Gender and Communication MidTerm

Stories change gender biases by

1. Allowing access to understand motives 2. Engaging people in making a meaning 3. Gender stories can't be easily discounted 4. Different stories can cause different understanding and might lead to more caring actions

Cultural Cause Theory

1. Anthropological: Technologically advances cultures are stratified by gender -Capitalism plays up public/private split, devaluing private 2. Standpoint: People have different cultural spaces form race, class, and gender. -People of privilege have the most distorted views -Subordinates in group need to understand privilege in order to survive 3. Mothering: Powerful Concept in stand point thinking -Maternal Thinking: Ruddick; -Values, priorities, and understandings specifically promoted by caring for dependent young children -social location of mothers facilitates maternal thinking development

3 main theories of gender cause

1. Biological 2. Interpersonal 3. Cultural

Necessary Elements in Narrative

1. Characters 2. Settings 3. Plot: situation that changes 4. Point of View

Strategies to Enact Agency

1. Do it yourself 2. Influence others to help 3. Reframe the situation 4. Enact by living the change you want to see 5. Allowing others to have their own agency

3 Gender Perspectives

1. Essentialism: your gender is your sex 2. Liberal Feminism: sex is bodies and your gender is from socialized behavior that is feminine or masculine 3. Symbolic Constructivism: Gender is assignment of meaning to bodies -Not stable -Considers race, ethnicity, economic status, class, religion, etc. -Sex is sex acts

How does social construction shape cultural structures. Name two socially constructed cultural structures and explain how symbols and symbol systems create them.

A social construct or construction concerns the meaning, notion, or connotation placed on an object or event by a society, and adopted by the inhabitants of that society with respect to how they view or deal with the object or event.[citation needed] In that respect, a social construct as an idea would be widely accepted as natural by the society, but may or may not represent a reality shared by those outside the society, and would be an "invention or artifice of that society".[2][need quotation to verify] A major focus of social constructionism is to uncover the ways in which individuals and groups participate in the construction of their perceived social reality. It involves looking at the ways social phenomena are developed, institutionalized, known, and made into tradition by humans.

Social Learning Theory

Albert Bandura -Role modeling and role playing -Learn to be you by watching, imitating and being rewarded or punished for certain behaviors

Radical Feminism

Also called the women's liberation movement. important outcome: identification of the structural basis of women's oppression. College campuses provided fertile ground for the emergence of radical feminism. It grew out of New Left politics that protested the Vietnam War and fought for civil rights. Women in the New Left movement did the same work as their male peers and risked the same hazards of arrest and physical assault, but men in the New Left treated women as subordinates, telling them to make coffee, type news releases, do the menial work of organizing, and be ever available for sex Women in several New Left groups challenged the sexism but most men ignored them; Outraged, many women withdrew from the New Left and formed their own organizations. Radical feminists relied on "rap" or consciousness-raising groups, in which women gathered to talk informally about personal experiences with sexism to link those personal experiences to larger social and political structures. Radical feminists' insisted on leaderless discussions so that participants would have equal power. Relied on revolutionary analysis and politics along with high-profile public events to call attention to the oppression of women and to demand changes Some women involved in radical movements of the 1960s formed organizations to represent concerns of women of color. Occupation of the Ladies' Home Journal office. Speak-outs about silenced issues such as rape and abortion. Protests against the Miss America pageants in 1968 and 1969. Guerrilla theater to dramatize public issue

"Some cultures recognize 3 sexes"

Berdache: in native American tribal culture -person of mixed gender who is seen to have magical powers Hijras: in India -physiological males who choose to live as women and are seen as spiritually superior Sworn virgins: in the Balkan culture -physiological females who are recognized as men and enjoy men's social status

Biological Cause Theory

Biology influences, doesn't determine, gender development and expression -Chromosomes -Hormonal Activity -Brain Structure ? -Embodiment -Physicality -Reproductive enmeshment (metaphor: the chicken is involved in breakfast; the pig is committed)

Communication

Dynamic, synthetic process in which two levels of meaning are created and reflected in human interactions with symbols -Content level: literal meaning -Relational level: less obvious, definer of relationship between communicators

How does understanding the gender binary as a matrix help people gain power to change things in their lives?

