Chapter 9: Constructing Gender and Sexuality

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• Chapter 9 Constructing Gender and Sexuality

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What is Sex? What is Gender?

• Although the terms sex and gender are often
  used interchangeably, sociologists differentiate
  between the two.

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What is Sex? What is Gender? (contd)

• Sex refers to an individuals membership in one
  of two biologically distinct categoriesmale or
  female.

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What is Sex? What is Gender? (contd)

• Gender refers to the physical, behavioral, and
  personality traits that a group considers normal
  for its male and female members.

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Essentialist Approach to Gender Identity

• Essentialists see gender as biological and
  permanentit is a simple, two-category system.
  Your chromosomes, hormones, and genitalia
  determine your identity.

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Constructionist Approach to Gender Identity

• Most sociologists use a constructionist approach
  and see gender as a social construction and
  acknowledge the possibility that the malefemale
  categories are not the only way of classifying
  individuals.

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Gender Inequality

• Gender inequality can be found in all past and
  present societies.
• There are several sociological theories that
  attempt to explain why this inequality has
  persisted in contemporary societies.

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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 (contd)

• According to Talcott Parsons

• Men were more suited for an instrumental role
  (the person who provides the familys material
  support and is often an authority figure).
• Women were more suited for an expressive role
  (the person who provides the familys emotional
  support and nurturing).

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Theories on Gender Inequality (contd)

• Conflict theorists
• Believe men have historically had access to most
  of societys 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 (contd)

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

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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 (contd)

• Families are usually the primary source of
  socialization and greatly impact gender role
  socialization.
• Social learning theory suggests that babies and
  children learn behaviors and meanings through
  social interaction and internalize the
  expectations of those around them.

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Gender Role Socialization (contd)

• 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 (contd)

• 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 (contd)

• 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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Sex, Gender, and Life Chances

• Sex and gender affect almost every significant
  aspect of our lives. Even lifespan is different
  based on sex!

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Sex, Gender, and Life Chances

• Women are disadvantaged in institutional settings
  in our society. Women tend to
• Do a disproportionate amount of housework
• Earn less on average than their male peers at
  work
• Remain more likely to live in poverty

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Sex, Gender, and Life Chances (contd)

• This has led to a situation called the
  feminization of poverty, which is the economic
  trend showing that women are more likely than men
  to live in poverty, due in part to the gendered
  gap in wages, the higher proportion of single
  mothers compared to single fathers, and the
  increasing cost of child care.

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Female-to-Male Earning Ratio
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Sex, Gender, and Life Chances (contd)

• Second Shift is a term that describes the unpaid
  housework and child care often expected of a
  woman, even after she completes a day of paid
  labor outside of the home.

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Sex, Gender, and Life Chances (contd)

• Even our language and vocabulary tend to reflect
  a hierarchal system of gender inequality.

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The Womens Movement

• Feminism is the belief in the social, political,
  and economic equality of the sexes and the social
  movements organized around that belief.

• In the United States, the history of the Womens
  Movement can be divided into three historical
  waves.

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The Womens Movement (contd)

• The first wave was the earliest period of
  feminist activism and included the period from
  the mid-nineteenth century until American women
  won the right to vote in 1920. The campaign
  organized around gaining voting rights for women
  was called the suffrage movement.

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The Womens Movement (contd)

• The second wave was the period of feminist
  activity during the 1960s and 1970s, often
  associated with the issues of womens equal
  access to employment and education.

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The Womens Movement (contd)

• The third wave is the most recent period of
  feminist activity and focuses on issues of
  diversity and the variety of identities that
  women can possess.

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The Mens Movement

• The Mens Movement, called male liberationism,
  was a movement that originated in the 1970s to
  discuss the challenges of masculinity.

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The Mens Movement (contd)

• Although originally broadly sympathetic with
  feminism, the mens movement has now split into
  the mens rights movement (a group that feels
  that feminism creates disadvantages for men) and
  the pro-feminist mens movement (a group that
  feels that sexism harms both men and women and
  wants to fundamentally change societys ideas
  about gender).

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Sexual Orientation

• Sexual orientation is the inclination to be
  heterosexual (attracted to the opposite sex),
  homosexual (attracted to the same sex), or
  bisexual (attracted to either sex).

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Sexual Orientation (contd)

• Is sexual orientation a continuum rather than a
  few simple categories?
• Those who are asexual may simply reject any
  sexual identity at all.

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Homophobia

• Homophobia is a fear of or discrimination toward
  homosexuals or toward individuals who display
  purportedly gender-inappropriate behavior.

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Kinseys 7-point continuum

• Scale based on both feelings of attraction
  sexual behavior
• Distinctions between gay and straight are not as
  clear cut as many believe them to
  becontradicting common sense notions of fixed
  orientation

Fig. 9.2 Kinseys continuum of sexual orientation
(adapted from Kinsey et al., 1948, p. 638).
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Vocabulary-

•  Heterosexism Attitudes and practices that
  value heterosexual people or relationships over
   non-heterosexual ones
• Heteronormativity - Cultural processes that
  construct heterosexuality as natural and normal
  while homosexuality is constructed as deviant
• Homophobia - Hatred or fear of homosexuality or
  of individuals who identify as LGBTQ

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Discussion

• What stereotypes of lesbian, gay, bisexual and
  transgendered individuals have you gotten from
  the media? How do you think this impacts your
  own levels of hetersexism or homophobia?
• Do you think that societal changes are necessary
  before we see changes in the portrayals of LGBT
  individuals in the media? Or do you think that
  more accurate portrayals will bring about change
  in social attitudes?

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Structures Disadvantaging LGBTQ Citizens

• Marriage
• Housing Discrimination
• Hospital Visitation
• Adoption
• Employment Hiring/Firing
• Legal Protections/Hate Crimes
• Economic Benefits taxes, property transfer, etc.

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Homosexuality Legal Homosexuality Illegal Dark
Blue Marriage Orange Heavy PenaltyLight
Blue Other Legal Partnership Red Up to life
in PrisonAqua Foreign marriages
recognized Maroon Up to deathGray No
recognition
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DiscussionHeterosexual Questionnaire

• Did you find the questions hard to answer? Were
  some harder than others? Which? Why?
• How did the questions make you feel?
• What does it say about our society that LGB
  people are frequently asked similar questions?
• Heterosexual Privilege
• Privilege an advantage, right or immunity
  attached to a particular social position