Sociology Chapter 9 terms

sexual orientation

"an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions to men, women, or both sexes. Sexual orientation also refers to a person's sense of identity based on those attractions, related behaviors, and membership in a community of others who share those attractions" (American Psychiatric Association, 2009).

glass ceiling

a barrier that prevents women from rising past a certain level in an organization, especially for women who work in male-dominated workplaces and occupations. The term applies to women who have the ability and qualifications to advance but who are not well-connected to those who are in a position to advocate for or mentor them.

sex

a distinction based on primary sex characteristics.

heteronormativity

a normative system that presents the gendered heterosexual nuclear family as the ideal and departures from that system as deviant, even threatening.

feminism

a perspective that seeks to understand the position of women in society relative to men and that advocates equal opportunity.

commodification of sexuality

a process by which companies create products for people to buy with the promise that those products will allow them to express themselves as sexual beings or elicit a sexual response from others.

commodification

a process by which economic value is assigned to things not previously thought of in economic terms such as an idea, a natural resource (water, a view of nature), or a state of being (youth, sexuality).

gender ideals

a standard against which real cases can be compared. A gender ideal is at best a caricature, in that it exaggerates the characteristics that make someone the so-called perfect male or female.

patriarchy

an arrangement in which men have systematic power over women in public and private (family) life.

gendered

an established pattern of segregating the sexes, empowering one sex and not the other, and/or subordinating one sex relative to the other such that gender systematically affects the experiences, constraints, and opportunities of the participating men and women.

homophobia

an irrational fear held by some heterosexuals that a same-sex person will make a sexual advance toward them. It also refers to a fear of being in close contact with someone of the same sex.

sexuality

encompasses all the ways people experience and express themselves as sexual beings. The study of sexuality considers the range of social activities, behaviors, and thoughts that generate sexual sensations and experiences and that allow for sexual expression.

transgender

people whose primary sex characteristics do not match the gender they perceive themselves to be.

intersexed

people with some mixture of male and female primary sex characteristics.

secondary sex characteristics

physical traits not essential to reproduction such as breast development, quality of voice, distribution of facial and body hair, and skeletal form, that supposedly result from the action of so-called male (androgen) and female (estrogen) hormones.

sexual scripts

responses and behaviors that people learn, in much the same way that actors learn lines for a play, to guide them in sexual activities and encounters. These scripts are gendered in that males and females learn different scripts about the sex-appropriate responses and behavioral choices open to them in specific situations.

misandry

sexism directed at men that is so extreme that it involves a hatred of those in that category.

misogyny

sexism directed at women that is so extreme it involves a hatred of those in that category.

primary sex characteristics

the anatomical traits essential to reproduction.

gender identity

the awareness of being a man or woman, of being neither, or something in between (gender identity also involves the ways one chooses to hide or express that identity).

gender roles

the behavior and activities expected of someone who is male or female. These expectations channel male and female energies in different gender-appropriate directions.

sexism

the belief that one sex — and by extension, one gender — is innately superior to another, justifying unequal treatment of the sexes.

gender role

the cultural norms that guide people in enacting what is considered to be feminine and masculine behavior.

gender gap

the disparity in opportunities available for men and women.

structural constraints

the established and customary rules, policies, and day-to-day practices that affect a person's life chances.

gender stratification

the extent to which opportunities and resources are unequally distributed between men and women.

glass escalator

the invisible upward movement that puts men in positions of power, even within female-dominated occupations. In this case, management singles out men for special attention and advancement.

biological sex

the physiological, including genetic, characteristics associated with being male or female

life chances

the probability that an individual's life will turn out a certain way. Life chances apply to virtually every aspect of life—the chances that a person will be an airline pilot, play T-ball, major in elementary education, spend an hour or more getting ready for work or school, or live a long life.

commercialization of sexual ideals

the process of introducing products into the market using advertising campaigns that promise consumers they will achieve a sexual ideal if they buy and use the products.

gender polarization

the process of organizing social life around gender ideals about what it means to be male and female. Male-female distinctions shape every aspect of life, including how people dress, the time they wake up in the morning, what they do after they wake up and before they go to bed at night, the social roles they take on, the things they worry about, and even ways of expressing emotion and experiencing sexual attraction.

agents of socialization

the significant people, groups, and institutions that act to shape our gender identity — whether we identify as male, female, or something in between. Agents of socialization include family, classmates, peers, teachers, religious leaders, popular culture, and mass media.

gender

the socially created and learned distinctions that specify the physical, behavioral, mental, and emotional traits characteristic of males and females.

female infanticide

the targeted abortion of female fetuses because of a cultural preference for males and corresponding low status assigned to females.

femininity

traits believed to be characteristic of females.

masculinity

traits believed to be characteristic of males.