Each of us exercises agency in making decisions about how we will live our lives When we know how the gender binary creates a 'matrix' we gain power

Symbolic Interaction Theory

George H Mead -Identity develops through communicating with others -Learn who you are by discovering how others view you and responding to their evaluations.

Third Wave of Feminism

In the Early 21st C., Gender Roles are Disintegrating -A wide range of gendered behavior is now acceptable in public -Sexuality is freely expressed and discussed -Women and men do the same work -New names appear for feminism: Transfeminism Grrl power Lipstick feminism Cybergrrl feminism

Static Gender: men vs. women roles

Men: Civil and religious leaders; breadwinners; head of family Women: Domestic roles of wives, mothers, and caretakers

Humanities bases/ Qualitative Methods

Sometimes called interpretive methods; aim to understand meanings that cannot be quanified using two popular methods: Textual Analysis Ethnography

Characteristic communication practices of women speech communities

Women: use language to foster connections, support closeness, and mutual understand- ing Establishing equality between people is a second important feature of feminine communication. support for others. To demonstrate support, communicators often express emotions conversational "maintenance work" responsiveness tentativeness

Second Wave Feminism

1963- Late 1980's -As in the first wave of U.S. women's movements, the second wave included liberal feminists and cultural feminist -sexuality, family, the workplace, reproductive rights, de facto inequalities, and official legal inequalities, domestic violence and marital rape issues, establishment of rape crisis and battered women's shelters, and changes in custody and divorce law -An awareness of the impropriety of discrimination led to the passage of laws that could be used to challenge discriminatory practices (ERA was proposed: 'Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.') -Women routinely began attending college and holding professional jobs that were not limited to teaching, nursing, and secretarial work -Strict dress codes for women disappeared, and women began to wear pants and a variety of styles of clothing both in public and in the home -Birth control became widely available, providing women with greater freedom in terms of whether and when to have children

True Womanhood (19th c.)

19th C. 'True Womanhood' Was Socially Constructed -Sexual purity -Piety -Submissiveness -Domesticity

19th c. elite/less privileged women

19th century -Elite women were seen as weak, stupid and inferior to men, needing protection -Less privileged women were seen as strong, conniving and inferior, needing to be protected from because of their threat

Liberal fem, cultural fem and backlash fem ideology in first wave feminism:

1st wave Liberal Fem Ideology: The most well-known women's activism during the first wave endorsed a decisively liberal ideology. The women's rights movement came into being to gain basic civil rights for women. -Start of first wave feminism: 1840 when Lucretia Coffin Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton met at antislavery convention and were denied entry based on their sex; realized that they could not work to end slavery if they were denied political voice as women. Then helped organize the first women's rights convention in 1848. Keynote address, -entitled "Declaration of Sentiments," modeled on the Declaration of Independence; "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Cultural Fem Ideology:"cult of domesticity" -many women of the time did not believe that women and men were equal but that women were suited to the domestic sphere because they were more moral, nurturing, concerned about others, and committed to harmony than men. -Some women even devoted to domestication still fought for slavery abolition, alcohol laws, and laws to protect kids. Backlash Fem Ideology: The first example of antifeminism was the antisuffrage movement, which aimed to refuse women the right to vote. -Antisuffragists argued that women's rights to vote, pursue education, or hold property conflicted with women's natural roles as wives and mothers, and that women's suffrage would weaken the nation -Antisuffrage activism reached its peak between 1911 and 1916 and disbanded after the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment.

Ideal man in the gender binary

above all: manly active attractive (more important in accomplish/success than looks) aggressive athletic competitive dominant independent logical self- confident unemotional rely on himself leader house provider/head organizes and maintains the world

Patriarchy

Rule of the father -Control/ownership of women

Social Construction of Reality

The way in which people create reality together through communication.

