Gender & Society Pt. I

Front 1

What is Sociology?

Back 1

Sociology is the scientific study of social behavior or society, including its origins, development, organization, networks, and institutions.

Front 2

What is Gender?

Back 2

A culturally-defined system of categorization based on societal norms, and the socio-cultural meanings attached to those norms.

Front 3

What is Sex?

Back 3

The categorization of bodies based on physiological criteria. Our society recognizes three genders: male, female, and intersex.

Front 4

What are some other ways of defining Gender?

Back 4

A system of roles, norms, and values that provide that foundation for socialization. A system of codes and symbols through which a person demonstrates membership in a particular sex category. How a person views or expresses certain attributes associated with masculinity or femininity.

Front 5

What is Essentialism?

Back 5

The concept of Essentialism states that there are innate, essential differences between men and women, and that these differences constitute the basis for a gender binary.

Front 6

Describe an Essentialist's perspective on Gender.

Back 6

Our personalities and behaviors are the result of our anatomy, which defines our gender for life. Masculinity and femininity, then, are caused by genetic differences between the sexes and are immutable, dichotomous, and exclusionary categorizations.

Front 7

What is the Gender Binary?

Back 7

The gender binary is the classification of sex and gender into two distinct, opposite and disconnected forms: masculine and feminine. It is one general type of gender system.

Front 8

What are Norms and how do they affect individual expression?

Back 8

Norms are common patterns of culturally-dictated behavior within a society. Norms help to dictate acceptable behavior, establish powerful trends, and police individual expression through social, legal, and physical enforcement.

Front 9

What is Normativity?

Back 9

Normativity is a general term describing the societal quality of ascribing to certain popularly-endorsed cultural beliefs. Similar to the Norms themselves, Normativity helps to establish guidelines for socialization and generally describes the way in which a certain group or institution believes things ought to be.

Front 10

What is Social Constructionism?

Back 10

Social Constructionism is the idea that our understanding of the world and ourselves is mitigated by historical and cultural frameworks and is highly contextual.

Front 11

Why does it mean to say Gender is Socially Constructed?

Back 11

This means that the very idea of gender as we understand it is culturally and historically contextual. Societies create gender categorizations in order to establish behavioral norms, and these roles, in conjunction with biological factors (some would argue even without) come to create "appropriate" or "ideal" behavior.

Front 12

What is Brain Plasticity?

Back 12

Brain Plasticity refers to the human brain's innate ability to reorganize neural pathways over the course of a lifetime, generally as a result of experience.

Front 13

What is Neurosexism?

Back 13

Neurosexism describes the belief that gender differences observed in personality and behavior are the result of biological differences between the sexes.

Front 14

Explain the Organization-Activation Theory.

Back 14

The Organization-Activation Theory states that steroid hormones permanently organize the nervous system during early development. At puberty, the same steroid hormones activate, modulate, and inhibit these behaviors, creating masculine and feminine traits. Some have criticized the theory as it does not always cause permanent changes.

Front 15

Why is the Nature vs. Nurture question the wrong way to approach the topic?

Back 15

Because both sides, naturalism and culturalism, are just plain wrong. Gender is formed through a complex interplay between biology and socialization. Our genes and physiology may give us a starting point, but cultural and environmental factors are just as important in determining who we are. These elements can even influence our genes and biology, creating interplay.

Front 16

What does Brain Plasticity tell us about biological differences between men and women?

Back 16

Many of the observed differences between men and women come as the result of biology, socialization, and experience. However, men and women are not as different as they may appear, and the brain's abilities of malleability and reorganization can very easily change the ways in which our minds are wired. A good example of this comes from Tetris. Although historical and environmental factors create a system where girls are worse at spatial tasks, a short amount of priming and practice can completely make up for the original differences between girls and boys.

Front 17

What does it mean to say "the social is the natural?"

Back 17

Socialization is a natural part of human development, and the controversial aspects of the "nurture" argument, things like location, environment, culture, etc, have just as much to do with the biological development of humans as the things happening inside our bodies. In short, nature and nurture are in constant interplay, and it's not accurate to separate the social from the natural. It is all natural.

Front 18

Give one example of health differences caused by sex, and another example of health differences caused by gender.

