Social Construction (of Gender)

Social Construction (of Gender)
Diversity Literacy Week 2 / Lecture 1
Prepared by Claire Kelly
1. Gender is “doing”
Girls (Insert:stereotypical girl picture)PinkFlower patternsBarbie DollsToy houses and household goodsBoys (Insert:stereotypical boy picture)BlueCamouflage patternsMilitary toys and carsPlaying tough and rough
Prepared by Claire Kelly
1. Gender is “doing”
We are bornsexed, notgendered“Doing” gendercan shape biology“Doing” gender is inscribed on our bodiesGender is“doing” differenceGender isascribedandachievedGender has a material base, rendered in social and cultural practice
Prepared by Claire Kelly
2. Gender is normalised
Gender is so obvious, we don't notice it until it is “disrupted”:Third gender(Blackwood) – InstitutionalisedTransgendered/transsexualpeople – not institutionalisedImplications for sexuality
Prepared by Claire Kelly
“Third” Gender
Insertarticles/headline on the “third” gender recognized by the census of Nepal & Indiahttp://articles.cnn.com/2011-05-31/world/nepal.census.gender_1_gender-identity-citizenship-first-openly-gay-lawmaker?_s=PM:WORLDhttp://www.pinknews.co.uk/2011/05/31/nepalese-census-includes-category-for-third-gender/http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47408
Prepared by Claire Kelly
3. Gender is positioning
Gender is about more than the individual,it is about the social institution“Cult of the individual” – difficult to think of ourselves as positionedSubjectivityIndividuals are not passive in these social structures, we challenge them or we rearticulate them (remember the moving train?)
Prepared by Claire Kelly
4. Gender can be bent
What does “gender bending” tell us about gender?Shows us thatboundaries:existcontain genderare breachableare socialInsert:Picture of someone “bending gender” like a drag queen or king or cross dresser
Prepared by Claire Kelly
5. Gender as process, stratification and structure
Process– doing, creates differenceStratification–e.g. gendering of jobs nurse vs. doctorStructure– division of labour, devaluing of “feminine” labour
Prepared by Claire Kelly
Social Construction of Difference
“… is produced and maintained by identifiablesocial processesand built into the general social structure and individual identities deliberately and purposefully” (Lorber, p. 35)“Theparadox of human natureis that it is always a manifestation of cultural meanings, social relationships and power politics”(Lorber, p. 35)“For humans, thesocial is natural” (Lorber, p. 36)
Prepared by Claire Kelly