Social Scientific/ Quantitative Methods

Gather and analyze data that can be qualified in three main ways: Descriptive statistics surveys experiments

Narrative

Structural system with embedded means of motivation

First Wave Feminism

- 1840 to 1925 -Included both liberal and cultural branches; Ironically, conflicting views of these 2 movements worked together to change the status and rights of women in U.S -focused mainly on suffrage and overturning legal obstacles to gender equality (e.g., voting rights and property rights), -In the women's suffrage movement of the late 1800s and early 1900s, which is now known as the first wave of feminism, suffragists advocated for a change in gender roles—being able to vote would require that women enter the public sphere. -Suffragists also violated conventional gender roles themselves—they spoke in public, held demonstrations, and were jailed for their activities—all of which were considered unthinkable for women at the time -On August 26, 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution was passed, granting women the vote -Women then began to enroll in institutions of higher education, and to enter professions such as medicine and law that earlier had been closed to them

Early (before the late 19th c.) meanings of sexual orientation

-In ancient Greece, the only sexual offense was too much sex, not the person -'Heterosexual' meant bisexuals who masturbated -'Hetero' meant desiring two differently sexed types -'Homosexual' meant someone who thought as if they were the opposite sex -Any sex outside of procreative sex was named perverted or abnormal

Mid 18th century- one sex model of anatomy

-Male bodies were considered normal; women's were abnormal -Women's reproductive organs were seen as inverted male organs and named identically -Science didn't recognize two separate sexes till late 18th and early 19th centuries -All bodies were seen as male bodies

What roles are played in constructing social reality by communication?

-Reality comes into existence through communication -Communication organizes and conceptualizes reality -Communication shapes perception from our earliest days -Communication creates attitude -Communication suggests appropriate actions -Through communication, we create the world together through intersubjectivity

How does social construction shape cultural structures?

-Through shared symbols, actions move from persons to societies into cultures -Symbol systems create structures

What led to second wave feminism

-WW II (1939-1945) required women's work outside the home for success -After the war, women were sent back home in order to make way for soldiers to have jobs -Women were kept out of jobs, couldn't get credit, and couldn't wear pants in public

Womanism

Also known as black feminism. strand of liberal feminism Goals include reforming social services to be more responsive to poor women, and increasing training and job opportunities so that women of color can improve the material conditions of their lives issues of race and class as they are related to gender. Highlighting how oppressions intersect, womanists work to shape a political movement specific to the concerns of black women. Womanists point out that, compared to white women, black women as a group are more often single, bear more children, are paid less, and assume more financial responsibility for families womanists also attend to ways in which class intersects race and sex to create inequality. Womanist organizations often include working-class women and address issues that keenly affect lower-class African-American women.

How does social construction shape cultural structures. Name two socially constructed cultural structures and explain how symbols and symbol systems create them.

An example of this idea is "sex" versus "gender." Sex in this view refers to the biological characteristics of men and women, which are given to us by nature. By contrast, "gender" refers to social characteristics we associate with males and females — what we call "masculinity" and "femininity." The argument is that these characteristics are "socially constructed" in the sense that there is no universal essence for either; instead, over time we have constructed those terms to mean certain things. For example, to be masculine is to be rational and aggressive while to be feminine is to be more emotional and passive.The danger here is that once one sees social institutions as "constructed," even "socially," it's easy to take the next two steps: thinking one can deconstruct and then reconstruct them. One of the great intellectual pastimes in the humanities and social sciences is to deconstruct social institutions by pointing out how they serve the interests of a specific group or enable one group to dominate another. Again, this by itself is no problem as long as one understands that the process which created those institutions was not the result of human design.

Agency

Capacity to act or make a difference -To have agency means to feel or believe that you can change things that matter to you -Essential Characteristic: feel in control of your life

Mixed Research Methods

Combo of 2 or more methods described earlier -Scholar might document the frequency (descriptive statistics) of men and women smiling in social situations and then interview them (qualitative methods) to learn why they smile

Static Gender

Constant nature of gender; despite cultural variation, throughout time there have been consistent trends of social attitudes and behaviors regarding gender. Gender category/roles and their values cannot change.

Experiments

Controlled studies that manipulate one thing (independent variable) to determine how it affects the other thing (dependent variable) -Test the impact of reading fashion magazines on women's self esteem -How certain methods effect boy/girl learning

According to Wood, what explains difference in men and women the best?

