SOC 2280 Lecture Notes - Tag Question, Hypercorrection, Hermaphrodite
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Published on 28 Jan 2013
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Sex refers to biological characteristics that distinguish females and males.
– Primary Sexual Characteristics are those biological distinctions between males and females related to
reproduction.
– Secondary Sexual Characteristics refer to physical distinctions between males and females that are not
directly connected with reproduction.
• Gender refers to the social and cultural characteristics that a society considers proper for its males and
females (i.e., masculinity and femininity).
• Gender Roles refers to roles and other expected behaviors that a society links to sex.
• Gender Identity refers to traits that females and males – guided by their culture – incorporate into
their personality
• Patriarchy – a form of social organization in which males dominate females through male control of
cultural, political, and economic structures
• Sexism refers to the belief that one sex is innately superior to the other.
• Androgyny – the possession of both masculine and feminine characteristics
• Hermaphrodite – a person who possesses both male and female sexual organs
• Transsexual – a person who believes that he or she was born with the body of the wrong sex
• Transvestite – a male who lives as a woman or a female who lives as a man but does not alter the
genitalia
Gender Socialization
• Gender is socially constructed and learned; we receive messages about the “appropriate” conduct for
males and females from many sources:
1) The Family
2) Children’s Toys and Games
3) The School
4) The Mass Media
5) Language
a) Structural (e.g., “Generic” he/man; placement of men before women; linguistic derogation of women;
invisibility of women; women as the exception)