1. Lesson 3: Culture and Ideology
Introduction to Women’s Studies Robert Wonser

2. Lesson 4: Culture and Ideology

3. The Social Construction of Reality
Reality is created, negotiated and agreed upon (that is, constructed) socially, through social interaction.
The world exists before we’re born but we help (re)create the world by interacting with others.
Lesson 4: Culture and Ideology

4. Social Construction of a Gendered Reality
Because boys will be doctors
And girls will be ballerinas…
Lesson 4: Culture and Ideology

5. Grounds Rules for Studying Gender
A few assumptions:
Social life is socially based and politically (power) structure.
There are many ways in which we could categorize and label the world
Once we have made up categories or concepts, it is easy to reify them
That is, to treat them as real and universal and to forget that we made them up.
Gender is part of a network of inequalities
Lesson 4: Culture and Ideology

6. Gender in the larger world
Gender is a product of interactions between people, but is also built into the structures that organize societies
Researchers state individuals “perform” or “put-on” gender, which shows flexibility and social creation of gender
Occupations, restrooms, shoes, deodorants, etc. are gendered (morning routine anyone?)
This makes gender seem “real” and tangible
But it’s important to remember that because societies and contexts are constantly changing, gender is constantly changing.
Lesson 4: Culture and Ideology

7. Social factors come together to create our gendered experiences
Three levels:
1) the individual level of social learning and psychological sex differences
2) at the interactional level of social relations in everyday life
3) at the level of structural and institutional forces that constrain and shape action
Lesson 4: Culture and Ideology

8. Gender Lenses of Androcentrism, Polarization, and Essentialism
Different ways we see are socialized to view gender from our culture:
1) androcentrism or, male-centeredness, makes everything male appear the neutral norm, the universally human.
Ex: “he” to refer to men and women
What if …
Lesson 4: Culture and Ideology

9. If Men Could Menstruate
“the characteristics of the powerful, whatever they may be, are thought to be better than the characteristics of the powerless—and logic has nothing to do with it.” – Gloria Steinem
Menstruation would become an enviable, boastworthy masculine event.
Men would brag about how long and how much.
MENstruate
Lesson 4: Culture and Ideology

10. Gender Lenses of Androcentrism, Polarization, and Essentialism
2) gender polarization refers to the ways that diverse aspects of human experience are culturally linked to sex differences.
Examples:
Cultural items, emotions are either male or female.
Girls wear pink, men are rational.
Lesson 4: Culture and Ideology

11. Gender Lenses of Androcentrism, Polarization, and Essentialism
3) essentialism is the view that gender is a fixed biological or social trait that does not vary among individuals or over time.
Traits are inborn and immutable.
Also used to argue racial and ethnic traits are inborn.
Lesson 4: Culture and Ideology

12. Western beliefs about sex and gender
Generally taught there are only 2 genders, and any deviation is unnatural
Also emphasize biological sex, and are taught gender stems from biology
However, not all men and women are all the same, all the time.
Need to use Sociological Radar to question our own observations and experiences of gender
Behavior is flexible, and is based more on situations and contexts – not biological differences
Lesson 4: Culture and Ideology

13. Biological variations
Western culture teaches “sex” is biological, and “gender” is cultural.
But there are many variations in DNA, sex chromosomes, etc., and biology and culture are inseparable
Many “intersexed” individuals don’t fit either sex/gender category
Hormonal research shows men and women are more similar than different
Lesson 4: Culture and Ideology

14. Lesson 4: Culture and Ideology
So what is gender?
It’s NOT sex – biology doesn’t cause differences in behavior
It’s NOT concrete – it changes with times, places, individuals, etc.
It IS a human invention – a way to sort and organize people
It’s a way to organize societies and how resources are allocated, and is a basic part of how people see themselves and others
Lesson 4: Culture and Ideology

15. Lesson 4: Culture and Ideology
Gender Inequality
Gender inequality can be found in all past and present societies.
The activities that women could participate in were limited because they had less physical strength and because of the demands of bearing and raising children.
Men delivered the most important resources to the group, such as food from hunting or land from warfare, and became powerful by controlling the distribution of these resources.
There are several sociological theories that attempt to explain why this inequality has persisted in contemporary societies. We’re going to discuss several of these theories now.
Lesson 4: Culture and Ideology

16. Theories on Gender Inequality
Functionalists:
Believe that there are social roles better suited to one gender than the other, and that societies are more stable when certain tasks are fulfilled by the appropriate sex.
Lesson 4: Culture and Ideology

17. Theories on Gender Inequality (cont’d)
In the 1950s, Talcott Parsons advanced the idea that the nuclear family effectively reared children to meet the labor demands of a capitalist system.
According to Parsons:
Men were more suited for an instrumental role (the person who provides the family’s material support and is often an authority figure).
Women were more suited for an expressive role (the person who provides the family’s emotional support and nurturing).
Lesson 4: Culture and Ideology

18. Theories on Gender Inequality (cont’d)
Conflict theorists:
Believe men have historically had access to most of society’s material resources and privileges. Therefore, it is in their interest to try to maintain their dominant position.
Lesson 4: Culture and Ideology

19. Theories on Gender Inequality (cont’d)
Interactionists emphasize how the concept of gender is socially constructed, maintained, and reproduced in our everyday lives.
Predicated in the constructionist approach
Lesson 4: Culture and Ideology

20. Gender Role Socialization
Gender role socialization is the lifelong process of learning to be masculine or feminine, primarily through four main agents of socialization: families, schools, peers, and the media.
Lesson 4: Culture and Ideology

