Gender
Chapter 10
By
Dr.
John Brenner
American Samoa
•
In 1925, the
famous anthropologist Margaret Mead went here to study the lifestyles of the
people
•
She wrote the
book Coming of Age in Samoa about growing up in this country
•
Here she
discovered that people, especially teens, had casual, uncommitted sex and
sexual experience
•
Different from
the United States where the young are sheltered and restricted
American Samoa
•
Gender-social distinctions based on culturally conceived and
learned ideas about appropriate behavior for males and females
•
Mead’s study
would say that societies differ in their views on how the sexes should act
•
Her studies would
say it can be due to just biological differences
•
Mead’s account of
Samoa (right or wrong) helps us to understand gender relations and politics
American Samoa
•
This chapter looks at the connection between
gender and life chances
• Sex—a
biological classification scheme
• Gender—a
socially constructed classification scheme
•
Gender-polarized—how society is organized
around the male-female distinction
Sex as a Biological Concept
• Primary
sex characteristics—anatomical traits essential to reproduction
• Intersexed—people
who have some combination of male and female characteristics
– Parents
would assign the newborn to one of the two sexes
– A
person’s primary sex characteristics may not match chromosomes
Sex as a Biological Concept
• Chromosomes
– X—female
– Y—Male
• Each
parent contributes one sex chromosome
– The
mother the x
– The
father either an x or a y
– Thus
females are XX and males XY
Sex as a Biological Concept
• Transsexuals—people
whose primary sex characteristics do not match the sex they perceive and know
themselves to be
– 25,000
people in the US have had the sex change operation
– One
physician who does these operations says that few ever want to be changed back
Sex as a Biological Concept
•
At about 8 weeks
after conception the human embryo develops into female or male
•
Secondary Sex
characteristics—distinguish one sex
from another
•
Physical
traits not essential to reproduction
•
Things like
breasts, voice, body type, distribution of facial hair
•
Due to
production of androgen (male) and estrogen (female) but both sexes produce some
of each
•
The
distribution of the hormones makes for differences
Gender as a Social Construct
• Gender—it
is the social distinction of what is culturally conceived concepts of what is
appropriate for males and females
• Masculinity-the
socially acceptable traits—physical, behavioral, and emotional for men
•
Femininity—physical, behavioral, and
mental or emotional traits socially acceptable for women
Gender as a Social Construct
• Sociologist
attribute the differences of men and women to socially created concepts
• Women
can have eyelashes and well shaped eyebrows but no hair on their upper lips or
under their arms
• Men
may not realize the amount of effort women do to keep their culturally
acceptable appearance
Gender as a Social Construct
• Women
work to eliminate facial and body hair using products and medical doctors to
help
• Women
in the U.S. try to achieve the beauty as portrayed by the media
• In
the United States facial and body hair is seen as a masculine trait
Gender as a Social Construct
• For
Samoan women long hair is seen as feminine attractiveness
• For
men Tattooing from the waist to the knees signified manhood
• Each
society creates concepts of what is appropriate and sociologists believe these
distinctions are socially created
Gender Polarization
• Gender
polarization-organizing life around the male-female distinction so that a
person’s entire human experience relates to their gender
– Modes
of dress
– Social
roles
– Ways
of expressing emotions
– Ways
of experiencing sexual desire
Gender Polarization
• This
is seen when asking males/females how their lives would be different if they
were another gender
– Boys
said their lives would be changed in negative ways—less active/more restricted,
more concerned about violence, being alone
– Girls
felt it would be positive—less emotional, closer to their fathers, less likely
to be seen as a “sex object”
Gender Polarization
• Gender-schematic
decisions—a person making decisions about life based on gender polarization
rather than on self-fulfillment, interest, ability, or personal comfort
– Seen
in the majors that college students select
– Select
majors that makes their gender expectations—few female engineers
Gender Polarization
• Bem’s
study of gender in U.S.