Back 18

Smoking has historically been a social practice most acceptable for men. Because of the harmful effects of cigarettes, gender causes a health difference with men becoming more predisposed to complications including lung cancer. This health inequality was caused bygender because social norms regarding behavior and particular social realmsdirectly affected exposure levels. As a different example, a condition related to do pregnancy or menopause might only effect women, thereby causing sex-related health differences

Front 19

What is Socialization?

Back 19

Socialization refers to the lifelong process of inheriting and disseminating norms, customs, values and ideologies, providing an individual with the skills and habits necessary for participating within their own society.

Front 20

What does it mean to be Intersex?

Back 20

Intersex is a general term used for a variety of conditions in which a person is bornwith a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t seem to fit the typicaldefinitions of female or male.

Front 21

Describe some general characteristics of the Intersex conditions.

Back 21

Ambiguous external genitalia, incomplete or unusual development of the reproductive organs, abnormality of sex-related chromosomes, discrepancy between internal and external sex organs.

Front 22

How common are Intersex conditions?

Back 22

Somewhat uncommon. 1-4% of the population, with some uncertainty due to underreporting.

Front 23

What does it mean to say that there is a spectrum of both sex and gender?

Back 23

The gender binary is a socially constructed ideology. In reality, a wide range of biological conditions are possible. In the same vein, gender expression is mainly disconnected from the physiological, and can run a gamut from masculine to feminine.

Front 24

What are some of the purposes or benefits of Social Constructionism?

Back 24

It offers a simple explanation of societal and institutional differences between the sexes, and can be used to excuse inequalities and foster conservative traditions.

Front 25

When does Socialization begin?

Back 25

The outset of life.

Front 26

What is the difference between Socialization and Gender Socialization?

Back 26

Socialization describes the ways in which a person becomes accustomed to the norms, values, and ideologies of a specific culture. Gender Socialization describes the ways in which a person becomes accustomed to the norms, values, and ideologies that are culturally associated with their sex.

Front 27

What are the three levels of analysis Michael Messner uses in his piece "Barbie Girls vs. Sea Monsters?"

Back 27

Messner relies on three categorical levels of analysis: interactional, institutional, and cultural. Interaction describes observations made of daily life, in this case the social dynamics apparent between the girls' and boys' teams. Institution describes the way in which structural divisions, alongside policy, shape the way we come to understand gender. Finally, culture investigates the symbols and imagery that help children to understand gender identity.

Front 28

How can children be described as "doing gender?"

Back 28

As gender is performative, these preschoolers enact gender by imitating the simplified masculine and feminine roles they've learned to accept. The girls' team does so by aligning themselves with Barbie---a highly feminized icon, in a way that facilitates communal identity. On the other hand, the boys' team has learned that Barbie is not for boys, and thus their invasion of the girls' activity created for themselves a sense of powerful group identity.

Front 29

In what ways is gendered institutionalized?

Back 29

In the Messner article, gender is institutionalized through the structure, policies, and labor divisions seen in the youth soccer league. Boys and girls are segregated into gendered teams, adult volunteers are largely divided into gendered labor forces, and policies regarding team colors and names are generally gendered as well. Outside of this framework, there are countless examples, including laws related to personal health, maternity, and sexual violence.

Front 30

What are the three stages of Kohlberg's Cognitive Developmental Theory?

Back 30

1. Basic Gender Identity emerges in the first three years (0-3). Children know if they are a boy or a girl.

2. Gender Stability emerges in the next three years (3-6). Children understand their sex will not change.

3. Gender Consistency occurs after 6-7 years. Children understand that others' sex will not change.

Front 31

What is the role of the family in determining individual identity?

Back 31

The family provides a child's first exposure to socialization and the rules of society. Within this context, people learn to enact values and norms through behavior, thereby affecting personality.

Front 32

Describe the hierarchy of control.

Back 32

Values establish norms, which then establish trends or roles within the larger hierarchy. The policing of these roles reinforces the initial values.

Front 33

What is Talcott Parsons famous for?

Back 33

Uniting the social sciences in order to study the structure and organization of society from an all-encompassing perspective.

Front 34

Describe the traditional structure of the family, and explain how this came to be.

