Culture and identity

Culture

Marshall: culture is everything in human society which is socially rather than biologically transmitted

Jenks - culture as ‘the whole way of life of a society’

• Culture consists of the beliefs, behaviours, objects, and other characteristics common to the members of a particular group of society. Through culture, people and groups define themselves and conform to society’s shared values.

• An example of culture, as shared practices, could be seen through the US celebration of Independence Day on the 4th of July

• Culture is socially developed and socially transmitted: we learn our culture through the process of socialisation

British culture examples

Frequent use of ‘sorry’, ‘please’, ‘thank you’, sarcasm, cheap alcohol, Christian holiday, fish and chips, football, Sunday roasts, commonwealth

Other culture examples

India – Diwali/ Hinduism, USA – thanksgiving/ Independence Day, Chinese New Year

Mass culture

• Ku: cultural products manufactured by entrepreneurs and media companies in modern capitalist societies which are produced for mass consumption

• App: television programmes like love island, pop music, popular literature such as Harry Potter

• An: increases inclusion and solidarity, prevents marginalisation -> sense of belonging

Folk culture

• Ku: the every day practices of ordinary local peoples, often rooted in long-standing traditions dating back to the pre-industrial era

• App: morris dancing in England, Mongolian throat singing, Choctaw (Native American) story telling

• An: fosters a strong sense of identity, community belonging, and continuity with the past

Global culture

• Ku: process of globalisation has led to greater cultural homogeneity. Mass cultures becoming more influenced by ideas from different nations.

• App: Coca Cola, McDonald, Nike, Disney

• An: has created a form of cultural imperialism where western culture influences dominate across the globe

Subcultures

• Ku: smaller group of people or a break off group that shares its own norms, customs and values, distinct from those of the main culture of a society, while still existing within it. It is often referred to as a “culture within a culture”

• App: goths, chavs, emos, far right subcultures

• An: create their own identity and sense of belonging

High culture

• Ku: refers to that which is deemed to be superior in taste and associated with the privileged intellectual elite, the wealthy and educated upper- and upper-middle classes. High culture is seen as something special and something of lasting artistic, literary or intellectual value worthy or preserving.

• App: museums, theatre, art galleries, opera houses, the plays of Shakespeare

Socialisation

Socialisation is the process of learning acceptable norms and values for a particular society. It is a continuing process whereby an individual acquires a personal identity and learns the behaviours and social skills required for life situations. Sociologists distinguish between primary and secondary socialisation.

Primary socialisation

• Talcott Parsons (functionalist) says primary socialisation is the first stage of socialisation which occurs between birth and around 3 or 4 years old. It is when a child learns the basic norms, behaviours and values such as walking, talking, basic language etc. The agent of socialisation at this stage is almost exclusively the parents/guardians.

• For Parsons, children at this stage learn the particular values of their family and local community, rather than the universal values that they learn in later socialisation.

• Secondary agencies of socialisation, such as mass media, may be increasing in importance. Some commentators, most notably Palmer and Postman, have expressed anxiety at the quality of the socialisation experienced by children viewing television, reading teenage magazines and surfing the internet.

• There have been studies of so-called feral children, that is "wild" or unsocialised children who have not been through the standard process of primary socialisation. Such case studies include Oxana Malaya and Genie Wiley. Generally, so-called feral children are children who have suffered extreme neglect, but are still likely to have received some socialisation, even though it is of a hugely negative, harmful and inadequate sort.

Primary socialisation and identity

Baumeister notes that family socialisation provides children with identity. A very young child has no life apart from its role in the family and so a child will believe that the family will love and care for it so long as it does what it is supposed to do. Social roles, particularly the roles played by parents, provide children with blueprints for action - examples and illustrations of how to behave that they can then copy.

Primary socialisation and social control

• Morgan suggests that a great deal of socialisation is concerned with social control and encouraging conformity. This can be illustrated in a number of ways:

  • Parents often use sanctions to reinforce and reward socially approved behaviour and discipline and punish ‘naughty' behaviour.

  • Sanctions encourage the development of a conscience in the child. They learn 'good' and 'bad'. Socialisation is seen to be successful when the costs of parental punishment outweigh the benefits of deviant actions, so the child exercises self-control. This is the first step to independent action - action not controlled by parents.

  • Morgan suggests that the function of toilet training is to instil in the child some sense of control over their bodily functions so that the child is accepted into wider society as a 'civilised' being. Similarly, children are taught 'civilised' norms such as politeness and table manners.

  • Children internalise cultural expectations of what being a boy or a girl entails and generally conform to the traditional feminine and masculine gender roles.

Secondary socialisation

• Secondary socialisation is the second stage of socialisation which occurs after learning the basics of primary socialisation and it continues for the rest of someone's life. It is when the individual continues to learn norms and values from a range of agents.

• Secondary socialisation continues throughout our lives as we continue to learn new things and adapt our behaviours to different places and over time. Because culture changes and the norms and values of society change, they are not universal, we can never stop being socialised.

Role of peer groups in secondary socialisation

• Handel distinguishes between socialisation agents, those such as teachers and parents who may be actively seeking to socialise others, and peer groups. He suggests that peer groups among children operate differently than those for adults because:

  • The children play a part in making the rules rather than those passed down to them by other people

  • They are more concerned with immediate gratification

  • They may also have different standards and values than adults

• Some sociologists, most notably Sue Heath have suggested that friendship networks are becoming increasingly important as agents of socialisation in the period known as young adulthood. This period is characterised by moving in and out of a variety of independent living arrangements eg. Halls of residence, flat sharing, moving home to parents. Cote suggests that in young adulthood, peer groups or friendship networks eventually become more important than relationships with parents as a source of knowledge about how to live one's life.

