Gender

1. Gender

2. Sex v. Gender • Sex: the biological differences between male and female • Genetic (chromosomes), anatomical (organs, structures) • Gender: the social classification of masculine and feminine • Refers to the way members of the two sexes are perceived, evaluated, and expected to behave • Learned, not born

3. Sex is biologically determined characteristic, while gender is a socially constructed characteristic • All societies use anatomical differences to assign gender roles

4. Sex and the Body • Differences in the body distinguish males and females apart. • Primary sex characteristics: the genitals, organs used for reproduction. • Secondary sex characteristics-body development apart from the genitals, that distinguishes biologically mature females from males. (Facial hair for men, larger breasts for women) • Hermaphrodites: a human being with some combination of female and male genitalia.

5. Sex: A Cultural Issue • Sexuality is very much a cultural issue. • Cultural Variations • The simple practice of showing affection has extensive cultural variation. Most people in the U.S. kiss in public, the Chinese kiss only in private. The French kiss publicly often two times (once on each cheek). Belgians kiss three times starting with one cheek. The Maoris of New Zealand, rub noses, and most people in Nigeria don’t kiss at all.

6. Gender • Gender refers to the personal traits and social positions that members of a society attach to being male and female • Gender: the social classification of masculine and feminine • Refers to the way members of the two sexes are perceived, evaluated, and expected to behave • Learned, not born

7. How do we form our gender identities? • Gender identity--how we come to think of ourselves as male or female--is formed from 1) Biology • Prenatal differentiation • Chromosomes, internal reproductive structures, external genitals, hormones, brain development 2) Socialization • How the family and the culture in which we grow up influence our sense of femaleness or maleness.

8. Cultural Construction of Gender • The idea that gender characteristics are not inborn but rather constructed within each culture. • All cultures recognize: • Two sexes: • Male • Female • Two genders: • Masculine • Feminine • Some cultures recognize a combined male/female gender • To say gender is ‘constructed’ is to say that masculine and feminine have different meanings (and associated behaviors) in different cultures.

9. Gender Roles • Masculine and feminine traits are differ across cultures • Margaret Mead, • Landmark 1935 book studied gender roles in three cultures in New Guinea • Arapesh culture: both men and women appeared to be mild-mannered, lacking in libido (i.e. “feminine”) • Mundugumor culture: both sexes seemed aggressive and ‘highly sexed.’ (i.e. “masculine”) • Tchambuli culture: women dominant, men emotionally dependent (approximate reversal of our gender roles)

10. Gender in the U.S. • Breadwinner • A traditional gender role found in the United States that views males as being responsible for the economic support and protection of the family. • Housewife • A traditional gender role found in the United States that views females as responsible for child-rearing and domestic activities.

11. Change Over Time • Gender Roles can change over time within a culture • Dad staying home w/kids & mom working may have been ridiculed in 1950s, not considered odd today. • More women are entering formerly male-dominated occupations

12. Gender Roles • In the United States, it is estimated that approximately 20% of all preschool children are cared for primarily by their fathers.

13. Alternative Gender Roles • Genders that are neither man nor woman have been described in many societies. • Two-Spirit: a man living as a woman and considered to have supernatural powers in Native American society. • Hijra: an alternative gender role in India conceptualized as neither man nor woman.

14. Gender • This Hijra man, who presents himself as being “like a woman,” is an excellent example of the socially constructed basis for sexuality.

15. Development of Social Gender Identity • 2-3 years old: children can “name” their gender, but most don’t really know what it means. • Don’t know that gender is constant (i.e. that a little boy can’t grow up and have a baby one day) • Around 4-5 years old: children embrace gender, start experimenting with stereotypical objects and behaviors. • This is part of how kids try to grasp gender constancy--by behaving as expected for their gender, so that their gender doesn’t “change.” • By 7-8 years old: children can accept that gender roles are not rigid if they’ve been previously exposed to nonstereotypical ideas about gender.

16. Social-Learning Influences on Gender Identity • Parents and people in general have preconceived ideas about how boys and girls behave even before a baby is born.

17. Social-Learning Influences on Gender Identity • Social-Learning theory: suggests that identification with masculine, feminine, or androgynous roles results primarily from the socio-cultural influences we are exposed to during our early development. • Gender role expectations strongly influence the environment in which the child is raised. • Color of the room, toy selection, etc. • How parents respond to children • boy encouraged to suppress tears, be independent, even aggressive • “boys will be boys” • girl may be encouraged to be nurturing and cooperative

18. How do we learn gender roles? • Socialization: the process by which our society conveys behavioral expectations to the individual. • Five agents of socialization • parental expectations • peers influence how child plays • school teachers and textbooks • television and gender-based stereotypes • religious training

19. Parents as shapers of gender roles • Encouragement of gender-typed play activities and household chores. • Modeling gender-typed behaviors. or

20. Parents as shapers of gender roles • Baby girls often receive more attention than baby boys do. • Baby girls often treated as fragile. • Girls may be comforted when they cry; boys may be told that “boys don’t cry.” • Parents are more protective and restrictive of girls; boys receive more freedom. • Boys receive parental encouragement for being assertive and limiting emotional expression; girls are rewarded for positively interacting with others.