– Men/women
prefer male to be taller, older, smarter, higher status, more educated, more
talented, more confident and higher paid
– Negative
consequences
• Woman
is usually younger than man—median age for marriage is 24 for women, 25.9 for
men with women living 6.2 years longer than men
• Leaves
large numbers of women as widows
Gender Polarization
• Social
emotions—internal bodily sensations that we feel in relationship with other
people
– How
people are to appropriately respond to members of the opposite sex
– This
helps us to respond to members of the same sex but we are someone more
uncomfortable to express those feelings
Gender Polarization
•
The study of the
Samoan teens by Mead has been questioned by others
•
She stated that:
• Masturbation began at age 6-7 and continued until one
was married
• And that many of girls practiced homosexual behavior
• Long term heterosexual relations were rare
• Sexual relations were not reserved to a couple
• Wider range of sexual activities were acceptable
• Said that there was an acceptance of “the sunniest and easiest attitude towards
sex”
Gender Polarization
• Freeman
has challenged Mead’s findings, methods and conclusions
– He
states that the Samoans value virginity and disapprove of premarital
promiscuity
– One
woman stated that she told Mead stories and thought that the researcher knew
she was joking
– Mead
perhaps had a predetermined agenda
– She
was looking of a “negative instance” where teenage years were not emotional
turmoil, stress and rebellion
– Perhaps
Mead was talking and writing about herself
Gender Polarization
• People
conform and resist gender polarization in varying degrees
– Ferrante’s
years of study of students shared
– Learning
about gender ideals
– Change
or modify behavior to adjust to the gender
– Give
in and comply to gender roles
– May
at times openly challenge the gender roles
• This
research suggests that people do not passively accept the gender roles
Gender Polarization
• Third
gender—fa-afafines—Samoan men who are not biologically women but have
taken on the “way of women”
• We
would call these people transvestites
• In
Samoa they imitate women and have beauty contests
• Why—in
Samoa
• Do
not make sharp distinctions between males and females
• Young
children dress the same outside of school
Gender Polarization
•
When Samoan boys
reach 5-6 spend the majority of time with same sex and prohibited from flirting
• Affection between boys like holding hands or putting
arms around each other is seen as affection—homosexuality
• Girls may not engage in ula highly sexualized
dancing
• So men may do it for fun
• Changes and position of men is society—unemployment
and lack of opportunities for status
• The fa-afafines offer men the opportunity to
step out of their roles and assume the status of a well-known female
impersonators
Mechanisms of Perpetuating Gender Ideals
• Socialization—begins
at birth—process where we learn our identity
– Indirectly
• Observing
others behavior—jokes/stories
• Reactions
of others when gender role is violated
• Magazines,
books and television
• We
look at how men and women are portrayed
• Many
children’s books keep boys in the center of the activity with girls looking on
or supporting them
• Sports
may focus on boys with girls as cheerleaders
Mechanisms of Perpetuating Gender Ideals
• Direct
socialization
– Intentionally
convey ideas about being a girl/boy
– Usually
allow girls more leeway
– Teachers
of toddlers respond more positive to children that are gender appropriate
– Fear
of boys being “sissies”
– Society
has greater acceptance of girls crossing gender lines than for boys
Mechanisms of Perpetuating Gender Ideals
•
Children’s
toys—directly support roles
• Barbie an aspirational doll—95% of girls in the
U.S. between 3 and 11 have one
• This doll is seen as a role model for the girls
• Boys have action figures—G. I. Joe, Power Rangers,
X-men, Mortal Kombat, etc—these are strong figures for boys to be strong
•
In Samoa—the
Christian missionaries ended the practice of young girl groups and men
tattooing by having mass education
Mechanisms of Perpetuating Gender Ideals
• Structural
Constraints—customary rules, policies, and daily practices that affect life
chances
•
1. Certain jobs are considered
sex-appropriate
•
2. Jobs like secretary and teacher of small
children
•
3. Jobs that require a nurturing attitude
•
4. Part-time jobs that allow the woman to be
a care-giver for the family
Mechanisms of Perpetuating Gender Ideals
•
Other examples