21. Gender Role Socialization (cont’d)
Families are usually the primary source of socialization and greatly impact gender role socialization.
Social learning theory suggests that the babies and children learn behaviors and meanings through social interaction and internalize the expectations of those around them.
remember: we learn gender, we are not born knowing who wears pink
Lesson 4: Culture and Ideology

22. What does this tell girls?
Lesson 4: Culture and Ideology

23. Gender Role Socialization (cont’d)
Schools also socialize children into their gender roles.
For instance, research shows that teachers treat boys and girls differently.
This may teach children that there are different expectations of them, based on their sex.
Lesson 4: Culture and Ideology

24. Gender Role Socialization (cont’d)
In Western societies, peer groups are an important agent of socialization.
Teens are rewarded by peers when they conform to gender norms and stigmatized when they do not.
Lesson 4: Culture and Ideology

25. Gender Role Socialization (cont’d)
Finally, there is no question that sex-role behavior is portrayed in a highly stereotypical manner in all forms of the media: television, movies, magazines, books, video games, and so on.
Lesson 4: Culture and Ideology

26. Lesson 4: Culture and Ideology
A 1975 survey of children’s books found that boys played active roles but girls were frequently passive. What messages about gender roles might readers learn from this Dick and Jane book?
Lesson 4: Culture and Ideology

27. Lesson 4: Culture and Ideology
Gendered Language
Even our language and vocabulary tend to reflect a hierarchal system of gender inequality.
What’s the difference between a stud and slut?
Mankind, mailman, guys
The riddle about the doctor?
Punctuate this sentence:
Woman without her man is nothing
Lesson 4: Culture and Ideology

28. Lesson 4: Culture and Ideology
Both photographs of women in China were taken in The photo to the left shows a woman with what appears to be extremely small feet. To get that artificially small size, women must break and bend the four lower toes back and under toward the heel.
Both photographs of women in China were taken in The photo to the left shows a woman with what appears to be extremely small feet. To get that artificially small size, women must break and bend the four lower toes back and under toward the heel. The photo to the right shows feet that have been bound but without the covering or shoe. Notice how the big toe is prominent while the other toes have been bent under and the arch has been pushed up.
Photo Credits: Library of Congress (left); (right)
The photo to the right shows feet that have been bound but without the covering or shoe. Notice how the big toe is prominent while the other toes have been bent under and the arch has been pushed up.
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29. Lesson 4: Culture and Ideology
The photo to the rights shows a woman with feet that have not been bound sitting next to a woman with one bound food covered with a tiny shoe and her other foot without a shoe. Notice how lifeless and malformed the uncovered foot appears.
X-ray of bound feet, 1923
The x-ray shows the effects of foot binding. The photo to the rights shows a woman with feet that have not been bound sitting next to a woman with one bound food covered with a tiny shoe and her other foot without a shoe. Notice how lifeless and malformed the uncovered foot appears.
Foot binding was a practice that existed in China for 900 years; it ended in 1949 when Mao Zedong came into power. Believe it or not foot binding was a sign of status and wealth. Bound feet symbolized a woman had the resources to lead a life of leisure. That is, the woman was wealthy enough (because of a connection to a wealthy father or husband) that she did not have to work in the fields. Women with bound feet could not walk on their own. A servant or someone else must carry her.
Photo Credit: Library of Congress (left); (right)
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30. Lesson 4: Culture and Ideology
This image is from the late 1800s/early 1900 in the United States.
We see a woman's torso with waist bound so that it appears about 18 inches in diameter.
Some women removed lower two ribs to achieve this effect.
This image is from the late 1800s/early 1900 in the United States. We see a woman's torso with waist bound so that it appears about 18 inches in diameter. Some women removed lower two ribs to achieve this effect.
Photo Credits: Library of Congress
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31. Lesson 4: Culture and Ideology
This illustration is from the late 1800s/early 1900 in the United States. The illustration on the left shows a normal woman's torso and the illustration on the right shows a waist bound so that it appears about 18 inches in diameter. The small print under the illustration to left warns that to achieve a waistline small in diameter the lungs must be contracted and liver, stomach and intestines are forced down crowding the womb seriously.
This illustration is from the late 1800s/early 1900 in the United States. The illustration on the left shows a normal woman's torso and the illustration on the right shows a waist bound so that it appears about 18 inches in diameter. The small print under the illustration to left warns that to achieve a waistline small in diameter the lungs must be contracted and liver, stomach and intestines are forced down crowding the womb seriously.
The images of Chinese women with bound feet and the image of an American woman with an impossibly small waistline suggest that gender ideals do not have to exist in nature (or in reality). Gender ideals are social creations; they are what society defines as characteristic of ideal females (and ideal males); gender ideals are so powerful that women will mutilate their bodies to achieve them.
There are many “treatments” women undergo to achieve ideals today including breast implants, botox treatments and plastic surgery. These “treatments” are not harmless…in some cases harm is immediate; in other cases the harm may show itself years, even decades later.
Photo Credits: Library of Congress (right) Summary: Two pictures of a woman's torso; one showing a woman without a corset, the other showing the effects on the internal organs and bones when wearing a corset.
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32. Lesson 4: Culture and Ideology
Are there contemporary counterparts to foot binding and 18-inch waists?
“Acute Right Ventricular Failure Following Cosmetic Injection of Silicone” - American College of Chest Physicians, 2011
“Designer vagina surgery: Demand for cosmetic gynecology has never been higher. And for plastic surgeons, business is booming” - The Guardian, 2011
Lesson 4: Culture and Ideology