Culturally inflected communication shapes perception more than any REAL differences -Women and men are more alike than not according to overlapping normal cues -There are few real differences between men and women, but men tend more to spatial perception and women to verbal facility.

How do coming of age rituals reinforce the gender binary?

Debutante balls Father/daughter dances Bar mitzvahs Quinceaneras Proms

Descriptive Statistics

Describe populations, proportions, and frequencies -How often do men/women interrupt? -Earnings of men vs women in same profession?

Liberal, cultural, and backlash/anti fem

During each wave, two distinct ideologies have informed movement goals and efforts for change. Liberal Feminism holds that women and men are alike and equal in most respects. Therefore, goes the reasoning, they should have equal rights, roles, and opportunities. Characterized by more focus on and leadership by white, middle-class women, A second, quite different ideology, cultural feminism, holds that women and men are fundamentally different and should have different rights, roles, and opportunities. -These two ideologies coexist, reflecting different images of women and their rights. "Backlash against feminism": antifeminism opposes changes in women's roles, status, rights, or opportunities. -Antisuffragists argued that women's rights to vote, pursue education, or hold property conflicted with women's natural roles as wives and mothers, and that women's suffrage would weaken the nation. Most vocal proponent of STOP ERA, Phyllis Schlafly, traveled announcing that feminism was destroying femininity by encouraging women to leave traditional roles. Kept her from own family. -Antifeminism also exists in the twenty-first century. The Surrendered Wife by L Doyle counsels women to abandon the quest for equality if they want happy marriages. Another book, The War against Men by Hise claims that women have gained power at the expense of men and that this is contrary to God's commandments.

Masculinist Groups

Fathers 4 Justice: A British fathers' rights group that relies on the two rhetorical strategies of humor and dramatic stunts to raise public awareness about the custody rights of separated and divorced fathers. Million Man March: A branch of the men's movement that began with a march in Washington, DC, in 1995, in which black men atoned for sins and committed themselves to spiritual transformation and political action. Annual marches were also held in subsequent years. Mythopoetic Movement: A branch of the men's movement headed by poet Robert Bly and active in the 1900s. Mythopoetics believe that men need to rediscover their distinctively masculine modes of feeling, which they regard as rooted largely in myth. Promise Keepers: Begun in 1990, a Christian branch of the men's movement that calls men together to pray and commit to Christ-centered living. Good Men Project: A multifaceted effort to stimulate a national conversation about what it means to be a good man today. National Organization of Men: NOM

How does third wave feminism differ from ideas and goals of first and second wave feminism?

Feminism now is less about privilege, and more about oppression???

Gender Constants Across Cultures

Few gender constants across cultures -Men tend to be more aggressive -Women tend to be more verbal

How did first wave feminism redefine women?

First Wave Feminism redefined women as: -bringing something of value to public life -belonging in public life -therefore could legitimately to vote as citizens

Revalorist

Focus on appreciating women and what they give to society. They want society to value what women have to offer in terms of women's traditional roles.

Social Construction's Arbitrary Nature

Gender Constructions are arbitrary because they are based on genital difference and so, they reify the gender binary -The arbitrariness of the Western gender system is made apparent when you see how a gender system could be organized around something other than genitals. -This system is based on one attribute, genitals. -If Western cultural beliefs about gender included the idea that genitals do not determine gender and that gender is based on something else, a very different kind of gender system would result.

