3: Gender, Sex, Sexuality, Race, and Colonisation in Sport

Flashcards covering key terminology and sociological concepts from KINS 1160 Week 3, including gender, sex, sexuality, race, and colonisation in the context of sport.

Gender

Cultural expectations about behaviour, attitudes, and appearance that are imposed on, and internalized by, people.

Sex

Classification that divides humans into groups based on a combination of their reproductive capacities, genetics, and hormones.

Intersex

A person in whom sexual differentiation is ambiguous.

Transgender

An umbrella term that refers to people whose gender identity does not align with the sex assigned to them at birth.

Gender Identity

A person’s internal and individual experience of gender, which is not necessarily visible to others and may or may not align with society's expectations based on assigned sex.

Gender Expression

The way gender is presented and communicated to the world through elements like clothing, body language, and hairstyle.

Attraction (Sexual Orientation)

A person’s potential for emotional, spiritual, intellectual, intimate, romantic, and/or sexual interest in other people.

Gender Ideology

An interrelated set of ideas and beliefs used to define masculinity and femininity, identify people in terms of sex and sexuality, and organize social relationships.

Hegemonic Femininity

The dominant set of ideas about what makes a woman in terms of behaviour and appearance, conventionally featuring qualities such as being docile, submissive, and sexy/sweet.

Hegemonic Masculinity

The dominant set of ideas about what makes a man in terms of behaviour and appearance, emphasizing qualities like physical strength, toughness, and emotional control.

Patriarchy

A system of power, including social institutions, which functions to subordinate women and children while privileging men.

Heteronormativity

The social and cultural privileging of heterosexuality over other forms of attraction, gender identity, and gender expression, often assuming everyone is heterosexual unless proven otherwise.

Toxic Masculinity

Behaviors that diminish women, children, and other men, stemming from a rigid view of manhood focused on dominance, aggression, and emotional suppression.

Biological Determinism (Essentialism)

A framework that explains human social behaviour as a product of human biology, assuming all men are distinct from all women based on biological differences.

Social Constructionism

A social science framework that explains behavior as an outcome of social and historical forces rather than biology alone.

Sex Segregation

The organization of sport where events are divided by sex, often seen as the most powerful way to foster and maintain gender differences in sport.

Ethnicity

A cultural heritage based on traditions and history, such as customs, language, and beliefs, which people use to identify a particular population.

Race

A population of a group of people believed to be naturally or biologically distinct from other populations based on physical traits like skin colour and hair type.

Scientific Racism

A pseudo-scientific belief that empirical evidence exists to support or justify racial inferiority or racial superiority.

Racism

An ideology and practice based on the premise that certain racial groups are inherently superior to others.

Racialized

The process by which a society imposes a racial identity on an individual or group of individuals.

Structural Racism

Entrenched policies and practices within an institution or society that result in and sustain unequal access to resources, opportunities, or racial disparities.

Interpersonal Racism

Racism that occurs between individuals, including overt acts of discrimination like racial slurs and microaggressions.

Critical Race Theory

A sociological framework that provides a critical lens to examine racial injustice and inequality as they relate to the categorization of race, law, and power.

Racial Ideology

Culturally shared ideas and beliefs used to give meaning to physical traits and evaluate people, often linking traits like skin colour to intelligence or character.

Intersectionality

A term coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989 to examine how biological, cultural, and social categories like race and gender interact on multiple levels to lead to oppression and inequality.

Colonialism

A system where a foreign state dominates Indigenous Peoples for the purposes of exploiting their labour and securing access to their lands.

Settler Colonialism

An enduring set of unequal power relations where settlers attempt to displace Indigenous societies and stay permanently, replacing them with settler society.

Assimilation

The loss of a minority group’s cultural identity as people become absorbed into the dominant culture.

Reconciliation

Establishing and maintaining a mutually respectful relationship between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people, requiring an awareness of the past and action to change behaviour.

Decolonization

The process of deconstructing colonial ideologies that position Western discourses as superior and non-Western discourses as inferior.