Chapter 4 – Gender and Sexuality - Glossary
Compulsory heterosexuality – the assumption that individuals should desire only
members of the “opposite sex”
Essentialists – observe male-female differences in sexual scripts, the division of
labour at home and in the workplace, mate selection, sexual aggression, jealousy,
promiscuity, fidelity, and so forth. They then interpret these differences as natural
and universal – naturally from biological differences between the sexes
Gender – encompasses the feelings, attitudes, and behaviours that are associated
with being male or female as conventionally understood
Gender identity – comprise the repertoire of behaviours that match widely shared
expectations about how males and females are supposed to act – a sense of
biological, psychological and social belonging to a particular sex
Gender role – to act in accordance with expectations about how members of their
gender are supposed to behave
Hostile environment sexual harassment – involves sexual jokes, comments and
touching that interfere with work or create an unfriendly work setting
Quid pro quo sexual harassment – involves sexual threats or bribery used to extract
sexual favours as a condition of employment decisions
Sex – refers to being born with distinct male or female genitalia and a genetic
program that releases either male or female hormones to stimulate the
development of one’s reproductive system
Sexual orientation – refers to the way a person derives sexual pleasure, including
whether desirable partners are of the same or different sex
Sexual pluralism – assesses sexual acts only by their meaning for the participants
Sexual scripts – are assumptions that guide sexual behaviour by telling us whom we
should find attractive, when and where it is appropriate to be aroused, what is
sexually permissible, and so on.
Sexuality – involves actions that are intended to produce erotic arousal and genital
response
Social constructionism – is the main alternative to essentialism. Social
constructionists 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. – Gender roles and scripts
emerge in response to the different social positions women and men occupy Socio-biology – is the best known variant of essentialism. It holds that all human
beings instinctually want to ensure that their genes get passed on to future
generations. However, the different reproductive status of men and women mean
that they have to develop different adaptive strategies. This gave rise to
“masculine” and “feminine” patterns of behaviour that presumably became
genetically encoded because of their adaptive value
Transgendered – when their gender identity does not exactly match the sex
assigned to them at birth. They blur widely accepted gender roles by, for example,
cross-dressing
Transsexuals – identify with the opposite sex from the one assigned to them at birth,
causing them to change their appearance or resort to a sex-change operation
Summary
- Three major socio-historical changes have led to the development of gender
inequality: long distance warfare and conquest, plough agriculture, and the
separation of public and private spheres during early industrialization
- Conscious sexual learning begins around adolescence in the context of firmly
established gender identities
- Receive little formal socialization regarding sexuality but sexual relationships
tend to be male-dominated as a result of the character of gender socialization
and men’s continuing dominant position in society
- Gender and sexual scripts defined the standards of beauty which are nearly
impossible for women to achieve – contributes to widespread anxiety about
body image – may lead to eating disorders
- Gender inequality and a sociocultural context that justifies and eroticizes
male sexual aggression contribute to the widespread problem of male sexual
aggression
- Mass media reflect and reinforce the relationship between heterosexuality
and male domination
- Social constructionism encourages sexual pluralism, which assesses the
validity of sexual activities in terms of the meanings of the acts to the
participants
Essentialism
- Differences in sexual scripts are natural and universal
- 3 most popular variants: brain studies, socio-biology and Freudian theory Brain Studies
- Difference in brain structure = differences in behaviour and achievement
between males and females
- Men use the right side of their brain more – better at math, art, music, etc
- Bigger connection between hemispheres of the brain in women – edge in
language, emotions
- Men are better at jobs that require more logic and visual-spatial manipulation
– scientists, mechanics, pilots, etc
- Women – empathy, intuition and language skills – raise children, teachers,
social workers, nurses
- the gender division of labour is natural because it is structured by the
difference in brains rather than by society
Socio-biology
- E.O. WILSON - leading exponent in socio-biology
- Wilson argues that all human beings instinctually want to ensure that their
genes get passed on to future generations – different reproductive status of
men and women means they have to overcome different adaptive problems
and develop different adaptive strategies – patterns of behaviour we now call
“masculine” and “feminine” – people who possessed these characteristics
resolved the problem better – the most feminine women and the most
masculine men had a better chance at surviving and passing on their genes –
therefore, over time, masculine and feminine behaviours became genetically
encoded – genetic factors also trigger biochemical processes that further
enhance sex differences through varying levels of hormone production in
men and women
- DAVID BUSS – evolutionary psychologist
- Buss argues that four adaptive strategies or “universal features of our
evolved selves” govern the relations between the sexes and contribute to the
preservation of the human species - 1) men want casual sex with women 2)
men treat women’s bodies as men’s property 3) men beat or kill women who
incite male sexual jealousy 4) women are greedy for money (sofia, I think we
were talking about this the other night, seems people think similarly to you. it
is kind of true but I hate the think that people are that shallow) – women
must be selective because they only produce a small number of eggs – men
have lots of sperm so can be promiscuous but also possessive of partners so
that only his offspring are produced – men fight for women, development of aggression – women are greedy cause they look for someone who can
support dem babies
Freudian
- Sexuality is the main human instinct – motivates human behaviour and
accounts for the development of distinct gender roles
- Age 3-5 – boy becomes preoccupied with penis – unconscious fantasy to
sexually possess his mother – resents baby-daddy cause baby-daddy has
sexual possession of mother – boy has seen other females naked and fears
that his father will castrate him for wanting his mother (Oedipus complex) –
boy represses feelings in the unconscious part of personality – repression of
feelings allows boy to begin identifying with his father – leads to the
development of a strong masculine personality
- Young girl begins to develop a feminine personality when she realizes she
lacks a penis – sees a penis – recognizes as superior counterpart of their own
small and inconspicuous organ(um sorry that’s fucking bullshit, vagines are
