gender you live, we stigmatize transgender people who violate these norms.
Sexual dimorphism:
Sexual dimorphism is the claim that sex marks a distinction between two physically and genetically discrete categories of people.
We can use certain characteristics to sort people objectively into two categories called male and female.
Gender assignment: When a baby is born, a doctor decides whether it is a girl or a boy.
Cultural genitalia: The outward performance of gender that we then assume to match up with biological genitalia.
ARGUMENTS FOR SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVIST APPROACH TO GENDER:
The strong social constructionist approach argues that both sex and gender are socially constructed.
Sex category: Sex category itself is socially constructed, and therefore, it is culture that dictates how we understand sex.
Biological difference: men and women:
One biological difference between women and men is that, on average, men have 20% to 30% greater bone mass and strength than women.
Differences in the average population emerge only after puberty and become more pronounced when women lose bone mass after menopause.
This biological reality explains why women over the age of 50 are 4 times more likely to be diagnosed with osteoporosis than men of the same age.
Lifestyle choices and bone mass:
Studies suggest that somewhere between 10% and 50% of the differences in bone mass can be due to lifestyle choices such as diet, physical activity, and smoking rather than genetics.
The beliefs of the Orthodox Jewish community, their social reality, are imprinted onto the physical bodies of their daughters and sons.
Gender shapes sex.
Research on brain differences:
Women have smaller brains, different brain composition, and different brain function.
There are some differences in the brains of women and men, but it’s difficult to tell if these differences are genetic or shaped by our environments, including our social environment.
Our brains have a great deal of plasticity, or ability to change and respond to the environment.
This plasticity includes changes in the structure and function of our brains.
Hormones: biological identifier of sex category.
The production and presence of hormones are influenced by social interaction.
Men’s testosterone levels decrease if they are in close relationships with women and are actively involved with their children.
In societies where it’s normal for fathers to be involved parents, men’s average testosterone levels are lower than in societies where it’s not normal.
Position in a hierarchy can affect testosterone levels as well.
A second source of evidence: A second source of evidence for the strong social constructionist approach comes from the existence of intersex and the experiences of intersex individuals.
Congenital adrenal hyperplasia:
People born with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) have XX chromosomes but masculinization of the genitalia.
As infants, these babies have what appears to be a penis as well as a vagina.
Androgen insensitivity syndrome: Individuals born with androgen insensitivity syndrome (AIS) have XY chromosomes but feminized genitalia, which often means they have a vagina as well as testes.
Intersex:
Gender scholars identify individuals who have any of a wide number of variations of genitalia, hormones, internal anatomy, or chromosomes that are outside the typical male/female binary as intersex.
Intersex variations are estimated to occur at a rate of 1.7% of all births.
Ways to determine sex:
Today, medical doctors generally use the presence or absence of a penis to initially assign gender.
In the past, doctors went by internal organs and emphasized the presence or absence of a uterus, because without a uterus a woman could not reproduce.
Intersex variations:
Intersex variations deal with both internal and external genitalia.
Some intersex individuals have both an ovary and a testis, one on each side of their body.
In other individuals, the ovary and testis grow together, forming an ovo-testis.
Presence of sex hormones:
Post puberty, there are wide variations in the presence and absence of sex hormones.
Individuals with androgen insensitivity syndrome have testosterone in their bodies, but they cannot metabolize it and, therefore, develop breasts at puberty.
Is the presence of testosterone, a good measure of who’s a man and who’s a woman?
Presence of sex chromosomes:
Men usually have XY sex chromosomes while women have XX sex chromosomes.
Those born with Turner syndrome lack a second sex chromosome, making them XO, whereas those with Klinefelter’s syndrome have two X chromosomes and a Y (XXY).
How should we identify the sex of someone who is XXY or XO?
A third body of evidence: The complexities of the transgender community are a third body of evidence for the strong social constructionist approach.
Transgender:
Transgender is a broad label that includes a wide variety of people who seek to change, cross, or go beyond culturally defined gender categories.
Transgender people identify as nonbinary, which means their gender identity is neither masculine nor feminine.