Role of workplace in secondary socialisation

• Different workplaces will have different norms, values and customs which we have to learn when we join any new job.

• Occupational peer groups (colleagues): The workplace is another important source of peer-group relationships. Our experience at work teaches us not only skills and work discipline, but also the informal rules that underpin work, that is, the tricks of the trade. We may also be influenced by our membership of more formal work-based organisations to behave in particular way.

• For example, membership of a trade union may produce a collectivist outlook, in which the person puts the interest of the group before their individual interests, whereas membership of a professional organisation, such as the Law Society or the British Medical Association will make clear how a professional should behave in practice.

• The importance of peer groups helps to demonstrate that individuals can play an active role in their own socialisation, e.g. in small groups or by joining together with other peers to exercise power through things like trade unions.

• Some sociologists would argue that the workplace is becoming much less important as a source of socialisation as people tend to change careers and jobs much more than in previous years when people's identity was more fixed.

Role of mass media in secondary socialisation

• Media can be used to make sense of the world, provide information we need to make sense of events in our everyday lives and allows people to construct their identities.

• Marxists are critical of the mass media because they argue that its responsible for indoctrinating people into the values of capitalism. Some see it as creating a mass culture which is harmful by creating false needs. This theme has been picked up by modern commentators such as Steve Barnett, who argues that media output in the UK that once encouraged a critical outlook, such as quality drama, documentaries and serious news coverage, has gone into decline and is being increasingly replaced with dumbed-down light entertainment like reality shows and soap operas. However, critics would point out that the audience is active and does not simply accept media messages.

• Philo, Miller and Harper claim that the media do have a strong influence on socialising audiences. For example, in studies of audience attitudes to benefit claimants, most of the sample were well aware that the media often portrayed claimants as 'scroungers' and most of those in the study were strongly affected by this view. Only a minority of the sample, who had direct experience of claiming benefits, either through themselves of via close friends and family, were likely to be less influenced by the coverage and reject the idea that most benefit claimants were lazy and a burden on the tax payer.

• It's important to note that the role of the media in socialisation may have with the development of social media. Media messages are no longer simply passed from media professionals to audiences, but audiences can take a much more active role in the media and therefore are much more active in the socialisation process.

Media representations of upper class

• Highly socialised, snobby, wealthy, superior/ untouchable, entertaining

• Eg, kardashians, bridgerton

Media representations of middle class

• Wealthy families, nuclear families, idealist

• Eg modern families

Media representations of working class

• Neglectful of children, entertaining/ comedic, labours

• Eg Simpsons, Derry girls, Malcolm in the middle

Media representations of the underclass

• Druggies, benefit scroungers, low lifes, marginalised

• Eg shameless, Jeremy Kyle

Upper class identity

• The old upper class is made up of the aristocracy who got their wealth originally from ownership of land.

• The new upper class started to form in 19" century and made much of their wealth from mining and industry.

• According to Roberts, the upper class develop a common identity and, to some extent, culture, through the operation of what is sometimes called 'the establishment'. They tend to meet each other at social events such as the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race, the Lord Mayor's Banquet, pheasant shoots and the Chelsea Flower Show. Often, they are members of the same exclusive London clubs.

• There are close connections between upper class families due to high rates of inter-marriage. Many members of the upper class share a similar educational background, having attended schools such as Eton and Harrow and elite universities like Oxbridge. These institutions mould students and are likely to promote values of conservatism, including respect for tradition.

• John Scott notes that conservative values of tradition and acceptance of privilege, hierarchy and authority are regarded as particularly important aspects of upper-class identity. Upper-class tastes generally focus on high culture like. classical music, theatre, opera and ballet. Other leisure activities involve distinctive upper class lifestyle such as debutantes' balls, hunting, shooting and sports like polo and rowing.

• The upper class is therefore exclusive and relatively closed to outsiders - something which is known as social closure - Mackintosh and Mooney. This is reinforced by parents encouraging children to choose partners from other upper-class families and by the practice of sending children away to boarding schools.

Middle class identity

• Broadly used to describe workers who don't work with their hands - rely more on their intellectual abilities. Savage describes 4 types of middle-class identities:

  • Professionals - doctors and lawyers. Have had long and successful education and they value cultural assets like knowledge, qualifications, achievement, experience of higher education and altruism (they see themselves as serving a higher purpose in society).

  • Managers - CEOs and retail. Generally less qualified than professionals and more likely to have worked their way up from the shop or office floor. This group generally defines their identity in terms of its standard of living and leisure pursuits.

  • Self-employed owners of small businesses - business owners. Surveys suggest that they believe people should stand on their own two feet rather than the welfare state. Have great faith in hard work and discipline.

  • White-collar or clerical workers - clerks and secretaries, for example, have traditionally been seen as having middle class identity despite often being the children of manual workers, because their pay and working conditions were superior to manual workers. However, introduction of technology such as computers has led to their pay and status declining. It's suggested that they now have more in common with the working class.

