so100 exam 2

Non-binary

A broad category including transgender, gender-queer, gender non-conforming

Ethnicity as structures of action

Cultural codes specific to ethnicities often shape the ways in which one acts

Ethnicity as structures of feeling

Cultural codes specific to ethnicities often shape the ways in which one feels

Ethnicity as a way of seeing

Cultural codes specific to ethnicities often shape the ways in which one perceives.

ideal feminine beauty

During the seventeenth century, a curvier figure was seen as a symbol of wealth and health; a stark contrast to today's leaner standards which are influenced by economic shifts in food affordability and health amenities.

Situational ethnicity

Ethnic identity that is chosen for the moments based on the social setting or situation

Symbolic ethnicity

Ethnic identity that is retained only for symbolic importance

Some ethnic identities can be racialized in some contexts

Kurds in Turkey

Race is misrecognized as natural

"Ultimately, race is a social construct. It can be seen as a "well-founded fiction": fictional because it isn't based on nature, but recognized as real since society views and interprets the world through racial lenses."

lower class

- 20% of American households - earning under $20,000 annually - primarily residing in urban areas, some also live rurally, working part-time or as small-scale farmers - employment, when available, is often in unstable, dead- end, part-time jobs without benefits - lower class lives in poverty, with few owning homes - predominantly nonwhite and is generally politically inactive with low voter turnout

Gendered stereotypes have even more detrimental effects on African American children, which emphasizes the importance of intersectionality

- African American girls in predominantly white schools face bias from an early age, which influences their attitudes and perceptions

Poverty line

- An official government measure to define those living in poverty in the United States - 2015 poverty line for a family of four was an annual income of just over $24,000, or roughly $2,000 monthly for all expenses

Interpersonal Racism

- Beneath institutional levels - racial domination evident in daily interactions and practices - found in the habitual, commonsensical, and ordinary practices of our lives

Macroeconomic factors

- During the 2008 Recession, male employment rates suffered more than their female counterparts, primarily because industries like finance, insurance, real estate, and construction, predominantly male-dominated, were adversely impacted. - recession being termed as a "he-cession" or "man-cession", as 80% of jobs lost were held by men.

Schools play a significant role in promoting gender differences.

- Educational materials, like reading texts, often perpetuate gender stereotypes. - Interaction patterns between teachers and students also differ based on gender - Gender biases extend to academic subjects.

George Murdock

- Functionalist anthropologist - while the sexual division of labor wasn't biologically dictated, it was present universally and contributed to a society's efficient organization

John Bowlby

- Functionalist psychologist - attachment theory emphasized the mother's essential role in a child's primary socialization - warned of potential social and psychological issues in children if separated from their mothers, a stance that some interpreted as criticism against working mothers - Agreed with Parsons

Talcott Parsons

- Functionalist sociologist - families function best with a clear gender role distinction - women in expressive roles, offering emotional support and nurturing, and men in instrumental roles as breadwinners - contended that this division, rooted in biological differences, ensured familial stability

Hijras

- In India, there are the hijras, traditionally regarded as neither male nor female - identity, however, extends beyond gender, as they worship the goddess Bedhraj Mata - bless newlyweds and newborns with fertility - sometimes engage in prostitution, live communally, and endure poverty and stigmatization

masculine ideal

- In the eighteenth century, ideal masculinity was associated with intellect, kindness, and poetic flair, rather than physical prowess or business acumen. - By the mid-twentieth century, the image of the ideal man was described as a white, urban, college-educated, married, Protestant individual who was successful both professionally and in sports

Feminist Critique of Functionalist Approaches

- Instead of biology, cultural expectations shape how humans take on specific roles - Research indicates that children tend to thrive educationally and personally when both parents are employed - The assumption that an "expressive" female role is essential for family harmony lacks foundation and seems to be more about catering to men's comfort than any intrinsic family need. - The willingness to share tasks and accept women in roles traditionally held by men varies by culture, historical period, and socio-economic conditions

Christine Williams

- Men in female-dominated professions don't face these barriers. Instead, they often experience accelerated promotions, a phenomenon termed the "glass escalator" - revised her theory later to emphasize the concept of "intersectionality. - suggested the glass escalator chiefly benefits white middle-class men, while gay and racial/ethnic minority men might be excluded from its advantages

