Sociology - Sex & Gender Notes

What is Gender?

Gender is not biological; it's a category, a symbol, and an idea.
Gender can be ascribed but also achieved.
Gender is a category of associated behavior and traits.
Gender is often something we "do," not necessarily something we "are."
Biological sex (or just "sex") is a categorization based on biological factors like physical genitalia and genetic chromosomes (usually an ascribed status).
Gender role is a category of meanings and behaviors believed to be associated with biological sex, but which take on meanings of their own.
Gender categories & roles are socially constructed, like race.
Gender identity is the placement of the self into a category and personal connection with its meaning.

What Our Culture Says About Gender

The idea that "Men are from Mars" and "Women are from Venus" suggests we are so different that we are alien to each other.

Linking Sex and Gender

Masculinity is the set of norms and meanings associated with males, and femininity with females.
To fulfill our assigned gender roles, we attempt to achieve masculinity or femininity as ascribed to us.
Biological Determinism suggests that anatomical sex differences cause all gender differences.
There is a lot of individual variation across genders.
Consider how many ways all human beings are similar, or how men may have some feminine traits and women may have some masculine traits.

Social Construction of Gender

We believe gender categories have meaningful differences, and we learn this through socialization.
This is how gender is continuously socially constructed.
We re-enact the roles, but we never stop to ask why.
Some biological differences do exist, but there are many unfounded claims of causality.
Differences may be the result of self-fulfilling prophecies.
People decide the meaning of these differences, so even if we have some, our interpretation of them is not natural.
Historically and culturally, ideas about gender have changed.

Limited and Binary View of Gender

Society is attached to the binary view that there are only two genders. This is only one view.
Other societies have had more than 2 gender roles, and even in our own there are more than two gender identities.
Male and female gender cannot just be natural & unyielding if some people “do” gender differently.
Intersex refers broadly to those whose biological presentations are not clearly one category.
Transgender refers broadly to those whose identity or role may not agree with biology or assignment.

Gender Trouble

When people violate what we expect of these gender role norms, we often react with intolerance.
We have institutional mechanisms of reproducing gender roles so often and easily that they seem like natural law.
Laws, policies, and social behaviors in the past and present have reinforced and policed gender norms.
Examples of reinforcing gender norms: children’s toys, clothing, hair, media representation, shampoo.

Hegemonic Norms

A hegemonic idea is often taken for granted.
It is easy to believe this is just natural, because then we have to do less work to figure things out or fix inequalities.
The binary genders we take for granted, however, were not always “done” the same way historically.

Gender Inequality

Patriarchy is a system in which masculinity is typically associated with more power or resources.
When we do not question hegemonic gender ideology, inequality seems justified and nothing is likely to change.
Also, the interaction of gender with other intersecting group identities (race, class, career, family) becomes invisible.
Feminism is an ideology seeking social, economic, and political equality on the basis of gender.
This has expanded to include groups beyond just women.
Feminism also asks us to question problems of masculinity.

Stratification & Division of Labor

In our society, we divide types of labor tasks at home and at work into our masculine and feminine roles.
Think about the different types of chores boys and girls do.
We still link women more to home labor than workplaces.
In the public workplace, men on average earn more than women, hold more high-level positions, and occupy more of the types of jobs that pay better.
Women are less likely to obtain promotions, higher paying jobs, or get positive reviews – this is the “glass ceiling.”
Women who work outside the home are still expected to do more household work than men – this is the “second shift.”

Gender Pay Gap

The gender pay gap can vary based on career field.
There are differences in the kinds of careers men and women often choose to go into.
But is this choice just based on individual preferences?
Institutions like family, education, media, etc. can influence what we think are possible.
The idea that people may not be good at a job based on gender can create a “self-fulfilling prophecy” based on our beliefs.

Gender, Sexuality, and Power

People and institutions work to denote who is “normal” and what behaviors are acceptable.
We limit our ideas about sexuality (gay, straight, girl, boy, and more) based on normative behaviors and identity labels – these are not universal across cultures or over time.
Identity labels can be a cultural symbol and a tool.
They create a way to think about “like” and “different.”
They can also be used to justify unequal power.
“Intersectionality” suggests even “like” people have different identity combinations and experiences.

Sexuality and Sexual Identities

Sexuality: A combination of one’s sexual desires, behaviors, and their identity.
Sexuality isn’t just about: straight/gay/lesbian/bisexual.
Sexual Orientation is the gender one is attracted to.
Note that we define this in terms of our gender concepts!
We rely on category labels (like straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer, etc.) to communicate these ideas.
Sexual identity: A category or label that describes an individual’s self concept, typically based on attraction.

Sexuality and Gender

We assume sexual orientation is the result of (therefore caused by) one’s gender, which is the result of one’s sex.
Heterosexuality is seen as both normal and expected.
This is defined by concepts of sex, gender, and difference.
Heterosexuality has advantages in our society (and in most).
Heteronormativity is the assumption and encouragement of male-and-female relationships even without reproduction.
Homosexuality is often seen as an inverted (swapped) masculine or feminine role, but this is not necessarily true.

Stratified Sexualities

Our mainstream gender representations are built alongside and dependent upon heterosexuality.
Homosexuality is viewed as not-masculine or even feminine.
Men, boys, & our culture use symbols of homosexuality (like words) to attack other males in the interest of pushing them down and thereby getting ahead of them in competition.
Lesbian sexuality is most often accepted only when it can be sexualized from a male point of view.
Homosexuality is seen as threatening because it challenges our hegemonic version of masculinity.

Sexual Social Controls

Earlier policies stigmatized non-reproductive sex.
Homosexuality used to be a criminal behavior under “sodomy” laws; after that, it was considered an illness or disease (harmful by definition) until fairly recently.
Consider what we’ve said about deviance and social control.
Informal controls like name-calling or violence also work to discourage harmless, consensual alternatives.
The main sources of harm to anyone are harms against women and non-heterosexuals when we enforce limited gender roles or (consenting adult) sexual behaviors.

Sex & Gender Regulation

Institutions like family, government, & religion often try to regulate gender and sexuality.
Structural Functionalists argue that society has a social & economic stake in reproduction, because that’s how we make more people to continue society, so we see the ways of doing gender and sexuality most efficient at this.
Conflict theorists argue these categories are institutions that have more to do with power & hierarchy, or limiting who reproduces with whom out of misinformed fears.