Agender individuals have no gender.
Fourth source of evidence:
The historical and cross-cultural approaches point to the ways in which sex categories have, varied across time and place.
These examples make up our fourth source of evidence.
One-sex model:
The ancient Greeks believed in a one-sex model.
Females were an inferior version of males.
The Greeks saw the vagina and the penis as the same organ; in women this organ was internal (vagina), whereas in men it was external (penis).
Similarly, the Greeks saw ovaries and testes as the same organ in males and females.
Third sex category:
A wide range of cultures have a third sex category, or a space within their particular conceptualization for people considered neither male nor female.
These include the hijras in India, the two-spirits in Native American cultures, the kathoeys of Thailand, and the sworn virgins of the Balkans.
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Gender and Intersectionality
Intersectionality
Theoretical orientation and frame for activism
Helps us to see the way people in different categories experience gender
Variations by race, ethnicity, social class, sexuality
Makes us aware that we do not experience our identities separately
Intersectionality is a perspective that draws our attention to the variations in experiences of gender across intersecting categories such as race, social class, sexuality, age, disability, etc.
"Because people are unique, many identities are possible. As one example of a group with an intersectional identity, Black lesbian women may have similarities to and differences from other oppressed groups in the meanings that are assigned to their multiple positionalities. Black women may identify with the oppressive and discriminatory experiences of White women as well as with those of Black men. At the same time, Black lesbian women’s experiences may not be equivalent to those of these other groups. They may experience discrimination as a response to their race, gender, and/or sexual orientation. Thus, their experience does not necessarily reflect the sum of oppressions of racism, sexism, and heteronormativity (i.e., race + sex + heterosexism) but rather their unique identities and social locations as Black lesbian women that are not based in or driven by the perspectives of White women or of Black men (Bowleg, 2008; Crenshaw, 1989). That is, for example, even though Black women and White women are both women, and Black women and Black men are both Black, this does not mean that the perspectives and experiences of the latter groups are the same as or related to those of Black lesbian women.
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HEGEMONIC MASCULINITY
Establishing and Maintaining Domination
Through practice and ideology
‘Justifies position and the subordination of women
Male Norms Stress;
Courage
Autonomy
Adventure
Aggression
A lack of ‘feminine’ emotion
Types of Masculinity :
Hegemonic Masculinity:
Describes the exaggeration of stereotypical masculine behaviors and attitudes.
Four primary dimensions:
valuation of dominance and aggression
heterosexual identity
anti-femininity
devaluation of emotion
R.W. Connell (1995)
Embodies the ideas and stereotypes of masculinity including the claim of authority and privilege
Complicit masculinity: men who do not fit the characteristics of hegemonic masculinity but do not necessarily challenge such ideals either.
admire the characteristics of hegemonic masculinity, but do not live up to them.
Marginal masculinity: describes men who sit on the margins of dominant social groups, but still subscribe to hegemonic masculinity in ways that are closer to their specific group ideals.
*men of color or men with disabilities
Subordinate masculinity: Exhibits qualities that are opposite of those valued in dominant society
*those who are effeminate, gay or emotional
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Functionalism (Structural Functionalism)
Views society as a structure with interrelated parts designed to meet the biological and social needs of individuals who make up that society.
Interrelated parts work together and promote social cohesion to achieve order, stability and productivity.
Primary question: what function does a particular institution, phenomenon or social group serve for the maintenance of society?
Assumption: any existing institution or phenomenon serves a function; if it served no function, it would evolve out of existence.
Roles of deviance
Traditional gender roles contribute to stability
Functionalist (Functionalism): Each aspect of society is interdependent and contributes to society’s functioning as a whole. Functionalists dissect societies into their “parts” or institutions. What are some examples of these parts? (Family, Education, Economy, Polity, Religion, Healthcare, Media, Kinship systems). From this perspective, the interrelated parts meet the biological and social needs of individuals who make up a given society. Thusly, society is held together by social cohesion, in which members of society agree upon, and work together to achieve order, stability and productivity.
Differences between men and women help build families, integrate society as a whole
People of each sex need people of the other sex.
