SOC 104 Chapter Notes -Ben Fine, Border Gateway Protocol, Nutritionism
Document Summary
Sex and gender are related but different categories. Gender inequalities present cultural and historical variations. Although men are seemingly the beneficiaries of patriarchal social structures, like other ideologies that justify inequality patriarchy is not beneficial to all men, nor reproduced by men alone. Sex refers to the biological and anatomical differences between females and males. Sexual orientation is a preference for emotional-sexual relationships with members of the opposite sex (heterosexuality), the same sex (homosexuality), or both (bisexuality). Problems with binary thinking: the need to look at sex and sexual orientation as a continuum not just as an either/or category. Heteronormativity assumes that all normal people are heterosexual. We see certain types of behaviour as normal, natural, and inevitable. Gender is a social distinction based on culturally conceived and learned ideas about what constitutes appropriate appearance and behaviour for males and females. We learn gender-appropriate behaviour through the socialization process.