Nadles

- Navajo Native Americans recognize three genders: masculine men, feminine women, and the nadle - might be born with ambiguous genitalia or might adopt the identity later in life - Nadles can marry anyone without any loss of social status

War on Poverty

- President Lyndon B. Johnson initiated the War on Poverty when approximately 19% of Americans, or 36 million people, lived in poverty

Premodern conception of race

- Race wasn't acknowledged in ancient times - Ancient Egyptians and Chinese, for instance, linked physical attributes to geographical origins - Greeks believed environmental factors caused physical differences. Aristotle emphasized civic actions over racial distinctions.

Gender Socialization

- Though gender isn't anchored to a solid biological reality, it deeply impacts our lives - From the moment a fetus's sex is identified or even before, during processes like IVF, society starts shaping gender identities

Economic sociology

- a branch of sociology that focuses on the social aspects and implications of economic behavior and phenomena - examines how societal norms, values, relationships, and institutions shape and are shaped by economic processes, including the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services

Explicit bias

- a conscious and open prejudice

Amos Mac

- a man raised as a girl, questioned the standard binary narrative when asked about his transition - emphasized the unique nature of each person's transgender experience - underscores that gender shouldn't be viewed as a rigid category but rather a fluid spectrum

Homo economicus

- a theoretical concept in economics that portrays individuals as consistently rational and narrowly self-interested agents who usually pursue their subjectively-defined ends optimally - assumes that individuals have clear preferences, make rational choices, and aim to maximize utility or profit

"one-sex" model

- ancient Greece until the mid-18th century - only one body type (the male body) existed, viewing the female body as an inverted version of the male - asserted that both male and female orgasms were essential for conception

Eugenics

- argued that races had distinct inheritable social and psychological traits - "well born" - focused on breeding specific traits into or out of populations - claim a majority of immigrants from certain European regions were "morons", promoting restrictive immigration policies

Liberal feminism

- attributes gender inequalities primarily to societal and cultural attitudes - Unlike radical feminists, who view women's subordination as part of a broader system, liberal feminists pinpoint specific factors such as workplace sexism, discrimination in education, and media biases - aims to secure equal opportunities for women using democratic channels - legal equality is crucial to combat discrimination - promote reforms within existing systems

Symbolic Category

- belongs to the realm of ideas, meaning-making, and language - something actively created and recreated by human beings rather than pregiven - mark differences between grouped people or things. In doing so, they actually bring those people or things into existence

Black feminism

- centering on the unique challenges faced by black women - criticizes mainstream feminist theories for primarily reflecting the experiences of white, middle-class women in industrialized nations with traditional family - intersectionality acknowledges the distinct adversities faced by different groups of women - the power of black feminist theory lies in its exploration of the intricate relationship among race, class, and gender, where each element amplifies the effects of the others

Stereotypes

- common perceptions about a group's traits, such as intelligence or behavior, based on generalizations - negative and positive

underclass

- distinguished by their lack of access to mainstream work and behavior patterns - found in high-poverty urban neighborhoods - "new urban poor," - predominantly trapped in multi-generational poverty - unskilled, unemployed, welfare-dependent, or homeless, living in areas rife with drugs, gangs, and violence

middle class

- encompasses a broad spectrum, predominantly in white-collar and skilled blue-collar jobs, with incomes between $40,000 and $200,000

"Legalistic Fallacy"

- equates legal advancements with real-world racial progress

Nativism

- fearing the influence of new immigrants - aimed to protect the indigenous culture or land - unrestricted immigration = "race suicide" for the white race

upper middle class

- highly educated professionals like doctors, lawyers, and engineers, as well as mid-level corporate managers and small business owners - household incomes generally range from $100,000 to $200,000 - represents about 20% of American households, they typically have college educations, own comfortable homes, drive recent-model cars, and maintain some savings and investments

Ethnic Identity

One's self-identification with an ethnic group

1964 Civil Rights Act

prohibiting discrimination in various sectors

"Fixed Fallacy"

racism remains unchanging over time. Adherents often measure racism by its most extreme manifestations, like racial violence

Social mobility

refers to the upward or downward movement of individuals and groups among different class positions through changes in occupation, wealth, or income

Franz Boas and Robert Park

saw race as influenced more by culture than biology

Johann Friedrich Blumenbach

worked on phrenology categorized humans into five races, with Caucasians deemed superior based on skull qualities

Eugenics was led by ______

Sir Francis Galton

Primordialism

The myths are based on kinship. So, the ethnic identity is fixed, one is either a member of a kin group, or not

Social constructionism

The myths are based on socially construction processes.