Back 34

Mothers were originally tasked with the expressive role, mainly because their status as child-bearers and nurses cemented them as caregivers. Fathers, then, were exempted from these biological functions, and were instead expected to take on an alternate dimension, which Talcott Parsons describes as the "instrumental" role.

Front 35

What is Gloria Steinem's point about how we think about men and women?

Back 35

Steinem argues, through humor and satire, that the ways in which we think about gender are based not in fact or logic, but instead in tradition and institutional rule. The unequal ways in which we think about men and women often emphasizes the former's physiological advantages, while casting away any flaws. When we think about the latter, women, the inverse is often true, as is the case when thinking about emotionality or expression.

Front 36

What is the role of institutions in reifying our understanding of men and women?

Back 36

Steinem's ideology pinpoints institutions, including the armed forces, the government, religion, academia, the media, and more, as creating and proliferating the unscientific reasoning behind gender inequality. Citing her imaginary menstruation example as proof, Steinem envisions a world where institutions, with their powers of persuasion and scale, indoctrinate the populace to view men as superior.

Front 37

What is Steinem's overarching point about how inequality proliferates?

Back 37

Straightforwardly, Steinem believes that inequality proliferates through a series of anecdotes, myths, and unscientific claims that, while often popularly endorsed, are not accurate and seek to mask the mechanisms at play in maintaining the masculine hegemony.

Front 38

What are some examples of institutions that govern the rules of society?

Back 38

The family, religion, government, the market, the economy, the media.

Front 39

Define power in the sociological sense.

Back 39

Talcott Parsons argued that power is not a matter of social coercion and domination, but instead flows from a social system’s potential to coordinate human activity and resources in order to accomplish goals.

Front 40

What's the difference between marked and unmarked categories? Give an example of each.

Back 40

These categorizations originated in feminism as a means of deconstructing the "culture of the powerful." Unmarked categories represent the norm, the default, or the assumed. In our society, male, white, heterosexual, able-bodied, and English-speaking are examples of unmarked categories. Marked categories include female, nonwhite, disabled, etc.

Front 41

Why is the distinction between marked and unmarked categories important?

Back 41

Because unmarked categories come with unstated hallmarks of privilege. Categories mask the way power is distributed in a society, making it harder to challenge privilege.

Front 42

How does Judith Lorber define Gender?

Back 42

"The categorization of people into social statuses and the pattern of their relationships and interactions."

Front 43

What four main attributes are said to contribute to social status?

Back 43

Gender, class, race, and sexuality.

Front 44

In a general sense, what is Judith Butler's idea of Gender Performativity?

Back 44

The idea is that gender is something we do, and also a product (rather than a cause). It is a performative identity taken on within a heterosexually normative society, however, it is not performative in the theatrical sense. Gender is the product of norms constructed by society, so that no matter how we act, we are fulfilling some predetermined role which may or may not coincide with our stated sex.

Front 45

How does Joan Acker define Gender?

Back 45

"The pervasive ordering of human activities, practices, and social structures in terms of differentiations between men and women."

Front 46

What does Joan Acker mean by Gendered Institutions?

Back 46

She means that the "processes, practices, images, and ideologies, and the the distributions of power, in various sectors, that are encoded with the dominant gender ideology" of their culture.

Front 47

What does Joan Acker mean by Gender Processes?

Back 47

Overt decisions and policies that control, segregate, exclude, and construct hierarchies based on gender, all with the purpose of obscuring the ways in which institutions perpetuate gender hierarchies.

Front 48

How do we institutionalize Gender?

Back 48

Through laws, policies, structure, and culture.

Front 49

Describe the process of Social Learning.

Back 49

People observe others' actions which are either rewarded or punished. People then imitate the rewarded behavior, and if they themselves are rewarded, they add this behavior to their repertoire. If it is punished, they drop it.

Front 50

What is the purpose of the "fag" discourse?

Back 50

The purpose of this discourse, at least in the context of male adolescence, is to help shape and define masculinity through the rejection of an abject "other." The discourse is used in a sort of teasing game, as a way to express power within a social setting by denying it to others. While not always used in an explicitly homophobic context, the word fag is often used to expose supposedly feminine traits.

Front 51

How does race change what is accepted as Masculine?

