Ch12.1 and 12.2: gender

Question 1

sex

Answer 1

refers to physical or physiological differences between males and females, including both primary and secondary sex characteristics (biological and physical distinctions)

Question 2

gender

Answer 2

refers to social or cultural distinctions and roles associated with being male or female (sustained and recognized by others) (core status)

Question 3

gender identity

Answer 3

the extent to which one identifies as being either masculine or feminine

Question 4

Margaret Mead’s cross cultural research in New Guinea in 1930s

Answer 4

demonstrated that cultures differ markedly in the ways that they perceive the gender “temperments” of men and women

Question 5

berdache

Answer 5

“two spirit person” term used by anthropologists in the past to refer to individuals who occasionally or permanently dressed and lived as the opposite gender

Question 6

third gender

Answer 6

“Fa’afafine” which translates to “the way of the woman” is a term used to describe individuals who are born biologically male but embody both masculine and feminine traits

Question 7

sexuality

Answer 7

refers to a person’s capacity for sexual feelings and their emotional and sexual attraction to a particular sex

Question 8

heterosexuality

Answer 8

the attraction to opposite sex

Question 9

homosexuality

Answer 9

the attraction to one’s own sex

Question 10

bisexuality

Answer 10

the attraction to either sex

Question 11

asexuality

Answer 11

no attraction to either sex

Question 12

heteronormativity

Answer 12

the belief and practice that heterosexuality is the only normal sexual orientation

Question 13

Alfred Kinsey’s continuum of sexuality

Answer 13

• among the first to conceptualize sexuality as a continuum rather than a strict dichotomy of gay or straight
• created a six-point rating scale ranging from exclusively heterosexual to exclusively homosexual

Question 14

homosocial

Answer 14

coined by Eve Kosofsky, describing nonsexual same-sex relations to oppose homosexual, expanding on Kinsey’s notion, it was noted that males have clear divided between two sides of the continuum whereas females have more fluidity

Question 15

homophobia

Answer 15

an extreme or irrational aversion to homosexuals

Question 16

gender roles

Answer 16

refers to society’s concept of how men and women are expected to act and behave

Question 17

gender identity

Answer 17

an individual’s self-conception of being male or female based on his or her association with masculine or feminine gender roles

Question 18

cisgendered

Answer 18

individuals who identify their gender with the gender and sex they were assigned at birth

Question 19

transgendered

Answer 19

individuals who identify with the gender that is opposite of their biological sex

Question 20

transsexuals

Answer 20

transgendered individuals who wish to alter their bodies through medical interventions to better align with their gender identity (surgery and hormonal therapy)

Question 21

cross-dressing

Answer 21

a form of self-expression, entertainment, or personal style, not necessarily an expression of gender identity

Question 22

hypothesis as to why people are homosexual

Answer 22

suggest biological factors such as genetics, prenatal hormones levels, as well as social and cultural factors, like childhood and adulthood experiences could be possible factors

Question 23

organizations that help, prevent, respond to violence against transgendered, transsexual, and homosexuals

Answer 23

• the Canadian Professional Association for Transgender Health (CPATH)
• Trans Pulse
• the National Center for Trans Equality

Question 24

dominant gender schema

Answer 24

• an ideology that serves to perpetuate inequalities in power and status
• states there is only two sexes
• one of the fundamental organizing principle that maintains the dominant societal order

Question 25

schema

Answer 25

a cultural distinction that is imposed upon the diversity of world

Question 26

Anne Fausto-Sterling

Answer 26

argues that a body’s sex is too complex to fit within the obligatory dual sex system

Question 27

intersex

Answer 27

individuals with a mixture of male and female sexual organs or physical characteristics

Question 28

herms

Answer 28

true hermaphrodites with both male and female gonads (testes and ovaries)

Question 29

merms

Answer 29

male pseudo-hermaphrodites with testes and a mixture of sexual organs

Question 30

ferms

Answer 30

female pseudo-hermaphrodites with ovaries and a mixture of sexual organs

Question 31

gender display

Answer 31

conventionalized portrayals of the culturally established correlates of sex

Question 32

patriarchy

Answer 32

the set of institutional structures (property rights, access to positions of power, relationship to sources of income) which are based on the belief that men and women are dichotomous and unequal categories