21. Schools & Educational Environment • Research suggests that girls and boys receive different treatment in the classroom. • Teachers call on and encourage boys more. • Boys who call out answers w/o being recognized aren’t usually punished, but girls are. • Teachers tolerate bad behavior in elementary school boys more than girls. • Boys are more likely to receive attention, help, and praise from teachers. • Teachers give girls more attention when they act dependently, but give boys more attention for acting independently or assertively. • Girls frequently suffer a loss of confidence in their math and science abilities in middle school years (around adolescence/puberty).

22. Media & gender stereotypes • Men appear as active, intelligent, adventurous, in charge. • More emphasis placed on the character’s abilities. • Women appear as passive, less competent, more domestic. • More emphasis placed on the character’s appearance. • Television industry is gradually improving • Better than it was in the 1950s • Still far from gender-neutral.

26. Organized Religion & Gender Roles • Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions • Emphasis on male supremacy • God presented as male using language as Father, He, or King. • Ex: biblical concept of Eve as created from Adam’s rib shows endorsement that females are secondary to males. • Leadership of most religious organizations in the U.S. is mostly male • No female Protestant clergy until 1970. • No female rabbis until 1972. • Roman Catholic church still does not allow female priests. • There are current movements to change traditional patriarchal nature of organized religion in U.S. • More females becoming religious leaders. • Efforts to reduce sexist language in religious writings (I.e. replace “God the Father” w/“Creator;” replace “mankind” with “humanity;” replace “sons of God” w/”children of God.”

27. Impact of gender role expectations on our sexuality • Men as initiators, women as recipients • Idea that men should initiate sex (could be the first time, or even after years together). • Men as “sexperts” • Idea that men know what to do, that they don’t need to ask women, and that women shouldn’t make suggestions. • Women as controllers, men as movers • Especially in adolescent years, women are “supposed” to pay more attention to regulating “how far the guy gets” than to her own sexual enjoyment. • Men as unemotional and strong, women as nurturing and supportive (“men lust, women love”)

28. Gender Roles Boys will be Girls Girls will be Boys

29. Transcending gender roles: Androgyny • Androgyny: a blending of typically male and typically female behaviors in one individual. • Describes flexibility in gender roles, integration of different aspects of masculinity and femininity into one’s personality. • Don’t need to limit behaviors and interests to those considered gender appropriate. • Research suggests that androgynous people • Have higher self-esteem • Exhibit more social competence • More independent • Have more positive attitudes toward sexuality

30. Transsexualism and Transgenderism • Transgendered: general term applied to people who have gender identities, gender expressions or gendered behaviors not traditionally associated with their birth sex. • Cross-dresser, Transvestie • Transsexual: person whose gender identity is opposite to his or her biological sex to the extent that he/she will seek hormonal and surgical sex reassignment. • Exhibit gender dysphoria: feel that he/she is trapped in the body of the “wrong” sex. • Main difference between the two: • transgendered person does not want to change his or her physical body to agree with their gender identity, • whereas a transsexual person does want to change their body to fit their gender identity.

31. Billy Tipton • Born in 1914. • Started dressing like a man to get into and play at jazz clubs. • Began living as a man full-time by 1940 at age 26, had a career as a jazz and swing pianist and entertainer • Had a common law marriage (unregistered but publicly accepted), and three sons by adoption. • He was discovered to have been female-bodied after he died in 1989 due to a hemorrhaging ulcer (that he refused to have treated). • Like many female-to-male transsexuals of his day he did not have genital surgery.

32. Sexual Orientation • All human activities, including sexual preferences are to some extent learned and malleable. • Sexual orientation refers to a person’s habitual sexual attractions and activities. • Heterosexuality refers to the sexual preference for members of the opposite sex. Norm around the world • Homosexuality refers to the sexual preference for members of the same sex. • Bisexuality refers to the sexual preference for members of both sexes. • Asexuality refers to indifference toward or lack of attraction to either sex.

33. Sexual Attitudes in the United States • Our cultural orientation toward sexuality has always been inconsistent. European immigrants arrived with rigid notions about “correct” sexuality, which meant that sex was only for the purpose of reproduction within marriage. • As late as the 1960’s some states legally banned the sale of condoms. Even today some states have laws on books banning homosexuality as “unnatural” acts.

