Soc 101

Chapter 5
Sex, gender, sexuality
• There are differences between men and women and
within sociology they are social not biological categories
– social processes make us into men and women.
• The distinction between sex and gender has opened up
a huge literature exploring gender differences, origins,
maintenance, and change. Sex and gender should not
be treated as separate from each other – gender is
referred to as cultural and social and sex is referred to as
only biological. But sex is not simply a biological
category because it is people’s conceptions of what it is
that distinguishes one sex from another that are
gendered.
• Sex: physical and anatomical characteristics that
distinguish males and female.
• Gender: differences in the way that men and women in a
given society are expected to feel, think, behave.
Females are expected to do all this in a feminine way
and men in a masculine way.
 Sex
• Sex refers to biological & physical
differences between men & women. It is
also an historically specific way of thinking
about these differences.
• the sex differences between men &
women are at least partially the result of
gendered conception s of maleness &
femaleness.
 Gender
• Gender refers to differences in the way that men
and women in a particular society are expected
to feel, think & behave.
• Socialization can explain the persistance of
gender differences but it cannot explain social
change and cannot account for gender
inequalities.
• Theories of patriarchy have provided important
explanations of gender inequalities but many of
their assumptions have been criticised.
 Sexuality
• Sexuality refers to activities which are found to
be physically arousing but also it is linked to
concepts such as identity, lifestyle and
community.
• A persons sexuality is constructed through a
process of social learning.
• The conventional categories of sexuality do not
just describe sexual practices but carry with
them assumptions about sexual behaviour.
(Heterosexuality, homosexuality)
 Gender and Socialization

• Gender Roles: gender differences explained through

references to gender roles that are learned through
socialization from the family, school and other
socialization agencies such as the media. There are
cultural differences.
• Sex Roles: this has been used to express gender roles
but it better to use gender roles.
• Boys and girls are socialized into their roles, i.e. they are
brought up differently. Adults respond differently to boys
and girls and they learn their gendered identities with
gender divergence reinforced through play and
avoidance of the opposite sex in the playground.
 Theories of Gender and Socialization
• Behaviourist approaches: boys and girls are rewarded or punished
according to behaviour with social approval and disapproval from adults and
children alike.
• Freudian tradition: anatomical differences are important. The boy and the
father have a penis and both are rivals for love from the mother. The son
has a fear of castration, represses his attraction to the mother and identifies
with the father (superior being). The girl remains close to the mother but she
has ‘penis envy’ and identifies as an inferior due to the lack of a penis.
Criticised for emphasis on the physical superiority of males however it has
generated an interest in the dynamics of personality.
• Nancy Chodorow (1978): an opposite view from Freud and criticized for
perpetuating male and female stereotypes. Seen as culture bound theory
based on the experience of middle class, white and two-parent families. All
children have an attachment to their mothers and identify with the mother as
the bulk of childcare is carried out by her. Children, however, come to
conform to the expected gender roles through their dress, toys, attention,
and encouragement. Boys are encouraged to identify with the father and
behave in a masculine way. Girls encouraged to identify with the mother
and behave in a feminine way. Masculine and feminine personalities are
developed in the first two or three years and reinforced in school.
 The Limits of Socialization
• Social theory faces two challenges – social change and individual
choice.
• Social Change: changes in behaviour indicate socialization is
temporary with resocializations, e.g. the media can reinforce.
Conflict may occur amongst agencies of socialization as they offer
alternative ways of living. Goes against fixed gender roles and
emphasis on early experiences.
• Individual Choice: socialization theory leaves little room for this or
people’s creativity in shaping their lives. Links to post-modern idea
of choosing identities through consumption of goods and lifestyle.
Criticized for neglecting power of stereotypes and commercial
forces.
• Socialization theory moves away from biological explanations,
however; biological explanations do not leave much room for human
agency in determining change or choice, therefore they are
deterministic. An understanding would incorporate human agency
with the constraints of powerful socializing institutions such as the
family.
 Gender and Power
Looks at origins of gender differences and sources of gender inequalities:
patriarchy, critique of patriarchy, and hegemonic masculinity.

• Patriarchy
In feminist literature this means male domination and there are different
approaches to it.
• Marxist feminists: emphasis on the interconnections between capitalism
and patriarchy. Subordination of women in the home benefits capitalist
employers by providing free domestic labour which is essential to the
capitalist economy – brings up the next generation and meets needs of the
labourer; costs employer nothing.
• Radical feminists –patriarchy not specifically associated with capitalism.
Men exploit women economically, politically, and sexually. Men use
personal relationships to dominate women.

