Midterm Flashcards
(153 cards)
1
Q
Objective social problem
A
measurable- poverty and violence- since they can be measured, we can understand the harm. Surveying people, numbers and data gathered.
2
Q
Subjective social problems
A
Socially constructed, defined by people of power, includes moral assessment about the “issue”. EX. Youth sexting, sex work, drag, marijuana use. Moral panic
The sociological imagination: Connection between personal experience and societal experiences.
3
Q
Micro to macro
A
Why your issues are happening in society. Societal perspective rather than individual perspective.
4
Q
Structural functionalism
A
society is a set of interconnected elements. If something within the society in which is supposed to, the society is lacking stability. Uses a societal rather than an individual level of analysis. It is a macro-sociological approach.
5
Q
Emile Durkheim
A
Structural functionalism. Introduced anomie which is a state of normlessness. Chaotic feeling where no one knew how to function. Suicide occurred when people felt displaced and disconnected, he theorized. Social isolation linking to mental health-people used his teachings to study this link.
Law binds people together according to Durkheim.
6
Q
According to the structural functionalists:
A
the cause of most social problems is a failure of institutions to fulfill their roles. Argued that this happens during times of rapid change- causing social disorganization. They believe this disorganization causes social problems- like crime, poverty, and addiction.
7
Q
Manifest functions (Robert Merton):
A
obvious and intended effects of structures and institutions.
8
Q
Latent functions (Robert Merton)
A
Hidden, unstated consequences of activities in an organization or institution.
9
Q
Conflict Theory
A
propose that social problems stem mainly from the economic and political inequalities that exist between social classes. Society does not have shared norms and values, when these values clash- that is where we see social conflict arise.
10
Q
Karl Marx
A
Society is characterized by class conflict. Capitalism was an exploitative economic system that facilitated the accumulation of wealth by those who owned the means of production (The Bourgeoise) – over workers who had to sell their labour in exchange for money to live (The Proletariat). He saw power as repressive, power concentrated in the hand of the few and used to dominate the many.
11
Q
Symbolic Interactionism (micro approach)- George Herbert Mead
A
proposed that as children we learn to play by the rules, and we learn these rules by interacting with others. Through the interaction with others, we acquire a shared system of rules and symbols that allow for shared meaning.
12
Q
Labelling Theory
A
Mead proposed we learn rules as kids by interaction. This labelling that is created is an instrument of social control. Ex. Labelling someone as deviant may influence how they act. This is an instrument of social control.
13
Q
Social Constructionism
A
examines the way people create a shared interpretation of social reality. When we say that some problems are socially constructed, this means that they come to be seen by society as problems because they have been defined as such by moral entrepreneurs (rule creators/enforcers).
14
Q
Claims-making
A
Claims-making is an exercise in the construction of knowledge. Claims-makers must convince their audience that what they are claiming is the “truth” about a problematic condition.
They construct what should and should not be included as part of the problem.
15
Q
Moral Crusades
A
A moral crusade is a social movement that campaigns around a symbolic or moral issue (e.g., alcohol, pornography, sex work, crime comics, etc).
One major consequence of a successful crusade is the establishment of a new rule or set of rules, usually with enforcement machinery being provided at the same time.
16
Q
Moral Panics
A
a reaction by a group of people based on the false or exaggerated perception that some cultural behavior or group, frequently a minority group or a subculture, is dangerously deviant and poses a menace to society
17
Q
Stuarts Hall’s work on understanding the moral panic about mugging in the UK in the 1970s.
A
Mugging- targeting young black men as muggers and searching out this particular population because of this stereotype formed by moral panic.
18
Q
Stages of Social Problem Construction-Herbert Blumer
A
- Social Recognition- The point where a behaviour is identified by moral entrepreneurs as a social concern.
- Social legitimating- Takes place when a person in a position of authotiy recognizes the activity as a serious threat to social stability.
- Mobilization for action- The point at which social organization begin planning ways to deal with the problem.
- Developing and carrying out an official plan- Putting in place laws, policies, or government sanctioned approaches to dealing with a problem (or something that has been constructed as a problem).
19
Q
First Wave Feminism
A
- Associated with middle and upper-class white women fighting for women’s suffrage and political equality.
20
Q
Ida B. Wells
A
was an early leader in the civil rights movement and also fought for the vote despite facing immense racism within the suffrage movement itself.
20
Q
Second Wave Feminism
A
attempted to further women’s equality by combating social and cultural inequalities.
Pushed two goals:
1. Obtaining equivalent social and political opportunities.
2. Doing away with legislation that limited women’s ability to work.
- We also see at this time battles for reproductive rights and birth control.
- In the 1970s and 80s prominent organizations won important legals battles including Roe. V. Wade (1973).
