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Gender and Sexuality Gender and Sexuality Angela Barian Todd Schoepflin, Niagara University Gender and Sexuality ANGELA BARIAN TODD SCHOEPFLIN, NIAGARA UNIVERSITY SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES OF GENDER Nature, nurture, neither? Social construction of gender Intersectional perspectives of gender INEQUALITIES AND PROGRESS Feminism Institutional inequality Gender and violence SEXUALITIES The creation of sexuality Intersectional sexualities The social control of sexuality Page 2 Gender and Sexuality INTRODUCTION In 2013, retired Army veteran Jamie Shupe changed their legal identity from male to female (Shupe's preferred pronouns are their and they). Assigned male at birth, Shupe remembers their mother slapping them as a child for being “a sissy.” Shupe was a married father when they decided they’d had enough: “I was in a 1 deep, dark depression because I had boxed myself into this male identity that I couldn't stand anymore.” 2 Shupe started taking hormones and for a while lived as a transgender woman. Transgender refers to people whose gender identity and expression are different from what they were assigned at birth. But they didn’t 3 feel “fully female” either. So in 2016, Jamie Shupe petitioned to be the first person in the history of the 4 United States to be legally recognized as non-binary (that is, not exclusively masculine or feminine). They won. Following that decision, Shupe’s home state of Oregon became the first state to officially offer gender- neutral driver’s licenses. As of July 2017, residents can have an “X” in the gender box on their state-issued ID. In court, Shupe said, “I can’t divorce my male side with my female side. And you’re just going to have 5 to acknowledge that sex and gender is a spectrum, not two poles.” 6 While societies have always seen gender expressions that move beyond the male-female binary, a recent Time article notes that this gender flexibility has moved from being marginalized to being more widely accepted. A survey from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) reports that 7 “20% of millennials identify as something other than strictly straight and cisgender (someone whose gender is in line with the sex they were assigned at birth).” This is compared to just 7% of baby boomers, the 8 generation born between 1946 and 1964. Social understandings of gender and sexuality continue to evolve in ways that have profound effects on our daily lives. You could make a case that gender is the primary way people organize the social world. Before birth, parents prepare nurseries in pink or blue and use social media for elaborate reveals of whether the baby will be a boy or a girl. Elementary school teachers use gender to line students up and pit them against each other in competitions. Kids are teased by each other and even adults with a song that contains a gender-based script about marriage, family, and sexual orientation: “Rob and Mary sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in a baby carriage.” Fast-forward to high school, where prom kings and queens are crowned; then to a baby shower, a space usually reserved for women, although occasionally a couple allows men and women to attend in a “Jack and Jill” format. Gender matters before the cradle and all the way to the grave. In this chapter, we have two goals. First, we provide you with a sociological lens on gender and sexuality. We consider how, despite being firmly rooted in minds and bodies, gender and sexuality are also Page 3 Gender and Sexuality profoundly social. Second, we explore how gender and sexuality intersect with other social relations to create a multitude of experiences and unequal interactions and institutions. SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES OF GENDER  What is sex? What is gender?  What does it mean for gender to be a social construction?  How do diverse bodies, identities, and expressions complicate social constructions of both gender and sex? Nature, nurture, neither? In 2009, runner Caster Semenya won a gold medal in the women’s 800-meter race at the World Championships. Semenya smashed the previous African record and improved her own personal best by eight seconds in eight months, an almost unheard-of feat. But there were whispers: Semenya’s time was too fast. 9 And just look at her, one of the other athletes said. The track & field governing body expressed suspicion about whether she qualified to run with women. Later that year, Caster Semenya went through “gender verification testing.” The purpose of the testing, said officials, was to determine if Semenya is “really” a 10 woman. For almost a year, she was unable to compete while tests were administered and analyzed. While the results of the so-called gender test were never revealed, Semenya was cleared to compete with other women. She later won a silver medal at the 2012 Olympics. But why was her case so difficult? Why did it take so long for the committee to affirm that, as she and her father maintained all along, she’s a woman? Let’s consider some sociological concepts of gender before returning to Caster Semenya. We can start with a comment made by a student in one of our classes: “You are what your birth certificate says you are.” In the student’s eyes, you’re either male or female, just as a birth certificate indicates. End of story. But it’s not so simple. The certificate tells us a biological fact. It tells us nothing about society. Sex refers to the different biological and physiological characteristics of males