• The above two perspectives were combined in a ‘dual systems’ theory

which saw women exploited by capital and men with the structures of
capitalism and patriarchy interacting but with tension.
• Some feminists see the family as the site of patriarchy–
oppression and exploitation of unpaid labour by men
(‘domestic mode of production’). Men control money and
thus hold a superior position.

• Multiple patriarchal structures that cumulatively produce

male domination:

PLATFORMS OF PATRIARCHY

• Household production
• Employment relations
• The state
• Male violence
• Sexual relations
• Cultural institutions
• There are two main forms of patriarchy: private
(19c) and public (segregation in low paid work).
The debate over patriarchy has focused on the
development of patriarchal institutions in
industrial societies.
• Patriarchal institutions
family
army
religion
• Religions are also implicated in patriarchy,the
most recent concern has been Islam and the
subordination of women.
 The Critique of Patriarchy
• Concept of patriarchy has been subject to criticism:

• There are variations in patriarchy across societies.

• If it is universal then it is difficult to avoid some sort of biological
determinism, i.e. women are dependent on men due to childcare.
• Structural determinism – analysis of how institutions are patriarchal needs to
be explored.
• Men and women are not homogeneous categories as assumed by feminists
in the women’s movement; different women have different experiences.
There is no one standpoint, i.e. female due to differences.
• Many feminists have criticized the idea of an essential female experience
which does not take into account the experiences of black and working-
class women.
• However, patriarchy is not to be dismissed because there are differences in
the way it is used by different theorists. Patriarchy cannot provide an all-
embracing explanation but it has generated an immense amount of
knowledge and understanding of how institutions constrain the relationship
between men and women.
 Hegemonic Masculinity

• Social practices are at the heart of his

conception of gender.
• There are distinct structures of labour, power
and emotion that organize the relationships
between men and women.
• Defined gender as ‘practice organized in terms
of, or in relation to, the reproductive division of
people into male and female’.
• Structures can be resisted or subverted.
• Structures are maintained through policing
practices of men and women.
• Society has a gender order of a hierarchy of masculinities and femininities.

• At the top is hegemonic masculinity = dominant set of ideas that establish

superiority of the male.
• At the core of hegemonic masculinity = heterosexuality which most men
cannot live up to but instead show ‘complicit masculinity’ as they benefit
from male domination.
• ‘Subordinated masculinity’: e.g. ‘homosexual masculinity’ = stigmatized and
subordinated through abuse, violence, discrimination. Some heterosexual
men are also subjected to this if they do not live up to the masculine model.

