1. Gender, Sexuality and Social Class in Second Language Education: Background Douglas Fleming University of Ottawa

2. As Lemonick (1992) has noted, about one person in 20,000 are genetically of a different sex than their outward appearance would suggest. Men generally have greater upper body strength, larger muscle mass and joint structures, thicker skin and lower awareness thresholds of injury. Women, on the other hand, seem to have greater tolerance for pain and better long- term physical endurance.

3. When considering behavior, the differences between men and women are difficult to classify in terms of being biologically determinate. How much is due to nature and how much to nurture? John Gray, the author of Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus contends that the sexes approach problem-solving differently. Do you buy his arguments?

4. Gender, as opposed to sex, is the way in which one sees one’s own sexual role. Needless to say, social influences have a big role to play in this important aspect of self-perception. One’s physical sex might very well be clear enough from birth (although many would dispute this). However, gender is learned.

5.  People who do not fit into the binary division of gender are subject to pressures to conform.  Gay men, lesbian women, bisexuals or transgendered people behave sexually outside the dominant norm within society and are thus commonly subject to pressures to conform to preconceived notions of what constitutes gender.  This binary division also promotes the attitude that sexual identity and behavior should be consistent and clearly demarcated against an opposite.

6. As Beasley (2005) notes, the fact that the masculine is accorded higher value than the feminine can be demonstrated linguistically. Feminine equivalents (“spinster” as opposed to “bachelor”, for example) are usually interpreted negatively. Feminine names often contain diminutives (“waitress”, as opposed to “waiter”).

7. The battles over ‘politically correct’ terminology occur because some contend that making a conscious effort at using PC words is a way of ‘conscious-raising’ that hopefully affects attitudes AND behaviors. Breaking linguistic conventions is difficult, given the constructionist nature of language.

8. great effort has been made to deny the very existence of class (Teeple, 2000). Despite a recently dramatic concentration of wealth in the U.S. (see http://concentrationof wealth.blogspot.com)  Liberal (small l) forms of citizenship, for example, in which everyone enjoys equal access to a common set of rights and privileges masks social and economically-based inequalities (Marshall, 1950).

9. The supposed basis of class is not biological, but socio-economic. As opposed to race and gender, the outward appearance of class is generally more easily discarded. In other words, it is easier to hide one’s class origins as opposed those pertaining to one’s race or gender. One can also change class membership in ways that are not dependent on physical attributes.

10.  We are used to equating class primarily with wealth and secondarily with access to educational resources.  Given how social stratification is represented ideologically, we are also using to viewing class as being relatively fluid and based on merit.  However, it is important to note class is as socially constructed as race and gender.  Proof of this is in how societies have classified social stratification in various ways.

11. The Indian caste system in its traditional formulation, for example, is quite rigid in terms of social mobility. Native social hierarchies were quite variable. Traditional Confucius Chinese social stratification

12.  Even within modern European notions of class, there are important variations.  Pre-revolutionary France was marked by the three estates (church; aristocracy/ military; and everyone else).  The traditional British system divided society into the aristocracy and the commons.  It could be argued that communist countries have divided classes according to party membership.

13.  Social stratification is marked by one’s wealth, income, education and placement in an overarching system that ascribes value to various occupational statuses (esp. in terms of governmental, military and religious structures).  Class is symbolically represented through manners and clothing, membership in high status organizations, honorific titles bestowed by organizations that exercise power, and language use.

14. Formalized descriptions of class structures do not (usually) reflect power relations accurately. Stories about individual merit (e.g. Horatio Alger) will often make class membership in modern capitalist societies appear to be much more fluid than it really is. As in the case of race, meritocratic standards allow one to blame the victims, this time the poor.

15.  Financial capital passed down from family members perpetuates class divisions in obvious ways. However, other factors also play a hand.  Cultural capital (Bourdieu,1977) is a set of non- materialist resources related to family background, social status (as opposed to economic class) and education that is passed down from generation to generation.  Different values are found within hierarchical forms of cultural capital that can be variously transformed into the more tangible material forms of capital, such as money and power.