• Despite these differences, sociologists such as Roberts suggest they do share some similarities - such as an emphasis on career success. A middle-class identity can be seen to exist, mainly focused on the home. The middle-class values home ownership: more likely to have mortgages and live in the suburbs. They are generally a commuting class. They also generally encourage their children to do well in education. Their children dominate the top streams of state schools, get the best GCSE results and are likely to stay on and do A Levels. They generally believe in the concept of meritocracy - working hard wilk earn rewards. And they're more willing than other social groups to defer gratification - work hard with a future mindset rather than need success in the immediate here and now.

Working class identity

• Manual work helped to inform the traditional working-class identity which was dominant for most of 20th century. It is still very influential in some parts of UK today.

• Working-class people strongly identify with each other partly due to dangerous and collective nature of jobs - factories made up of thousands working together and only a few supervisors. They was a strong sense that the world was divided into 'us' and 'them'.

• Traditional working class also had a strong political identity - they saw the Labour Party as representing their interests.

• They also had close-knit communities made up of extended kinship networks. Adult children often lived close to their parents and saw them regularly. Mutual support from numerous atives in terms of childcare, financial help and finding work.

Decline of working class identity

• More recently, some sociologists have pointed out that this working-class identity is in decline. The numbers employed in traditional, heavy industries has declined. Consequently, manual workers now make up well under half the total workforce, so the economic basis for identity and solidarity has weakened.

• However, research by McKenzie has shown that among redundant steelworkers, a sense of belonging to the working class still exists and they also retain a strong sense of solidarity with former workmates. This study also saw showed that ex-steelworkers saw society as divided between a disadvantaged working class and a powerful ruling class. In recent years this awareness of class inequality has continued to be widely expressed in the form of hostility to bankers and other groups among the rich particularly those who pay very little tax.

• It may not be possible to generalise about the working class as a whole. As early as the 1960s research has identified a new sort of working-class identity, mainly found in the south-east, which saw work as a means to an end, that is, a wage rather than as a source of community status and identity (Goldthorpe). This working-class identity now tends to be found in the newer types of high-tech manufacturing industries. This new working-class has no heightened sense of classic justice or political loyalty. They now believe in individualism rather than collective or community action. They defined themselves through their families, their lifestyle and their standard of living, rather than through their work. They vote for which ever political party furthers their individual financial interests.

• Social groups cannot always have an identity which is desirable to them, sometimes a negative identity can be imposed on them whether they like it or not. Research suggests that a very negative identity - that of the chav - has been imposed on part of the working class by the media. Beverley Skeggs has researched the ways that reality TV and gameshows frequently portray the working class is immoral, lazy and uncultured.

• Programmes such as Snog, Marry, Avoid; Wife Swap and The Jeremy Kyle Show position the viewer as someone of higher class who should sneer at the primitive tastes and behaviour of their inferiors. Working-class people might try to distance themselves from this type of identity, but it may be difficult to do so if they are seen by others as members of an even lower class - the underclass.

Underclass identity

• Another type of working-class identity may be held by those who exist at the margins of society. A number of commentators, most notably Murray and Mount, have identified a supposed new form of working-class identity organised around depending upon state benefits.

• This supposed underclass are allegedly found on rundown council estates and in the depressed inner cities. This group consists of individuals such as the long-term unemployed, single parents, drug addicts and criminals.

• Morris suggests that the culture and identity of this underclass revolve around being workshy, feckless, anti-authority, anti-education, immoral and welfare dependent.

• Murray also suggests that the children of the underclass are being socialised by their inadequate parents into this culture.

• Jordan suggests that those living in poverty share the same ideas about work and family as everyone else. Surveys also show that the unemployed want to work in order to gain the respect of their loved ones and to regain their dignity.

• Simon Charlesworth's study of working-class people on a rundown council estate in Rotherham in 2000 suggest those at the bottom end of the working class are often misunderstood by other social classes because they experience negative self-identity and low self-esteem. He argues that their negative experience of education results in them devaluing themselves, restricting their ambitions to being disappointed in life, and hence turning to drink, drugs or antisocial behaviour as a form of compensation.

Leisure

The time in which individuals are free from other social obligations, especially work. Fulcher and scott suggest that this is normally a time of freedom, individual choice, self expression and creativity.

Parker: opposition pattern and leisure

• Physically hard and dangerous male dominated occupations, hostility to work

• Typical jobs: mining, deep sea fisherman, steelworkers

• Nature of leisure is a sharp contrast to work, central interest, opposition to work, opportunity to escape from the hardships of work, eg working men’s clubs

Parker: neutrality pattern and leisure

• Boring and routine work, with little job satisfaction, leading to apathy and indifference to working

• Typical jobs: routine clerical workers, supermarket staff

• Nature of leisure has nothing much to do with work, leisure for relaxation with home and family

Parker: extension pattern and leisure

• Work involves high levels of personal commitment, involvement and job satisfaction

• Typical jobs: professionals and managers, eg doctors, teachers, social workers and business executors

• Nature of leisure is work related because work is interesting and demanding, there is a blurred distinction between work and leisure. Work extends into leisure time and may be used to improve work performance. E.g. business executives eating out with clients, teachers running school trips.

Social class identity learned in education

• Education - school processes reinforce class differences

  • Teachers have different expectations, depending on the class. Teachers have higher expectations for middle class students, and lower expectations for working class students.

  • Becker – working class students labelled as failures

  • Rist – studied the pygmalion effect in school. Working class students were labelled negatively by teachers and ended up having a worse performance.