• Hierarchy of femininities; no hegemonic aspects as it is subordinate to

masculinity. At the top is emphasized femininity – sociability, technical
incompetence, fragility, compliance with men, ego stroking, acceptance of
marriage.
• Other femininities: marginalized through cultural exclusion and subordinated
but not as vigorously as masculinities that challenge hegemonic masculinity.
• Conflicts of sexual politics – crisis tendencies in the gender order.
• Proposes a restructuring of gender to promote gender equality and diversity.
• Views societies as patriarchal and presents a theory focused on the role of
hegemonic masculinity. Analysis of gender as practice. Patriarchy also
involves domination of some men by other men.
 Gendering Bodies
Determining Sex
• Sex is not as unproblematic as was sometimes thought, e.g. intersex
children who were born for example with undescended testes, no uterus or
vagina but with male testosterone hormones. They are not clearly male or
female. Chromosomes are responsible for determining sex (boy= XY; girl =
XX) and primary sexual characteristics. Some people fit well into the
biological requirements of being male or female. There are variations
amongst men and women - height, weight, shape of nose (dependent on
genetics and lifestyle). Men are taller than women usually but some women
are taller than some men.
• Some people have sex changes and are transsexuals. Transvestites adopt
the clothes of the other sex and gain pleasure from this.
• Sexual characteristics are not separate from gender identities which draw
on culturally varying perceptions of sexual differences and enter into the
shaping of these differences.
• Gendered conceptions of maleness and femaleness as requiring a
particular body lead to the widespread adoption of dieting, exercise,
cosmetic surgery, medical and surgical interventions (sex changes). The
body is changed to fit the identity.
• Sex cannot be seen simply as biologically determined. The whole idea that
there are two sexes is itself cultural.
 Conceptualising Sex and Sexuality
• The ‘two-sex model’ = 18c. and 19c.
• Discourse theory has emphasized the new language of sexuality derived from the two-
sex model.
• Heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality were made possible by the two-sex
model.
• Heterosexuality considered normal and the belief is so strong that the term ‘compulsory
heterosexuality’ has been used to convey its force.
• These categories have made possible a ‘reverse discourse’ that challenges
heterosexual normality.
• The terms ‘homosexual’, ‘lesbian’, and heterosexual describe sexual behaviour but they
also carry with them assumptions from historical understandings of the terms.
• Deviance labels have been challenged recently and positive labels given instead. But
categories have not been challenged.
• The gay movement have demanded their rights, e.g. civil partnerships.
• Queer theory: critical of distinct sexual identities and shared with post-modern theory a
looser and decentred conception of identity that recognizes many strands. Individuals
construct and reconstruct themselves; they move across categories and boundaries.
• Queer theory: categories are socially produced and not biological in origin. They have
powerfully constrained people’s beliefs, identities, and behaviours. When people
become aware of how they were constructed and that they are social in origin, they can
challenge them.
• Queer theory: sociological analysis of categories and a political project.
• Criticism of Queer theory: neglects power of the socialization process, the strength of
gender roles, the creation of distinct identities and the solidarity of communities based
upon them.
• Performing Gender
Sex does not determine gender.
• Gender determines sex.
• Two-sex model was socially constructed, emerged from conceptions of
gender.
• Rejected ideas of men and women that treat them as having a fixed and
opposite character. These are bound up with a ‘stable and oppositional
heterosexuality’.
• Critical of feminists who think that all women have the same underlying
character and share a common identity. Opposed to notion of gender
identities. Rejects idea of inner male or female self that makes us behave in
a male or female way.
• Sex is shaped by gender discourses which prescribe male and female ways
of behaving by providing ‘scripts’ that people then perform. Repeated
performance makes bodies male or female – performativity.
• The performance model leads to a post-modern view of choosing a lifestyle,
how individuals want to act and behave. Influenced by changes in the
media, marketing of products and services. Individual choice, consumerism
– room for experimentation and diversity in the determination of sex and
sexuality. However, sex and sexuality are not simply freely chosen; there
still are powerful socialization agencies that influence how we behave and
act.
• WHAT HAPPENED TO IDENTITIES ?
• The seperation of male & female spheres distinquished
male & female roles & activities. (Seperating identities;
19th century)
• Domestic life became a female sphere and the public life
of employment and politics a male sphere.
• The seperation of spheres excluded women from many
activities but also enabled the growth of first feminist
organizations.
• Seperation of sexes enabled growth of feminism.
• The seperation of sexes was closely associated with the
seperation of sexualities:
• men thought to be sexually active in nature & women
passive.
• the notion of two sexes made possibble the categories
of heterosexuality & homosexuality.
• distinct homosexual identities and subcultures began to
emerge
• In “ Blurring Identities” we consider whether the identities
seperated in the 19th century have converged in recent years.
• First examine what happened to male & female spheres:
• Women have entered into the male sphere by paid employment.
However
some of the occupations are still gendered.
• Women have achieved greater representation in parliment & in
goverment & in academic life...Is it enough ? Discuss the situation
in Turkey.
• One can discuss whether women have become more like men and
men more like women.
• there has been some convergence of male & female behaviour,
though
significant differences remain.
• Sexuality has become a matter of life style choice and
experimentation.
• There is still a sharp distinction between dominant heterosexuality
and subordinate homosexuality.
 Some new definitions....
• Bisexuality A category of sexuality applied to those who engage in sexual
acts with both men and women.
• Emphasized femininity A term used by Connell to describe the dominant
femininity. It corresponds to hegemonic masculinity but is not itself
hegemonic because it is subordinate to the dominant masculinity.
• Feminism A movement to end inequalities between men and women and
overthrow the male domination of society.
• Gender Expectations of the way that men and women are expected to feel,
think, and behave.
• Hegemonic masculinity A term introduced by Connell to refer to the
dominant set of ideas about how men should behave, which establish the
superiority of the male.
• Heterosexuality A category of sexuality introduced in the nineteenth
century to describe the sexual orientation of those who engaged in sexual
acts with the opposite sex.
• Homosexuality A category of sexuality introduced in the nineteenth
century to describe the sexual orientation of those who engaged in sexual
acts with persons of the same sex.
• Lesbianism A label applied to women who engage in
sex acts with other women but also used to refer to a
sisterhood of women without any necessary implication
of sexual activity.
• Patriarchy Has come to mean male domination, though
its original meaning was domination by the father.
• Performativity A term used by Butler to refer to the
bodily inscription of sexual differences through the
repeated performance of gendered behaviour.
• Queer theory A theory of sexuality that rejects the
commonly held idea that there are distinct and
biologically determined sexual orientations.
• Sex The physical and anatomical characteristics that
are held to distinguish men from women.
 QUESTIONS...
1. What is sex, gender and sexuality ?
2. What is patriarcy ? Make a critique of
patriarcy.
3. What is hegomonic masculunity and
emphisized feminity ?
4. Explain seperation and blurring of
identities.