What are some examples of variation in gender roles/behaviors that we find across cultures?
Sociology Discussions: Gender Variance
1.Discussion Forum
250-500 words in length on each discussion topic AND respond to the other students’ posts. I have copied their text below. It does not have to be as long as the discussions, but please respond it include your opinions and just write as much as possible. Please include work cited
Discussion 1: Gender variance
What are some examples of variation in gender roles/behaviors that we find across cultures? What can studying gender across cultures help us to understand about gender?
Response 1: How gender roles have evolved in different cultures is largely tied to the core values of those cultures. In Japan, both men and women believe that women should stay at home, while men bring the actual income. As well as in China, the man is responsible for maintaining, providing for and protecting his family. Chinese mothers usually stay in the home to take care of the home, the children, and the rest of the family. Studying gender across cultures help us to understand about gender that is a social construct rather than an innate biological characteristic. Because there is no universal “right” way to be a man or a woman, I think that our ways of “doing gender” are shaped by social cues and influences.
The cultural meanings attached to men and women’s roles; and how individuals understand their identities including, but not limited to, being a man, woman, transgender, intersex, gender queer and other gender positions. Gender involves social norms, attitudes, and activities that society deems more appropriate for one sex over another. Gender is also determined by what an individual feels and does.
Discussion2: Night to His Day
According to Judith Lorber, what is “gender bending?” Provide and example of gender bending. Do you participate in any gender bending? If so, how? Why does Lorber argue that gender bending does erode, but rather preserves gender barriers?
Response 2: According to Judith Lorber, “If gender differences were genetic, gender bending and gender ambiguity would occur only in hermaphrodite, who are born with chromosomes and genitalia that are not clearly female or male. ” (59) But since gender differences are socially constructed, gender bending can the actions people take on the purpose of destroying rigid gender roles or refusing gender stereotypes. The common examples are men with skirts and high heels or women with short hair and manly outfits.
Judith Lorber argues that gender bending does erode, but rather preserves gender barriers. People readily get an overall impression of a g women dressing up in styles traditionally adopted by men and interpret that she wants to be like a man so she acts and dresses like a man. Gender bending does not alter “our expectations of how women and men are supposed to act” (54) or to behave. Moreover, “the gendered practices of everyday life reproduce a society’s view of how women and men should act.” (Bourdieu [1980]1990) “All men and all women can enact the behavior of the other, because they know the other’s social scrips.”(59)
2. Attend a campus or community event that you feel relates to a topic or issue we are learning about in the course and write a 2 paragraphs about the event. The first paragraph should be a summary of the event itself (what went on, where, who was there, what was the topic/issue) and the second paragraph should be linking the event analytically to a topic covered in the course. I will occasionally announce campus events that qualify for extra credit but for those of you who cannot make those events, you may always check with me to see if an event near you qualifies
3. Respond to 2 students’ project. It does not need to be too long. Just simply about what do you think about their works.
1) This student created a website : https://marcdomvelayo.wixsite.com/webdubois
2) This student’s google docs link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Wqo4WKa9uL…
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.
Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.
Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.
The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.