and females, such as Sociologists focus on the way the social environment shapes gender. (Source) Page 4 Gender and Sexuality reproductive organs, chromosomes, and hormones. Gender refers to the socially-constructed characteristics of women and men – such as norms, roles, and relationships among and between groups of women and men. 11 You may be familiar with the terms nature and nurture, with nature referring to biological influences and nurture referring to social ones. Both are crucial to understanding sex and gender, but the sociological perspective focuses on how the social world impacts our gender development. In Biology 101, you may spend a lot of time talking about the role that genes play in influencing our appearance or our behavior. But in sociology, we devote much of our attention to how the social environment shapes every aspect of us – including its impact on our genes and how they function. Think of the phrase “boys will be boys.” The expression suggests that certain behaviors are inevitable for boys. But it doesn’t account for how the traits we attribute to boys are learned. Through socialization, we learn about gender from family, peers, teachers, coaches, and other influential people in our lives. We also learn gender messages from media; commercials, TV shows, movies, songs, video games, internet memes, and magazines all have something to say about gender. Consider the link between girls and the color pink. We aren’t born with color preferences, we learn them. Believe it or not, in the early 1900s, pink was considered a boy’s color and blue a girl’s color. It wasn’t until the 1940s that the colors became gender-coded in the way we know them today. We now take the 12 color scheme for granted because it’s in the fabric of society. Browse the toy aisles at Target and Wal-Mart and you’ll see pink products marketed toward girls. Pink is a primary Victoria’s Secret color. You can buy a pink and black Muddy Girl Compact Bolt-Action Rifle at Cabela’s. Meanwhile, clothes, bikes, and toys for boys are awash in blue and gray. People have choices in what they buy, of course, and many of us stray from the color norms, but the notion of boy colors and girl colors remains entrenched in American society. Let’s think about the Caster Semenya case again. Her situation reveals a lot about social expectations about “what it means” to be a man or a woman: what you’re supposed to look like, how you’re supposed to sound, how strong you are, how emotional you are, what your interests are. These are gender norms, or social definitions of behavior assigned to particular sex categories. While gender norms can and do change through time, place, and context, the thing they have in common is that they are socially- determined and socially-enforced. Most of us are treated according to how we’re perceived. And these gender perceptions are generally assumed to match our biological sex. Page 5 Gender and Sexuality But perceptions can be deceiving. The Intersex Society of North America notes, “If you ask experts at medical centers how often a child is born so noticeably Caster Semenya. Source: Wikimedia Commons atypical in terms of genitalia that a specialist in sex differentiation is called in, the number comes out to about 1 in 1500 to 1 in 2000 births.” And genitals are only one of many ways that we determine sex differences. In 13 Semenya’s case, though her test results weren’t revealed, there is speculation that she had higher levels of testosterone, a hormone associated with muscular size and strength, aggression, and other traits, than most women. Do you know your testosterone level? Most people don’t, and so wouldn’t know if they have unusually high or low levels. Below is a table of the frequency of variations in sexual development. To put the stats in perspective, consider that Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is estimated to occur in 0.2 to 1.5 infants for every 1,000 live births in certain areas of the United States; about one in 3,500 babies is born with cystic 14 fibrosis; about one in 1,574 babies is born with a cleft palate without a cleft lip; and Down Syndrome is 15 16 estimated to occur in about one in every 700 births. The point? Intersex conditions are relatively rare – but not as rare as we think they are. Table 1: Frequencies of Sex Variations, by Number of Births 17 Sex Variation Frequency Not XX and not XY One in 1,666 births Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome One in 13,000 births Gonadal dysgenesis (abnormal growth or One in 150,000 births development) Vaginal agenesis (lack of development) One in 6,000 births Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia One in 13,000 births Klinefelter Syndrome One in 1,000 births Ovotestes One in 83,000 births Idiopathic (no discernable medical cause) One in 110,000 births For Caster Semenya, social assumptions had severe consequences – she was unable to participate in her sport for nearly a year. But there are everyday expectations for all of us, even if our identity matches what society assumes about us. The social construction of gender Page 6 Gender and Sexuality As the Semenya example illustrates, what is considered gender-appropriate is determined collectively. In the language of sociology, we say that these notions are socially constructed. The social construction of gender refers to how meanings of gender are created through social interaction and social norms. Teaching, learning, performing, and policing gender behavior in light of expectations of appropriate conduct are also part of the ongoing process of social construction. Giving a name to a baby is one way a sex category becomes a gender status, and babies and children are then treated according to that gender status. When children learn to talk, they refer to themselves by their gender. This is all part of the social construction of gender. 