– Steering males and females into gender-appropriate
assignments
• Wal-mart employees files a class action suit claiming
that women were less likely to be helped to get management positions
•
Most obvious
structural constraint is that women are channeled into low-paying, dead-end
jobs and males/females have to act in a certain way to be successful in a
position
Mechanisms of Perpetuating Gender Ideals
• Anspach’s
study of doctors and nurses discovered
• Doctors
(males) used technical objective information on the infants-measurable numbers
• Nurses
(females) used interact ional clues—alertness, responsiveness
• Nurses
had a tendency to spend more time with the infants
• Prestige
and salary were not comparable for these two professions taking care of infants
Mechanisms of Perpetuating Gender Ideals
•
Margaret Mead was
encouraged by her professor Franz Boaz to record unknown ways of life--1925
• She lived with an Navy pharmacist’s family (not normal
for an anthropologist)
• She interviewed 60 teen girls
•
Freedman—1940
• Lived with the tribe and became and honorary chief
• He stayed several years and came back 20 years later
to refute Mead’s work
Mechanisms of Perpetuating Gender Ideals
• Sexist
ideology—like all ideologies—it can not be proven but it supports one group over
another—3 notions
• People
are in two categories—male/female
• Close
correspondence between sex and emotional activity, body language, personality
and intelligence
• Primary
sex characteristics explain and determine behavior
Mechanisms of Perpetuating Gender Ideals
• Evolutionary
view—an example of sexist ideology
• In
less civilized societies men and women are more similar
• Mead’s
research showed that male-female difference are not simply biological
• Hard
to accept that behavior is learned, more likely to say it due to gender (like
men and women being prisoners to their hormones)
• People
are deviant if they behave differently than their gender stereotypes
Mechanisms of Perpetuating Gender Ideals
•
No scientific
evidence to support the claim that gays and lesbians are not good military
personnel
•
When researchers
report that sexual orientation is unrelated to military performance—that
information is said to be flawed
•
The information
contradicts a sexist ideology thus it is said to be wrong
•
Ideologies play a
part in setting policy
Ethgender
• This
refers to people who share the same sex, race and ethnicity
– It
merges two ascribed statuses into a single category
– People
of a particular ethgender have a legal relationship to the country or state
where they live
– Governments
are male dominated—Congress—Rep—435 only 59 are women: Senate 100—13 are
women—this is about 13% of the total when women are over 50% of the total
population
Ethgender
• Anthias
and Yucal-Davis study of women and their relationship to the state.
• Note
five ways in which the state may choose to exercise control over women’s lives
• 1.
Women as producers of babies of a particular ethnic group
• Limiting
or encouraging women to have children
• Policies
like physical expulsion, extermination, forced sterilization and birth control
Ethgender
• 2.
Women as reproducers of boundaries of ethnic groups
• Laws
prohibiting sexual relations among men and women of different races
• State
determines the race or ethnicity of child
• U.S.
does not recognize “multiracial people”
• 3.
Women as transmitters of social values
• Women
are the main socializers of offspring or the state takes control of the
children
• Certain
racial or ethnic groups are required to learn the culture or language of the
state
Ethgender
• 4.
Women as symbols of urgent issues
• In
wartime, country is symbolized as a woman
• Women
of certain ethnic or racial groups can symbolize a nation’s problems
• Attitude
of some that Hispanic and African-American women are on welfare taking everyone
else’s money—although not true people believe it
Ethgender
• 5.
Women as participants in national struggles
• In wartime women play supportive roles
• Civilians suffer many casualties in war (80%)
• Women are killed, taken prisoner, raped and tortured
• In Bosnia women were kept in camps being repeatedly
raped
• Japan forced captured women to be prostitutes “comfort
women” they were called
• Historically the role of the military has been to look
the other way or to assist military men in seeking access to prostitutes
• Many people do not consider the number of women who
become lovers and marry military men in times of war or from occupying armies