  • Gilborn and Youdell – educational triage, working class students are seen as hopeless cases

Social class identity learned in family

• Family – during family socialisation children internalise class specific norms, values and behaviours

  • Bernstein – working class use restricted code -> labelled negatively

Social class identity learned in media

• Media – mass media transmits powerful images, stereotypes, values and lifestyles associated with different social classes

  • Cohen – moral panics -> underclass

Social class does shape identity

• Values: sugarman working class fate, work - meritocracy

• Self identity: underclass and working class have low self esteem, middle class and upper class have good self esteem and satisfaction

• Behaviour: anti school subcultures, working class criminal subcultures, underclass retreatist subcultures

• Language: bernstein speech codes, language can indicate intelligence - restricted code may signal low intelligence and working class will internalise this

• Leisure: Parker - economic capital, the establishment

Working class identity in decline - deindustrialisation

• Mac and Ghaill: the decline of industrial labour created a “crisis of masculinity”

• Decline in manual labour as it moved abroad where the workers have poorer pay

• Causes a crisis of masculinity where males have to go into office jobs which they need education for

• This weakened the pride and strength of the working class - Miller’s focal concerns - ‘toughness’

Working class identity in decline - rise of individualism

• Crook, Pakulski and Waters: class is no longer a significant source of identity in contemporary society

• Rather than identity being derived from work or production it has come to be derived from leisure or consumption.

• Postmodernists suggest that identities have become much more fluid and changeable, and people can now choose, pick and mix, chop and change any identities they want from a range of different lifestyles presented to them through the mass media, and by the choices they make in their leisure activities and the lifestyles they express through their consumer spending. For postmodernists consumer culture has replaced class culture as the major influence on people's identities.

• Political alignment - for decades the working class have aligned with the Labour Party “new labour” 1997 (Tony Blair) as it focused on inequalities such as aiming for no child in poverty. However since 2024, there has been a decline in labour voters and the working class feel less represented. There has been a political shift to reform who via media (moral panics and deviance amplification spiral) blame unemployment, debt etc on immigrants. Due to the rise of individualism, working class are fragmented in their ideology, priorities and therefore social class is less important to this identity as they vote for what benefits them as individuals.

Working class identity in decline - identity shaped by consumer choice

Bauman: we live in a consumer society where identity is flexible and chosen

Gender

Refers to the cultural, socially constructed differences between the two sexes. It refers to the way a society encourages and teaches the two sexes to behave in different ways through socialisation. Sociologists argue that gender is socially constructed rather than biologically determined. Both our status and our gender identity depend on the culture of our society.

Sex

Refers to the natural differences between men and women, such as differences in generals, internal reproductive organs and body hair.

Gender learned in family

• Girls and boys are brought up differently from the moment they are born. In Britain they are, for example, commonly dressed in different colours, blue for a boy and pink for a girl. This may seem a trivial observation but these differences in clothing elicit powerful differentiating responses from adults.

• Gender role socialisation involves the learning of gender codes, which generally result in social conformity to expectations about appropriate gender behaviour. These include:

  • colour codes for example, dressing boys in blue and girls in pink;

  • appearance codes for example, we learn what dress, hairstyles, cosmetics and jewellery or appropriate for males and females;

  • toy codes for example, gender specific toys give us clues about our expected future roles;

  • play codes for example, boys may be expected to play boisterously whereas girls may be expected to play in more calm ways;

  • control codes for example, boys and girls are subjected to different types of social control especially when they reach their teenagers, with girls often being interrogated more closely about their social life, boyfriend, and son, the boys.

Gender learned in education

• Hidden curriculum

• Francis → boys as disruptive in classrooms

• Labelling

• Banyard - sexual harassment

• Oakley - verbal appellations, different activities, canalisation, manipulation

Gender learned in media

• Billington argue that the mass media have portrayed masculinity and dominant and femininity as subordinate. Women have been portrayed in a narrow range of roles on television.

• Connell - hegemonic masculinity

• Symbolic annihilation of women

• Easthope - representations of men

• Dworkin

Gender does shape identity

• Self presentation: beauty myth, hypersexual archer

• Money: women work part time jobs so receive less income and consume less

• Colour coding: manipulation - boys wear blue and girls wear pink

• Behaviour: bedroom behaviour, mums leisure are central to children

• Language: verbal appellations, compliments causes us to consume beauty products

Changing female identities - education and the labour market

• Females are now doing better than males in education, and more positive role models are replacing traditional stereotypes in daily life and in the media.

• Women are becoming more successful than men in many areas of the labour market. The traditional stereotype of women as mothers and careers, is being replaced by role models of strong, independent women in all spheres of life. With women's growing labour market success, a woman no longer needs a man to achieve status in society.

• There is some evidence that this feminisation of the economy and the positive female role models led to what Wilkinson calls a genderquake- a radical change in attitudes towards feminine identity among more recent generations of girls.

• Sharpe's repeat of her 1970s survey in the mid 1990s suggests that girls' priorities have drastically changed, and education, careers and independence are now the defining features of young women's identity and seli-esteem.

Changing female identities - new wave girls

• Blackman - They were a popular academically able group of ten girls who shared an interest in punk and new wave music and a similar style of fashion; they wore Doc Marten boots, black trousers, T-shirts of various styles and over-sized jumpers.