18 Here’s another example: have you ever heard someone speak and noticed that the person raises his or her voice at the end of each sentence, making everything sound as if it were a question? Linguists call this high-rising terminal; you may know it as “uptalk.” What about ending sentences with words spoken in a low, almost croaky tone? That’s referred to as vocal fry. And if modern linguistic research is any indication, you probably associate both vocal fry and uptalking with women, particularly young women. These speech patterns have social consequences. People who use vocal fry are seen as less trustworthy, less competent, and less educated than those who don’t, and their prospects for landing a job can be affected by the way they talk. People who use both vocal fry and uptalking are even more disadvantaged 19 due to stereotypes about the kind of people who use them. This is an example of the social construction of gender, or the ways in which we create gendered meaning through (in this case, literal) communication. Research shows that both men and women use uptalk often, and there’s no evidence that women use vocal fry any more than men do. But what matters is that 20 these ways of speaking are associated with women. The social construction of gender implies that these vocal techniques have gendered meaning attached to them. Men talk like this; women talk like that. Whether this and that are actually different in the overall population isn’t what matters; the important thing is that vocal fry and uptalking are associated with women, affecting the way women and men who use these techniques are perceived. The example of speech patterns suggests that we shouldn’t think of gender as something that we are (male or female). Instead, think of gender as something that we do, every single day. We do gender in the way we talk, gesture, dress, and sit. Look at Instagram and see if you observe men and women posing in different ways. Remember when the duckface selfie was popular? Girls and women more often used it. And maybe you notice that a common pose for men in pictures is to cross their arms. As you go about your day, look at how men and women take up space. You might see men with their legs extended from a couch or chair, while women may sit in ways that make their bodies take up less space. 21 Candace West and Don Zimmerman developed the idea that we do gender. They suggested that we perform actions that produce gender; we do gender in interactions with others, and we take into consideration what is believed to be appropriate for our gender. 22 Page 7 Gender and Sexuality West and Zimmerman understood that we do gender knowing that we will be judged by others; we are held accountable for our gender performances. A girl might be reprimanded for not crossing her legs when wearing a dress. “That’s not ladylike,” a parent might say. Men are encouraged by their peers to “man up” if they haven’t followed norms of masculinity. A boy who shows interest in a Barbie might be told “Boys don’t play with dolls!” We’re evaluated for our gender behavior. In her research at a high school, C.J. Pascoe found that boys frequently called each other “faggot” as a way of policing each other’s masculinity. 23 If boys engaged in behavior that wasn’t regarded as masculine at this high school – dancing, caring about clothing, being emotional – the insult was used against them. Sociologists, then, don’t view gender as an innate, biologically-determined characteristic. We focus on gender as socially and culturally influenced and as subject to change. Gender isn’t a fact, says Judith Butler, author of Gender Trouble. Gender is produced. Think of gender as an unspoken agreement to perform gender in socially acceptable ways, and our performances are so believable that gender behavior appears to be natural. The way we act sustains and reinforces the ideas we have created about gender. Stray 24 too far outside the lines and you risk being ostracized. We have words for those who perform gender out of line with our expectations. Think of the dweeb, the wimp, the dork. Perhaps you picture a skinny, awkward guy who isn’t cool, who dresses and walks in ways that make him stand out and invite ridicule. We have more words for people who are thought to be doing masculinity wrong: douchebag, dick, prick, pussy, asshole. These may be used as general insults, but often they’re applied specifically to men as gender insults. A Google Image search for “masculine man.” In contrast, a muscular, self-assured man may find himself being praised by others. But is this always the case? Does a man have to look and act like Channing Tatum or Taye Diggs to be considered masculine? Not always. A guy may find other types of masculinity that work for him, such as the class clown who gets by on his comedic skills. Nerds aren’t normally celebrated as models of masculinity, but it helps to invent something and become a billionaire, like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. Celebrities are more likely to Page 8 Gender and Sexuality stretch the boundaries of gender, perhaps because they feel more freedom to express gender with less fear of backlash. For example, the musician Young Thug wore a long ruffled dress for the cover art of his album No, My Name Is Jeffery. He also modeled women’s clothing for a Calvin Klein campaign, saying: "In my world, of course, it don't matter, you know, you could be a gangster with a dress or you could be a gangster with baggy pants. I feel like there’s no such thing as gender.” While we disagree with his assertion there’s no 25 such thing as gender, he certainly resists gendered clothing norms. Another example is Jaden Smith, who frequently dresses in ways that don’t conform with gender norms. Talking about his fashion choices, Smith said: “So, you know, in five years when a kid goes to school wearing a skirt, he won’t get beat up and kids won’t get mad at him.” These are examples of widening the ideas of what Black masculinity is, says writer 26 Mikelle Street. 