Back 51

With changes in race come changes in lifestyle and culture, and this in turn creates differentiations in the racial definitions of masculinity. Hip hop culture, for example, allows for varied approaches to fashion and dance, areas of androgyny that white teens would likely not accept as masculine.

Front 52

What is Gender according to CJ Pascoe?

Back 52

Pascoe follows in the footsteps of Butler, describing gender identity as an abject state that exists through continued invocations of normalized gendered behavior, alongside continuous repudiations of unacceptable gendered behavior.

Front 53

What does it mean to say that there is a hierarchy of masculinities?

Back 53

Within society, men are not socially constructed to be equal. Instead, attributes such as class, race, and sexuality intersect with gender to create a hierarchy.

Front 54

How does Michael Kimmel define Masculinity?

Back 54

"The notion of anti-femininity lies at the heart of contemporary and historical constructions of manhood, so that masculinity is defined more by what one is not rather than who one is"

Front 55

Describe R.W. Connell's Multiplicity of Masculinities.

Back 55

Essentially, the idea that masculinity is not static, but changes contextually according to the rules governed by race, culture, sexuality, class, etc. There are a variety of perceived expressions of masculinity, and none of them are biologically determined.

Front 56

What is Hegemonic Masculinity?

Back 56

The form of masculinity that occupies theapex position in a given society or structure of gender relations. It upholdsthe domination of men as a group over women as a group, and in Western society is often specifically described as aggressive, unemotional, and heterosexual.

Front 57

What is Hegemony?

Back 57

The political, economic, ideological, or cultural power exuded by one dominant group over another group.

Front 58

What is Toxic Masculinity?

Back 58

Toxic masculinity is one of the ways in which Patriarchy is harmful to men. It refers to the socially-constructed attitudes that describe the masculine gender role as violent, unemotional, sexually aggressive, and so forth.

Front 59

What is Michel Foucault known for?

Back 59

The argument that you cannot separate madness and reason into universally objective categories. Ethics are subjective. He is also known for the idea behind "Regimes of Truth."

Front 60

What does Michel Foucault mean by "Regimes of Truth?"

Back 60

The historically-specific mechanisms that produce discourses which function as true, or as the truth, in a particular place or time.

Front 61

Who is Judith Butler's defining work "Gender Trouble" mainly speaking to?

Back 61

Feminists, in her debate over a unifying feminism, psychoanalysts, in her debate over various theories of women and sexuality, and philosophers, in her debates over structuralism and positivity.

Front 62

What does it mean to say Identityis the internalization of cultural symbols and images “psychically imposed onthe body?"

Back 62

That the cultural and performative aspects of gender are masked and treated as though they are rooted in the body, therefore imposing cultural notions of gender on to all participants in society.

Front 63

What are some basic qualities of Queer Theory, as outlined by Judith Butler and David Halperin?

Back 63

That almost all categorizations of difference are socially constructed, that certain functions within society establish and regulate these categories, and that these regulations maintain normativity. That universalities do not exist.

Front 64

Who is the author responsible for the paper "Barbie Girls vs. Sea Monsters?"

Back 64

Michael Messner

Front 65

Who is the author responsible for the piece "If Men Could Menstrate?"

Back 65

Gloria Steinem

Front 66

Who is the author responsible for the book "Dude, You're A Fag?"

Back 66

CJ Pascoe

Front 67

Explain Gender Dysphoria.

Back 67

Gender Dysphoria is the feeling of being a man trapped in a woman's body, or vice versa.

Front 68

What is the Personal Exception Theory of Gender?

Back 68

Within a rigid gender binary, it is the idea that one's inability to fit within tightly regulated categories of masculinity or femininity is due to a personal exception, ie that one is so unique or special as to not fit perfectly into the established mold.

Front 69

Who is Sandra Bem, and what is she known for?

Back 69

Bem is a prominent American psychologist working in the realms of gender studies and androgyny. She and her husband were famous for promoting an egalitarian marriage and for removing gendered influences from the lives of their children.

Front 70

What author is responsible for the book "Paradoxes of Gender?"

Back 70

Judith Lorber

Front 71

How does Judith Lorber define Gender?

Back 71

Gender is a human invention, much like language, kinship, religion, and technology, and like those, it organizes human social life in culturally patterned ways.