21
Q
Third Wave Feminism
A
- Associated with the term intersectionality- “layers of oppression”-
- Third wave feminism continues to address financial, social, and cultural inequalities, traditional gender roles as well as reclaiming derogatory terms directed at women.
22
Q
Critical Race Feminism
A
- By pointing the spotlight only on gender, traditional white feminists ignore important differences that exist among women, most notably, differences of race.
- They argued that feminist theory focused excessively on the needs of privileged white women.
- Raised the intersectional nature of women of colour’s oppression.
- Critical race feminists argue that legal doctrines in various areas, such as rape, sexual harassment, and domestic violence, do not adequately address discrimination based on the intersections of these categories.
23
Q
Intersectionality
A
- The interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.
- Intersectional theory asserts that people are often disadvantaged by multiple sources of oppression: their race, class, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, and other identity markers.
- Intersectionality recognizes that identity markers do not exist independently of each other, and that each informs the others, often creating a complex convergence of oppression.
24
Economic Inequalities
- Refers to the income or wealth gap among individuals, groups, or even entire countries.
- Economic inequality differs from economic growth or contraction, which refers to how much money, goods, and resources exist overall.
- The shifting size of the pie overall-a small, medium, or large pie- illustrates economic growth or contraction.
- On the other hand, economic inequality refers to how the pie is cut into different- size pieces (with some getting bigger pieces than others).
- *The two do not necessarily correlate*
25
Social Class- Karl Marx
Canada, like other democratic countries in the Global North operates on a social class system where people can move up or down in the hierarchy.
26
Social Structure
- The social arrangements of a society established through laws, interactions, and expected behaviours.
- The way a society is structured largely determines its level of economic inequality.
27
Social Reproduction Theory
- According to social reproduction theorists, a system of unequal access to resources (such as money, education, nutrition, safe neighbourhoods) causes economic inequality, and this leads to unequal opportunities for some groups of people, through no fault of their own.
- Social reproduction theorists argue that the upper classes use their money and power to make sure that this unequal access continues.
28
Functional Theory of Stratification (sometimes called the Davis-Moore hypothesis)
Reflects the viewpoint that inequality is good for society because it ensures that people who contribute the most to society gain the most rewards.
People favoring this explanation argue that people take on careers to which they are most suited and are rewarded based on their contributions to society.
29
Social Mobility
Refers to the movement of people from one social class to another during their lifetime.
Social mobility tends to be most possible in societies where the opportunity structure is open and there are limited barriers associated with peoples’ backgrounds.
30
Intergenerational income elasticity
the correlation between a parent’s and a child’s income.
A fundamentally false perception seems to be gaining currency in which a young person’s ability to succeed economically in Canada is predetermined by their parent’s social class.
31
Absolute Poverty
refers to the lack of necessities for survival such as food, shelter, and medicine.
32
Relative Poverty
refers to situations where individuals are surviving but living much below the general living standards for the rest of society.
33
The poverty line
a threshold representing the lower limit of the usual standard of living, which differs across countries. The definition of poverty varies by society, within societies, and also over time.
34
Low Income Measures (LIMs)
identifies families with income below 50% of the median income for a given family size.
35
The Low-Income Cut-Offs (LICOs)
is the income level at which families spend 20% more of their income than the average family on food, shelter, and clothing and is based on family and community size.
36
The Market Basket Measure (MBM):
The MBM is based on the cost of a specific basket of goods and services representing a modest, basic standard of living for a reference family of 2 adults and 2 children.
37
“Opportunity For All”
To establish Canada’s official poverty line
To reduce the rate of poverty by 20% by 2020; and
Reduce the rate of poverty by 50% by 2030 (aligned with the United Nations Development Goals).
38
Opportunity for all: Has three pillars which include:
Dignity: lifting Canadians out of poverty by ensuring basic needs – such as safe and affordable housing, healthy food, and healthcare – are met.
Opportunity and Inclusion: helping Canadians join the middle class by promoting full participation in society and equality of opportunity; and,
Resilience and Security: supporting the middle class by protecting Canadians from falling into poverty and by supporting income security and resilience.
38
Colonialism and Poverty
-Histories of violence and the dispossession of Indigenous people of their lands and livelihood causing forced dependency on the colonial state.
-The resulting poverty, unemployment, low rates of education lead to food and water insecurity, lack of housing or severe over-crowding, lack of infrastructure for sanitation or power, and higher rates of preventable diseases (Palmeter, 2012).
38
Systemic Racism:
refers to the ways that whiteness and white superiority become embedded in the policies and processes of an institution, resulting in a system that advantages white people and disadvantages BIPOC/IBPOC, notably in employment, education, justice, and social participation.
38
Indigenous Populations and Poverty
- The current Statistics Canada data on Indigenous poverty rates suggests that poverty levels fell between 2015 and 2020 but that Indigenous people are still more likely to experience poverty.
