Lecture 3

Question 1

3 assumptions of sociology when it comes to gender

Answer 1

1. variability of gendered identities
2. the biological imperative toward gender identity and differentiations ( in he environment not our bodies)
3. the psychological imperatives toward autonomy and connection that modern society requires of individuals

Question 2

Gender Identity according to sociologists (and the 2 types)

Answer 2

• identities are socially constructed, are a fluid assemblage of the meanings that we construct from values, images and prescriptions we find in the word around us
  Can be…
• voluntary: we choose who we become
  -coerced: pressured, forced, influenced into submission to rules surrounding gender

Question 3

‘Third Genders’

Answer 3

• people who do not express their identity in the ways characteristic of modern societies
• culture is the central actor of third genders

Question 4

3 Main sociological explanations of gender

Answer 4

1. Social Construction Perspective- GENDER VARIES
2. Gender as an institution- MACRO LEVEL
3. Doing gender- MIRO LEVEL

Question 5

(1) Social Construction Perspective

Answer 5

• gender is a social construct
• definitions of masculinity and femininity VARY
• focuses on… differences (analysis of the plurality of definitions), power (how definitions become normative, the power TO define) and institutional dimensions (who’s running them, interplay between gendered inds an gendered institutions)

Question 6

Gender as an Institution (MACRO LEVEL)

Answer 6

• top-down (looking down and observing what’s going on down below)
• idea that institutions themselves are gendered
• there are normative standards, try to make it ‘logical’, then the reproduction of gender inequality through habitual behavior
• argue that we negotiate our identities within institutions ( we aren’t just passive individuals) and that we assume that its their ‘choice’
• institutions themselves demand a certain type of BEHAVIOR, independent of the gendered individual. (things are legitimated- male business meetings at golf courses, female role models; do a spin for us…)

Question 7

Doing Gender (MICRO LEVEL)

Answer 7

• bottom level, interactions between ind, being ‘in’ it
• how we enact gender, through PERFORMANCE
• gender is an external element that we possess, its not innate
• something that happens recurrently so therefore its validated ( ex; greetings between girls vs boys )
• argues that biological sex becomes socialized gender roles (not born that way but BECOME that way)
• primary and secondar sex characteristics ( we firstly notice the secondary characteristics BUT more importantly we look at their gender ENACTMENT )

Question 8

What is gender vertigo

Answer 8

• cnnected to observing other gender enactment
• this idea that gender is so important to us, so therefore without it we feel we have lost our social bearings in the world
• ex; grandparents when seeing or talking about gender and sex and how they can become disoriented, their reactions etc…