Connections between language and gender

Generic Language excludes women: One way that language erases women is through the use of male generic language, which purports to include both women and men yet literally refers only to men. Examples of male generic language are nouns such as congressman, spokesman, mailman, and mankind, and pronouns such as he and his used to refer to both women and men. Language defines women and men differently: hurricanes with feminine names are more deadly than those with masculine names. The findings showed that, because of gender stereotypes that associate masculinity with greater risk and strength, people were more likely to ignore warnings for hurricanes with feminine names. For high- damage storms with masculine names, people heeded warnings and there were an average of only 11 deaths. Storms with feminine names were not taken as seriously and there were 59 deaths on average. The study shows that we attach distinct meanings to masculinity and femininity. Language shapes awareness of gender issues: Naming is important. We give names to things that matter to us. We don't bother to name what doesn't matter (Spender, 1984a, 1984b). The power of naming is clear with sexual harassment and date rape (Harris, 2011a; Wood, 2008, 2009a). For most of history, sexual harassment occurred frequently but was unnamed. Because it wasn't named, sexual harassment was not visible, making it difficult to recognize, discipline, or stop. If sexual harassment was discussed at all, it was described as making advances, getting out of line, or being pushy. None of these phrases conveys the abusiveness of sexual harassment. Only when the term sexual harassment was coined was it recognized as unwanted behavior that ties sexuality to security and advancement. With recognition came efforts to redress sexual harassment Language organizes perception of gender through stereotyping and polarizing:Two ways in which language organizes perceptions of gender are stereotyping men and women and encouraging polarized perceptions of sex and gender. ralization about an entire class of phenomena based on some knowledge of some members of the class. For example, if most women you know aren't interested in sports, you might stereotype women as uninterested in sports. This stereotype could keep you from noticing that many women engage in sports and enjoy attending athletic events. Language evaluates gender: Language reflects cultural values and is a powerful influence on our perceptions. Women are often described in trivializing terms. Numerous terms label women as immature or juvenile (baby doll, girlie, little darling) or equate them with food (sugar, sweet thing, cookie, cupcake) and animals (kitten, catty, chick, pig, dog, cow, bitch). Language allows self-reflection: We use symbols to name and evaluate not only the phenomena around us, but also ourselves. Self-reflection is thinking about yourself—how you name and evaluate yourself. Yet, self-reflection is not just personal. Each of us has society's values in our heads, so we tend to reflect on ourselves from society's perspective. In the 1950s, a 5-foot 5-inch woman who weighed 140 pounds would have considered herself slender. In 2010, a 5-foot 5-inch woman who weighs 140 pounds might view herself as overweight. In 1950, a man would not feel pressure to be as muscular as is the current masculine ideal.

Five Signs of Feminist Consciousness

Gerda Lerner 1. Power systems are maintained symbolically 2. Individuals within them need to recognize that power 3. Others are seen as engaged with you 4. All should be able to tell their stories 5. Mutuality should mark decision-making

Evolving Gender

Idea that through cultural variations and history, notions of gender have changed dramatically.

Give three examples of English words that show the privilege given to 'the ideal man' and three that show the privilege given to 'the ideal woman' in the context of the gender binary?

Ideal Man: 1. Valued more in all systems and institutions, family, religion, technology, etc. 2. seen as more legitimate and more important than other people.

Cultural Studies/Critical Methods

Identify and critique the means by which power relations are created or challenged -Insight into ways in which organizational structures and practices create work environments that women and minorities perceive as unwelcoming.

Why did FDF care enough about the contrast between initially flexible cultural structures and the fact that those structures become rigid over time to include it in this chapter of their book?

Individuals interpret experiences in the world and share their interpretations with others through the use of symbols. As people discover that they have overlapping interpretations of some phenomena, they form communities based on those interpretations; they now experience a reality they have collectively created. Over time, communities create more complex and sophisticated structures in their worlds. Although these seem to be solid, immutable structures, they were created through communication. As entrenched and solid as such structures might seem, what built them—communication—also can change them

Elements of third wave feminism

Intersectionality: -Third-wave feminists recognize that women differ in ways that significantly shape their experiences and opportunities. They focus on the intersectionality of oppression, pointing out that race, class, sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity are intricately woven together and must be addressed holistically. Coalitions and Alliances: because third-wave feminists recognize the intersectionality of oppression, they are committed to building alliances with other groups that work against various kinds of oppression. Everyday Resistance: many of the reforms won by the second wave have not been woven into everyday life. Sexism is often more subtle today than in 1960 or 1980, but it still exists; in fact, its subtlety is what makes it so challenging Media savvy: Third-wave feminists, like other members of their generation, tend to be digitally networked so that they gain information from numerous sources and also create media of their own Consumerist: Beauty ideals tend to privilege youth and whiteness, and demand a lot of energy and money. Thus, feminists who have sufficient time and money can embrace consumerist spending money to be seen at the "right" restaurants, bars, spas, and stores and to acquire designer clothes, name-brand products, and cosmetic procedures Individualist: It remains to be seen whether more third-wave feminists will move beyond individual expression to public action

othermothers

Is the idea of how different races and nationalities raise their children and perform mother work. This concept is described by Patricia Hill Collins in her article called "The Meaning of Motherhood in Black Culture". In this article she talks about how white women and black women raise there children differently and perform mother work due to the life styles that they grow up in.

