How is gender constructed and how useful is the term ‘performance’ for understanding this process? Illustrate your answer drawing on ethnographic examples from at least two societies. When discussing gender, we are faced with two opposing ideas: biology versus social construct, or ‘nature versus nurture.’ From a social constructivist viewpoint, gender is not an inherent truth but constructed through society’s expectations and norms. Those who believe in the biological repudiate these claims, firmly
From the beginning of their lives, individuals are associated with a specific gender, influencing behaviour, opportunities and expectations. The basic inequalities and disparities between men and women are generally seen as the result of the innate, essential differences between the two biological sexes. This theory presumes that each and every member of the female gender is identical, and that the same can be said for males but “not all women are the same, just like all men aren’t the same” (Tarrant
the individual is living in. My view of the relationship of the individual and his actions with society is similar to the interactionists’ view. People’s behaviors are shaped by other individuals and the wider society. Behavior is conditioned by social institutions and groups because of socialization. The movie “Consuming Kids” that the class watched depicts how the media has been gaining extreme influence over children. Kids are constantly learning the desired attitudes, behaviors, and values of
We “do gender” every day, all the time. A person’s gender identity is something we do – it is a routine and an accomplishment that people put a lot of emphasize into. In “Night to his Day”: The Social Construction of Gender, an excerpt from Paradoxes of Gender written by Judith Lorber, she discusses how society denaturalizes gender and how people do not even notice the way they act because of how socially constructed our Western society is. She shows that society is to blame from depriving people
Hannah St. Lifer Sexuality as a Social Construct Heternormativity is the idea that there exist two distinctive classifications of the genders, males and females, with customary roles in society. The idea asserts that heterosexuality is the only normal sexual orientation of people and that all sexual and marital relations must abide by this norm. Society has adopted this belief and constructed it into a standard of life. It is normal for people to automatically presume that most other people are heterosexual
appearances to continuously keep trying to fit into the status quo. Apart from being a fan of Melanie’s music, I also decided to choose this song because I think the lyrics and the music video creatively draw attention to a social issue involving media’s influence on society’s ideals of beauty. In this specific music video, the viewer is first introduced to Melanie as Cry Baby, watching advertisements on diet pills and blonde wigs. Her character is exposed to the media’s idea of beauty, so much so
The concept of KGOY has become exceedingly “ingrained into youth marketing” (The Point), and as such, “youth product imagery and promotional tactics use kids older than the intended age target” (The Point) on purpose. By encouraging pre-teens to grow up faster, it enforces the idea of the independent child, which is likely to appeal to today’s youth. This is especially true considering “The Pledge” advertisement plays off of progressive television content which has increasingly become less age appropriate
Denaturalizing the rigid gender system Although gender is a socially constructed idea, it is often suggested to be a natural phenomenon. Society plays an important role in reinforcing gender roles in a way that disguises itself as natural, and is thus accepted without question. The United States’ gender system emphasizes gender hierarchy and a binary system that forces individuals to conform. In order to progress gender equality, it is important to denaturalize these social constructions of gender. The hierarchical
contributions to social stability. Structural functionalism attempts to explain why society focuses the way it does by targeting relationships such as race, religion, law etc. Each member of society fulfills certain functions to meet the needs that contribute to society’s stability and survival known as norms. Race provides an important way of understanding various parts of the social process. When social institution such as race, that provides meaning and stability in the social environment seem
statement exemplifies the definition of gender as a concept; gender is the expectations of a sex according to the culture of society. Sexuality, within this definition of gender, reflects society’s expectations, which are created in relation to the opposite sex. The variances between cultures means that gender expectations change within different cultures. These expectations put pressure on each member of society to conform and abide by