LIR 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Yin And Yang, Gender Binary, Masculinity
19 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
LIR100-08
03/12/18
Masculinity vs. femininity
- Most criticized issue
- Binaries in culture, one has to be privileged, further reinforces something already found
to be a problem- implies it supports strong gender binary when in fact things are more
fluid
- Very few people are extremely feminine and extremely masculine
- Because of problematic dynamics, you are going to be dismissive of one side
- Hofstede’s perspective is there is a strong tendency around the world for men to be more
competitive and women to be more nurturing
- Hofstede himself is from one of the most feminine societies in the world, not asserting
misogyny or men dominance because he is proud of being from feminine side
Chart
- Mixed with power distance dimension
- Scandinavian countries are feminine
- Canada falls in the middle of the masculine and femininity
- Canada closer to the middle than USA who is closer to masculine
- Self-control required for nurturing
- All cultures ask should we be more assertive or more modest
- Important to be more modest and let more people discover for themselves
- Tough vs. tender
- No culture is completely tough or completely tender
- Dutch are not so tender that they don’t put people in jail but have figured out how to have
society function so well that there is not enough prisoners for jails
- Cannot be dismissive of more tough, achievement situations
- Important to have toughness in cases of life and death if you can save a lot of people,
competition brings innovation, many of the luxuries we enjoy have grown out of
environmental competition
- When people’s well-being is on the line, competition is a good answer
- Masculine societies have certain features: emotional gender roles are enforced, in these
masculine societies gender binary is more rigid and enforced, if you’re a male in
masculine society it is less likely to show emotions/cry, talk about poetry etc.
- Females who don’t feel enthusiastic, tendurous are still expected to act that way
- Men and women are expected to be assertive- hypocrisy for women who aren’t assertive,
men are not masculine
- Feminine society- emotional gender roles are more fluid, both men and women are more
modest about their achievements
- Critique- thinking of different dynamics, one extreme that favours polarization and one
extreme that favours everything in the middle
- Symbol- balance
- Yin Yang dimension
- Historical principle- elephant of the room, Scandinavian countries were Vikings which is
more masculine, more achievement domains, conquering people, burning villages,
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Document Summary
Binaries in culture, one has to be privileged, further reinforces something already found to be a problem- implies it supports strong gender binary when in fact things are more fluid. Very few people are extremely feminine and extremely masculine. Because of problematic dynamics, you are going to be dismissive of one side. Hofstede"s perspective is there is a strong tendency around the world for men to be more competitive and women to be more nurturing. Hofstede himself is from one of the most feminine societies in the world, not asserting misogyny or men dominance because he is proud of being from feminine side. Canada falls in the middle of the masculine and femininity. Canada closer to the middle than usa who is closer to masculine. All cultures ask should we be more assertive or more modest. No culture is completely tough or completely tender.