Multiple & Shifting Identities Theory

Michael Hecht -Personal: Internal self concept "I'm a student" -Enacted: Performance of that self concept; attend class and participate in group work -Relational: Identities interacted in certain relationships; child needs a parent, lover needs a loved one -Communal: Identity shared with members of a group in which you belong (student, Jews, Navy Seals)

Liberal fem, cultural fem and backlash fem ideology in second wave feminism:

Liberal Fem Ideology: Another branch of second-wave feminism emerged from the U.S. suburbs in the early 1960s. Liberal feminism, which advocates women's social, economic, educational, and political equality, was ignited in 1963 with publication of The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan. -The first feminist activism to emerge during the second wave was radical feminism, also called the women's liberation movement. Cultural Fem Ideology: Separatism was developed to provide communities for women to live independently of men; believe that women are fundamentally different from men in the value they place on life, equality, harmony, nurturance, and peace. -Finding that these values gain little hearing in a patriarchal, capitalist society, separatists form all-women communities in which feminine values can flourish without the aggressive, individualistic, oppressive values these women associate with Western masculinity Backlash Fem Ideology: Marabel Morgan (1973) and Helen Andelin (1975) advocated women's return to traditional attitudes, values, and roles. -A more prominent form of antifeminism was the STOP ERA movement, which was a direct response to the 1972-1973 campaign to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). The most vocal proponent of STOP ERA, Phyllis Schlafly, traveled announcing that feminism was destroying femininity by encouraging women to leave traditional roles. -The STOP ERA movement was successful in blocking passage of the bill. To this day, the United States has not passed the ERA.

Surveys

May be written or oral; asks people to report their feelings, thoughts, experiences, and so on. -What do men vs women do with friends? -Preferred online activity in men vs women?

Intersubjectivity

More than one person sees reality in the same way -When individuals share a common sense about reality, their realities are said to be intersubjective. -This shared reality results from many types of communication or symbol use.

Profeminist Groups

NOMAS (National Organization for Men Against Sexism): An activist men's organization that promotes personal, political, and social changes that foster equality of men and women and gay and straight people through workshops and informal group discussions, public speaking, educational outreach programs, and enactment of traitorous identities. **fosters equality of all people** White Ribbon Campaign (WRC): An international group of men who work to end men's violence against women. Mentors in Violence Prevention: A male anti-violence program that educates men about socialization that links masculinity to violence & aggression; motivates men to reject violence in themselves & in other men; emphasizes role of bystander.

Native Women and Motherwork

Native women and there mother work differ from white women's mother work. Native women value there ability to procreate and stress the value of traditional pre-contact female and male role models in their culture. Mother work is one form of activism. Lisa J. Udel talks about this in her article. "Revision and Resistence, The Politics of Native Women's Motherwork". In this article she talks about the differences between Native women and white women.

Binary

Organizing man/woman by gender using two realms (feminine/masculine). -Everyone is made up of feminine/masculine characteristics but the binary division is considered natural and inevitable -Body is deciding factor -Normative: Heterosexual fem/woman masc/man

Define what is meant by 'gendered speech communities.' What did Suzanne Langer contribute? What did William Labov contribute?

Philosopher Suzanne Langer (1953, 1979) asserted that culture, or collective life, is possible only to the extent that a group of people share a symbol system and the meanings encapsulated in it. Langer's attention to the ways in which language sustains cultural life is consistent with the symbolic interactionist and cultural theories that we discussed in Chapter 2. William Labov (1972) extended Langer's ideas by defining a speech community as a group of people who share norms about commu- nication. By this, he meant that a speech community exists when people share understandings about goals of communication, strategies for enacting those goals, and ways of interpreting communication.

