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Title: WS101 Gender and Sexuality
Description: This is the notes for WS101 at Boston University. The Notes are taken in Fall 2017. Notes include biology, sociology and humanity aspects of gender and sexuality studies.
Description: This is the notes for WS101 at Boston University. The Notes are taken in Fall 2017. Notes include biology, sociology and humanity aspects of gender and sexuality studies.
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Biology
Sex
Evolution is the process of heritable change in a population across generation
s
Evolution ≠ Development (population process VS individual )
Reproduction is originally and often asexual
-
vertebrate common ancestor only reproduced sexually
Sex (biological process)
-
sex is required for reproduction in many animals
-
don’t require male and female → but reproduction need
-
sex is inevitable
-
Sex evolved only once -- in early eukaryotic cell 2 billion years ago (meisois细胞
分裂 & syngamy 配子配对)
-
facultative response to stress
-
facultative (optional) sex offers benefit with minimum cost
-
exclusive form of reproduction for mammals and human beings
-
speed up adaptive evolution by generating new genetic combination
cost of sex (benefit of coloning)
-
recombination break up tested gene combination
-
meiosis reduces a gene’s chance of transmission by 50%
-
sex slow down reproduction a lot
Asexual reproduction
-
reproduce faster
-
many invertebrates & lots of other vertebrates have regained the ability
to reproduce asexually
PAGE 9
-
evolved multiple times
Sexes (男女性别)
-
evolved many times
-
have objective definition
● self-compatible mating types
-
genetic recombination is possible across sexes
-
number of mating types varies (not only two!!!)
● mating types with a hierarchy of transmission of mitochondrial DNA
-
female pass on mitochondria
-
male do not
● self-compatible mating types with different sized gametes -- anisogamy异性配子
结合
Anisogamy
-
binary
-
evolved multiple times
-
cause sexual selection on males
Sex role
Why are males and females different?
anisogamy, parental care, the evolved natures of males & females
Natural Selection is an inevitable result of the combination of variation, her
itability and differential reproduction (some phenotypes survive & reproduce b
etter than others)
selection = non-random survival and reproduction
Sexual selection = non-random reproduction due to variation in mating success
(fertilization/syngamy)
PAGE 9
fundamental mechanism:
- competition (male - male)
- choice (male - female)
Sex roles
- competition for mates
- choice of mates
- parental care
Conventional sex role —— males compete with males, female care for young
sex-role reversal —— females compete & males care for young
● male care evolved multiple times
● Lots of variation in who cares
-
many evolutionary transitions among all states of care in all direction
Trivers 1972 (verbal model) → conventional sex roles
“parental investment and sexual selection”
pre-mating investment—— gametes
post-mating investment—— parental care
unequeal parental investment
sex that invests more is resource limited —— typically female
sex that invests less is limited by number of mates ——typically males
(higher potential reproductive rate & selection to get more mates)
● sex invests more cares more → females
PAGE 9
● cheaper investment → more competition for male
Kokko & Jennions Model (think Triver’s model is wrong)
ASR: male to female ratio
OSR: operational sex ratio → actively sexually male to female ratio → 1:1
sex-role divergence: self-reinforcing amplification of initial asymmetries (fe
males)
Female argument —— The Concorde Fallacy
egg is more expensive than sperm → female care more
Male argument —— male response to competition is to improve their competitiv
e ability
BUT —— reproduction cannot happened only on male —> needs to mate
the Fisher condition －－ offspring have a mother & a father （constraint of OSR）
Kokko & Jennions Model
PAGE 9
● female is rare because they cannot reproduce all the time due to lactati
on
● man should care longer ideally
males and females investment in care, competition can evolve
-
each offspring has one father and one mother shifts OSR toward equality
by selecting more egalitarian care
...
low level of care, high marginal gains, and low mate encounter rates select
former care
2
...
low parentage reduces care
4
...
the direct role of the OSR is to prevent sex roles from diverging
6
...
false belief → sex roles have an inherent tendency to diverge because anisogamy pr
oduces conventional sex roles
8
...
Frequency-dependent selection
Frequency-dependent selection -- selection that depends on relative numbers of
individuals of each type
-
if competition risker than caring → males become rarer → easier to find
a mate
-
frequency dependent selection favors egalitarian care
-
changes in sex-specific mortality can cause rapid changes in the directi
on of sex role evolution
Evolutionary Trees (Phylogenies)
Sex Determination: Pattern & Process
Gonochorism —— “separated gonads”; individuals are male or female, not bot
h
PAGE 9
Hermaphrodism —— individuals are male and female simultaneously(at the same
time) and sequentially(for the whole lifetime — can change sex)
Environmental sex determination
1
...
social environment (mating options: relative size, sex of available conspec
ifics, encounters of unsexed larva)
Cytoplasmic sex determination
1
...