34. Our culture is also very individualistic, and many believe in giving people freedom to do pretty much as they please, as long as they cause no direct harm to others. This thinking makes sex a matter of individual freedom and personal choice.

35. One cultural universal—an element found in every society the world over—is the incest taboo, a norm forbidding sexual relations or marriages between certain relatives. In the U.S., law and cultural mores prohibit close relatives (including brothers and sisters, parents and children) from having sex or marrying. But exactly which family members are prohibited are different in every culture. Incest Taboo

36. Incest Taboo

37. The Sexual Revolution Profound changes occurred during the twentieth century. In the 1920’s millions of people migrated from farms and small towns to the large cities. “Roaring Twenties.” Cars were rooms on wheels

38. Sexual Revolution Technology also played a part in the sexual revolution. “The Pill,” was introduced in 1960 not only making preventing pregnancy but making sex more convenient. Double Standard-society allows men to be sexually active while expecting women to remain chaste before marriage and faithful to their husbands afterward. The sexual revolution increased sexual activity overall, but it changed behavior among women more than men.

39. The Sexual Counter Revolution— was a political call from the conservatives to return to “family values.” Cohabitation brings children into the world where their parents are not married. This simply did not change the minds of the general public, what happened was the increased number of sexually transmitted diseases (STD). Herpes is incurable and AIDS is a deadly disease.

40. The Sexual Revolution • Profound changes occurred during the twentieth century. • In the 1920’s millions of people migrated from farms and small towns to the large cities. • “Roaring Twenties.” • Cars were rooms on wheels

41. Sexual Controversies Teen Pregnancy— Being sexually active— especially having intercourse— demands a high level of responsibility because pregnancy can result. Pornography— is sexually explicit material that causes sexual arousal. What exactly is or is not pornographic has long been a matter of debate. Prostitution— is the selling of sexual services. Often called the “world’s oldest profession.”

42. Call girls are elite prostitutes, typically women who are young, attractive and well educated and arrange their own appointments with clients by telephone. These women offer companionship and sex for a fee. Sex workers in the middle category are employed in “massage parlors” or brothels under the control of managers. These people have less choice about their clients and receive less money for their services, getting to keep more than half of what they make. Street walkers are women and men who work the streets of large cities. Females workers are often under the control of pimps who take most of their earnings.

43. Sexual Violence and Abuse Rape— an expression of power, a violent act that uses sex to hurt, humiliate, or control another person. The official definition of rape is “the carnal knowledge of a female forcibly against her will.” Date Rape— involves people who know one another, and the incident usually occurs in familiar surroundings especially in the home.

44. Patriarchy and Sexism • Patriarchy is a form of social organization in which males dominate females • In general, women fare better in rich nations than in poor countries • Matriarchy is a form of social organization in which females dominate males • No matriarchal societies are known to exist or to have existed • Sexism is the belief one sex is innately superior to the other • It underlies patriarchy and harms men, women, and the society as a whole • Patriarchy is not inevitable because modern technology has eliminated most of the historic justification for it • Sexism operates at both an individual and institutional level

45. Violence Against Women • Family violence is frequently directed against women • Female genital mutilation is practiced extensively in parts of Africa and the Middle East • Sexual harassment refers to comments, gestures, or physical contact of a sexual nature that is deliberate, repeated, and unwelcomed • Women are more likely to be sexually harassed then men • Some harassment is blatant but much of it is subtle • Feminists define pornography as a form of sexual violence against women, arguing that it demeans women and promotes rape

46. Theoretical Analysis of Sexuality Structural-Functional Analysis The structural-functional approach highlights the contributions of any social pattern to the overall operation of society. Because sexuality is an important dimension of social life, society regulates sexual behavior.

47. Symbolic-Interaction Analysis • Symbolic interaction paradigm highlights how, as people interact, they construct everyday reality. The process for constructing reality is highly variable. • One groups view of sexuality is very different from another group. • In the same way how people understand sexuality can and does change over time.

48. The Social Construction of Sexuality A century ago, our society’s norm—for women—was virginity before marriage. This norm was strong because, without effective birth control, virginity was the only assurance a man had that his bride to be was not carrying another man’s child.

49. Conflict Analysis The Conflict Paradigm highlights dimensions of inequality. This paradigm shows how sexuality both reflects patterns of social inequality and helps create them.

50. Gender and Inequality • Gender Stratification refers to the unequal distribution of wealth, power, and privilege between men and women • A division in society where all members are hierarchically ranked according to gender. • Men and women differ in their access to privilege, prestige, and power. • Traditionally, men have been first in line when it comes to who get what, when, and how