27 Widening the boundaries of gender is one way of challenging the gender binary, the classification system that allows for only two separate gender categories. The gender binary is just one of many gender systems, and there’s ample evidence that even within this strict binary system, there has always been some room for change, growth, and flexibility. Gender terms change over time to represent different ways of doing gender: girly-girl, tomboy, emo, metrosexual. Within show business, we have particularly seen and welcomed non-conforming expressions of gender and sexuality. Artists like David Bowie wore makeup and dresses and wore an androgynous style, incorporating both feminine and masculine characteristics. In 1984, Prince’s song “I Would Die 4 U” proclaimed, “I’m not a woman; I’m not a man. I am something that you’ll never understand.” In 1981, his “Controversy” lyrics asked, “Am I Black or White? Am I straight or gay?” Can you think of current examples of non-binary gender expression? David Bowie. (Source: Wikipedia Commons) Let’s return to the student who asserted that gender is what your birth certificate says you are. For this student, gender is fixed, and gender is binary; you are either a man or a woman. The reality is that people experience gender in complex, nuanced ways. For example, Mack Beggs is a transgender wrestler who won Page 9 Gender and Sexuality the Texas state high school girls’ wrestling championship in 2017. Although he identifies as male and wants to wrestle boys, he competes against girls because Texas law requires students to wrestle in accordance with the gender listed on birth certificates. He has endured slurs and insults, including being called “fag” and “it.” When he was younger, Mack struggled with suicidal thoughts and engaged in self-harm. Reflecting back to when he was younger, Mack says: “I was angry as in why I got made like this. Why do I have to feel this way? I couldn’t figure out my identity.” His mother has been supportive: “I knew that something was different when he was five he had asked why God gave him girl parts instead of boy parts,” she explained in an interview. That Mack was legally required to wrestle opponents based on his birth gender illustrates the 28 power of the gender binary system. However, his desire to wrestle opponents based on his identity (and his family’s acceptance of him) represents a shift away from the gender binary. Institutions and organizations are also acknowledging that not everyone fits into a strict gender binary. Originally, Facebook had only two options for gender: male or female. In 2014, it expanded the gender options to 58 different labels, including transgender and cisgender, the broad classifiers “neither,” 29 “other,” and “non-binary,” and many more specific ones (for definitions of each, look at this explainer from The Daily Beast). By 2015, Facebook opened up the list even more. The company’s diversity page states, “Now, if you do not identify with the pre-populated list of gender identities, you are able to add your own. As before, you can add up to ten gender terms and also have the ability to control the audience with whom you would like to share your custom gender. We recognize that some people face challenges sharing their true gender identity with others, and this setting gives people the ability to express themselves in an authentic way.” 30 Intersectional perspectives on gender When actress Patricia Arquette won the Best Actress Oscar in 2015, she used her time on the podium and backstage to highlight the wage gap between men and women, even in Hollywood. Arquette’s statements became controversial, however, because of the way she talked about various marginalized groups in America. She said: It’s time for women. Equal means equal. The truth is the older women get, the less money they make. The highest percentage of children living in poverty are in female-headed households. It’s inexcusable that we go around the world and we talk about equal rights for women in other countries and we don’t…. It’s time for all the women in America, and all the men that love women and all the gay people and all the people of color that we’ve all fought for to fight for us now. 31 Her comments seem like the type of earnest expression that would garner praise from the audience, so why were they controversial? As feminist author Amanda Marcotte noted, “gay people and all the people of color” are categories that also include women. Arquette’s words suggested that all women find themselves in the same position. A different perspective, called intersectionality, refers to the ways in which different types of social relations are linked together in complex ways, creating very different experiences for different groups of people. Developed by Page 10

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