Sociology of Gender Conference Gender and Socialization Sociology of Gender Conference Gender and Socialization 1

 Conferences ◦ 8:35 – 9:25 Arts 150 ◦ 9:35 – 10:25 Burnside 1B23 ◦ Attendance & participation  Contact ◦ ◦ Office hours: Mondays 10-11:30 in Leacock 822A, or by appointment ◦ Site:  picture and/or blurb about yourself 2

 A bit about my self  My teaching style ◦ I’m here to help! ◦ Become as involved as you want in the topic of gender ◦ Gentle Socratic method ◦ The importance of your time  You PAY for my pay cheques 3

1. Should gender matter in our society? 2. Can we raise gender-neutral children? “We don’t believe in pressuring the children. When the time is right, they’ll choose the appropriate gender?” 4

 Our culture distinguishes our identity on the basis of sex from the moment of birth, not our nature  Ways to retard gender education: ◦ Alternate between spouses traditional female/male roles around the house ◦ Introduce kids to both male and female experiences (e.g. male/female toys) ◦ Monitor and censor TV and books ◦ Treat sex as merely a physical trait ◦ Focus on other sources of diversity 5

 Mothering capacities and desire to mother built into women (object-relational experiences): ◦ Girls have a longer attachment with their mothers past their first 2-3 years ◦ Stronger mother-daughter identification ◦ Girls maintain a more affective connection with familial objects and others past their adolescence  Femininity develops as a sense of connection and relationship; masculinity as its rejection  Nurturing, empathy and parenting is curtailed in boys, while it is emphasized on women  While these characteristics are not innate, we develop them so early and so “naturally” that they are unavoidable 6

 Gender as a belief that one’s sex at birth determines who we are, what we like, how we behave, etc.  Gender differences may be strong today and important in analyzing our social reality ◦ BUT: Is it because men and women are naturally or inevitably different? ◦ Or because we believe in gender, we care about it and thus reinforce the binary 7

 Sex is something we more often take for granted, but: ◦ Determining someone’s sex at birth by observing physical traits is sometimes impossible ◦ Sex-assingment may also be an arbitrary imposition  Based on the belief of a bipolar system of sex Normal Normal Clitoris Penis GIRL BOY ??? (Up to the Doc or others) 8 Phallometer

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