- The MBM is currently not available on First Nations reserves or the three territories. In part, this is because of advocacy from Indigenous communities around the fact that the MBM is not what is needed to understand poverty in Indigenous communities. Need much more holistic understanding for their needs. No term to express poverty.
38
Sexism and Economic Inequality
Gender discrimination creates economic inequality in several ways: occupations are often (unofficially) segregated by gender.
- women are expected to spend more hours caring for children and doing household chores.
- there are fewer female mentors for women in male-dominated jobs.
39
The gender pay gap
the difference in average earnings of people based on gender.
The gender pay gap is worse for those who face multiple barriers, including racialized women, Indigenous women, and women with disabilities.
39
How Can We Eliminate the Gender Wage Gap
* Make closing the gender gap a human right priority.
* Legislate card check & promote access to collective bargaining Enforce and expand pay equity.
* Increase the minimum wage.
* Legislate equity compliance for workplaces and businesses Provide affordable, high-quality, universal childcare.
* End violence and harassment of women
* Table Pay Transparency legislation.
40
Health inequities:
avoidable inequalities in health between groups of people within countries and between countries.
41
Effects on Mortality
People living in situations of economic disadvantage are less likely to have access to safe housing, nutritious food, transportation, education and employment opportunities, and healthcare systems.
42
Social Cohesion:
defined as the willingness of members of a society to co-operate with each other in order to survive and prosper.
43
Unsheltered Homelessness
refers to individuals who, at some point in their life, have lived in a homeless shelter, on the street or in parks, in a makeshift shelter or in an abandoned building
44
Hidden Homelessness
refers to individuals who had to temporarily live with family or friends, or anywhere else because they had nowhere else to live.
45
Critical Race theory
Created by activists and scholars interested in examining the relationship between race, racism, and power.
An approach to thinking about, analyzing, conceptualizing, and taking action on race and racism. CRT is not a grand explanation of how society works but rather a set of arguments, observations, claims, and affirmations about the racialized nature of the world.
46
Race as a Social Construction
Race is not something that is fixed, stable, singular or inherent, but rather are categories that people produce and attach to things such as physical features, skin tone, hair texture, etc.
Race is an invention and is often used to give legitimacy to systems of power, knowledge, and control.
47
Racialization
process of constructing, differentiating, making inferior, and excluding a group of people from the population.
48
Racism
reflects the ways in which social relations are constructed to advantage and disadvantage human groups that are distinguished as belonging to disparate ‘racial’ categories.
it reflects the ways in which social relations are continuously maintained, recursively reconstructed, and creatively innovated to advantage and disadvantage human groups that are distinguished as belonging to different ‘racial’ categories.
49
Canada tries to present as a....
colour-blind nation
50
Multiculturalism is itself a vehicle...
for racialization, it ignores colonization.
51
The Vertical Mosaic
A term coined by John Porter that refers to a socio- economic hierarchy in which French and English Canadians live at the top and other ethnic minorities are positioned below.
Anglo-saxons view immigrants below
52
Othering
a process whereby a group of people is dehumanized, made to seem fundamentally different, and leads to an "us" and "them" mentality.
* In many instances, othering has been used to degrade, isolate, criminalize, abuse, and exclude a group of people from the population.
53
The Chinese Head Tax
* Immediately following the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway, the federal government passed the Chinese Immigration Act and imposed a fee of $50 on every person of Chinese origin immigrating to Canada.
* Due to the costly Head Tax, by 1923 Canada's Chinese communities were largely "bachelor societies" where there was about 1 woman to every 28 men.
54
The Chinese Exclusion Act 1923-1947
Under this new act, Chinese immigration was banned, with very few exceptions.
55
Policing Borders
- A key strategy adopted by Canada and other Western states for preventing unwanted migrants and immigrants from entering is to criminalize their activities.
- The stereotypes that play into narratives about border control are closely linked to the internal policing of people of colour, stigmatizing and monitoring racialized bodies in ways that clearly establish their subordinate status in a nation (Razack 1999).
- Key is to criminalize immigrant activities to keep them from crossing the border.
56
Social "Illegality"
- Like race and gender, the categorization of some immigrants as “illegal” is just as much a social construction as it is a legal one.
- People rely on stereotypes to classify individuals as “illegal” regardless of their actual documentation status.
- For some immigrant’s “illegality” is written on their bodies.
- Flores and Schachter (2018) found that national origin was a powerful determinant of perceived illegality, and that Mexicans were viewed as “highly suspect”.
- They also found that English language ability, education, and occupation were important predictors with young, lower income individuals with limited English more likely to be perceived as “illegal.”
