quiz 4 soc200

Gender

  • “Walk like a woman, sit like a woman”

  • Gender: behaviors, personal traits, social positions that society attributes to being female or male (socially constructed), distinct from biological sex (physical)

  • Gender roles: patterns of behavior in which women and men engage, based on the cultural expectations associated with their gender

  • Gender identity: an individual’s specific definition of self, based on the person’s understanding of what it means to be a man or woman

  • “Doing gender”: sees gender as an accomplished activity- accomplished through the interactions one has with others. We are always “doing gender” even if we don’t know

  • Gender displays: demonstrations of behavior that communicate gender identities to others


Gender Socialization of Children

  • Pre-infancy: gender reveal parties

  • Can’t sociologically have a gender reveal party until they find out who they are, should be called a sex reveal party

  • Toddlers: boys allowed to walk; girls in strollers

  • Children: male children smarter than females

  • The Pink Dragon is Female: are halloween costumes about fantasy play for kids? “What would you like to be for halloween?” boys costumes were more active and girls passive with short skirts and dresses

  • Barbie ad: you can be anything

  • Aspirations: a 2005 UK survey of girls 15-19 years old, 63% model and 25% lap dancer as their ideal profession

  • “When i grow up I want to be a WAG”


Pay Gap

  • In the US in 2022, women made $0.82 cents for every dollar than men made

  • Controlled gap is $0.99 

  • Sports- world cup for men, they make way more than women ($38M men and $4M women)

  • Second shift: home-life work that women perform more than men, leisure gap

  • Is opting out a choice? Motherhood pull and workplace push


Consequences of Masculine expectations:

  • Mortality rates due to stress

  • Encourage violent behavior

Consequences of Female expectations:

  • Women who score as very feminine are more likely to be depressed

  • Quest for beauty leads to a negative health consequence



Theories on Gender

  • Structural functionalism: how do gender roles keep society functioning well. How ppl display their gender means we know how to interact with them and keep society functioning

  • Conflict: women and men are not equal, both genders don’t feel great all the time

  • Symbolic interactionism: how we show people who we are and interact with ppl based on that. Expectations of gender are different for men and women

  • Feminist theory: the social and political thought that lies behind feminist politics. The purpose is to help us understand the conditions in society and to envision the possibilities for liberating social change, not just for women

Sexuality

  • Sexuality: like gender, sexuality is not just biologically constructed, but is shaped by social and cultural factors

  • No one is fully masculine or feminine

  • Heteronormativity: the norms and institutional structures that enforce and presume heterosexuality as the only form of sexual expression and identity (also referred to as heterosexism)


Masculinity & Femininity

  • Masculinity: how men should act

  • Hegemonic masculinity: justifies the subordination of women and other marginalized ways of being men. Men's power over women

  • Toxic masculinity: some perceptions of masculinity is about domination, homophobia, and aggression. Toxic masculinity involves cultural pressures for men to behave in a certain way

  • Homosocial masculinity: emotional detachment, competitiveness, sexual objectification of women

  • Mixed messages between saving yourself for marriage but also be not weird like sexy

  • Don’t have sex until marriage: if you have sex, you’re a sl**, if you don’t you’re a prude

  • Women have less social and cultural power


Rape Culture

  • Normalizing and allowing rape

  • Objectification of women, victim blaming, sl** shaming, denial of impact of rape, usually suffer from depression and abuse

  • The men who rape don’t get jail as much, more about helping men than women (perpetuating heteronormativity and toxic masculinity)


LGBTQQIP2SAA- lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, queer, intersex, pansexual, twospirit (2S), androgynous, asexual

  • Lesbian: women attracted to women

  • Gay: men attracted to men, can also be used to describe people who are attracted to same sex

  • Bisexual: attracted to both men and women

  • Transgender: identify with a different sex than what they were assigned at birth, could identify as the opposite or nonbinary

    • Cisgender: assigned a sex at birth, and doesn’t identify as that sex and corresponding gender

  • Questioning: questioning where you are on the scale

  • Queer: term used for everyone in their community, like if someone doesn’t want to identify specifically as one of these things or they’re exploring

  • Intersex: someone is born with ambiguous genitalia or genitals that are both male and female. Occurs in about 1/2000 births, usually don’t know that they have something else b/c they’re chromosomes don’t match their genitalia or have surgery early on but doesn’t benefit the child, only psychologically harms them

