Gender, Sport, & American Society Midterm Vocab

Sex

Determined by genitalia, genes, secondary sex characteristics, hormones. Terms: male/ female/ intersex.

Gender

Expected behavior, appearance, roles. Socially and personally constructed; changes across time and culture. Terms: masculine/ feminine/ androgynous.

Sexuality

Expression of sexual behavior; influenced and limited by cultural expectations; part of identity. Terms: heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, asexual, pansexual, others.

Intersex

A person with one of a variety of physical conditions that may complicate sexual assignment.

Transgender

Somebody who changes their gender so it is different from that at birth. May or may not use hormones or surgery to change his/ her body.

Cisgender

Someone whose assigned sex & gender identity match.

Social Construction

Parts of the social world that are created by people as they interact with one another under particular social, political, and economic conditions.

Ideology

Interrelated ideas and beliefs that people in a particular culture use to give meaning to and make sense of what occurs in their social worlds.

Binary Gender Logic

The social and cultural framework that divides humans into either male or female.

Continuous Trait

A trait that exists to some degree in everyone.

Representation

How media texts present gender, race, ethnicity, national or regional identity, age, class, issues, or events.

Agency

Individual ability to make choices (about racial or gender presentation, relationship to controlling images, etc.) within certain limits.

The American Dream

Suburban house with a white Pickett fence , 2 or 3 kids, a dog, a car, etc. Enforced endless consumerism and the heteronormative whiteness.

Meritocracy

The belief that hard work leads to success; rewards go to those who deserve them. Problem: erases reality of structures of economic inequality; confirms the powerful should be in control

Homosocial

Describes a setting with all people of the same gender.

Homohysteria

The paranoid fear that homosexuals are everywhere, detestable, and you might be mistaken for one.

Inclusive Masculinities

A decrease in homophobia simultaneously permits an expansion of heteromasculine boundaries, so that boys are able to express physical tactility and emotional intimacy without being homosexualized by their behaviors.

Muscle Moll

A female athlete. (Moll: the girlfriend of a male gangster; a prostitute.)

Pace of Life Disabilities

Disabilities produced by ever growing demands on our bodies and minds.

Bigorexia

The fear of being too small (leads to muscle dysphoria).