57
Racial Discrimination
“any distinction, exclusion, restriction, or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin that has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing recognition of exercise...of human rights and fundamental freedoms” (Office of the High Commission for Human Rights, 1969).
58
Prejudice
individual biases and belief systems that attribute characteristics to a group of people so that we prejudge group members. This prejudice can, and often does, lead to racial discrimination.
59
Individual racism
refers to when a person makes an unfounded assumption about the motives and abilities of another based on a stereotypical understanding of the person’s racial or ethnic group characteristics.
60
Colour-blind racism
the assertion that race no longer matters and that any persisting racial inequalities are best explained by individual efforts or imagined cultural traits.
61
Institutional (Structural) racism
any systemic bias embedded in an existing social structure, policy, or process that deprives some groups of equal access to goods, services, and rights because of their ethnic or racial membership.
62
Racial Profiling
- Refers to the discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials of targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual's race, ethnicity, religion or national origin (ACLU 2023).
63
Racial Profiling in nova scotia
- Street Checks (carding): the controversial practice of police arbitrarily stopping people on the street (or in their car) to ask them for their personal information.
- In April 2019, Halifax’s interim chief of police, Robin McNeil, was faced with a report by Scot Wortley, a University of Toronto criminologist that found that street checks by Halifax police disproportionately affected Black Nova Scotians.
- The report revealed that Black Nova Scotians were six times more likely to get checked than their white counterparts.
64
Anti-Indigenous Racism
- The ongoing race-based discrimination, negative stereotyping, and injustice experienced by Indigenous peoples within Canada.
- It includes ideologies and practices that contribute to the establishment, maintenance, and perpetuation of power imbalances, structural obstacles, and inequitable results in Canada as a result of colonial policies and practices.
65
Criminalization and colonialism
- Colonial legal systems often sought to enforce new regulations around labour, family life, dancing, drinking, and other details of the personal lives of the colonized.
- Colonial legal orders were steeped in colonial racism.
66
Criminalization of the potlatch
- In 1884, the federal government of Canada initiated a long struggle to eliminate ceremonies of Indigenous people. These ceremonies were generally known as potlatches.
- The legislation made it a criminal offence for anyone to participate in the potlatch, a gift- giving feast that was traditionally used to mark a variety of important milestones and occasions in West Coast tribes and customs, and as a way of celebrating life (Monkman, 2017).
67
Gender
a social construct
68
Cisgendered
means that one’s gender identity corresponds with their biological sex.
69
- Gender nonconforming
people do not perform the gender associated in their culture with their biological sex and identify as nonbinary, gender queer, non-cisgender, or agender.
70
Transgender or trans
is an encompassing term used to describe the many different gender identities for people who don’t identify or exclusively identify with their biological sex.
71
Individual level
how gender influences how we behave as individuals.
72
Interactional level:
when gender inequality occurs through social.
interactions and interpersonal relationships.
73
Institutional level
means that gender becomes part of how social institutions are organized.
There is a persistent pattern of social organization in many cultures where men hold more status, power, and resources. Although societies vary in terms of how unequal the status of women and men is, “the status ‘woman’ is usually held in lesser esteem than the status ‘man’” (Lorber 1994:115).
74
Male domination
men hold almost all positions of authority across all our social institutions, including government, family, religion, education, military, media, sports, and entertainment.
75
Male-centered
when a culture prioritizes and emphasizes the activities of males. For example, male sports teams receive much greater promotion and attract many more viewers than female sports teams. In U.S. films, female characters make up only 31% of speaking roles, and just 13% of films have gender-balanced casts (Smith et al. 2018).
76
Male-identified
core cultural ideas about what is good, desirable, and valuable are associated with men and masculinity
77
Gender Policing
The enforcement of normative gender ideals associated with the gender binary onto individuals. In many contexts, gender performances consistent with normative “masculinity” or “femininity” are encouraged and rewarded, whereas gender transgressive performances are discouraged through punishment or, more often, negative reactions.
78
Toxic Masculinity
The term “toxic masculinity” points to a particular version of masculinity that is unhealthy for the men and boys who conform to it, and harmful for those around them.
It is represented by qualities such as violence, dominance, emotional illiteracy, sexual entitlement, and hostility to femininity.
79
This version of masculinity is seen as “toxic” for two reasons:
1.It shapes sexist and patriarchal behaviours, including abusive or violent treatment of women
2.Narrow stereotypical norms constrain men’s physical and emotional health and their relations with women, other men, and children.
80
Masculinity and Mass Shootings
- Almost all mass shooters are boys or men.
- Many mass shootings are “revenge” shootings that specifically target women and girls whom the shooter perceived as rejecting his sexual advances.
- Most mass shooters have a history of domestic violence (Follman, Aronsen, and Pan 2019; O’Toole 2014).