  • Pansexual: attracted to people regardless of their gender (broader than bisexual, looks beyond a gender binary)

  • Two-Spirit: only for indigenous people, describes both masculine and feminine spirit

  • Androgynous: combo of masculine and feminine traits (gender fluid or neutral)

  • Asexual: not sexually attracted to anyone, low interest in sexual activities 


  • Pronouns are a matter of respect

  • Transmormon mini documentary: transgender person named Eddie is Mormon, born as a boy but identifies as a woman, didn’t even know about the LGBTQ community b/c she was Mormon in Utah. hope the church can accept her, physical vs. spirit


Statistics in the US 

  • 4.1% of adults identify as LGBTQ

  • 10.2% are married to same-sex partners

  • <3% of children under 18 live with same-sex parents

  • In the 70s it was considered wrong and in 2015 it was basically not wrong at all = views of same-sex relationships is changing greatly

  • 40% of homeless youth are LGBT (lack of accepting parents)

  • 3x more likely to experience mental health condition

  • Suicide is leading cause of death among LGBTQ youth

  • 4x more likely to attempt suicide

  • 38-65% of trans people experience suicidal ideation

  • Those rejected by family are 8x more likely to attempt suicide

  • Higher rates of substance abuse

  • In same-sex families: more egalitarian, share responsibilities, less power struggle in conflict


Recap

  • What is heteronormativity?

  • What is the difference between bisexuality and pansexuality?

Religion

  • Religion: a system of beliefs, values, and rituals about what a person holds sacred or spiritually significant. Teaches us how to care for everybody

    • Rituals: practices based on beliefs

    • Sacred: profane, holy, divine, supernaturalness 


Ted Talk Video 

  • religion is a part of the problems in the world

  • Extremism: religious related violence (extreme political/religious views)

  • Routine-ism: institutions or leaders are stuck in a place that are devoid of life and soul (as a rabbi, she sees love within people)

  • Religion is declining in the US as young ppl are uninterested in religion itself

  • Ecar: essence of the heart of their traditions and that now is the time for religion to be part of the solution

  • 4 commitments: wakefulness (need to be awake for social change), hope (greatest act of defiance against a culture of despair), mightiness, interconnectedness


Religion in the World

  • Atheism: belief that there is no god

  • Monotheism: belief that there is one god (mono). Ex. islam and christianity

  • Polytheism: belief of many gods. ex. Hinduism 

  • Animism: belief of sacredness of nonhuman beings (plants, animals, etc.)., like theres some aliveness 

  • Pantheism: belief that everything is god and all gods are valid. Merging of polytheism and animism

  • Totemism: belief in humans having a connection with a spirit being. Ex. native american tribes. Totem serves as the symbol of that relationship

  • Agnosticism: they don’t know, there may be a god, not saying there isn’t a god, it’s just not something possible to know

  • Nonreligious: more than 20% of american claim no religious affiliation, only 25% of those say that they’re agnostic or atheist


Theories on Religion

  • Structural functionalism: manifest functions is a big part of religion, religion promotes social cohesion but also comes with social control, sense of purpose

    • Video: religious people reduced their risk of mortality, lives healthier 

  • Conflict theory: can either be inclusionary or exclusionary, how does religion say who has power and who should have power, ex. pope as the chosen leader. Religion keeps people in their place, racial and gender inequality (women weren’t allowed to preach)

    • Video on protestant work ethic: calvinists believed they had to get into heaven thru their good work 

  • Symbolic interactionism: we use symbols and rituals to create sacred (ex. A warehouse becoming a church). Common symbols are the cross, communion, head scarves. 

  • Socialization: how to act in religious and non-religious settings, who to hang out with/date, sexual mores- when is sex okay, when to get married, how many kids to have, what to eat/drink, what is healthy/unhealthy, what medical attention is allowed


Recap

  • What are the four areas that Rabbi Brous thinks religious organizations should focus on growing?

  • What is an area that structural functionalism would focus on as they think about the sociology of religion?

Life Course

  1. Age: universal category for social expectations about out roles, means of self-identification, use it to understand how to interact with others

  • Chronological: born at a certain time, everyone is 1

  • Biological: age with respect to someone’s potential lifespan based on biological components, biological age may be older or younger than your chronological age

  • Social: refers to outside of you, what you should be doing at any given time (ex. at 15yrs old you should be in high school)

  • Psychological: behavioral capacities to adapt to changing demands 

  1. Period: the external factors that affect all age groups at a particular time. Different events that happen at a particular time but how they impact people is different

  2. Cohort: group of individuals who are experiencing the same event with a similar age group 

  • Timing: timing aligns with age cohort. What’s the optimal time for things to happen. We expect people to get married at the same time

  • Duration: how long something is happening, impacts your life course. 

