Gender and Gender Roles

1. Gender and Gender Roles

2. Look at the following fonts. Are they masculine or feminine? GENDER GENDER GENDER GENDER GENDER GENDER

3. Name a manly task.

4. Name a womanly task.

7. Gender is one of the most basic ways in which we categorize human beings. From an early age, we are socialized into identifying ourselves as either male and female.

8. However these identifies carry preconceived meaning. As we mature in society, we are taught what those identities mean. What does it mean to be a boy? What does it mean to be a girl?

9. These preconceived ideas are not always universal. They may differ from culture to culture, from context to context, from time period to time period.

10. For example: in Western culture the colour pink is currently associated with girls. (Think about princess dresses or the pink ribbon, the international symbol of breast cancer.) The colour blue is usually reserved for boys. However in the early 1900s, the two colours weren’t as clearly organized. The two colours were often used interchangably with some parenting magazine calling for pink to be a boy’s colour and blue to be a girl’s colour.

11. If you go further back to the 1800s, infants were mostly dressed in white. Both boys and girls wore dresses and skirts until the age of 5-6. Gender differences weren’t highlighted until the child could walk.

13. "Sex" refers to the biological and physiological characteristics that define men and women. "Gender" refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women.

14. "Male" and "female" are sex categories, while "masculine" and "feminine" are gender categories.

15. Some examples of sex characteristics : • Women menstruate while men do not • Men have testicles while women do not • Women have developed breasts that are usually capable of lactating, while men have not • Men generally have more massive bones than women

16. Some examples of gender characteristics : • In the United States (and most other countries), women earn significantly less money than men for similar work • In Viet Nam, many more men than women smoke, as female smoking has not traditionally been considered appropriate • In Saudi Arabia men are allowed to drive cars while women are not • In most of the world, women do more housework than men

17. Within a society there are defined gender roles. Gender roles refer to attitudes and behaviours that a particular culture considers appropriate based on his/her sex.

18. The process in which a person learns and accepts roles is called socialization. Socialization works by encouraging and discouraging certain types of behaviour so that the child will understand what is and isn’t acceptable.

20. People who influence a person’s conception of him or herself are known as agents of socialization and these include school, family, religion, your peers, and mass media.

21. TED Talk: Jennifer Siebel Newsom

26. Consider not just the costumes themselves, but the body language the models are using to sell the costume. What does it say about gender roles?

27. Police officers: as a society we respect their authority. We expect them to uphold the law and keep the peace. What function do these costumes serve?

28. Watch Anita Sarkeesian’s Feminist Frequency episode about gender in toy commercials. As you watch the video, consider the following questions: What do toy commercials aimed at boys value? What do toy commercials aimed at girls value? What do toy commercials aimed at boys encourage boys to do? What do toy commercials aimed at girls encourage girls to do?

29. Anita Sarkeesian’s Feminist Frequency “Toy Ads and Learning Gender”

30. Watch Anita Sarkeesian’s Feminist Frequency episode about gender in toy commercials. As you watch the video, consider the following questions: What do toy commercials aimed at boys value? What do toy commercials aimed at girls value? What do toy commercials aimed at boys encourage boys to do? What do toy commercials aimed at girls encourage girls to do?

34. Socialization doesn’t end at childhood. It continues throughout our life, reinforcing ideas about males and females, masculine and feminine.

35. We see these ideas reflected in advertising…

37. We see it in the movies we watch…

39. We see and hear it in the music we listen to…

40. We even see it in the careers we choose. In the movie Meet the Parents, Ben Stiller plays a man named GaylorFocker. One of the jokes of the movie is that he is a nurse.

41. When you are examining a media text and analyzing the representation of gender, think about not just the message it is sending, but also the values it is reinforcing about gender. Think also about the voice. Who is delivering the message? Who is the message intended for? Whose voice is left out of the message?

42. Let’s end this lesson by watching Caroline Heldman’s TED talk “The Sexy Lie”. As you are watching it, think about the following: What is sexual objectification? What is the sexy lie and its consequences? How does it contribute to the socialization of individuals?

43. Caroline Heldman’s TED talk “The Sexy Lie”.