Boys and girls are raised differently:
Masculinity involves an instrumental orientation
Femininity involves an expressive orientation
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Conflict Theory
Views society as a competition for limited resources.
Society is made up of individuals who must compete for social, political and material resources.
Conflict in society is the primary means of change. (Bourgeoisie and Proletariat)
Social conflict between groups can exist wherever there is the potential for inequality:
Racial, gender, religious, political, economical, sexuality, etc.
Unlike Functionalism, which defends the status quo, avoids social change and promotes social order, conflict theorists challenge all these conventions.
Primary question: Who benefits from the way social institutions and relationships are structured? Who loses?
Assumption: interests are not shared and often opposing; only some groups have the power and resources to realize their interests. Because of this, conflict is inevitable
Proletariat the working class or lower class
Bourgeoisie/dominant group: a sociological category that holds the majority of authority and power over other social groups
Example: crime and deviance. Behaviors labeled criminal or deviant are defined by the most dominant groups in society. Example: Petty theft versus white-collar crime.
Conflict Theory: Looks at society as a competition for limited resources. Conflict theory sees society as being made up of individuals who must compete for social, political and material resources such as political power, leisure time, money, housing and entertainment. Social conflict between groups can exist wherever there is potential for inequality: racial, gender, religious, political, economical, and so on. So unlike functionalism, which defends the status quo, avoids social change, and promotes social order, conflict theorists challenge all these conventions. Conflict is a part of everyday life in all societies. Conflict theory gave birth of feminists theory.
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Social-Conflict Analysis: Gender and Inequality
Gender generates conflict between male “haves” and female “have-nots.”
Friedrich Engels expanded Marx’s theory to include gender.
Patriarchy is a system by which wealthy men transmit their wealth to their sons.
Capitalism exploits men in factories for low pay and exploits women in the home for no pay at all.
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Symbolic Interactionist Theory
Directs sociologists to consider the symbols and details of everyday interactions, what these symbols mean and how people interact with each other through these symbols.
This perspective is centered on the notion that communication—or the exchange of meaning through language and symbols—is how people make sense of their social worlds
Primary question: what do the social symbols that surround us mean and how do they affect our lives?
Example: crime and deviance. Focus on the ways in which people label one another as deviant, why the label sticks, and meanings underlying such a label.
3 Basic Premises:
1. Humans act toward things on the basis of the meanings they ascribe to those things.
2. The meaning of such things is derived from, or arises out of, the social interaction that one has with others and society.
3. These meanings are handled in, and modified through, an interpretative process used by the person in dealing with the things he/she encounters.
Symbolic Interactionist (Interactionism): Directs sociologists to consider the symbols and details of everyday interactions, what these symbols mean and how people interact with each other through these symbols. According to SI, people attach meanings to symbols and then they act according to their subjective interpretation of these symbols. Society is thought to be socially constructed through human interpretation. What are some examples of symbols? (Use the symbol of the crucifix).
Non-verbal communication: gestures: salute, clinched fist, flipping someone off, facial expressions, dress codes, etc.
In verbal conversation, spoken words serving as the predominant symbols, make this subjective interpretation especially evident. The words have a certain meaning for the ‘sender’ and during effective communication, they hopefully have the same meaning for the ‘receiver’. In other terms, words are not static ‘things’; they require intention and interpretation. So, conversation is an interaction symbols between individuals who constantly interpret the world around them. Anything can serve as a symbol as long as it refers to something beyond itself. (Ex. Music notes, religious symbols, corporate logos, behaviors, gestures, etc.)
Let’s take the example of the American institution of marriage. What might some of the symbols involved? (wedding bands, engagement ring, vows of life-long commitment, a white bridal dress, a wedding cake, a religious ceremony, flowers, music etc.)
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Symbolic-Interaction Analysis: Gender in Everyday Life
Men have greater freedom in personal behavior because they have more power.
Men tend to use more space and move into others’ “personal space.”
Female pronouns used for possessions.
Criticism of this micro-theory is that it overlooks the broad importance of gender to society.
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THANK YOU
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