• They were from working-class and lower-middle-class backgrounds and did not conform to the traditional expectations of femininity; they were able to resist masculine control, parental control and school control.

Changing female identities - women are now significant consumers

• There are signs that mass media products are increasingly being targeted at single women. This means that young women today are also likely to see consumption and leisure as key factors in their identity.

• However, writers such as Wheelahan say it is questionable whether these consumer freedoms really allow women to choose their own identities, or merely pressurise young women to conform to patriarchal identities that are both sexualised and sexist.

Changing female identities - the ladette

• One sign that the gender divide may be slowly disappearing is the growing similarity in modern society, between masculine and feminine identities. For example, today there is a female counterpart to the lad - the ‘Ladette'.

• Following in the wake of the lads the ladette seems equally willing to booze, swear and indulge her sexual appetites. As ladette culture has spread, new female role models have appeared in the media and they attract a huge following. They are admired for their sassy 'don't give a damn' attitude and their readiness to compete on equal terms with the lads.

• Jackson - A growing culture of "laddishness" among school girls is based on a fear of failure according to a study from Lancaster University. It was found that some girls are smoking, drinking, swearing and disrupting lessons for fear of being considered unpopular and “uncool".

Changing female identities - girl gangs

• There has been an emergence of increasingly violent girl gangs, and a 2006 World Health Organisation found that British girls were among the most violent in the world. It is likely that these high levels of violence among adolescent girls were linked to binge drinking and ladette culture. Judging by the similar values of lads and ladettes the gender gap seems to be closing.

• However: Bachelor (2000) - girl gangs. The findings from this girls and violence study support the view that violence by girls is not a major social problem. They found little evidence to suggest that girls are using physical violence to any great extent, since only a very small proportion of girls (5%) reported being routinely physically violent towards others. Perhaps most notably, they did not find any evidence of the existence of girl gangs. Not one of the 800 teenage girls that took part in the research claimed to be in a girl gang, nor did they know of anyone else who was a member.

• Muncie - saw concerns in the media about girl gangs as part of a moral panic. Muncie found that girls were depicted as loud, loutish, often drunk and disorderly, out of control and looking for fights. They were increasingly presented as a new source of 'youth problem'. Muncie also found that this led to more severe punishments of females in the criminal justice system - more females being given custodial sentences rather than cautions, for example.

Changing male identities - the new man

Since the 1980s there has been speculation about the emergence of a so-called 'New Man', who was allegedly more caring, sharing, gentle, emotional, sensitive in his attitudes to women, children and his own emotional needs and willing to do his fair share of housework. Love, family and personal relations and getting in touch with his own emotions were meant to be more important than achieving career success and power in family and society.

Changing male identities - meterosexual men

• A further area where gender differences seem to be converging is fashion.

• Traditionally, concern with fashion and personal appearance was seen as the province of women. 'Real men' by contrast were careless about how they looked or simply followed convention. However, this is changing.

• David Abbot describes big shifts in the fashion styles of young men over recent decades. It seems they are taking a keener interest in their clothes, hair and personal appearance. They are growing more confident over expressing themselves through the way they dress and groom (use of aftershaves, male perfumes, hair gel even make up). Nowadays, they are learning to get pleasure from what was traditionally seem as a feminine preoccupation with personal image

• 8% of cosmetic surgery is now carried out on men. Male identities increasingly revolve around their dress sense, their body image and the right look.

Changing male identities - crisis of masculinity

Mac an Ghaill claims that hegemonic masculinity may be experiencing a crisis of masculinity because of the decline of traditional industries and the resulting unemployment. Work essential to the identity of traditional men, and unemployment can escalate to a loss of self-esteem and status as well as a lot of identification with others. Younger males may see their future is bleak and solve your schooling and qualifications as a relevant to their needs.

Evaluating changing gender identities

• Gender identities may be changing and becoming much more fluid, with both men and women having a wider choice in gender identities available to them. Postmodernists suggest that people are now free to choose any identity they like, without the constraints of gender identities.

• Delamont is sceptical of claims that feminine and masculine identities have radically changed. Delamont notes that the mother-housewife role is still radically regarded as the most important identity for women and this is reflected in the fact that women, rather than men, are expected to take extensive time out of employment to nurture and look after children. Most studies of family life show that equality in terms of the distribution between childcare tasks is a myth.

• Moreover, studies of mass media representations suggest that women are over-represented in domestic settings as housewives and mothers, consumers and sex objects. Women are rarely shown in high status occupational roles and when they are, they are often portrayed as unfulfilled. Delamont argues that patriarchy is still deeply embedded in modern culture and suggests that consumption and choice are only temporary phases that young women go through before they settle down to the culturally expected paths of motherhood.

Natasha Walter - new hyper sexual culture

• Natasha Walter points out that while opportunities for women are increasing and women do have greater independence to form their own identities than in the past, new forms of sexism are creating problems for women.

• She suggests that a new hypersexual culture places a very strong emphasis on women's appearance and puts great pressure on women to conform. While women no longer need to base their identities around mother and wife, patriarchal culture demands that they base their identities primarily around their heterosexual attractiveness.

Gender linked to leisure

• Ku: feminists have shown that women generally have less time and opportunity for leisure activities as they’re responsible for housework and childcare and often responsible for elderly relatives, the sick or disabled, on top of paid employment

• App: Deem found that women’s leisure activities were combined with aspects of childcare. This raises questions over choice of leisure activities or whether it’s unpaid domestic labour.