where its at) – develop envy for penis – seen it and knows that she is without
it and wants to have it (freud was fucked in the head) -“penis envy” – girl
develops sense of inferiority – angry at mother for cutting off the penis that
she once must have had (WHAT THE FUCK FREUD?!) – rejects mother and
develops unconscious sexual desire for her father – eventually realizing she
aint never gon have a dick, the girl begins to identify with her mother and
therefore in some fucked up way, acquiring her father’s penis – women never
resolve their penis envy so they are somehow immature and completely
dependent on men cause of vaginally induced orgasm (Electra complex)
- Gender differences in personality and behaviour follow from the anatomical
sex differences that children first observe around the age of 3
Critique of Essentialism
1. Essentialists ignore the historical and cultural variability of gender and
sexuality – societies and cultures change rapidly with no apparent genetic
change
2. Essentialists ignore the fact that gender differences are declining rapidly and
in some cases have already disappeared – the differences in the male and
female brain are not making it harder or easier for either gender to do jobs
better
3. The research evidence employed by essentialists is often deeply flawed
4. Essentialists tend to generalize from the average, ignoring variations within
gender groups 5. Essentialists exaggerate the degree to which gender differences are
unchangeable – women stop preferring men with high paying jobs when they
have those jobs themselves – equality
6. Essentialists offer explanations for gender differences that ignore the role of
power – differences may actually occur BECAUSE of power – not only that the
differences give power
Social Constructionism
- Gender differences are not the product of biological properties
- Gender and sexuality are products of social structure and culture
- Culture – shared systems of meaning with people’s values and beliefs – male
domination is widely accepted in all societies today
- Social structure – the way major institutions (families, economy etc) are
organized – most today are patriarchal in the way that they reinforce
inequalities between women and men
- 3 main socio-historical changes that led to the development of gender
inequality
1. Long-distance warfare and conquest – women and men used to be equal –
women were worshipped cause of fertility – then some idiots came along and
decided that men were god who said women should be ruled by men – laws
reinforced this – traditional Judaism, Christianity, and Islam embody idea of
male dominance - conquest and war was more for men – increased their
power
2. Plough agriculture – strong adults in the field all day –private ownership of
land – women restricted by giving birth – men would work and own the land –
passed father to son
3. The separation of public and private spheres – industrialization – work moved
away from the home – women stayed in the home or private sphere while
men went into the public one – “natural” division of labour until women
entered the public sphere
Chapter 5 – The Mass Media – Glossary
Alternative news sources – representatives of social movements and of social
advocacy groups whose viewpoints often diverge from those of dominant social
groups and their representatives
Communication – denotes the transmission of knowledge, ideas, meanings and
understandings Computer-mediated communication (CMC) – refers to social interaction or
information gathering through the use of computer technology
Critical perspective – takes the view that the media reinforce dominant ideology
and the position of the dominant class and other powerful groups. The theory has
two variants. One sees dominance as more open to challenge and resistance than
does the other.
Cultivation analysis – examines the long-term effects of television viewing on beliefs
about social reality. People who watch tv a lot tend to see the world and more
violent and dangerous than it really is and tend to be more fearful
Cultural imperialism – a situation in which one society’s media exert an
overwhelming and unilateral influence over another society’s culture
Dominant ideology – comprises the interests, perspectives, viewpoints and
understandings of the dominant class and other powerful groups
Framing – the process of defining the boundaries of a representation and the
organization of its contents. Framing pertains to the section of what is included and
excluded, what is accentuated and what is played down
Hegemony – the exercise by the dominant class of cultural leadership by using the
media to naturalize and universalize dominant ideology and to absorb the challenge
of alternative and oppositional points of view
Horizontal integration – the ownership of different outlets in a media chain for
purposes of sharing resources
Interactive media – technology mediated means of communication in which the flow
of messages is two way – like a phone
Mass media - – technology mediated means of communication in which the flow of
messages is largely one way – from a single point of transmission to a large
dispersed audience – like tv
Multimedia chains – corporations that own and control a string of media operations
or outlets in different fields of mass communication – like radio, magazines, tv
News values – include criteria such as immediacy, personalization and
extraordinariness in terms of which news media define and represent events and
issues
Official news sources – authoritative voices – politicians, police etc – that the media
use to define the meaning of an event or issue
Ordinary news sources – sources that do no derive from organizations or groups
such as eyewitnesses or victims of news events and issues Representation – the use of language, visual images, or other means of
communication to portray something in a coherent and meaningful way that others
can understand
Space-biased media – print, radio etc – enable communication over extended
distances – messages are not long lasting – promote territorial expansion together
with secular beliefs and military political forms of power
Time-biased media – stone carvings etc – convey durable messages but are
relatively immobile
Vertical integration – refers to a media corporation’s ownership and control of the
means of production at all stages of the production process – from producing
newsprint to delivering newspapers
Web 2.0 – new media technologies like facebook – that feature user-generated
content, information-sharing, collaboration and interactive texts
Technological Perspective/Theory
- HAROLD INNIS – distinguished time-biased and space-biased media – two
different types of media foster different arrangements of institutions and
cultural values – time = promoting religious forms of belief – space – assist in
territorial expansion, empire building, secular forms of power and culture –
create different types of social division and conflict – elite that controls the
means of communication try to use it to preserve interest – excluded struggle
against the elite and stimulate the development of new forms of
communication
- MARSHALL MCLUHAN – relationship between communication and
institutions + culture was mediated by the way that forms of communication
change our sense perceptions and cognitive processes – from oral to print to
tv to internet – print removes face-to-face communication – fosters
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