SOC 105 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Margaret Mead, Human Capital, Gender Role
28 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Topic 6
SOC105
Sex
- The biological and anatomical differences between females and males
Defined by:
- Chromosomes: XX: Female- XY: Male
- Primary sex characteristics: the genitalia used in the reproductive process
- Secondary: the physical traits that identify an individual’s sex that develop at puberty
- Subjectivity: who do I feel that I am?
- Sex is a social construction
- Sex is a biological category but our conceptions and discourses around it are socially
constructed
Why the dominance of a two-sex model?
- Gender- expectations regarding proper behaviour, attitudes, and activities of males and
females
Heteronormativity: the assumption that “normal” sexual behaviour is heterosexual
Homophobia: fear of same-sex sexual orientations
Clip: “friends- the nanny”
2 sex model
comedy comes from patriarchal figure
Enforces sex and gender linkages
- Men must be masculine and women feminine
- Other combinations challenge patriarchy
- For example, males who are feminine or females who are masculine challenge the
legitimacy of patriarchal rationales; and trans gendering also can create a blurring of
these categories
- When we talk about sex were talking about gender but can be subject
- Gender- behaviour
- Male and female describe sex
- Masculine and feminine describe gender
Patriarchy
- A hierarchical system of social organization in which cultural, political, and economic
structures are controlled by men
Are there sex based differences?
“Pink brain/blue brain” by Lise Elliot
- There are very small “inherent” differences
- The largest difference is height
- Generally, the differences between males and females is smaller than the variance within
each group
- These small differences become socially constructed and much through socialization
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
- Brain neuroplasticity is connected to these magnifications
How is gender socially constructed?
Gender roles in North America
- Gender-role socialization
- Clips from “the opposite sex”
- Adventurousness in girls depends on presence of boys
- Girls are afraid of men from a young age
- Adventurousness depends on social constraint
- Parents are normally the first and most crucial agents of socialization
- Other adults, older siblings, mass media, religious institutions, and educational
institutions also exert important influence
Socialization-parents
- Children’s clothing and toys reflect the different gender roles
- Boys are encouraged not to play in girls games
- Chores in the home vary with gender
- Girls: care for siblings and domestic responsibilities
- Technology, outside work
Gender roles- social construct
- Gender roles evident in work and in how we react to others
- Margaret Mead found a variety of gender role combinations in the societies she studied
- For example, the women of the Mundugumor behaved in much the same ways as
“masculine” men behaved
- Behaviours were not biologically linked
- Forger society- hunter-gatherer
- Four societies
- Feudalist/capitalist society
- Most of society we have been forgers
Social influences
- There are other kinds of environmental influences
- Older brothers have very strong influence on their younger sister’s preference for boy’s
toys and athletics
- Upper-middle class families are most likely to support egalitarian gender relations
Cross-cultural perspective
- Every society has men and women who resist patriarchal gender role conformity
- Some societies are more accommodating than others
- Two-Spirit people: common in many North American native cultures in which males and
females feel much like their “opposite” gender
Postmodernist Feminism
- Discourses around sex, gender and sexual orientation are all totally social constructions
- Sex is as much as social construct as is gender
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
The biological and anatomical differences between females and males. Primary sex characteristics: the genitalia used in the reproductive process. Secondary: the physical traits that identify an individual"s sex that develop at puberty. Sex is a biological category but our conceptions and discourses around it are socially constructed. Gender- expectations regarding proper behaviour, attitudes, and activities of males and females. Heteronormativity: the assumption that normal sexual behaviour is heterosexual. 2 sex model comedy comes from patriarchal figure. Men must be masculine and women feminine. For example, males who are feminine or females who are masculine challenge the legitimacy of patriarchal rationales; and trans gendering also can create a blurring of these categories. When we talk about sex were talking about gender but can be subject. A hierarchical system of social organization in which cultural, political, and economic structures are controlled by men. Generally, the differences between males and females is smaller than the variance within each group.