• An: this reflects and reinforces gender identities and inequalities

• Eval: however, these patterns are changing, with increased female participation in work and leisure, and more diverse representations of gender in media

Disability in the media

• Watson: due to increase in benefit fraud, this increased negative views on those with disabilitie

• Barnes: media stereotypes

  • Dependent/ burden

  • Object of violence

  • Pitiful or pathetic

  • Sinister and evil

  • Non-sexual

  • Laughable/ object of ridicule

Shakespeare - disability as socially constructed

• Disability is socially constructed by societies who do not take into account the needs of those who do not meet that society’s view of what is ‘normal’

• Disability is about the relationship between people with an impairment and a society which discriminates against them

Socialisation of disability in the family

• Treats child as delicate and treats them differently - ‘learnt helplessness’

• Miss alternative socialisation → relative to age

Socialisation of disability in the media

Discrimination against people with disabilities → negative stereotypes, eg weak and dependent → internalise this

Socialisation of disability in education

• Segregated in PE/ labelled → low self esteem

• Bullying → low self esteem

• SEN schools - limits socialisation → restricted to others with disabilities

Negative impact on disabled identity - master status

• Master status - one status of identity being the most significant to society and the self

• Scottt: learned helplessness - a person with a disability is less likely to believe that they can do the same actions as those able bodied

• Goffman: spoiled identity - it limits/ destroys attempts of creating own identity → significant mental health decline

• App: blind people developed a ‘blind personality’ - internalise the experts view that they should be experiencing psychological problems in adjusting to their lack of insight

Negative impact on disabled identity - stigma

• Negative prejudice and assumptions on an individuals characteristics

• App: Victim proneness - people assume those with disabilities are more vulnerable to target

• An: as individuals, become isolated, fear of becoming victim and in turn marginalised from society → develop anxiety/ depression

Negative impact on disabled identity - access

• Inaccessibility, such as lack of ramps, transport barriers, or assumptions about ability → restricts participation in everyday life

• Murugami: disabled people form identities around their abilities, but when society blocks access, identity becomes shaped by social barriers, not impairment

• An: disabled people become defined by what they cannot do, rather than what they can do, shaping identity around their limitation rather than choice

Positive impact on disabled identity

• Olney and Kim: disabled people felt positive about their disability despite their awareness that people without disabilities evaluated them negative → disabled people do not necessarily internalise stigma and are capable of actively shaping their own identities

• Murugami: many disabled people form their self-identity based on what they are able to do, rather than in terms of their disability. If their disabilities are blocked by societal and environmental barriers, such as poor access or lack of awareness, then the blame is directed at society rather than the impairment

• Marsh and Keating: challenges the concept of independence, arguing that very few people are truly independent and that dependence is a normal feature of social life

• Disability rights uk → advocates for rights

Nationality

The status of belonging to a particular nation

National identity

The feeling of being part of a larger community in the form of a nation, which gives people a sense of purpose and meaning as well as a sense of belonging

Functionalist view on national identity

• Durkheim: national identity had an important function in terms of social cohesion

• Suggests a shared identity leads to feeling social solidarity and togetherness

• People were socialised, particularly through education, into their nations history that made them feel a part of something bigger and to care about society

• Parsons: in honouring their country, patriots honour society itself

• Bellah: civil religion

Marxist view on national identity

• Suggests national identity can be used as a tool to maintain capitalism. By promoting national unity, the bourgeoisie can distract the working class from their exploitation and prevent them from uniting against their oppressors.

• False class consciousness - people are encouraged to develop a national identity rather than a class identity; that way they feel loyal to the ruling class in their country and blame their problems on foreigners

• Brexit → immigration → reform

Post modernist view on national identity

• Fragmentation → questions national identity due to global borders

• Globalisation has created a global culture therefore eroding national cultures and making nationality less significant

• In a globalised world, national identity has gained significance because of increased interaction with people of other nationalities. While globalisation has eroded some aspects of national identity it has also greatly changed national identity.

Feminist view on national identity

Suggests it marginalises women by prioritising male experiences and contributions. Feminists highlight how women’s contributions to nation-building and their experiences are often overlooked or undervalued.

Guibernau and Goldblatt: British identity shaped by geography

• Ku: Britain consists of islands

• App: British feel separate from the rest of Europe and doesn’t refer to themselves as European as oppose to the rest of the continent of Europe

• An: suggests British identity is shaped by geography and political narratives, showing it is socially constructed rather than natural

Guibernau and Goldblatt: British identity shaped by religion

• Ku: Christianity is the dominant religious identity in Britain. Many people who do not attend church on a regular basis still identify themselves as Church of England.