● both concealed ovulation & sexual swellings increases female's’ ability
to mate with multiple males & confuse paternity
Paternity confusion: male being unsure as to whether offsrping is genetically
his own
mechanisms:
lactation suppresses ovulation
→ infanticide by males
→ female promiscuity & paternity confusion
→ (reduces male reproductive skew) male monogamy, mate-guarding paternal care
PAGE 9
function of concealed ovulation & extended period of sexual desire change
-
confuse paternity → other social purpose & evolution of male monogamy
Female orgasm
● definition → identical physiological responses or orgasm occur in female humans
and monkeys
● occurence of copulatory orgasm is higly variable
● reason → to motivate reward sex for maternity confusion
○ BUT -- sexual activity can far exceed what is needed for paternity
confusion
Same-sex behavior
(after-midterm)
● “sexualities”
○ are complex, culturally constructed suites of multiple behaviroral
traits
○ phenotypes within categories are not uniform
○ sets of sexual categories vary across culture
● homosexual behavior in animal
○ Sexual behavior ---- Vasey & Sommer:
olicitations), mounting,
courtship displays (sexual s
and genital contact and stimulation
○ not just about reproduction → but also homosexual behavior
■ widespread & old in the past
■ not unique to human
■ appears 在第三根heritage线上 (catarrhines)
○ sexual orientation & preference
PAGE 9
■ orientation → pattern of sexual attraction and arousal
■ sexual preference → which sex an animal will have sex with → don’t
need to be stable
■ sexual identity cannot be studied in non-human animals
○ homosexual behavior
■ common among social animals
■ commonly bisexual sexual orientation
■ no evident social-sexual function
● paradox of homosexuality
○ homosexual behavior evolved from reproduction → homosexual cannot rep
roduce
● Exaptation
○ a trait first selected in one context, later co-opted for another
function
● Hominin evoluntionary change人类
○ mating system diversified
■ monogamy / polygyny / polyandry
■ more variations among culture
○ signs of ovulation: concealed
■ sexual behavior more independent of reproduction
○ care of young: cooperative
■ extensive care & provisioning by allomothers
● Cooperative breeding
○ enhanced flexibility, sociality, role diversity, bonding mechanism
s, less sex difference
● phenotypic plasticity
○ when organisms develop in conditions outside the ancestral range o
f environments, phenotypic variation often increases & new phenoty
pes appear
● social neuobiology
○ vertebrate brain are bisexual
PAGE 9
○ neural mechanisms enable different routes to sexuality & different types
of sexuality & pair-bonding → some more oriented by gender than o
thers
Brain Sex
Hormones and sexual development of Brains
● brain organization theory
○ sex difference is not dimorphic in human brains
○ individual studies report statistically significant difference between M & F br
ain regions → but some: no difference
● Compensation & convergence
○ causes or functional implications of neurological differences are
not clear
○ some differences compensate for others, to enable functional simil
iarity
○ dosage compensation － both XX & XY cells have the same number of acti
ve X chromosomes
● hypothesis:
○ sex difference in hormones → sex difference in brain structure → sex differe
nce in behavior, abilities
○ strongest evidence → manipulative experiments → can’t do in human → loo
k for correlation
● “quasi-experiemental” study designs
○ cohort studies → broad definitions → experiment
■ choose a group without condition you are studying
■ expose 1 part of group to a factor
■ see if difference in development
PAGE 9
○ case-control studies → narrow definitions
■ asking questions / not following them
■ choose an affected person(s) and unaffected persons who are
otherwise similar, compare exposure/conditions etc
...
○ truth is more complicated, multifactoral, variable
● sex diference research
○ the extent to which sex/gender explains variation
○ show distributions, effect sizes, extent of overlap
Phenotypic Platiscity
● Phenotypes
● all phenotypes depend both on genetic and environmental factors
● selection acts on variation in phenotypes
● phenotypes develop from pre-existing phenotypes
● development is a change in a responsive phenotype
● Gene expression
● Gene is for proteins or RNA, not complex phenotypes
● It is how cells make proteins based on information encoded in the
genome
...
PAGE 9
● gene expression varies → organisms with identical DNA sequences can de
velop different phenotypes
...
→ the capacity of genetically similar organisms to express different phe
notypes in response to different environments
○ reaction norm
■ patterns of expression of traits (gene) varies across enviro
nmental contexts, among genotypes
■ offer a conceptual framework for understading phenotypic var
iation
■ sex develops as a reaction to the environment in which an or
ganism is found
■ allow us to examine how environmental effects vary among gen
otypes
■ polyphenisms - phenotypic discontinuities
■ e
...
frogs exposed to chemicals have weird genitalia bc they
were exposed to more hormones environmentally
○ plasticity can be adaptive & maladaptive
○ hormones
■ 和phenotypes互相影响
■ convert continuous variation into binary switches via thresh
old effects
...