- If ignore gender, we miss that these mass shootings are tied to cultural understandings of masculinity.
- Manliness- violence and revenge
81
Transphobia
1. Attempting to remove trans people’s rights
2. Misrepresenting trans people
3. Abuse
4. Systematically excluding trans people from discussions about issues that directly affect them
5. Other forms of discrimination like employment and housing discrimination, discrimination from law enforcement or the criminal justice system more widely.
82
- Couples in which both partners had a postsecondary education were more likely to report.....
sharing tasks equally than couples in which neither or only one partner had a postsecondary education.
83
Couples in which both partners were Canadian-born were more likely than their immigrant counterparts to report...
sharing doing the dishes and gardening equally, while immigrant couples were more likely than Canadian-born couples to report sharing grocery shopping and organizing the household’s social life equally.
84
Couples with no children were less likely than couples with at least one child younger than 5 to report
that the woman assumed most of the responsibility for doing the dishes and organizing the household’s social activities.
85
The majority of men and women reported being satisfied with the division of unpaid labour in their households. However, women were less likely to report
being satisfied with the division of housework than men, and women who had children younger than 15 were more likely to be dissatisfied than their counterparts with no children younger than 15.
86
The Gender Wage Gap:
the difference between the incomes of women and men who work year-round, full-time.
87
The Glass Ceiling
Refers to the institutional barriers within a workplace hierarchy that prevent women from reaching upper-level positions.
88
4 out of 5 women in prison are there for poverty-related crimes.
- Some of these offences include sex work, theft, and fraud.
- Two-thirds of female inmates are mothers living below the poverty line.
89
Gender-Based Violence
The types of abuse that women, girls, and Two Spirit, trans and non-binary people are at highest risk of experiencing.
90
Indigenous Women & Girls
- About 6 in 10 Indigenous women have experienced some form of Intimate Partner Violence in their lifetimes
91
Young Women
Young women aged 15-19 and 20-24 are five times more likely to experience intimate partner violence than women over 25
92
Women with a Disability
Women with a disability are three times more likely to experience violent victimization than women living without a disability.
93
Immigrant & Refugee Women
- Immigrant women may be more vulnerable to intimate partner violence due to economic dependence, language barriers, and lack of knowledge about community resources (Rupaleem Bhuyan et al., University of Toronto, 2014).
- It is essential to recognize that immigrant and refugee women hold many intersecting identities (e.g., sex, gender, education, race/ethnicity, sexuality, ability, religion).
94
Lesbian & Bisexual Women
- Women who identify as lesbian or bisexual are three to four times more likely than heterosexual women to report experiencing spousal violence (Laura Simpson, Statistics Canada, 2018).
95
Transgender Women
Three in five trans women experienced Intimate Partner Violence since the age of 16 (TransPULSE Canada Survey, 2019).
96
A Culture-Wide Moral Drift Around Abortion
- By 1900, almost all European and American moral and theological authorities had reconceived requickening abortion as homicide.
- In doing so, they created a culture-wide moral drift or moral revolution that was reified and enforced by laws.
- Among the various factors motivating national anti- abortion laws were antifeminism and male chauvinism, nativist and anti- immigrant sentiment, campaigns against poisoning, concerns for maternal health, and, most important, fear of demographic decline— especially in the aftermath of wars.
97
The US Anti-Abortion Moral Crusade
- Physicians in the newly formed subspecialty of obstetrics led the campaign to immoralize and criminalize pre-quickening abortions.
- Hodge delivered lectures on “criminal abortion.”
- Prominent obstetricians and medical school professors across the US, delivered lectures to entering students, therefore turning out doctors with ideas about the perceived immorality of abortion and their “duties” to act as guardians over pregnant women.
98
Doctor’s Anti-Abortion Moral Revolution
- Leading doctors across the US created a plan for an anti-abortion moral revolution that aimed squarely at changing state laws to criminalize abortion.
- “This is a question that our own women must answer; upon their loins depends on the future destiny of our nation” (Horatio Storer)
99
Second Wave Feminism and the Fight to Repeal Abortion Laws
- The resurgence of feminism across the United States during the 1960s ushered in a series of changes to the status quo that continue to have an impact decades after the first way women's movement.
- Feminist leaders and medical professionals (both men and women) spoke out against restrictions on abortion.
100
Abortion Prior to Roe. V. Wade
- Until 1973, abortion was illegal in the United States.
- People seeking abortions were forced to find clandestine clinics operating secretly, pay out of pocket, and often drive many miles to access a clinic.
Danger: The procedures were dangerous, often resulting in serious medical complications and sometimes the death of the pregnant person.
Cost: Some illegal clinics charged upwards of 600 dollars.
Roe. v. Wade (1973)- A landmark Supreme Court decision that ruled that the US Constitution protects a pregnant woman's right to liberty to choose to have an abortion.
