Recognizing Gender

Sex, Sexuality, Gender

o Sex: socially constructed category based on biology (determined by
genitalia, chromosomes, etc.)
o Sexuality: preference
o Gender: socially constructed
Gender order: norm
o Politics: number of men outnumber the number of women seated in
o
o
o
o

government
Violence: men are known to be more violent than women
Economics: studies show that men earn more than women
Mass culture
Childhood and youth: boys are allowed to argue and be heard while

girls are taught to be quiet and obedient

Gender as Natural
o Deviants of the pattern are scandalous (homosexuals, effeminate men,
o

masculine women)
Reproduction
Sports events (men on the field, women in the sidelines or

halftime as entertainment)
Legislators (e.g. Alan Turing chemically castrated for being
homosexual, Oscar Wilde imprisoned for being allegedly

homosexual)
People of authority (e.g. parents, football coaches,

conservatives, preachers)
Not fixed by nature
Is actively under construction
People are not born man or woman, but rather becomes them
(Simone de Beauvois)
Is both imposed and actively participated in
Gender polarity
Either masculine or feminine, never both
Gender ambiguity is met with derision
Gender ambiguity
Not rare, majority of the population
Contradicted by many
Preachers
Conservatives
Football coaches
Traditional families
True femininity/real masculinity
Gender arrangements can cause inequalities

Economics in favor of men

Politics in favor of men
Respect in favor of men
Feminine males are subject to discrimination
Male conformists are trapped by societys definition of masculine
Males of marginalized ethnic groups are still considered to be

lower than masculine straight middle-aged white males

Both a source of pleasure, recognition and identity, and injustice

and harm
Gender is inherently political

Defining Gender

Etymology
o From root gene meaning to produce
o From the Latin genus (birth, family, nation)
o Genus kind or class distinctions
o Genus distinctions of sex (and absence of) in the objects denoted
o Languages have a trichotomy of classifications
Masculine
El gato (Spanish, dog)
El pan (Spanish, bread)
Feminine
La mesa (Spanish, table)
La teurrer
Neuter (most English words)
Definition of Gender
o structure of social relations that centres on the reproductive arena,
and the set of practices (governed by this structure) that bring
reproductive distinctions between bodies into social processes
o

(Raewyn Connell)
Consequences
Patterns may differ culturally but are still gender
Arrangements are reproduced socially by power structures and

may be constraining, thus may appear unchanging

Gender may have an end
Gender Relations: the way in which two or more people (in this case,
genders) or things are connected. It manifests in the way we talk, behave,
and deal with gender

Patterns in Gender: this section talks about how gender is configured in

society

Gender Regime
o the arrangement of people according to gender usually within
o

fight, women show round card; men are doctors, women are nurses)
Gender Order
o these are gender regimes applied in a wider and more persistent
o
o
o

(woman to woman)
personal interaction is not required; relationships can exist over other

media like radio, television, even the internet

o manifests in the way we speak and behave
Structure
o constraint and the patterns in relationships; enduring or extensive
o

manner
gender regime of institutions
usually unspoken and subtle
e.g. priority of men over women in holding executive positions; treating

women as the weaker sex

Relationships
o ways that people, groups, and organizations are connected and divided
o can be done across genders (men to women) and within a gender
o

organizations
it is not permanent and regimes usually change through time (e.g. men

patterns among social relations

it does not mechanically determine how people or groups act. It merely

defines possibilities and consequences

Four Dimensions of Gender: a model used to describe gender
o Power Relations
Power - the ability to influence the action or decision of an

individual
Power operating through Institutions
Institutions - any set of rules that governs how people

behave (e.g. Glass Ceiling)

Power operating through Oppression (e.g. Oppressive laws
and violence against gender)
Power as seen by Foucault
o power does not have a central agency
o power is widely dispersed and operate intimately
o

and diffusely
power operates discursively in the way we talk and
act

impacts directly on people as discipline as well as

identities and their place in the world (e.g. diet,

sense of beauty, machismo)

Production Relations: relates to the capabilities of economic production
of gender
Gender Division of Labour: talks about how labour, typically that
of a household is appointed by gender (e.g. men are required to
provide for the material needs of the family while women are

tasked to take charge over the care of household)

Gendered Accumulation Process: the accumulation of gender on
a certain role or trade through occupation and production (e.g.
toys for boys encourage boys to become engineers while girls to
become versed in domestic affairs who in turn will train their

young to follow this pattern)

Emotional Relations: the structure of emotional relations, attachments
or commitments
can be positive if the emotion is favorable/benevolent nor
negative if it is intolerant/hostile or promotes harm (e.g. comfort
and security emotions induced by gender are positive; gay

persecution and homophobia are negative emotions)

Sexuality : the major arena of emotional relations; sexual desires

are involved in emotional relations

Contemporary Modern Sexuality - divides sexuality into

heterosexuality and homosexuality

In Sambia - men, as a gender, goes through a period of same

gender sexuality which is seen as a ritual in a stage of their life

Romantic love - strong individual attachment between two

partners; an ideal promoted in mass media

Workplace - another arena of emotional relations (e.g. an air
flight host/ess must be able to comfort passengers, bouncers

must be imposing to maintain order)

