Sociology 1201Sociology 1201: Week ThreeSymbolic InteractionismWhat Does Marriage MeanGender Roles and Contradictions

Sociology 1201

Sociology 1201Symbolic Interactionism as a sociological perspectiveOur world is a social construction, built through the web of social relationships and meanings.We react to the meaning of social things and not to the things themselves.Our self (selves?) in important part a social construction

Sociology 1201

Sociology 1201Charles Horton Cooley: Looking glass selfSociety is an interweaving and interworking of mental selves. I imagine your mind and especially what your mind thinks about my mind. I dress my mind before you and expect that you will dress yours before mine. Whoever cannot or will not do this is not properly in the game.

Sociology 1201

Sociology 1201Primary Groups Lewis Coser: Sensitivity to the thought of others, responsiveness to their attitudes, values and judgments--that is the mark of the mature man (or woman) according to Cooley. This can be cultivated and fostered only in the close and intimate associations of the primary group.

Sociology 1201

Sociology 1201George Herbert Mead: the me and the I Mind, self and societyMind = my communication with myselfTwo parts to the selfthe mevery similar to Cooleys looking glass selfThe Iindividual and unique part of me, probably in part biological

Sociology 1201

Sociology 1201Herbert Blumers synthesisHumans act toward a thing on the basis of the meaning they assign to the thing. Meaning are socially derived, which is to say that meaning is not inherent in a state of nature. Meaning is negotiated through interaction with others. The perception and interpretation of social symbols are modified by the individuals own thought process.

Sociology 1201

Sociology 1201Key concepts in the construction of self and societyCulture: a design for living passed from one generation to the nextNorms: rules defining expected situations and appropriate behaviorsSocialization: 1. the process of learning the norms of your culture2. the process of learning who you areFamilies particularly central to this process.

Sociology 1201

Sociology 1201Sex and genderSex the biological distinction between male and femaleGender the culturally elaborated distinction between masculine and feminine differs across culture and across historyGroups: Because I am a Fe(male)

Sociology 1201

Sociology 1201Gender Roles and Contradictions Betwixt and Between: Interviews with middle schoolers in a Southeastern cityResearch question: How Free Are Middle School boys and girls to form identities outside the constraining gender expectations that have traditionally disadvantaged girls in the public sphere and repressed boys from expressing their emotions. GROUPS: 2 Discussion Questions

Sociology 1201

TweenagersWhat are the implications of that word? Do you think its useful?Do peers become more important as a reference group as we reach that middle school age? Interviewed 44 middle schoolers who were not yet teens (males and females)Sociology 1201

Sociology 1201

Less lattitude for boysPascoe: Multiple Masculinities (text, 547)Fag discourse: primary use (function) of homophobia not to expose potential homosexuals but to police boys behavior

Methods of this study: p. 344-46 the only time I will quote at length in talking about the article you were assigned to read methods particularly significant in sociology Sociology 1201

Sociology 1201

Between Tomboy and Girly-GirlSurprise (to me) no one volunteered a positive definition of a girly girl most common phrase prissyYes when researchers asked explicitly whether being a girly-girl was a good or bad thing, kids were dividedNone of the girls identified themselves as exclusivly girly-girl Sociology 1201

Sociology 1201

FemininitySome kids saw being girly as making a girl popularThe girls , black and white, felt that girls should display some level of femininityBeing too much of a tomboy also not a good thingVariety by race: p. 351-352Sociology 1201

Sociology 1201

Policing masculinity

Respondents described masculinity in very narrow and uniform ways: spots, competitiveness, video games, rowdinessA boy who is perceived as feminine is subject to much more ridicule than a girl who is seen as either overly masculine or overly feminine. (Why? What does this mean?)Sociology 1201

Sociology 1201

Policing heterosexualityWhat if a friend revealed he or she was gay? How would your life change if you woke up one day and found out you were gay? 34 students answered one or both questions majority very negative (I would be suicidal), though also a substantial minority (11) that expressed tolerant viewsSociology 1201

Sociology 1201

Scenario in which a boy, Marcus, becomes a cheerleaderKrista: People think a male cheerleader is always gay.Dierdre: If theyd been friends, she wouldnt stay close friends If I hang around with him, theyd be like, ew, youre gay too.Most kids told us their peers severely tease gender nonconformity.

Sociology 1201

Sociology 1201

Sexuality and sex rolesOne male student told us that if he were gay, he would no longer like sports.Tendency to conflate sexuality and femininitySome suggestive evidence that if a person actually does embrace a gay identity, he or she is freer to cross gender boundaries and to enjoy activities limited to the other sex. Sociology 1201

Sociology 1201

Worse for boys than girls?Jeffrey: No comparable world for boys who act like girls the way tomboy describes girls who act like boys. Maybe fruit. Instructor: Is tomboy really a negative? The stigmatizing of Marcus is in sharp contrast to the hypothetical scenario about Jasmine, the girl who wanted to start a girls football team.Sociology 1201

Sociology 1201

What about Jo?Mallory: Jo is openly gay and friends with half the seventh grade though some people hate him.Everybody knows Jos going to do something like that (breaking the gender rules), so nobody really caresOpenly gay kids not harrassed the same way for gender nonconformity.Sociology 1201

Sociology 1201

People we know vs. hypothetical people It is notable that all three examples of exempting gays and lesbians from sustained harassment in this study refer to a specific person the respondent knew, whereas the predictions of harassment referred to hypothetical people.

Sociology 1201

Sociology 1201

Boys vs girls again Our findings confirm other studies about the narrow confines in which boys need to stay to avoid being teased by their peers.What is perhaps more unexepcted is that girls are now stigmatized for displaying some of the traditional markers of femininity.Sociology 1201

Sociology 1201

Deutsch: Undoing gender A concept that thus far applies primarily to girls. See quotes, pp. 358-359Sociology 1201

Sociology 1201

On the other hand Boys gain no social approval for deviating from traditional definitions of masculinity. Any behavior remotely stereotyped as feminine is intensely policed by other boys and by some girls.Last words: Boys need a feminist revolution of their own. Sociology 1201

Sociology 1201

What Marriage MeansGroups: Discussion questions for chapters 3 and 4 of PromisesTrajectory: Courtship, birth, and .--What Marriage Means: a symbolic interactionist analysis

Sociology 1201

Sociology 1201

Sociology 1201Groups Discussion: Questions from chapters 3 and 4 of Promises I Can KeepWhen you finish, attach the group questions from each member of your group to the group worksheet and turn it in

Sociology 1201

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