Lesson 3: Culture and Ideology

Introduction to Women’s StudiesRobert Wonser

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The Social Construction of Reality

Reality is created, negotiated and agreed upon (that is, constructed) socially, through social interaction.

The world exists before we’re born but we help (re)create the world by interacting with others.

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Social Construction of a Gendered Reality Because

boys will be doctors

And girls will be ballerinas…

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Grounds Rules for Studying Gender A few assumptions:

Social life is socially based and politically (power) structure.

There are many ways in which we could categorize and label the world

Once we have made up categories or concepts, it is easy to reify them

That is, to treat them as real and universal and to forget that we made them up.

Gender is part of a network of inequalities

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Gender in the larger world Gender is a product of interactions between

people, but is also built into the structures that organize societies Researchers state individuals “perform” or “put-on”

gender, which shows flexibility and social creation of gender

Occupations, restrooms, shoes, deodorants, etc. are gendered (morning routine anyone?)

This makes gender seem “real” and tangible But it’s important to remember that because

societies and contexts are constantly changing, gender is constantly changing.

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Social factors come together to create our gendered experiences Three levels:

1) the individual level of social learning and psychological sex differences

2) at the interactional level of social relations in everyday life

3) at the level of structural and institutional forces that constrain and shape action

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Gender Lenses of Androcentrism, Polarization, and Essentialism

Different ways we see are socialized to view gender from our culture:

1) androcentrism or, male-centeredness, makes everything male appear the neutral norm, the universally human.Ex: “he” to refer to men and womenWhat if …

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If Men Could Menstruate

“the characteristics of the powerful, whatever they may be, are thought to be better than the characteristics of the powerless—and logic has nothing to do with it.” – Gloria Steinem

Menstruation would become an enviable, boastworthy masculine event.

Men would brag about how long and how much. MENstruate

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Gender Lenses of Androcentrism, Polarization, and Essentialism 2) gender polarization refers to the ways

that diverse aspects of human experience are culturally linked to sex differences.Examples:

Cultural items, emotions are either male or female.

Girls wear pink, men are rational.

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Gender Lenses of Androcentrism, Polarization, and Essentialism 3) essentialism is the view that gender is

a fixed biological or social trait that does not vary among individuals or over time.Traits are inborn and immutable. Also used to argue racial and ethnic

traits are inborn.

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Western beliefs about sex and gender

Generally taught there are only 2 genders, and any deviation is unnatural

Also emphasize biological sex, and are taught gender stems from biology

However, not all men and women are all the same, all the time. Need to use Sociological Radar to question our

own observations and experiences of gender Behavior is flexible, and is based more on

situations and contexts – not biological differences

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Biological variations Western culture teaches “sex” is

biological, and “gender” is cultural.But there are many variations in DNA, sex

chromosomes, etc., and biology and culture are inseparable

Many “intersexed” individuals don’t fit either sex/gender category

Hormonal research shows men and women are more similar than different

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So what is gender? It’s NOT sex – biology doesn’t cause

differences in behavior It’s NOT concrete – it changes with

times, places, individuals, etc. It IS a human invention – a way to sort

and organize people It’s a way to organize societies and how

resources are allocated, and is a basic part of how people see themselves and others

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Gender Inequality Gender inequality can be found in all past and present

societies. The activities that women could participate in were limited

because they had less physical strength and because of the demands of bearing and raising children.

Men delivered the most important resources to the group, such as food from hunting or land from warfare, and became powerful by controlling the distribution of these resources.

There are several sociological theories that attempt to explain why this inequality has persisted in contemporary societies. We’re going to discuss several of these theories now.

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Theories on Gender Inequality

Functionalists:Believe that there are social roles better

suited to one gender than the other, and that societies are more stable when certain tasks are fulfilled by the appropriate sex.

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Theories on Gender Inequality (cont’d)

In the 1950s, Talcott Parsons advanced the idea that the nuclear family effectively reared children to meet the labor demands of a capitalist system.

According to Parsons: Men were more suited for an

instrumental role (the person who provides the family’s material support and is often an authority figure).

Women were more suited for an expressive role (the person who provides the family’s emotional support and nurturing).

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Theories on Gender Inequality (cont’d)

Conflict theorists:Believe men have historically had access to

most of society’s material resources and privileges. Therefore, it is in their interest to try to maintain their dominant position.

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Theories on Gender Inequality (cont’d)

Interactionists emphasize how the concept of gender is socially constructed, maintained, and reproduced in our everyday lives.Predicated in the constructionist approach

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Gender Role Socialization

Gender role socialization is the lifelong process of learning to be masculine or feminine, primarily through four main agents of socialization: families, schools, peers, and the media.

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Gender Role Socialization (cont’d)

Families are usually the primary source of socialization and greatly impact gender role socialization. Social learning theory suggests that the babies

and children learn behaviors and meanings through social interaction and internalize the expectations of those around them.

remember: we learn gender, we are not born knowing who wears pink

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What does this tell girls?

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Gender Role Socialization (cont’d)

Schools also socialize children into their gender roles.

For instance, research shows that teachers treat boys and girls differently.

This may teach children that there are different expectations of them, based on their sex.

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Gender Role Socialization (cont’d)

In Western societies, peer groups are an important agent of socialization.

Teens are rewarded by peers when they conform to gender norms and stigmatized when they do not.

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Gender Role Socialization (cont’d)

Finally, there is no question that sex-role behavior is portrayed in a highly stereotypical manner in all forms of the media: television, movies, magazines, books, video games, and so on.

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A 1975 survey of children’s books found that boys played active roles but girls were frequently passive. What messages about gender roles might readers learn from this Dick and Jane book?

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Gendered Language

Even our language and vocabulary tend to reflect a hierarchal system of gender inequality.What’s the difference between a stud and slut?Mankind, mailman, guysThe riddle about the doctor?Punctuate this sentence:

Woman without her man is nothing

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The photo to the right shows feet that have been bound but without the covering or shoe. Notice how the big toe is prominent while the other toes have been bent under and the arch has been pushed up.

Both photographs of women in China were taken in 1900. The photo to the left shows a woman with what appears to be extremely small feet. To get that artificially small size, women must break and bend the four lower toes back and under toward the heel.

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X-ray of bound feet, 1923

The photo to the rights shows a woman with feet that have not been bound sitting next to a woman with one bound food covered with a tiny shoe and her other foot without a shoe. Notice how lifeless and malformed the uncovered foot appears.

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This image is from the late 1800s/early 1900 in the United States.

We see a woman's torso with waist bound so that it appears about 18 inches in diameter.

Some women removed lower two ribs to achieve this effect.

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This illustration is from the late 1800s/early 1900 in the United States. The illustration on the left shows a normal woman's torso and the illustration on the right shows a waist bound so that it appears about 18 inches in diameter. The small print under the illustration to left warns that to achieve a waistline small in diameter the lungs must be contracted and liver, stomach and intestines are forced down crowding the womb seriously.

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Are there contemporary counterparts to foot binding and 18-inch waists?

“Acute Right Ventricular Failure Following Cosmetic Injection of Silicone” - American College of Chest Physicians, 2011

“Designer vagina surgery: Demand for cosmetic gynecology has never been higher. And for plastic surgeons, business is booming” - The Guardian, 2011