Action items:
Mahler and Kimmel's article here.
CJ Pascoe's Dude You're a F** (For background info click here).
1. Before you begin, please answer this question in as many ways as you can (brainstorm):
Besides being different physically, how would your life be different if you were born a different sex?
- What is gender and why is it confusing?
- What does it mean that gender is a social construction?
- What is a binary and how does it contribute to the confusion?
- What evidence is there that gender is a social construction?
- What does the construction of gender look like for Americans?
- How do the agents of socialization construct gender?
Besides social class and race, another area of inequality that sociologists frequently examine is gender. Similar to race, our society often uses the term gender erroneously. Because of that, society makes assumptions about gender and biology that are more a social construct than biology.
Oftentimes, gender is confused and misunderstood because we are limited by our language. We use the terms "male" and "female" to refer to both sex and gender. Then, to add to the confusion, oftentimes sexuality is genderized. Many people use the term "gay" or other pejoratives to mean that someone or something is not masculine. So all three of these terms are confused with each other. But, sex, sexuality, and gender are different terms that technically refer to different aspects of who we are as individuals.
- Sex is the biology individuals are born with and often assigned at birth.
- Sexuality is the biological aptitude an individual is born with for attraction.
- Gender is how an individual reacts to these two. This is not biological but instead a social construct. Gender can be an inner identity/feeling or an outward expression
What does it mean that gender is a social construction?
While sex and sexuality are determined (at least in part by biology), gender is a social construction. Think about how you answered that question at the top of this post. Most of the ways your life would have been different are examples of society treating people differently based on their sex (and sexuality). This constructs a certain way of being. So, for example, if I am a heterosexual male, how should I act? What colors should I like? What clothes should I wear? How should I talk? What sports should I play? Is it okay for me to cry? To be rough? To like violence? To be sensitive? And so on... These are all our gender and they are all learned reactions.
Gender reveal parties are one example of how our language uses male/female to refer to both sex and gender - do these parties really reveal a child's gender? Will the child be masculine/feminine? How do we know?
Humans tend to be dualistic in their understanding of the world (and thus, their language). So much of our understanding is oversimplified into dualism: light and dark, wet and dry, tall and short, etc... But the reality is that there is so much in between these concepts. The same is true in terms of "gender". Our culture pushes people to the edges of the continuum below. This creates a duality for sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. This duality is often referred to as a "gender" binary.
- Sex - Scientific American explains the continuum here. And they provide a useful graphic here or here.
- Sex - One example of the spectrum of sex is the IAAF's 2018 proposal of new rules that would exclude some female runners from competing in women's Olympic events. Guardian article here.
- Gender - The Gender Spectrum website also provides resources and an explanation.
- Gender Identity - Here is a terrific program about gender from National Geographic called The Gender Revolution. It has an in-depth explanation of transgender as well as some of the latest science about sex and gender.
- Here is a Guardian article about shattering the myth of the gendered brain.
- For more info, this is a great blog from Dr. Zevallos, an Australian sociologist from a Latin-Australian background.
- The-Be-you-tiful-intiative started by a former student of mine.
- It's pronounced metrosexual, a free online resource for learning & teaching about gender, sexuality, & social justice created by Sam Killermann.
- From the BBC, this article details the changes in pitch for women's voices and the dynamic effects of nature and nurture on each other.
Because gender is a social construct, it can be examined with a sociological imagination to show that it is different depending on where or when you examine it.
And from the Smithonian, checkout this article about children's clothing becoming genderized:
For more information:
Scene On Radio did an excellent 10-part series podcast is about gender from the
Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University distributed by PRX. The series attempts to answer: What’s up with this male-dominated world? How did we get sexism, patriarchy, misogyny in the first place? How can we get better at seeing it, and what can we do about it? Co-hosts John Biewen and Celeste Headlee explore those questions and more. This is an excellent podcast about the social construction of gender:
What does society construct for gender?
Take a moment to think about if you have heard the various phrases and where you might have heard them:Man up!
Boys will be boys.You play like a girl.Someday you'll meet Prince Charming/Mr. Right.You need to cook and clean so that you can be a good wife.That's not lady-like.
Mark all the messages that you have heard - even if the message was not directed at you.
List all the categories of people where you have heard these. Were they: parents, siblings, friends, peers, teachers, coaches, actors/actresses, tik-tok stars, somewhere else?
7. List the messages that the phrases convey for males. For example, for "Boys will be boys," you might write, "There's only one way to be a boy," You can't change boys," or, "It's ok for boys to be rough."
8. List the messages that the phrases convey for females.
This activity should reveal that even though people actually exist on a continuum (lesson 1), our culture constantly promotes a binary. We hear these binary messages from all of the agents of socialization. The messages start even before you are born. So the idea of a binary is very strong and we are pushed to the ends of the binary from the moment we are born.
The boxes of the binary
Before going further, let me clarify about the biology of males and females. On average, categorically, men and women are indeed different. On average, males are taller, have more muscle mass and more testosterone and less estrogen than females. However, none of these are at the exclusivity of each other. Males and females both have testosterone and estrogen, they both have muscle mass. Females can be tall and have a lot of muscle mass. Males can be short and have little muscle mass. People are complex and we all exist along a continuum.