• App: celebrate religious traditions such as Easter and Christmas

• An: this shows religion is used symbolically to reinforce national identity, even among people who are not religious

Guibernau and Goldblatt: British identity shaped by war

• Ku: wars have reinforced the sense of ‘us’ vs ‘them’ and especially the British themes of self sacrifice, perseverance, fair play, and heroism

• App: public ceremonies and celebrations making events such as the end of the Second World War symbolise both individual sacrifice for the nation and the perseveration of the British way of life

• An: this demonstrates how national identity is reinforced through collective memory and ritual, not biological ties

Guibernau and Goldblatt: British identity shaped by empire

• Ku: Britain’s success as an imperial power in the 18th and 19th centuries brought economic success and a sense of pride and achievement in what was perceived as British superiority over other cultures and races

• An: this shows national identity is based on selective historical narratives, which can exclude minority experiences

Guibernau and Goldblatt: British identity shaped by monarchy

• Ku: the union flag and the national anthem is designed to take place the monarchy at the heart of British identity

• App: the outpouring of grief after the death of princess Diana illustrated very clearly deeply how many of the British feel about such symbols

• An: this highlights how symbols are used to actively create feelings of belonging, supporting the view that identity is constructed

National identity impacting behaviour

• Person may show national pride through food, fashion, national holidays

• Celebrate home country through the teachings at schools, at home with family

• Influences education due to it being embedded in the curriculum, and it teaching religious education

• Have national celebrations such as Christmas

National identity impacting thoughts and values

• Education teaches British values

• Can lead to hate crimes due to a “us” vs “them” mentality → stereotyping and prejudice

National identity impacting consumption

Buy things like flags and cultural foods to show solidarity

National identity shapes identity

• Brexit campaign posters - shows hostility, xenophobia, excludes EMG

• Extremism (EDL, reform uk)

• National identity provides belonging and stability

National identity doesn’t shape identity

• Waters suggests British identity may be under threat for four reasons:

  • Celtic identities - Welsh and Scottish identity has always been a powerful source of identity in those countries. This has been heightened by these countries having their own political assemblies and the success of the Scottish National Party, which aims to create an independent Scotland.

  • Globalisation - transnational companies and international financial markets mean British identity might be diluted because some British companies are taken over by foreign companies. There's also a concern that American culture is taking over the British high street with the expansion of countries such as Starbucks and McDonalds.

  • Multiculturalism - A survey by Modood of ethnic minority groups found that most of his second-generation sample thought of themselves as mostly - but not entirely - culturally and socially British. A survey conducted in March 2005 by ICM found that only 39% of minorities saw themselves as 'fully British'.

  • English identity - concerns have also been expressed about English identity. Research by Curtis and Heath suggests that the group who identify themselves as English rather than British has increased from 7% of the population in 1996 to 17% in 1999. This group are known as Little Englanders, with 37% of his total openly admitting to being racially prejudiced.

• Local areas are now seen as having more significance than national identity → people take pride in their local identity - can be seen through the use of dialects

• Postmodernists: fluidity, fragmentation, identities aren’t fixed

Ethnicity

Shared culture and history of a social group

Characteristics of ethnic identity

• Physical characteristics, eg skin colour

• Geographical links and identification with a mother country

• A common language

• Religious beliefs

• Traditions and rituals passed down the generations and experiences of racism

Afro-Caribbean identity

• Alexander argues: that there are many different ways of being Black. She studied youths who felt there were 'symbolic markers' of being black. Certain styles of dress, music, walking even talking, make them instantly recognisable as ‘black’.

• Modood: some African-Caribbean youth celebrated their skin colour as an expression of black pride and power in reaction to their experience of racial prejudice and discrimination from white society

• Sewell sees six factors in being important in shaping the identity of young African-Caribbean males in inner city areas

  1. Lack of positive father figures

  2. Negative experience of education

  3. Negative experience of life on the streets in terms of regular contact with the police due to stop and search laws.

  4. A perception that society is racists in that it discriminates against them, which is reinforced through their experiences in employment

  5. A celebrity driven consumer culture which implies that materialism in the form of designer goods is an all important and consequently possession of such goods is crucial in gaining respect from peers.

  6. A peer group pressure in the form of gang membership, which stresses the use of violence to demonstrate one's masculinity and to gain respect.

• Alexander - the art of being black: explored how young black Britons create their cultural identities. Claire
  Alexander rejects the common tendency to view black communities in terms of conflict, or as the focus of a problem; focusing in particular on community, ' class', social life, and masculinity.

• Nightingale - Black males and the paradox of inclusion: looked at Black drug-dealing subcultures and found that they were a result of the 'paradox of inclusion'. This means that young Black males in these subcultures turn to crime (behaviour that guarantees their exclusion from society) but, they do this because they wish to be included in what other members of society take for granted - material and financial success symbolised by designer clothing.

Asian identity

• Religion has a very important influence as an agency of socialisation in shaping the identity of young Asians. Modood found that 67% of Pakistani Asians in Britain agreed that religion was very important to how they lived their lives, compared to only 5% of young whites. Modood notes that religion permeates Muslim identity in Britain to the extent that it influences: dress codes, diet (only halal), education (increasing number of Muslim schools), male-female relations and family lifestyles.

• Alexander - the Asian gang: In recent years the British mass media have discovered a new and urgent social problem - the Asian gang. Images of urban deprivation and the underclass have combined with fears of growing youth militancy and masculinities-in-crisis to position Asian, and especially Muslim, young men as the new folk devil (a group which the media encourages us to be fearful of). This reimagination of Asian young men has focused on violence, drug abuse and crime, set against a backdrop of cultural conflict, generational confusion and religious fundamentalism.

• Song: Chinese families reinforce cultural traditions within children, eg parents are considered to know best the interests of their children; the role of the mother tongue is crucial, the children tend to be bilingual; children should be obedient, loyal and respectful

White European identity

• There has been increasing sociological interest in white European ethnic groups living in Britain with increased migration from this area as more countries join the European Union. Poland joined in 2004 and a significant number of Polish people moved to Britain. Most were in their 20s and they came to seek work. They joined an established Polish community in Britain who arrived as refugees around the time of the Second World War.