    • Ex. great recession or being in an abusive relationship

  • Linked lives: your life is linked to other people (ppl you have a relationship with), when one thing impacts you it impacts the people around you

  • Cumulative (dis)advantage: if you come from advantage, your advantages grow. If you’re disadvantaged, you’re trajectory can’t take off as easily, you keep trending downward 


Childhood and Adolescence

  • It’s a time of intense socialization through norms and expectations

  • Sensitive/critical periods: times in ppls lives where they’re sensitive to environmental and developmental changes and stimuli. Most of childhood is just critical periods after another

    • Ex. expose your child to language learning at a young age

  • The idea of childhood is fairly new in the US (1900s): children have fewer expectations to do things and also less responsibilities 

  • Adolescence is also a fairly new category: a stressful period (ex. Moodiness, risk-taking behavior, conflict with adults), delaying and preparing for adulthood, ages 12-18, developed things like junior high and child labor laws 

  • Antisocial and delinquent behavior: getting in trouble is normal, can either be life course persistent or adolescent specific/limited


  • Adultification bias of black girls: different expectations for ppl of different races. Black girls face higher standards and punished b/c they’re held to a more adult standard even tho they’re kids. Adults viewed them as less innocent

  • Adultification: process of which a child or young adolescent matures at a faster rate than their peers b/c of they’re life experiences (ex. Katara and the water tribe)

    • Precocious knowledge: children know things beyond their years

    • Mentored-adultification: adult is engaged with child, mental adultification

    • Peerification/spousification: children take on adult-like responsibilities, parents might confide with children  

    • Parentification: children takes on parent-like roles to their own parent or their siblings


Adulthood

  • Adulting Video: making income and paying bills starts when they feel like they’re an adult. Feel like an adult at 25-30

  • What is adulthood: leave home, complete school, being financially independent, getting married, having kids (marriage and kids don’t count anymore as saying someone’s an adult so just look at the economic benchmarks)

  • Emerging adulthood 18-late 20s

  • Juxtapositions of early adulthood:

    • People can vote/join military at 18, but can’t drink until 21

    • Drive at 16, expensive to rent a car until 25

    • Full Time students are dependents until 24, and parent’s income is considered for financial aid but parents can’t access college records if their child is 18+


Recap

  • What are the 5 original areas that signify someone is an adult? Which are the 3 that are still used today?

  • What are the 4 stages of adultification?

Aging

  • “What age is old?” video

  • Gerontology: the study of the process of aging + the challenges facing older adults

    • Biological aging: primary aging- biological changes at the basic cellular level & secondary aging- controllable factors like exercise

    • Social aging: how people think about those who are older, what we do or do not expect from them

    • To age successfully- selection, optimization, compensation (SOC)

      • Selection: choosing what areas to focus your resources on as you can’t do anything anymore

      • Optimization: what areas will you grow in and optimize on those

      • Compensation: compensate for your losses and ensure the maintenance of future functions 

    • Successful aging: good physical, cognitive, and social functioning in old age. Do what you want with relative ease


Theories on Aging

  • Disengagement theory: aging is a natural process of withdrawal from active participation in social life

    • They disengage from social life and society disengages from them

    • Their roles change

    • This perspective fails to acknowledge how vulnerable and powerless adults are in their older years

  • Activity theory: older people benefit themselves and their society if they continue to be active

    • Their positive perceptions of the aging process are crucial to their ability to remain active

    • Ignores barriers to successful aging, not everyone can be active

    • Will give them fulfillment and happiness

  • Continuity theory: older adults make choices to maintain consistency in internal and external structures

    • Ignores those who cannot maintain consistency due to chronic illnesses or mental disorders


  • Double standard for men and women, who’s allowed to age and how, agism is real

  • Population pyramid tells us where to allocate resources


Demographic Transition
Stage 1

  • High fertility and mortality

  • Largely agricultural societies

Stage 2

  • Fertility stays high, starts declining, mortality declines quickly 

  • Population increases

  • Largely urbanizing societies

Stage 3

  • Low fertility and mortality

  • Population size stabilizes or grows slowly

  • Technology maintains a low birth and death rate