review

SOCI 2730: GENDER IN SOCIETY

MIDTERM REVIEW SHEET

*Midterm will be a combination of identification, short essay, and long essay questions.

You may use your own work/previous writing you have done for this class, your own lecture notes, and your own reading notes. You may not use actual course readings.

*Not all of the following will be on the midterm, but many will.

POSSIBLE SHORT ESSAY QUESTIONS: (5 of these will appear on the exam. Each answer should approximate a full paragraph)

1) Why does Ryan distinguish between trans* and transgender in their essay about full trans inclusion in gay liberation and feminist movements? What does this distinction have to do with gender?

2) Why does Nancy Scheper-Hughes claim that “maternal bonding” is actually embedded in culture and economic privilege rather than in mothers’ biology? How does maternal neglect and infant death in Brazil challenge the idea that mother love is biologically determined?

3) Peggy McIntosh describes (white) privilege as an “invisible, weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools, and blank checks.” Why does she describe it this way? And why does she call it “invisible?”

4) Yen Le Espiritu argues that all men do not benefit equally from male domination and patriarchy. Using Asian men as an example, what evidence does she provide to make this point? Make sure to address the role of racism in shaping Asian men’s experiences.

5) Why does Audre Lorde argue that it is important to first recognize differences between women (rather than only similarities) in order to create feminist solidarity between women? Why does she claim this so hard to do?

6) What does it mean to say that we “do” gender? In what ways does Betsy Lucal’s experience of living on the margins of the binary gender system demonstrate how gender is an interactional process (rather than a fixed property of individual bodies)?

7) Why does Jane Ward claim that the men who solicit sex from other men on Craigslist’s “casual encounters” are actually not closeted gay men? What evidence does she use to support her analysis?

POSSIBLE LONG ESSAY QUESTIONS: Two of these will appear on the exam. Each essay will require you to draw on at least three readings to support your analysis. Each essay should be a minimum of three paragraphs.

1) What does it mean to say that gender is “socially constructed?” Provide examples and evidence to illustrate this concept, and in your discussion make sure to explain the key difference between “sex” and “gender.”

2) How does gender inequality intersect with other axes of inequality (i.e. racism, class inequality, homophobia, transphobia, etc.) to produce different experiences of gender for different people?

3) Explain the concept of “hegemonic masculinity” and how this links to related concepts of “hybrid masculinities” and “racial patriarchy.”

POSSIBLE CONCEPTS: According to your authors, films, and lectures, how do any of these concepts help to explain the ways in which gender, sexuality, and intersectionality shape society? 2-3 sentences each. Up to 5 of these will appear on the exam

“racial patriarchy”

“Barbie Girls vs. Sea Monsters”

“sociobiology”

“liberal feminism”

“radical feminism”

“socialist feminism”

“multiracial feminism”

“five sexes proposal”

“gender binary”

“GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and gender”

“doing gender”

“gendered organizations”

“second wave feminism”

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