Symbolic Relations: refers to meanings we attach to gender and what it
symbolizes (e.g. oh dont be a sissy, you guys are a bunch of pussies,
tunay na lalaki)
Symbols - used to create a sense of unity (e.g. Mother Russia,
Inang Bayan, Statue of Liberty)

Phallocentric - authority, privileged subjectivity, is that of the

masculine
Gender Attribution - the level at which gender categories
ordinarily appear, to consider how a person (or action) gets
assigned to a gender category

Greatest human invention: Human beings

o

Not only create social relations but teach succeeding generations to

operate in, and build on, the existing social relations

Social relations greatly multiply the capacities of an individual

To the point of threatening human life

Gender as History

Gender
o

It represents the transformation of the system of sexual reproduction

by social action

Sexuality is constructed in culture

Love and eroticism become possible

The history of gender includes the practices and transformations of the

body in practice

Production and transformation of categories of gender

Christine Delphy (1984)

o

Origins of matriarchy

Origin stories are a form of myth-making, not history

Myths are created in which later social arrangements are explained

(and/or justified) by something discovered at the point of origin

Real history of gender begins with recognizing that the future course of
events are not contained in a founding moment

Open-ended social process is involved

o

Examination of historical records:

Archaeological deposits

Written sources

Oral traditions

Family Fortunes (Catherine Hall)

o

Social history of gender in English middle class during the industrial

revolution

Two starting points for world history of gender

o

Archaeological reconstruction of gender relations in prehistory and

ancient urban cultures

Study of gender relations in modern imperialism

Gender as History

End of history of gender?

o

If a structure can come into existence, it is possible for it to cease

existing.

Gender practices in one domain no longer reinforce one another

Might be overwhelmed by a different historical dynamic

Gender ceasing to exist completely?

o

Complete de-gendering possible?

Impractical but important conceptual bench mark for thinking about

change

Process of Change

Internal tendencies towards change

o

Alexandra Kollonati proletarianization & socialist

revolution would end oppression of women

Gender categories are inherently unstable

Generalized instability concept problems

o

In some historical situations, gender identities/relations change slowly

and in some change very explosively

The concept doesnt explain why some people wish to change/resist

change of the gender arrangements
o

The key is recognizing that structures develop crisis

tendencies (internal contradictions) that force
change within the structure

Power Relations
o

Movement of emancipation of women from mens control of institutions

and intimate spheres

Contradiction between the subordination of women to men and

abstract equality between women and men

Feminist movements are energized by this contradiction and used it to

break inequality

Claiming rights

Campaign against domestic violence

Production Relations

Incorporation of womens labor into the market economy in the second half of
the 20th century
Contradiction between equal contribution to social labor by women and men
and the gendered appropriation of products of social labor

Unequal incomes

Better conditions & career prospects generally for men

Patriarchal inheritance of wealth

Some women (often influential) resist economic reform because it would

disturb the corporate system they benefit from

Emotional Relations
o

Homosexuality has to a certain extent achieved legitimacy as an

alternative in the heterosexual order

Gay/lesbian communities

Anti-discrimination/anti-defamation laws

Growing incitement to sexual activity contradicts definition of women as

sexually passive and objects of mens desire
o

Surveys on sexual behavior show that womens sexual repertoire has

been growing

Double standard for women and men remain

Symbolic Relations
o

Patriarchy has been legitimized by belief systems that show that

gender is an unchanging division

Social & intellectual movements have chipped away at these beliefs

Natural-difference ideas remain influential but it is difficult to take for

granted a timeless gender opposition in this era

Crisis tendencies in small scale

o

Some representation of gay & lesbian communities in some political

systems and policymaking

Personal life and intimate relationships

The Womens Liberation movement of 1960s & 1970s

o

Not just a public event

Contradictions in personal lives of individual women

Crisis tendencies may affect bodily sensations

o

Transsexuals

Hallucinations of a body of the other sex or sensation of being trapped

Social Embodiment: "Bodies have agency and bodies are socially constructed...
Bodies are both objects of social practice and agents in social practice." (Connell
2002)

Social practices form gender norms

Result: Provides the conditions of new practices in which bodies are

addressed and involved.

Also known as Body-reflexive practice

human social conduct in which bodies are both agents and objects.

o
o
o

(Connell 2002)
There are loops that link bodily processes and social structures
Changes over time
The historical process in which society is embodied, and bodies are

drawn into history. (Connell 2002)

Varies across cultures and time (e.g. Foot binding practices in Chinese
culture, Neck rings in African and Asian cultures, Corsets in Western
cultures, The practice of wearing high heels, which shifted from a

masculine fashion to a feminine fashion over time)

Many gender processes involve bodily processes and capacities that are not
sex-differentiated, that are in fact common capacities of women and men
(e.g. Bodily capacity to labour)
o Bodies as agents in social practice are involved in the very
construction of the social world, the bringing-into-being of social
o
o

reality. (Connell 2002)

The strategic question is not can gender change? but in what
direction is gender changing? (Connell 2002)
Examples of how bodies constructs the social world
"In Britain,... [gender segregation] was partially corrected in the
1970s and 1980s as the women's movement gathered
momentum and focused on all facets of women's lives. (Shalla

and Clement 2007)

Same-sex marriage
Terms and Definitions
o Gender
Refers to the bodily structures and processes of human

o
o

reproduction
Does not constitute a biological base (A natural mechanism

that has social effects)

Arena: A bodily site where something social happens
Reproductive Arena
creation of the cultural categories women and men (and any

other gender categories that a particular society marks)

Biological reproduction does not cause gender practice, or even

provide a template for it.