However, our society emphasizes the polar ends of the continuum. Males are pushed to be only masculine and females are pushed to be feminine. Society gives the appearance that there is only one way to be masculine or feminine. Below are some of the traditional traits that dominant US culture has pushed for each gender. Note that these are traditional in the sense that society has generally promoted them, even if they do not apply to you. To be clear, I am not saying that men and women should be these ways, I am saying that society has traditionally socialized men and women to be these ways:
How Americans describe what society values (and doesn’t) in each gender? What traits does society value most in men and in women? What traits does society say men and women should not have?
Please look at each of the links below. Look for how the marketplace creates the binary between male and female - especially in ways that are unnecessary. When you are finished looking at each, answer question six.
- Gendered Products; See this post about products that are pointlessly gendered thus reifying the idea of traditional gender traits.
- Gendered Halloween costumes.
After you have tried your own search for words, or if the website was not working, click here to see my analysis of the RateMyProfessor data.
11. See how many words you can find that are completely gendered. Make a list.
Go to professor Schmidt's website, Gendered Language in Teacher Reviews. See how many words you can find that are genderized. What are the words? List them in number 7.
How does society construct the gender binary?
All of the agents of socialization help to construct gender. Look for the claim and evidence supporting each of these agents. How does each agent contribute to the socialization of gender? What evidence does sociology provide that agents of socialization influence individuals' self-concepts about gender?
Family:
This article from Newsweek explains the research by neuroscientist Lise Eliot that shows parents begin treating infants differently from the moment they are born. Parents talk differently to babies based on sex. Experiments reveal this is true for strangers as well. It can even be argued that parents treat babies differently before they are born! For example, pink and blue, decorating the nursery, "gender" reveal parties, and choosing a name.
This research published in Developmental Psychology by Fausto-Sterling, et. al. shows, "measurable sex-related differences in how mothers handle and touch their infants from age 3 months to age 12 months."
Treating six month-olds differently:Also differences in toys; boys=action figures, weapons; girls=jewelry, dolls.
- boys are given independence and encouraged to be active
- girls are coddled and ecouraged to be dependent and passive
- by thirteen months, each gender acts differently.
Click here to see a post from the Society Pages that examines how the Barbie above helps to reinforce lessons learned from teachers. The toy does not just show up in a little girl's toy box. Toys come from family which is trying to do right by the kid based on messages in the media.
Peers
Girls and boys learn what it means to be a man or woman from friends.
See the book from Patricia and Peter Adler on preadolescent peer pressure.This research by Patricia and Peter Adler published in Sociology of Education shows that values for popularity develop as early as fourth grade;
- boys: athletics, coolness and toughness, grades=lower popularity (think about how this shows up in the ratemyprofessor reviews from the other lesson).
- girls: family background, physical appearance (esp. clothing and makeup) and ability to attract popular boys, grades=higher popularity.
From the Society Pages, this post shows the latent lessons (hidden curriculum) that schools teach. In this case, it starts as young as 8 years old. (See the image below)
From the National Academy of Sciences this study shows that teacher anxiety about math affects their students.
This research in the journal of Sociology of Education shows how high school begins to shape students' interest in majoring in STEM fields in college.
This research from Gender and Society shows that high school teachers' attitudes about females and math affect how teachers grade and teach female students.
This article from the NY Times shows that gender gap in math scores disappears in countries with a more gender-equal culture.
The Society Pages explain how cross-cultural studies provide evidence that the gendered expectations in STEM are a result of a social construction
This 2007 study in Sociological Perspectives explains the connection between core sports and homophobia finding that boys who participate in core sports (football, basketball, baseball, soccer) are nearly 3 times more likely to express homophobic attitudes. Conversely, females who participated in nonathletic extracurricular activities were half as likely to express those attitudes as individuals who did not participate in those activities.
Inclusion and Nonbinary People
There are many ways of reinforcing the gender binary in everyday life and thus excluding non-binary individuals. Additionally, these binary practices reinforce the idea that males and females can only exist in exclusive poles rather than on a spectrum. Some of the ways that these binary practices commonly show up are with pronouns, bathrooms and dress codes. In all three cases, care should be taken to try to use neutral forms of each.
· Out and Equal provides resources and suggestions for each of these.
· The NIH has a guide to inclusive language including saying "everyone" instead of "ladies and gentlemen" and another study from researchers at Princeton finds that using gender neutral terms at work creates less bias and more equality at the workplace.
· Use the person's preferred pronoun and proper name as explained by Transequality.org.
For more info, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation has an FAQ available at their website.
Also, a guide to supporting the trans community is available from Transequality.org.
GenderSpectrum.org provides an extensive collection of resources including these:
And the National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center has a number of learning modules and resources including this Guide to Providing Care for Patients with Non-binary Gender Identities that highlights these best practices:
To summarize, the agents of socialization play a pivotal role in helping each of develop a sense of self (remember the isolated kids, Genie and Danielle from the social structure unit?). One of the ways that the groups influence us in thinking about gender. And the influence is particularly strong because it happens from the time we are young (even before we are born) and then continues in a web of structure that perpetuates the construction of gender. The web is a connection of parents, schools, peers, toys/marketers and media that all reinforce the gender binary.
For More Info about Gender:
No comments:
Post a Comment