101
R. V. Morgentaler (1988)
- Henry Morgentaler, along with two other doctors who operated an abortion clinic in Toronto brought a case to the SCC to bring attention to the fact that pregnant people should have complete control over their reproductive choices.
102
Abortion in the Maritimes
- The Maritimes have a long history of conservatism and a culture of shame around abortion and women’s reproductive health.
- Until 2017, abortions were not available on PEI.
- In 2020, the Protecting Access to Reproductive Health Care Act came into effect in Nova Scotia, making it illegal for protestors to be outside of healthcare centres, doctor’s offices, or pharmacies offering abortion services. Other provinces have similar laws, including NFLD.
103
Homophobia
an irrational fear of, discrimination against, or hatred towards gay people.
104
Heterosexism
actions and behaviours which institutionalize or reify opposite-sex attraction as the only legitimate and “normal” sexual relation, at the expense of all others.
105
The Social Constructionist Approach: Social Problems ‘Claims-Making’
- Social problems claims-making is an exercise in the construction of knowledge.
- Claims-makers must convince their audience that what they are claiming is the “truth” about a problematic condition.
- Ultimately their goal is to persuade the audience to believe what they are claiming is a social problem is exactly that.
- In doing so they construct what should and should not be included as part of the problem.
106
Moral Crusades
- A moral crusade is a social movement that campaigns around a symbolic or moral issue (e.g. alcohol, pornography, sex work, crime comics, etc).
- One major consequence of a successful crusade is the establishment of a new rule or set of rules, usually with enforcement machinery being provided at the same time.
107
Risk and the Construction of “Dangerousness”
- "Dangerousness” has become one aspect of the program of governing a society that has risks.
- “Dangerousness” became sexualized in a particular way around the middle of the 20th century.
- What particular ‘regimes of truth’ were constructed in order for the sexualized nature of “dangerousness” to be expressed?
108
The Construction of the ‘Sexual Psychopath’
- The post WWII period was fraught with articulations of particular formulations about the concept of ‘risk’ over concerns about sexuality.
- Two of the most pressing concerns were sex crimes against children and the risk that non-procreative sex posed to the nation-state.
109
Postwar Sex Panics
- "The nation's women and children will never be secure...so long as degenerates run wild."
- "How Safe is Your Daughter?" asked J. Hoover in the headline accompanying this photo in American Magazine July, 1947.
- J. Edgar Hoover - Director of the FBI declared a “War on Sex Crimes” (1930s).
- This was followed and, in many ways, fuelled by an increase in sensationalized media coverage of sexual assaults and in rare cases, the disappearances of missing children.
110
Toronto Psychiatric Hospital (TPH)
- Between 1929 and 1933 almost half of the 3,622 people admitted to TPH were court referrals.
- Of those, 150 had been charged with sex-related offences.
111
Sexual Psychopath Laws
- In 1948 Canadian parliamentarians unanimously voted in favour of adopting sexual psychopath legislation and it was passed into the Canadian Criminal Code.
- Covered sex crimes against children to sex between two consenting adult males.
- Did NOT often include sexual assault against adult females.
- Repeat sex offenders were neither deterred nor changed by incarceration because their actions were driven by an uncontrollable impulse to commit their crimes.
- The “sexual psychopath” was neither "normal" nor “legally insane” and for that reason required special consideration
112
Lawmakers Claimed that the Purposes of the Sexual Psychopath Statutes were Twofold:
1.To protect society
2.To rehabilitate the offender
*Drawing on psychiatric expertise, these laws allowed the government to incarcerate offenders until they were deemed “cured” by a psychiatrist.
113
The Underlying Homophobia in Constructing the ‘Sexual Psychopath’
- 20th century mainstream psychiatry and psychology generally viewed homosexuality as a symptom of “infantile regression” or some other type of pathological disorder and thereby developed various strategies to cure, regulate, or adjust patients to the heterosexual norm (Kinsman, 2006).
114
Heteronormativity
- Term grew out of Queer Theory.
- The assumption that heterosexuality is the "normal" or "natural" expression of sexuality and that other forms of sexual desire, expression, or relationship are "abnormal."
- Assumes a gender binary.
115
Criminalization
1841 - The first Canadian law condemning 'homosexuality' came into force. At the time, such a crime was punishable by death. That sentence was later mitigated to imprisonment.
1890 - The crime of "gross indecency between male persons" was introduced. In 1953, that crime was extended to lesbians and heterosexuals. It was used to justify the repression of LGBTQ2+ people for decades.
Homosexuality remained a crime in Canada until 1969, and anyone caught in violation risked being sent to jail or for psychiatric treatment. In that regard, it is understandable that LGBTQ2+ people would have felt the need to live in secret.
