Gendered Spaces

Many women admit that they in fact feel safer on their own turf because they are familiar with the house, they also have the say with what happens and can have more control. While many Sorority women feel perfectly safe going to parties in Fraternity homes, there are many that do not and many that would just like the option to host a party or have over male friends. She goes onto to concluding that Fraternities and institutions are not to blame but that it comes from the national chapters, that “Panhellenic must reframe these obsolete double standards to convey that Sorority women can, and should, act as independent community

A. A gendered space is a space where it is only appropriate for one sex to occupy. Gendered spaces are an example of material culture, because there are artifacts that give spaces the appearance that makes a space look gendered. Gendered spaces are also examples nonmaterial culture, because the idea of gendered spaces such as locker rooms are from Mentifacts. Mentifacts are the ideas, believes, and practices of a culture and since gendered spaces are present in American culture and people believe in the idea of gendered spaces, gendered space are then Mentifacts.

Another influential change in 1970 was the role of women on campus. One dorm integrated the sexes (Yackety Yack, 1970, p. 23) alongside Pi Lambda Phi, the university’s only coed fraternity (Hancher, 1970, p. 1). At this time, women on campus had strict rules concerning their activities after hours. Some of these rules were loosened. For example, by 1970 women no longer had to sign out if leaving their rooms after 11 pm and could enjoy the freedom of spending time in men’s housing (White, 1969, p. 2). While reigns were still tight on what women were permitted to do on campus, these small changes still strongly impacted the campus dynamic.

Massey emphasizes the social relations within an area and this makes her essay collection cohesive while incorporating her feminist’s ideals. Massey says, “The central thread linking the papers is the attempt to formulate concepts of space and place in terms of social relations” (Massey 1994, 2). By having the ideas of space and place connect to social relations (gender roles), it is understood that the definitions are not as static as they seem. The idea that space, place, and gender are static is based on the prevailing ideas of what these concepts mean within society, but the concepts of space, place, and gender are constantly evolving through time.

Women in the 19th century where pretty much controlled by their husbands, they had no voice in anything. Also the well secured windows can represent the powerful, societal, and psychological prison women of that time were retained. This characteristic represents her trapped feelings and her limitation to communicate. A window usually symbolizes a view of possibilities, but for her it has become a view of things she doesn’t want to see “she writes: I don’t like to look out of the windows even-there are so many of those creeping women, and they creep so fast” (16). The narrator knows that she has to hide. At some point she sneaks to become part of society, when she looks through the window she sees the reflection of herself in many other women, she refuses to look through the window. “she says: most women do not creep by daylight” (13), this indicates the reality of women hiding in the shadows; they try to do things without being noticed. She doesn’t see the window as a getaway anymore; “the bars are holding her in”, that world of opportunity and beautiful things she used to see on the other side of the window will not belong to her. Even if she escaped from the barred windows she will still be controlled and forced to restrain her self-expression. She will still be forced to sneak, and hide from everybody.

Societies today are highly affected by the way people are believed to act. Gender roles are created by society, and they are a way to define how a gender should or shouldn't act. In “Answers” by George Singleton, there is a husband and wife thinking about getting divorced, and they begin answering questions in a book, and realize that the other turned out to be less manly or trustworthy, than they believed to be. In “Public Relations” by George Singleton, a man and his wife are out eating with his boss and his wife. While eating he gets fired for talking about how women should act, and how they will amount to nothing without an education. In both of these stories, men and women act differently than the stereotypes put on them by their

Expanding on the interaction between individuals, the maintenance of a feminine safe space provides a depressurized setting that contributes to feminine solidarity. It allows for the compartmentalization of social relationships, which aids in impression management—the way we present ourselves so as to control others’ perceptions of us. It is generally understood that there is a common ground among women that allows them to let their guard down. That understanding is not present in relations between men and women.

I decided to approach the topic of gendered spaces online by focusing on video game culture, the “gamer” identity, and the Gamergate controversy, using videos of Anita Sarkeesian, an online harassment victim, to support it.

