SOCIOL 2HH3 Study Guide - Fall 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Valley, Psychoanalysis, Jimmy Kimmel
12 Oct 2018
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SOCIOL 2HH3
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
Monday, June 18, 2018
SOCIOL 2HH3- Lecture 1
Three interrelated components: parts
1. Social construction of gender categories based on biological sex
2. Sexual division of labour whereby specific task are allocated on the basis of sex
3. Soicla regualtions of sexuaitly
a. Regultion of privelges, marginalizes other formsof sexuailty, particurlay non-
reproductive sexualities
b. Find that many individuals live in patriarchal gender systems, but patriarchal
systems are not universal and patriarchal systems do not advantage all men.
Social variables such as race age etc. need to be taken into account
Key terms:
● Patriarchy
●
○ Those ideal constructs of masculinity and femininity have an impact on us
whether we accept it or not
○ Ideology: these arrangements
● Invisibility of privilege
○ Not every individual man has more power over every individual woman
○ But we are looking at the larger collective level, men as a group almost always
hold more resources and power than women
● –Sociologically, status refers to a social position
○ Status is a category/position that a person occupies that is a significant
determinant in terms of how that individual is going to be defined/treated in
society
○ Ascribed status; status based on gender. Those ascribed positions are going to
impact every aspect of your life
○ Achieved status: based on your own merit
● –Role refers to the expected behavior of a person occupying a particular status or
position
Norms – Shared rules that guide behavior within a status
● Vary depending on where you’re living and your
Sex
● –Biological
○ The condition of being male or female
○ Sex dimorphism has to do with the division of sexes
● –Ascribed status
○ Because person is born into it
Gender
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
● –Social, cultural, and psychological traits linked to males and female through a particular
larger social context
● –Masculine or Feminine
● –Achieved status
● –emerge from a more socio-cultural standpoint
Sex dimorphism: division of society into two categories
● 1. Why is it that virtually every single society differentiates people based on gender?
● 2. Why is it that virtually every known society is also based on male dominance?
○ Why is it that men always get more. Why is division of labour always unequal.
○ Why are women's tasks valued equally, why is it that one gender does more.
○ –(Kimmel and Holler, 2017)
Biologically Grounded Theories:
● –“gender behaviour is ultimately a product of human biological nature” (Nelson, 2010:
46)
○ Sex determines gender
○ Believes it's not nurture but nature. It’s not the environment that leads to men and
women to different behaviours and attitudes, it’s biology. There's something
different about us biologically
● –Perspectives that emerge from this: sociobiology, evolutionary psychology and
psychoanalytic theory…(we speak to some of these in our time together)
● Edward O. Wilson, Sociobiology: The New Synthesis 1975, Harvard University Press
● “systematic study of the biological basis of all forms of social behaviour” (cited in
Nelson, 2010: 46)
How do sociologists respond to the sociobiological position?
● - while biology underlines human behaviour (for example the development of a brain and
highly developed cerebral cortex)
● -dispute / reject the mechanistic / reductionist tendencies of socio-biologists which state
that human behaviour can be reduced to human biology
“Social constructionist argue that gender differences are not the product of biological
properties, whether chromosomal, gonadal, or hormonal. Instead, gender and sexuality are
products of social structure and culture”
The power of Stereotypes:
● Stereotypes – oversimplified conceptions
● Gender Stereotypes
○ –Widely held beliefs about the defining characteristics of masculinity and
femininity
○ These stereotypes hold a very strong influence that we have of ourselves and of
others around us
○ –Best and Williams (1998)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Social variables such as race age etc. need to be taken into account. Those ideal constructs of masculinity and femininity have an impact on us whether we accept it or not. Not every individual man has more power over every individual woman. But we are looking at the larger collective level, men as a group almost always hold more resources and power than women. Sociologically, status refers to a social position. Status is a category/position that a person occupies that is a significant determinant in terms of how that individual is going to be defined/treated in society. Those ascribed positions are going to impact every aspect of your life. Achieved status: based on your own merit. Role refers to the expected behavior of a person occupying a particular status or position. Norms shared rules that guide behavior within a status. Vary depending on where you"re living and your. The condition of being male or female.
