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[Meer zien]Voorbeeld 3 van de 16 pagina's
Voorbeeld 3 van de 16 pagina's
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Voorbeeld van de inhoud
Lecture 13:Gender & sexuality Race & ethnicity
General sociology:
Gender & sexuality:
Gender VS Sex:
● Sex = physical or biological characteristics that determine whether one belongs
to the female sex or male sex
● Gender = social, cultural, psychological differences between men and women
based on socially constructed norms of masculinity and femininity
○ How are people brought up
● Just as whiteness was long an ‘unmarked’ ethnic category, considered the default
or benchmark, so maleness was long considered the ‘unmarked’ or ‘ungendered’
category and gender studies would focus on women as the ‘other’ category
Gender roles:
● Gender socialization is the learning of gender roles through family, peers, state,
mass media
● Children are born with a sex from which gender identities are formed through
the existing (often stereotypical) norms and expectations corresponding to their
sex
Social constructionism
● Social constructionism goes against biological or evolutionary explanations of
gender differences
● It is argued that biological differences between the sexes are ‘culturally
elaborated’ in society
● While these biological difference are often obvious, the way they are linked to
gender-stereotypical expectations is not
○ Society adds the stereotypical expectations
● While it is not true (as book says on page 249) that Western cultures assumed
there was only one sex before mid 18th century, it is true that women’s bodies
were often seen as inferior versions of men’s
Sexual practices:
● Historically, in the West the church would call for controlling one’s sexual
behavior
● Doctors (instead of church) in the 19th century tended to back up these ideas by
claiming that, e.g., masturbation would cause lots of harm
● Sexual norms were/are starkly different for men and women
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, ○ Men could have mistresses, women should not be one, etc. (double
standard)
● And historically/geographically norms differ a lot
○ Greeks idealized gay (pedophile?) sex and bisexuality, preferred body
types differ strongly, repression comes and goes (often with religion)
● 1940s research in USA showed sexual behavior to deviate a lot from more
puritan norms
○ Lots of premarital sex, multiple sex partners, homosexual experiences
● Heterosexuality / homosexuality was a less clear-cut dichotomy than was
assumed
● While the sample may have been biased towards people happy to report on their
sexual behavior, the study did help to make homo-/bisexuality more acceptable,
no longer seen as a mental illness and no longer illegal
● Sexuality and sociology
● Sexuality is about aspects of the body and desire that are linked tot the erotic
● Sexuality is of interest to sociologists as it is:
○ Symbolic and meaningful
○ Linked to power
● Sexuality is often regulated by law, religion, kinship and other institutions
● Thus it is defined what is ‘good’ (e.g., heterosexual relations within marriage) or
‘bad’ (incest, SM) in a specific context
Symbols of sex:
● Humans have sex for other purposes than mere reproduction
● We use it to express love, to bond, to establish our (gender) identities, to exert
power over others
● Having transgressed biology, we can think of sexuality in terms of scripts, or
guidelines that help define the who, what, where, when and why we have sex
● Sexuality requires a lot of subtle rule-following, from initial contact to the sexual
act itself
● These scripts exist at the personal, interactive, and historical level
Gender inequality and feminisms:
● Gender is still a relevant source of social stratification
● Liberal feminism: advocate legal and political equality, against sexism and
discrimination, through legislation, working gradually within the existing social
system rather than acknowledging systemic oppression of women
● Socialist/Marxist feminism: more explicit conflict perspective, focusing on link
between capitalism and patriarchy (through private property owned by men),
where women are seen only as consumers and housewifes / mothers of future
workers; wish to end ‘domestic slavery’ through more radical change than liberal
feminists
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, ● Radical feminism: take on patriarchy and traditional family constellation as the
root of the exploitation of women
○ Structural causes should be tackled:
■ Abolition of the nuclear family?
■ Sexual harassment / domestic violence are part of systematic
oppression
■ Men determine conceptions of beauty and sexuality, turn women
into sexual objects
● Critique: patriarchy is a very general notion suggesting this has always existing in
essentially similar ways and based on sex rather than gender. Alternative; gender
regimes
● Black feminism: much feminist thought came from white women whose
experiences cannot be generalized just like that
○ Intersectionality of race and gender (and class?)
● Black women have to deal with discrimination based on gender and race
○ In their experience, race is often more dominant
● Postmodern feminism: difference and otherness are ‘celebrated’, there is no
overarching cause or explanation, focus on language by deconstructing binary
concepts and recasting opposites in positive terms
Queer theory:
● This theory argues that identities are not fixed, objective or real entities, but
rather constitute a specific discourse
● For example, homosexual identity as we know it today was not available to gay
men/women before 20th century as it was not part of the dominant discourse on
sexuality back then
● But such identities should not be essentialized, as any such move would keep
binary oppositions intact
● Like postmodern theory, this is a very cultural approach while a more materialist
approach might offer better, more realistic insight into the actual living
conditions or people who often do not experience their identity as free-floating
as suggested here
Transgender rights and feminism
● Transgender rights are still controversial in many parts of the world or among
conservatives
● Some feminists believe the inclusion of trans women in the category of women is
unacceptable
● Especially if people can change their gender identity while remaining physically
male
● They argue they cannot become female, putting the female body (sex?) central
stage again
● Others believe that gender and sex should be more explicitly separated,
preferring to speak of ‘persons with wombs’, ‘people who menstruate’ etc.
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