South Africa, racial groups are organized around three dominant categories:

White, Black, and "Coloured." During apartheid, the "Coloured" category was designed to include all "mixed-race" people

The curse of Ham from the book of Genesis was used by Europeans as _____

a basis to interpret black Africans as descendants of Ham, thereby justifying colonialism and slavery

"Tokenistic Fallacy"

assumes that the presence of people of color in influential roles signifies the end of racial barriers

Monogenists

believed all humans were one species

Ancestry

family lineage, which often includes tribal, regional, or national affiliations

"Ahistorical Fallacy"

dismisses the impact of historical racial injustices on the present. It argues that significant historical events, like slavery, colonialism, and forced segregation, don't affect current society

Gender identity

one's definition of self as male, female, both, neither, or movement between the two

Economics

- the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services - examines how individuals, businesses, governments, and nations make choices on allocating resources to satisfy their needs and desires, and tries to determine how these groups should organize and coordinate efforts to achieve maximum output

culture of poverty

- the values of people experiencing poverty lead to the reproduction of poverty - many researchers considered this view blaming the victim, by drawing attention to the structural factors hindering social mobility

Prejudices

- unfounded negative beliefs about a group, often influenced by perceived social hierarchy or potential threats - not based on personal experience but can intensify if a group seems to challenge the status quo

The development of racial thinking coincided with _______

the Protestant Reformation, the Age of Exploration, and the rise of capitalism

Working poor in America

- ≥27 weeks employment but below poverty line - 5.6% of the workforce - predominantly nonwhite and immigrant - Hispanics and blacks being twice as likely as whites and Asian Americans to be in this group - 16% of high school dropouts are working poor compared to 1.7% of those with a bachelor's degree or higher - only 5% of low-income full-time workers get welfare

Civil Rights Movement

- sought to end racial segregation and discrimination against African Americans - NAACP challenging "separate but equal" schooling, leading to the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which declared segregated schools inherently unequal

"two sex" model

- stark distinctions between male and female bodies became prevalent - downplay the significance of the female orgasm - shift in perspective saw male doctors in the 19th century even questioning its existence, contrasting the earlier views of 17th-century midwives who believed female orgasm was crucial for conception

Implicit bias

- subconscious associations made between unrelated things - influenced by upbringing and media

Institutional Racism

- systemic White domination of people of color - embedded and operating in corporations, universities, legal systems, political bodies, cultural life, and other social collectives

Racism

- the belief in the superiority or inferiority of a group based on physical characteristics - a form of prejudice specifically targeting physical differences

Intersex

- individuals are born with genitalia, hormones, and chromosomes that don't fit neatly into the traditional male or female boxes - disorders of sex development - Estimates suggest that deviations from the binary model could account for as much as 2% of live births

Postmodern feminism

- influenced by cultural shifts in the arts - women don't have a singular, shared experience or identity - refutes generalizations such as patriarchy, race, or class as overly simplistic or "essentialist." - celebrates the distinct experiences of various groups, from heterosexuals and lesbians to working-class women - finds itself at odds with other feminist branches because it challenges the notion of a comprehensive universal solution or explanation for women's oppression

Transnational feminism

- intersections of nationhood, race, gender, sexuality, and economic exploitation in the context of global capitalism - acknowledges the profound impact of global factors, such as colonialism, racism, and imperialism, on gender dynamics - emerged as a response to the realization that liberal feminist issues, like equal pay or household labor division, might not resonate with many women in the global south - human rights framework, leveraging research as a catalyst for social change