• Bielweska found members of the longer-established group had stronger Polish, ethnic identities. They ate Polish food and tended to live close to other ethnic Poles. By contrast, the newer migrants were not closely integrated into established Polish communities. Bielweska suggests that the differences are partly explained through globalisation. The newer migrants could maintain links with those in Poland through digital technology, as many thought they might return to Poland to live. More generally, she suggests they identify more as individuals than as members of an ethnic group. Their identities were based partly on loyalty to brands of consumption.

White British identity

• Hewitt found that some young whites inhibit an invisible culture. She studied youths in a deprived working class area of London. The young white boys felt a deep sense of unfairness because every culture seemed to be celebrated except their own. Emblems of white or English cultural identity were regarded with suspicion because of their association with far-right racist groups.

• Nayak - looked at 'white wannabes' - ethnically white people who assumed characteristics and interests of black culture, e.g. Eminem.

White ethnic identity in decline

• White culture is not celebrated → leads to them feeling invisible

• Nayak: “white wannabes”

• Hewitt: young white boys inhibit an invisible culture

Ethnic identity in decline - globalisation and inclusivity

• Society is more inclusive with events like Chinese new year → removes barriers for ethnic minorities

• Equality act 2010 encourages inclusivity

• Bielweska: members of the longer established group had stronger, polish identities whereas new migrants were not closely integrated into established polish communities - suggests that the differences are partly explained through globalisation

Ethnic identity in decline - hybrid identities

• Cultural hybridity examples - McDonaldisation, Coca Cola-isation

• Inter-marriages (especially between Whites and Afro-Caribbeans) have increased considerably. As a result, mixed race children now outnumber children born to African Caribbean couples.

• Cashmore: identified rap as the ultimate hybrid music form with no obvious point of origin

• Johal: found that some Asian youths adopted a ‘hyper-ethnic style’ - an exaggerated form of their parent culture which led to them ‘code switching’ - selecting certain aspects of their culture and mixing it with dominant culture in terms of fashion and music tastes

Ethnic identity in decline - changing representations and rise of individualism

• Hall: suggests society is moving towards a “post-ethnic” era where ethnicity is no longer as central in shaping identity - society is more diverse/ less of a majority

• Changes in media representations as there is less tokenism → now have more normalised depictions and there is less of a focus on ethnic identity

• Increasing numbers of Muslim schools

Sexuality

How individuals define themselves in terms of sexual and romantic attraction

Heterosexuality

• In the UK, heterosexuality has been traditionally defined as the dominant and ideal form of sexuality because of its links to reproduction. This is known as heteronormativity.

• One clue that suggests that heterosexuality is socially constructed, rather than being the product of biology, is the double standard that exists with regard to comparable male and female sexual behaviour. There is an assumption that males and females have different sexual identities. Males are supposed to be promiscuous, whereas females are supposed to be passive and more interested in love than sex. Because of this, women's sexual identity carries risks. Lees found that they may be subjected to being labelled a slag or a slapper by both men and other women if they are promiscuous.

Homosexuality

• Categorised in two main ways: gay (male-to-male) and lesbian (female-to-female).

• Homosexuality is sometimes termed a marginalised sexuality to reflect the idea that, historically, it has been represented as a form of minority practice existing "at the edge" of conventional sexuality. In this respect homosexuality has been a stigmatised identity - viewed and treated as abnormal. The persecution of gay and lesbian sexualities is reflected by the idea of being "in the closet"; one's sexuality is hidden from wider view and is something practiced "in secret" for fear of exposure.

Moral panics around LGBTQ+ identities

• A moral panic is when the media exaggerates or sensationalises an issue, creating widespread fear or concern that certain groups or behaviours threaten society's moral values. Cohen first used the term to describe how the media labels groups as "folk devils" - people seen as outsiders or dangers to social order.

• The media has often created moral panics around LGBTQ+ identities, especially during times of social change. For example, in the 1980s, the AIDS crisis was framed in the press as a "gay disease," fuelling fear and reinforcing negative stereotypes about homosexual men.

• This leads to individuals to hide their identity, eg Freddy Mercury

Stonewall riots

• There were regular police raids in gay bars which led to LGBTQ+ members protesting against them

• Evolved from a protest into a movement → shows collective consciousness

• Led to pride → individuals feel a sense of belonging

1967 partial decriminalisation of homosexuality

• Decriminalised homosexual acts between men in England and wales - only applied in private

• Brought sense of relief, however it reinforces self perception of being deviant or shameful

1988 section 28 banned promotion of homosexuality in schools

• Prohibited local authorities from intentionally promoting homosexuality or teaching to accept it as a “pretended family relationship” in schools

• Over 60% of youth reported self harm, 45% of trans youth reported suicide attempts

• Led to invisibility and shame, bullying and isolation

2003 repeal of section 28

• Section 28 was wiped

• Led to individuals feeling less isolated and more supported

Functionalist perspective of religion and sexuality

• Organic analogy → social order

• Primary socialisation → stability/ cohesion

Feminist perspective of religion and sexuality

Both religion and marriage is patriarchal → controls female sexuality

New right perspective of religion and sexuality

• Marriage = structure

• Religion is in decline due to secularisation

• Same sex marriage → married tax allowance