116
Decriminalization
- In Canada this started in the 1960s, but it was a slow process.
- Influenced by the British Wolfenden report (1957) which argued against criminalizing sex between two men, unless it occurred in public or involved youth.
- On the books, the decriminalization of same-sex sexual acts happened in 1969 in Canada when Pierre Elliott Trudeau declared "The state has no place in the bedrooms of the nation."
117
Bill C-150: The Omnibus Bill
- Passed in 1969.
- Bill would decriminalize same sex sexual acts between two consenting adults if they were 21 or over.
- Bill criticized for its age restrictions.
According to queer rights groups, this bill was not a total victory.
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Toronto Bathhouse Raids “Operation Soap”
- On 5 February 1981, over 200 police officers raided four bathhouses in downtown Toronto (The Barracks, The Club, Richmond Street Health Emporium, and Roman II Health and Recreation Spa).
- Law enforcement officials claimed the raids resulted from six months of undercover work into alleged sex work and other “indecent acts” at each establishment.
- 286 men were charged for being found in a common bawdy house (a brothel), while 20 were charged for operating a bawdy house. Most of those arrested were found innocent of the charges.
- The raids marked a turning point for Toronto’s gay community, as the protests that followed indicated they would no longer endure derogatory treatment from the police, media, and the public.
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Institutional Completeness
Refers to the creation of communities that are fully self-supporting and self- aware.
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Equality Legislation
Beginning in the 1970s we start to see more legislation that would eventually lead to equal rights under the law for queer people but this process took decades.
1973 - Toronto becomes the first municipality in Canada to pass Anti- discrimination legislation (even though Operation Soap happened in 1981...)
1977 - The first major changes on a provincial level in Quebec.
1985 - Section 15 added to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms which assured equality and non-discrimination even though it did not specifically note sexual orientation.
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Relationship Recognition
, which created a new category of “same-sex partner” which would eventually lead to the federal government extending more rights to same-sex partners that heterosexual couples already had including child-tax benefits, tax breaks on RSPs, etc.
- Still defined marriage remained “union of man and women to the exclusion of all others”
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Bill C-16
- Added gender-identity and gender expression to the list of prohibited grounds of discrimination under the Canadian Human Rights Act.
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Bill C-4
Bill C-4, a federal bill that amends Canada’s Criminal Code by creating new criminal offences related to conversion therapy, came into effect. The new offences include knowingly causing another person to undergo conversion therapy, promoting or advertising conversion therapy, and receiving financial or material benefit from conversion therapy.
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Sexual Orientation
- Describes how an individual’s sexual desires are “oriented” or patterned in relationship to the gender system.
- Three components: attractions, behaviours, and identities.
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Queer
indicates a nonnormative sexuality, gender, and/or sex, blurring the lines between these categories
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Two- Spirit or Two-Spirited
- The term reflects complex Indigenous understandings of gender roles, spirituality, and the long history of sexual and gender diversity in Indigenous cultures. Individual terms and roles for Two-Spirit people are specific to each nation.
- As we have seen, in Canada and the US, people in power and members of society have viewed sexual orientations deemed nonnormative as dangers to personal morality and the broader moral order of society.
- Some societies enforce norms around sexuality by controlling public images and discussions of same-sex sexual orientation.
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The social construction of ‘childhood’ and ‘adolescence’
- In medieval society the ideas of childhood and adolescence did not exist.
- These life periods are not simply accepted as biological givens or obvious social facts.
- 'Childhood' and 'adolescence' are seen as being interpreted, debated, and defined in processes of social action.
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- The social construction of childhood has led some
romanticize children as embodiments of innocence.
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Children as Citizens
- Until the sexual revolution of the 1960s, children were considered "non-persons" under the law - the property of their parents.
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Developmental Thinking about adolescence
- Developmental thinking tends to pathologize youth.
- 'Troublesome' adolescent social behaviours are often attributed to individual biological factors such as the effects of puberty, ‘raging hormones,’ etc - rather than being recognized as rational responses of resistance to the many social constraints placed on youth.
- Pathologize youth that adolescence is a difficult stage. Requiring management to get to stable adulthood.
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Collapsing adolescents and Children in discourses about sex
- Fear, anxiety, and shame have been in close proximity whenever children and sexuality are brought together within the same frame.
- These is usually associated with fears about children’s premature encounters with the adult world of sexuality and with the loss of their innocence.
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Child Sex Panics
- Are a result of widespread fear and anxiety around child sexuality.
- Work to directly regulate and performatively produce acceptable images of childhood as innocent, pure, vulnerable, incapable, and incompetent (Angelides, xiv).
- Have a discursive strategy of placing child sexuality and agency under erasure.
- Reflect deeper and broader social anxieties.