Elizabeth Grosz

- likens the interplay between biology (sex) and societal influences (gender) to a Möbius strip

working class

- makes up about 20% of American households - consisting of blue-collar workers like mechanics and pink-collar employees such as clerical aides - earning between $20,000 and $40,000 annually, many require multiple household earners to cover basic expense - faces job insecurity - Political activity is minimal, though some vote occasionally - Many working-class children skip college, directly entering the workforce after high school. However, their job prospects are dim

Socialist feminism

- merges Marxist themes with concerns about women's oppression in patriarchal societies - emphasizes the interconnectedness of gender and social class oppression - simply overthrowing capitalism won't eliminate inequality; systems of gender-based stratification must also be addressed - socialist feminists advocate for collaboration with men to combat class oppression - dispute liberal feminists' belief that policy reforms can achieve gender equality in societal institutions - true equality is unattainable in a society with inherently flawed socio-economic structures

Relative poverty

- more common in industrialized nations, measures inequality. - denotes being poor in comparison to the majority's living standards - a person can be deemed poor if they lack the resources for a decent housing standard and healthy living condition

lower middle class

- office workers, teachers, nurses, salespeople, and skilled service providers, encompassing about 40% of American households - class is diverse, with members having varying education levels and incomes - own a modest home or rent, drive affordable cars, and aspire for their children's higher education, often through loans - Historically stable jobs like firefighting and teaching have seen layoffs, with public workers in many cities facing pension threats

upper class

- peak of the socioeconomic hierarchy - distinguished by their "leisure" status and not needing to work - key distinction is their income source, often from investments rather than wages - Around 1% of Americans

Functionalism and Gender Inequality

- perceive society as an interconnected system where each component works harmoniously for overall stability - gender differences, especially in task specialization between men and women, are seen as fostering social stability - men and women naturally gravitate towards roles for which they're biologically suited

Phenotype

- physical appearance and constitution, including skeletal structure, height, hair tex ture, eye color, and skin tone

Radical feminism

- posits that men exploit women and benefit from their subjugation, with patriarchy, (male domination over females), being a universal system spanning across time and cultures - the family is a primary source of women's oppression, as men leverage women's unpaid domestic labor and withhold power and influence from them - male control over female sexuality and reproductive roles --> patriarchy - Concepts of beauty and femininity, bolstered by media and advertising, further objectify women and sustain their subordination - Radical feminists highlight male violence against women and daily gendered interactions as mechanisms maintaining this oppression

"Individualistic Fallacy"

- racism as merely personal prejudices, categorizing individuals as "racists" or "non-racists" based on intent

Brazil, five racial categories are employed in the official census:

Branco (White), Pardo (Brown), Preto (Black), Amarelo (Asian), and Indígena (Indigenous)

Some racial identities can be ethnicized in some contexts.

Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda

Cis-gender

Those whose gender identity aligns with biological sex assigned at birth.

Ethnicity

a sense of community derived from shared cultural heritage

Feminism

a sociological viewpoint that highlights the importance of gender when examining societal structures, especially focusing on women's unique experiences

Race

a symbolic category, based on phenotype or ancestry and constructed according to specific social and historical contexts, that is misrecognized as a natural category.

economy

a system where goods and services are produced, exchanged, and consumed within a community or geographical area

Bias

a tendency to view things in a particular way, regardless of the details of the specific situation

Capitalism

an economic system where property and goods are privately owned, with investment, pricing, production, and distribution driven by competition in a free market

François Bernier

classified humans based on body traits and geography into multiple races

Sexuality

desire, sexual preferences, and both sexual identity and behavior

Intragenerational mobility

how far an individual moves up or down the socioeconomic scale during his or her working life

Absolute poverty

situations where an individual or family can't obtain sufficient food, leading to malnutrition or, in extreme cases, starvation.

Intergenerational mobility

social movement across generations; we can analyze where children are on the scale compared with their parents or grandparents

Sex

socially acknowledged, perceived biological distinctions between males and females

metrosexual male

spends considerably on grooming activities traditionally considered feminine

polygenists

thought races were separate species

Herbert Spencer

used social Darwinism to argue that some races were naturally more dominant due to evolutionary advantages

Comte de Buffon

viewed non-Europeans as deviations from the norm