Question 33

scripts

Answer 33

written by society that expect women and men to behave according to the expectations of their respective gender role, generally learned through socialization (children are socialized to become aware of gender roles by age two or three)

Question 34

stereotypes

Answer 34

oversimplified notions about members of a group

Question 35

gender stereptying

Answer 35

overgeneralizing about the attitudes, traits, or behaviour patterns of women or men

Question 36

sexism

Answer 36

refers to prejudiced beliefs that value one sex over another

Question 37

institutional discrimination

Answer 37

discrimination that is built into social structure which many sociologists tend to focus on

Question 38

gender socialization occurs through what four major agents

Answer 38

family, education, peer groups, and mass media, each reinforcing gender roles by creating normative expectations for gender-specific behaviour

Question 39

stratification

Answer 39

refers to a system in which groups of people experience unequal access to basic, yet highly valuable, social resources

Question 40

George Murdock

Answer 40

state that all societies classify work by gender, found jobs assigned to men were given greater prestige

Question 41

culture universal

Answer 41

when a pattern appears in all societies

Question 42

four reasons for gender gap in wages

Answer 42

• gender discrimination in hiring and salary
• concentrated in unequally paid jobs
• unequal distribution of domestic duties
• women’s work are undervalued

Question 43

history of power relations based on gender in Canada

Answer 43

• before 1859, married women were not allowed to own or control property
• before 1909, abducting a women who was not an heiress was not a crime
• before 1918, women were not permitted to vote (women’s right to vote was taken away in New France in 1849)
• before 1929, women were not legally considered “persons”
• before 1953, employers could legally pay a women lass than a man for the same work
• before 1969, women did not have the right to a safe and legal abortion

Question 44

structural functionalist views on gender roles

Answer 44

• gender roles within marriage is functional as it was established well before the preindustrial era when men go out and women take care of the home, and passed onto subsequent generations as an effective means to keep family functioning properly

Question 45

Talcott Parsons’s view on gender roles

Answer 45

argued that the contradiction between occupational roles and kinship roles of men and women created tension or strain on individuals as they tried to adapt to the conflicting norms or requirements

Question 46

glamour girl pattern

Answer 46

the use of specifically feminine devices as an instrument of compulsive search for power and exclusive attention

Question 47

critical sociology views on gender roles

Answer 47

• view men as the dominant group and women the subordinate
• social problems and contradictions are created when dominant groups exploit or oppress subordinate groups
• suggests that when women become wage earners, they can gain power and create more democratic arrangement in the home

Question 48

Friedrich Engels’ study on family structure and gender roles

Answer 48

1880s, suggested same owner-worker relationship seen in labour force is also seen in household

Question 49

feminist theory views on gender roles

Answer 49

• uses critical approach to examine the maintenance of gender roles and inequalities
• radical feminism considers the role of the family in perpetuating male dominance
• women’s primary status is defined by private and domestic roles while men are defined by their public activities and occupation

Question 50

bifurcated consciousness

Answer 50

Dorothy Smith, the experience of a division between the directly lived, bodily world of women’s lives and the dominant, masculine, abstract, institutional world to which they must adapt

Question 51

matriarchies

Answer 51

where women are the dominant group (women and men tend to work cooperatively rather than competitively, men do not experience bifurcated consciousness)

Question 52

symbolic interactionist approach on gender roles

Answer 52

• how people react or act differently based on others’ gender (masculinity and femininity)
• shift in symbolic meaning in family structure (working mom)

Question 53

Charles Horton Cooley’s “looking-glass self” theory on gender roles

Answer 53

• we are who others perceived us to be
• when people perform tasks or possess characteristics based on the gender role assigned to them, they are said to be doing gender

Question 54

Which of the following is the best example of a “gender panic” as defined in the article “Bathroom Battlegrounds and Penis Panics”?

Answer 54

A group of parents becomes outraged when a school announces that non-binary students can request teachers use the pronoun “they” instead of “he” or “she.”

Question 55

Which is the socialization perspective limiting?

Answer 55

• It does not fully account for variations of gender norms in different institutional contexts
• It does not consider change throughout a person’s life
• It assumes passivity in children