There are many instances where strongly gendered practice
occurs which has not the slightest logical connection with
biological reproduction.

Examples
Gender division of labour at home
Gender segregation
Discrimination against the LGBT community
All were affected by the location of women and men in the
gender division of labour, and by gender ideologies (Connel

2002)
It is the social division of labour that is crucial to understanding

these effects but it is the bodies which bear them.

Reproductive Arena is not fixed, it can be re-shaped by social

processes. (Connell 2002)

Changes are made possible by social struggles

Defining Masculinities

All societies have cultural accounts of gender, but not all have the concept of
masculinity

Ones behaviour results from the type of person one is

Unmasculine VS Masculine

Individual difference and personal agency

Concept is relational

Separate spheres (European culture)

Concept is a recent historical product

-doing gender in a culturally specific way

Four main strategies :

o

Essentialist

Masculinity is equated with activity in contrast to feminine

passivity

Attempts to capture an essence of masculinity (Risk-taking,

Responsibility, Irresponsibility, Aggression, Zeus Energy, Hard
and Heavy Phenomena)

Weakness: the choice of the essence is quite arbitrary

Positivist

Ethos emphasizes on finding facts what men actually are.

Describe the pattern of mens lives in a given culture pattern

masculinity

Three Difficulties:

No description without a standpoint

To list what men and women do requires that people be

already sorted into the categories men and women

To define masculinity as what-men-empirically-are

The terms masculine and feminine point beyond categorical

sex difference

Normative

Masculinity is what men ought to be.

Sex Role Theory

Different men approach standard to different degrees

Paradoxes

Difficulty: A purely normative definition gives no grip on

masculinity the level of personality.

Semiotic

Defines masculinity through a system of symbolic difference in

which masculine and feminine places are contrasted.

Definition: Masculinity is the unmarked term, the place of

symbolic authority. The phallus is the master-signifier, and
femininity is symbolically defined by lack.

Very effective, escapes the arbitrariness of essentialism and the

paradoxes of positive and normative definitions.

Limited in scope

Principle of Connection: Rather than attempting to define masculinity as an

object, we need to focus on the processes and relationships through which
men and women conduct gendered lives.

Hegemonic Masculinities
There are multiple, competing masculinities. (Connell)

Hegemony
o

Refers to the cultural dynamic by which a group claims and sustains a

leading position in social life

The ability of a group of people to hold power over social institutions,

and thus, to strongly influence the everyday thoughts, expectation,
and behavior of the rest of society by directing the normative ideas,
values, and beliefs that become the dominant worldview of a society.

Hegemonic Masculinity

Is not a fixed position, and occupying the position is contestable.

It embodied the currently most honored way of being a man, it

required all other men to position themselves in relation to it, and it
ideologically legitimize the global subordination of women to men.

Ideologies of manliness only achieve cultural hegemony through the

subordination of other forms of masculinity.

These include: power/strength, rationality, heterosexuality, risk-taking,

dominance, leadership, control, and repression of emotions.

Subordination
o

Within the overall framework there are specific gender relations of

dominance and subordination between groups of men.

Dominance of the heterosexual men and the subordination of the

homosexual men.

Oppression positions homosexual masculinities at the bottom of a

gender hierarchy among men.

Gayness easily assimilated to femininity; the ferocity of homophobic

attacks.

This was manifested in political and cultural exclusion, legal violence,

street violence, and economic discrimination.

Heterosexual men and boys with effeminate characteristics ran the risk
of being scorned as well.

Complicity
o

Men who received the benefits of patriarchy without enacting a strong

version of masculine dominance could be regarded as showing a
complicit masculinity.

The number of men practicing the hegemonic pattern is quite small.

Masculinities constructed in ways that realize the patriarchal dividend,

without the tensions of being lead troops of patriarchy, are complicit in
this sense.

Marginalization

The relations between the masculinities in dominant and subordinated

classes or ethnic groups.

Marginalization is always relative to the authorization of the hegemonic

masculinity of the dominant group.

This idea of marginalization is always relative to what is allowed by the

dominant group, therefore creating subsets of hegemonic masculinity
based on existing social hierarchies.

The interplay of gender with class and race creates more extensive
relationships among masculinities.

Violence
o

Is used to express or exercise ones power.

Is used by the dominant group to maintain its dominance

Ideology of supremacy

Crisis of Masculinity: a notion encompassing the belief that traditionally

valued roles of masculinity are no longer valid, leading men to feel an
uncertainty about their individual manhood and their worth in the social
sphere.