Gender issues have recently hit the surface pretty hard and has made life changing impacts, nationally. Some political topics have been on same-sex marriage and restrooms for transgendered students. The nation is divided in regards to gender issues. The recent awareness has forced the government to step in and back up laws that are for and against these issues. Analyzing our lives on a daily basis seems easy, but after reading The Gender Trap: Parents and Pitfalls of Raising Boys and Girls by Emily Kane, I didn't realize how much I actually gender my children and how it could affect them in the future. Interviews

Gender Matters is a collection of various essays on feminist linguistic texts analysis, by Sara Mills. Mills develops methods of analyzing literary and non-literary texts, in addition to conversational analysis based on a feminist approach. The author draws on data from her collection of essays gathered over the last two decades on feminism during the 1990s. The essays focus on gender issues, the representation of gender in reading, writing, and in public speaking. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of feminists’ analysis of sexism in literature and the relation between gender and politeness. The article is informative for my research paper, as my

Similarly, in some churches men are placed in higher standards, while females are not allowed to teach, preach, or hold offices. This shows that social life has gender boundaries, and gender stereotyping is a result of how people before were socialized. Every individual, as psychologist John Locke believed that the mind is a tabula rasa (blank slate), that is written upon by experiences. Moreover the behaviours that people display today are mirrors that reflect the behaviour of other people both past and present. From time to time society will go through different social changes that will alter the perspectives of everyone. This means that as social life changes, gender roles will change as well. Therefore, what was acceptable for a specific

Feminist geographers and leisure scholars have long battled the idea of gendered norms. One critical way of understanding gendered norms and exceptions in Beijing culture was through the process of examining women’s access to experiences of leisure activities in the rapid economic, political and social aspects of Chinese society. Women living in Bejing strongly feel that the behaviour they receive in public leisure spaces is due to the ongoing problems of gendered norms and the shift in social changes that have taken place over the past half century. This study conducted contributes to this body of literature on leisure, space and gender by encouraging our understanding of gender norms and how these norms are not simply contain but, also

In Michel Foucault’s essay, Panopticism, the effects of making a person visible and isolated are explained. Before Foucault addresses his theory, Panopticism, he first explains Jeremy Bentham’s architectural structure, the Panopticon. Foucault explains the Panopticon structure is “at the periphery, an annular building; at the center, a tower” (184). Essentially, this means that there is a larger tower in the center, which is completed surrounded by individual cells. These cells have both a window facing the tower and one facing away; this allows light to shine through the windows making the prisoner completely visible. Combined with making a prisoner visible, some type of superior must be in the tower periodically to ensure the feeling of

In her article, “Foucault, Femininity, and the Modernization of Patriarchal Power”, Bartkey begins by summarizing philosopher Michel Foucault’s literary analysis of the Panopticon and how the prison system works tying it to modern society. Foucault begins by using the example of a student who is forced to sit in assigned seating based of class ranking. The scrutiny the student faces forces him to sit upright; he must keep feet his feet on the floor; his head must stay erect; and he may not slouch or fidget. With

In the article, “Gender, Class and Urban Space: Public and Private Space in Contemporary Urban Landscapes” Liz Bondi, puts forth her perspectives about the possible interconnections between gender dichotomy ,urban public /private space or city/suburb dichotomies and how separable or intertwined they are with each other. She attempts to further provide evidence that ‘the ideal of separate spheres’ (Bondi, Pg.162.) continues to affect our lives .She states that gentrification and class is intertwined in this dynamic interaction between gender and space. Bondi identifies these ‘dichotomies’ as duos, be it city/suburb, public /private or male/ female. She points out to the associations between masculinity -public space - city and femininity - private space - suburbs and that these interconnections are look upon as ‘ideologies rather than reality’ (Bondi 2013). The conclusions Bondi presented are based on the empirical evidence she collected which seem to lack abstractness, i.e they are specific to certain location at a certain time. But the interpretations and the data collected reflect the complex character of the urban realm, gender and the interplay between the two. They exhibit characters of being separate as well as being interwoven, distinct, ‘disentangled and a dismantled’ as well as overlapping each other. Although Bondi seems to acknowledge this complexity; she overlooks its importance in her selection of the research site and sample size.