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Is gender socially constructed or is it something that we do

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historical studies e.g. medical texts. more similarities than differences ... why focus on differences? the sexes' may not be as distinct as we might ... body idiom ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Is gender socially constructed or is it something that we do


1
Is gender socially constructed or is it
something that we do?
  • lecture 2

2
last week summary
  • historical studies e.g. medical texts
  • more similarities than differences between men
    and women?
  • why focus on differences?
  • the sexes may not be as distinct as we might
    think five sexes?

3
continued
  • idea of biological facts as determining
    behaviour recent
  • debates about what really defines sex
  • see examples and discussions about intersex case
    studies in
  • Kessler McKenna (1978) Butler (1990) Harrison
    Hood-Williams (2002) Garfinkel (1967) and Hird
    (2000)
  • intersex cases can help us understand gender as a
    constant achievement is gender something we
    do?

4
lecture outline (1)
  • gender as a term
  • social construction of gender and gender
    socialisation
  • critique of essentialism
  • problems with sex-gender distinction?
  • constructing masculinities (Connell)

5
lecture outline (2)
  • crisis in gender order? (Connell)
  • gender display? (Goffman)
  • doing gender? (West Zimmerman)
  • gender attribution (Kessler McKenna)
  • summary

6
gender Gatens in Gunew 1991 Oakley 1997
Jackson in Jackson Jones 1998
  • Freud (1905) psychological research 1930s
  • Robert Stoller published Sex and Gender in 1968
  • hermaphrodite/ adrenogenital syndrome

7
social construction of gender (1) Jackson in
Jackson Jones 1998 Pilcher Whelehan 2004
  • gender and sex commonly used by feminists
    1970s
  • e.g. Ann Oakley (1972)
  • Sex, Gender and Society
  • gender stereotypes

8
gender stereotypes e.g.
Masculinity assertive rational strong active compe
titive unemotional (culture)
Femininity submissive intuitive weak passive coope
rative emotional (nature)
9
gender power and inequality
  • not just about differences
  • hierarchically organised and valued
  • e.g. men and masculinity privileged over women
    and femininity?
  • POWER and INEQUALITY?
  • (patriarchy)

10
Simone de Beauvoir (1949 295)
  • One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman
  • gender differences in hierarchical opposition
    women as Other ?
  • feminists challenge the idea that biology is
    destiny

11
social construction of gender (2)
  • gender learned through socialisation
  • (Oakley 174-176) 4 processes
  • 1. manipulation- e.g. fuss over appearance
  • 2. canalisation e.g. sex-typed objects - toys
  • 3. verbal appellation e.g. bad boy
  • 4. activity exposure e.g. domestic chores
  • operates through social institutions
  • e.g. school, work, especially the family

12
social construction of gender (3)Jackson in
Jackson Jones 1998 Howson 2004
  • critique of essentialism
  • disputes that social roles naturally determined
    and fixed
  • masculinity and femininity historically and
    culturally variable
  • e.g. Mead and berdache

13
problematising the sex-gender distinctionJackso
n 1998 Gatens 1991 Butler 1990 Harrison
Hood-Williams 2002 Howson 2004
  • assume sex is biological and ahistorical?
  • gender mapped onto neutral bodies?
  • does female feminine/male masculine?
  • role of the body in the social construction of
    gender disrupt and /or maintain boundaries
    between femininity and masculinity?

14
constructing masculinities? (1)Connell 1987,
1995 Pilcher Whelehan 2004 Howson 2004
  • since 1980s research into this area
  • gender as a structure of social practice
    gender projects
  • masculinity constructed in relation to what it is
    not, especially but not only femininity
  • life course, discourses and institutions
    intersect?

15
constructing masculinities? (2)Connell 1987,
1995 Pilcher Whelehan 2004 Howson 2004
  • hierarchy of masculinities (and femininities)
  • hegemonic masculinity - dominant cultural ideal
  • complicit masculinity gain advantages from
    cultural ideal
  • subordinated masculinity homosexual men
  • femininities bottom of the gender hierarchy

16
crisis tendencies in current gender
order?Connell 1995
  • challenges to hegemonic masculinity?
  • - unemployed working class young men
    breadwinner
  • - middle class new technical occupations
    lack authority
  • - men in the environmental movement
    pro-feminist
  • - gay men not heterosexual

17
gender display (1)Goffman 1979 Harrison
Hood-Williams 2002 West Zimmerman 19981987
Smith 1996
  • body idiom
  • if gender be defined as the culturally
    established correlates of sex (whether in
    consequence of biology or learning), then gender
    display refers to conventionalized portrayals of
    these correlates
  • (Goffman 1979 1)

18
gender display (2)Goffman 1979 Harrison
Hood-Williams 2002 West Zimmerman 1998 1987
Smith 1996
  • gender is not a reflection of essential nature
    but is made to appear so?
  • gender differentiation produced and reproduced
    in interaction?
  • enact culturally appropriate idealised
    performances of femininity and masculinity?
  • gender socially scripted?

19
doing gender? (1)West Zimmerman 1998 1987
Garfinkel 1967 Kessler McKenna 1978
  • critical of Goffman for them gender is a
    routine done in everyday interaction
  • ethnomethodological approach
  • gender as an accomplishment and situated
    doing?

20
doing gender? (2)West Zimmerman 1998 1987
Garfinkel 1967 Kessler McKenna 1978
  • need to distinguish between
  • sex (biological criteria) cant see
  • sex category (what classified as)
  • look the part
  • gender (how manage classification)
    acting the part

21
doing gender(3)see e.g. Kessler and McKenna
(1978)
  • gender construction in everyday life
    transsexualism
  • natural attitude in terms of gender
  • gender attribution
  • genitals essential sign?

22
doing gender? (4)West Zimmerman 1998 1987
Garfinkel 1967 Kessler McKenna 1978 Tyler
Abbott 1998
  • refer to Agnes passing?
  • sex category and gender are managed
    properties?
  • gender assessment accountability
  • e.g. female flight attendants doing gender
    weight, make-up, emotional labour

23
summary (1)
  • socialisation emphasis on nurture not nature
  • what happens to bodies?
  • contradictory gender meanings?
  • how does diversity amongst women/men occur?
    Connell tries to account for these?

24
summary (2)
  • gender display do we follow scripts?
  • is gender something we do?
  • is it simply a display in interaction?
  • does it involve work? more for women?
  • how do we know the routine? conscious?
  • is it possible not to do gender?

25
next week
  • outline key theoretical approaches to
    understanding gender.
  • map the theoretical shift from material aspects
    of gender to cultural representations of gender
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