Interpersonal Cause Theory

Pyschodynamic Theories: first relationship we have influences identity and gender -Adult behavior starts in childhood experiences 'Self' emerges when a child internalizes others' perceptions Boys' and girls' relationships with mothers are central (Nancy Chodorow) Pyschological Theories: Social learning: -Children imitate others and respond to feedback (George H. Mead) -Children 'play' with identity—prescribed and enacted (Elizabeth Janeway)

Reification

Reification is making something real, bringing something into being, or making something concrete. -Gendered meaning exists for individuals -Groups reify (make something seem real) certain gender constructions -Western constructions of gender are examples of reification

Ethnography

Relies on extensive observation to discover what things mean to people. -Ethnographic study has provided detailed descriptions of how gender is enacted in diverse cultures and of U.S. women's and men's flirting behaviors.

What motivations have prompted men's gender movements?

Referred to as profeminists, progressive men, or male feminists, these groups emerged in the 1960s. Although many men in social movement organizations ignored women who accused them of sexism, others thought women's criticism was on target and wanted to do some thing about it Progressive men worked to bring their attitudes and behavior in line with the egalitarian ideology they espoused. They joined forces with women to work for women's rights.

Give four examples of how American treatment of babies/children reinforces the gender binary?

Selective abortion Names, both first and last Nonverbal treatment—attention, eye contact, roughhousing, touch When learning language, learn that the masculine is the generic Rooms are decorated for gender Schools reinforce the binary—lining up, segregated activities, praising appropriate gender roles

Wood definition of gender vs sex

Sex is a biological classification Gender is a social, symbolic system through which a culture attaches significance to biological sex.

What two differing relationships with women do men's gender movements typically show?

Some men consider themselves feminists, work with women for gender equality in society, and attempt to become more comfortable expressing their feelings. Other men think feminism has destroyed families, twisted women, and caused diminished men.

What four strategies do boys use in their play? What four strategies do girls use? How do these strategies affect gendered communication?

Specifically, boys' games cultivate four communication rules: 1. Use communication to assert your ideas, opinions, and identity. 2. Use talk to achieve something, such as solving problems or developing strategies. 3. Use communication to attract and maintain others' attention. 4. Use communication to compete for the "talk stage." Make yourself stand out, take attention away from others, and get others to pay attention to you. The games generally played by girls teach four basic rules for communication: 1. Use communication to create and maintain relationships. The process of com- munication, not its content, is the heart of relationships. 2. Use communication to establish egalitarian relations with others. Don't outdo, criticize, or put down others. If you have to criticize, be gentle. 3.Use communication to include others—bring them into conversations, respond to their ideas. 4. Use communication to show sensitivity to others and relationships. The conclusion from much research is that girls tend to engage in more relational, cooperative play, whereas boys tend to engage in more instrumental and competitive play; The basic rules of communication that many adult women and men employ are refined and elaborated versions of those learned in childhood games

Culture

Structures/Institutions and practices/activities that reflect and uphold a particular social order. They do this by defining certain identities, values and patterns of behavior as unnatural, bad or wrong. -Gender is central to cultural life so society's views of gender are reflected in and promoted by a range of social structure and practices. -Primary structure of society; we are surrounded by communication that announces social views of gender and seeks to persuade us that they are natural correct ways for women to behave Ex. Commercial of women cleaning while men go for gusto; women giving up name for marriage

Textual Analysis

Studying communications texts which may be written, oral, or nonverbal -Illuminated meaning of speeches like "Decleration of Sentiments" which was given at the first Women's Rights Convention.

How do engagement/marriage rituals and practices reinforce the gender binary?

The pinnacle of the binary gender is to become the ideal man or the ideal women who forms a perfect union with your opposite, to establish a stable domestic unit, and to perpetuate culture through having offspring. In the binary, marrying completes the coming-of-age process that began with Bar Mitzvahs, quinceañeras, and proms. For many young women, their wedding day seems like the most important day of their lives because it is the completion of a certain set of gender expectations.

