Part One: Judith Lorber describes gender in a three focused aspects. One of these aspects is gender as a process. What Lorber means when she describes gender as a process is that there are societal expectations depending on the gender you receive at birth. In our society, we have created characteristics and assigned them to specific genders and then expect everyone to agree on those set attributes. There are differences in the behaviors and attitudes that are deemed acceptable or unacceptable for each gender. We see in our history and literature that men and women act in expected ways and if they do not, it is seen as a resistance or rebellion against societal norms. One example of gender as a process from The Big Sleep, occurs when detective
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It is the combination of different aspects that creates someone’s identity and where they may stand in the historical social hierarchy. When it comes to race, the male and females of the dominate race are seen as higher on the social hierarchy than males or females of another race. In the course of our history that has typically been Caucasian. In The Big Sleep, there are several examples of intersextionality. One example is General Sternwood. He is a white male who has quite a bit of wealth, which puts him in a higher class. These status indicators have given him more privilege and authority than any other character in the novel. This is evident in the fact that other white male characters are under the General’s payroll, such as Marlowe. Marlowe has his own kind of authority and power, but the General is still ranked above him because of his class and the fact that Marlowe was the General’s employee. The General uses his wealth to pay for servants that help raise and protect his daughters. He pays Marlowe to look into the blackmail he received regarding one of his daughters, Carmen, and some scandalous pictures she had taken. Because of his wealth and status, he was able to avoid going to the police, where his family’s private matters would be made very public. The general can also afford to have Carmen put into an asylum where she can get the proper mental health care that she needs. Without her family’s wealth, Carmen would likely have been formally charged with
It is the combination of different aspects that creates someone’s identity and where they may stand in the historical social hierarchy. When it comes to race, the male and females of the dominate race are seen as higher on the social hierarchy than males or females of another race. In the course of our history that has typically been Caucasian. In The Big Sleep, there are several examples of intersextionality. One example is General Sternwood. He is a white male who has quite a bit of wealth, which puts him in a higher class. These status indicators have given him more privilege and authority than any other character in the novel. This is evident in the fact that other white male characters are under the General’s payroll, such as Marlowe. Marlowe has his own kind of authority and power, but the General is still ranked above him because of his class and the fact that Marlowe was the General’s employee. The General uses his wealth to pay for servants that help raise and protect his daughters. He pays Marlowe to look into the blackmail he received regarding one of his daughters, Carmen, and some scandalous pictures she had taken. Because of his wealth and status, he was able to avoid going to the police, where his family’s private matters would be made very public. The general can also afford to have Carmen put into an asylum where she can get the proper mental health care that she needs. Without her family’s wealth, Carmen would likely have been formally charged with