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Post- WWII Moral Panics Over Comics
- Comics became understood as taboo, a part of adult culture that youth should not have access to.
- Adult anxieties about what was depicted in the comics: graphic representations of women's bodies, sexual innuendos, detailed stories about crime, and women committing crime.
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Fredric Wertham
- German-born American psychiatrist who wrote "Seduction of the Innocent."
- Believed that crime comics were the root cause of juvenile delinquency.
- Particularly critical of Wonder Woman whom he believed frightened little boys and destroyed the future of American womanhood, had bondage subtext, and that her strength and independence made her a lesbian.
- Critical of Batman and Robin for representing a lifestyle that promoted a gay relationship.
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The Comics Code (1954- 2011)
- The Comics Code Authority was born in 1954, conceived in a moment of public hysteria and spawned by the comic book industry’s fear of government censorship.
- A stamp of approval placed on comics considered wholesome and educational.
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Crime Comic Laws Canada
- Section 163, 1b of the Criminal Code of Canada made it a criminal offence to "possess, print, publish, or sell a crime comic" until 2018.
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Moral panics about Rock n' roll
“Even before the arrival of Elvis Presley’s gyrating pelvis, fears about Rock ’n’ Roll were brewing from the transgressive collision of Afro-American rhythm and blues, white youths, and sex — all during the fraught racial politics of 1950s America”
(Clifford Williamson).
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Racism Fuelled Moral Panics around Rock N’ Roll
- In the 1950s there was an irrational fear that young black and white kids would get together over this music that had a rhythmic, primitive, sensuous beat.
- Societal fears were mostly about sexuality and race mixing.
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Roots of age of protection/consent laws
- By the 19th Century, the separateness of childhood had become entrenched in Victorian ideology, and a greater capacity for emotional involvement in the welfare of the child and increased parental authority was being encouraged within the family.
- Central to this new relationship was the denial of certain types of behaviour between an adult and a child, with sexual contact specifically excluded.
- ·It is within this history of the "child as innocent" that the age of consent laws were passed through most parliaments in the Western world.
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Social Purity Movement
- Began in the 19th Century.
- Emerged alongside other moral reform movements at the time including abolitionism and the temperance movements.
- Rooted in Christian morality, aimed to preserve feminine virtue - which was intimately linked to sexuality and sexual purity.
- Preached abstinence and made abortions illegal.
-
- Reformists believed that they were protecting young women from prostitution, abortions, contraception, and male predators.
- The movement tried to heavily control female sexuality by deterring women from participating in sexual activities. It contributed to the notion that a woman’s “purity” corresponded to her value and self-respect.
- The focus was almost entirely on middle class and upper-class white women, and especially disregarded minority women.
- A primary tactic of reform was an education in purity. Emphasized the danger of "sexual vices."
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Eugenics
- Belief that human race could be improved through selective reproduction.
- Encouraged passing on "desirable traits."
- Achieved through sterilization of those deemed "deficient."
- Linked to Nazi Germany and scientific racism. Helped support the notion of racial hierarchies.
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Really About Protection of Childhood Innocence?
- A common theme within narratives of protection from social purity and sexual hygiene movements is that these discourses and concerns expressed are rarely about children themselves.
- Instead, the fervour over childhood sexuality is often a metaphor for larger social disquiet around issues of cultural insecurity, such as urbanization in purity reform and the reaffirmation of racial purity and the institution of marriage and heterosexuality in the sexual hygiene movement.
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News Visibility- “Politics of Substitution”
- In the 1970s, associating children (or young people) with particular crimes elevated the crime into news visibility (Jenkins 1992; Jewkes 2010) in what Philip Jenkins called “the politics of substitution.”
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Technopanics
- A moral panic that centres around a specific technology.
- The recent focus of technopanics seems particularly narrowed in on the intersection of online spaces, digital technology, and teenage sex.
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The ‘Cyber-Paed’
- Internet use spiked in the late 1990s and this brought a new set of fears about how dangerous strangers might use this new technology to lure and sexually exploit children (Kohm 2020).
- The news media created the monster of our age with the ‘cyber-paed’ and orchestrated what some criminologists might term a moral panic about both cyberspace and paedophiles.
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The Canadian Centre for Child Protection (Cp3) and claims-making power
- Scholars argue that C3P has managed to execute a media strategy that has positioned them as the authority that people and organizations turn to on the issue of online sexual exploitation of children (Karaian 2012; Kohm 2020).
- C3P carefully controls the crime narrative around online child exploitation in Canada making it difficult for claims-makers to challenge the organization’s authority on the issue.
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Youth Sexting
The term sexting refers to the creation and sharing of personal sexual images or text messages via mobile phones or internet applications. Most understand sexting to include a consensual element and to be different than non-consensual intimate image sharing.