Names for 3rd wave feminism

Transfeminism: Feminism regarding the oppression of trans women Grrl power: "girl power", as a term of empowerment, expressed a cultural phenomenon of the 1990s and early 2000s. Power exercised girls; spec. a self-reliant attitude among girls and young women manifested in ambition, assertiveness, and individualism Lipstick feminism woman is empowered psychologically, socially, politically; by the wearing of cosmetic make up, sexually suggestive clothes, and the practice of a sexual allure that appeals to men and to women. Cybergrrl feminism: contemporary feminist community whose interests are cyberspace, the Internet and technology.

Four key questions answered by master narrative?

What is the world like? Who am I in this world? What's wrong in the world? What will make it right?

Gender Binary as a matrix

You may not know you are in it And yet, your choices are constrained or enhanced by it It is the background within which people live Butler used the term matrix to capture the sense of the gender binary as foundational and not always consciously apparent. A matrix is an environment, substance, or site in which something originates, develops, or is formed. Because it is a matrix, the gender binary is the background field in which your gender plays out, beginning with your birth, when you were assigned one gender label or the other.

Cognitive Development Theory

Young children develop their sense of identity through stages of psychological growth. -By age 3, children have gender constancy and seek role models.

Total Woman and Fascinating Womanhood

antifem in 2nd wave -The Total Woman Movement: women should be sexually appealing -The Fascinating Womanhood: ideas based on the Bible

Complementary gender relations

complementary oppo- sites. He leads and she follows; he is independent and she is dependent; he is unemotional and she is sensitive; and he is the head of the family— the breadwinner and decision maker—and she is the body, doing the work required to take care of the home and the people in the family. While the ideal man organizes and maintains the world, the ideal woman organizes and maintains the domestic sphere.

Characteristic communication practices of men speech communities

effort to establish status and control. instrumentality—the use of face-to-face or computer-mediated communication (CMC) to accomplish instrumental objectives conversational command. direct and assertive speech more abstract than feminine speech.

what passage gave women the right to vote and what year

nineteenth amendment in 1920

Ideal woman in the gender binary

passive, cooperative, emotional, submissive dependent sensitive understanding tactful supportive takes respobsibilty for familys wellbeing household is her domain sexually attractive devoting time and money to appearance let man take lead in sex organizes and mantains domestic sphere

Master Narratives

powerful stories that express "the social arrangements and values of a society" instruct members of a culture to be certain types of people who live certain kinds of lives tell you what kind of person you should be and how you should act Play out through repeated themes of what is ideal and what is normal Seen in artifacts (such as ads, films, images) Heard in stories Realized in systems and institutions

Situations that lead to communication misinterpretations

showing support: it's how they interpret each other's communication—actually, how they misinterpret each other, because they fail to understand that they are operat- ing by different rules of communication. troubles talk: "I know how you feel. I felt so low when I didn't get that position at DataNet." She is matching experiences to show Caleb that she understands his feelings and that he's not alone (Basow & Rubenfeld, 2003). According to a masculine speech community, however, Carmen's comment about her own experience is an effort to steal the center stage from him storytelling style (point of the story): Another instance in which feminine and masculine communication rules often clash is in relating experiences. Masculine speech tends to follow a linear pattern, in which major points in a story are presented sequen- tially to get to the climax. Talk tends to be straightforward without a great many details. The rules of feminine speech, however, call for more detailed, less linear storytelling. relationship talk: Masculine speech communities view communication as a means to doing things and solving problems, whereas feminine speech communities regard the process of communicating as a primary way to create and sustain relationships. No wonder many men duck when their partners want to "discuss the relationship," and women often feel a relationship is in trouble when their partners don't want to talk about it. public speaking: the assertive, dominant, confident masculine style is the standard for public speaking. Women who are effective in politics tend to manage a fine balance in which they are sufficiently feminine to be perceived as acting appropriately for women and sufficiently masculine to be perceived as acting appropriately for politicians

Ecofeminism

strand in lib fem there is a connection between the effort to control and subordinate women and the struggle to dominate nature (perhaps not coincidentally called "Mother Earth"). humans' pro- found interdependence with all other life forms, ecofeminists argue that exploitation, domination, and aggression oppress women, men, children, animals, and the planet itself.

Seperatist

women are fundamentally different from men in the value they place on life, equality, harmony, nurturance, and peace