■ Continuous variation in hormone levels do not causes continu
ous variation in most affected traits
...
○ molecular mechanisms (how plasticity work)
■ hormones act as developmental switches & modulators
● convert continuous variation into binary switches via
threshold effects
PAGE 9
■ hormones can regulate gene expression (interact with transcr
iption factors)
■ endocrine disrupting chemicals
● Agricultural chemicals that interact with estrogen rec
eptors can feminize phenotypes of genetically male fro
gs
...
● DSD: differences of sexual development
○ understanding in genetic variation in sexual development in male
(XY) )is better than understanding in female (XX)
○ lots of unexplained variation (genes / environments / complex inte
ractions)
○ in XY “males” we understand hormonal effects better than factors
affacting development at other levels
○ biological differentiation of M&F sexes requires active maintenanc
e by differential gene expression, throughout life
● 5a-reductase deficiency
○ genetics
■ 5AR1 → at low level & on chromosome 5
■ 5AR2 → on chromosome 2
● caused by mutations in the copy of the 5AR gene that i
s expressed in fetal gonads in early gestation
PAGE 9
● is locally well known and relatively common (a few % o
f people) in some populations
...
● testosterone surges & 5AR1 activity also increases
● hormones & brains & behavior
○ hormone level affect genital & reproductive system & behavior thro
ugh hormonal effects on the developing brain
○ on animals → effect on human is debatable
● Diversity of sexual development
○ male and female sexes phenotypes
■
differentiated by gamete size that evolved convergently in
different taxa
■ common but not the only means by which sexual recombination
can occur
■ sometimes present in the same individual body
● steroids
○ Androgens and estrogens are present in both males and female
s
...
○ Androgen levels can increase when a mutation blocks corticoi
d synthesis
...
PAGE 9
○ feminization of genetic males
■ complete Androgen Instensitivity Syndrome (CAIS)
● estrogen cause feminine development → but no menstruate月
经
○ masculinization of genetic females
■ congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH) → difference is very small
development
- depends on what genes are expressed in different parts of the body at different ti
mes
...
-
varies with environmental factors that alter gene expression
...
hormones
SRY → sex-determining region of Y
DHT → leads to masculinzation → enzme can convert antrogen into estrogen
aromatise
enmzy
estrogen
antrogen → eveyrone have that
deciency cause a variaty of
Testosterone (T) → sex hormone associated with males / but everyone have T
PAGE 9
development of human male
-
Functioning androgen receptors, Testosterone and dihydrotestosterone are both requ
ired for normal male development
...
In the last 5 million years, since our ancestors diverged from those of chimpanzees and b
onobos, we
-
evolved the capacity for monogamous pair-bonding
...
-
diversified our family and social structure with the evolution of cooperative bree
ding
...
-
reflects how human cultural rules shape our ancestral bisexual potential
as primates
...
-
not similar to experimentally induced variation in sexual behavior in la
b animals
...
-
occurs in diverse forms and contexts, for diverse reasons, within and among specie
s
...
Which statements about hormonal effects on human brains and behavior are true?
-
Different study designs do not find a consistent set of associations between prena
tal hormone levels and adult sexual behavior and identity
...
Behavior can also affect hormone levels
...
-
It speeds up adaptive evolution by generating new genetic combinations
...
-
not generally necessary for reproduction
...
-
don’t requires differentiated males and females
...
-
Males and females - as defined by gamete size - have evolved multiple ti
mes from isogamy
...
-
Maleness or femaleness may be a temporary condition rather than a lifelo
ng status
...
-
phenotypes differentiated by gamete size that evolved convergently in di
fferent taxa
...
-
not most strongly dimorphic in monogamous species
...
PAGE 9
-
is not a direct consequence of anisogamy
...
-
is affected by the evolution of cooperative breeding in primates
...
sexual reproduction and Asexual reproduction
-
asexual reproduction evolved multiple times
-
It is harder to explain the evolution of obligate SR than of facultative
SR combined with AR
...
-
Obligate AR is not ancestral condition for animals
...
Sex role evolution
-
Frequency-dependent selection favors equal parental investment
...
-
Once female-biased care has evolved it is very likely to change
...
-
Multiple mating by females reduces the relatedness of individual males t
o her brood of young
...
male parental care
-
It is more common than female care in fishes and equally common in frogs
...
-
It can vary with experience and context in both humans and some other ma
mmals
...
-
It not only evolved twice in mammals
...
terns
...
-
Human sex differences and roles are not similar to those found in other
apes
...
-
has recently been discovered in snakes living in the wild
...
Tree of Sex
-
Consistent XX/XY sex determination characterizes just mammals and beetle
s (Coleoptera)
...
-
Fishes and reptiles are more diverse than mammals in their sex determination me
chanisms
...
PAGE 9
Phenotypic variation within a sex
-
can occur as discrete alternatives with different body forms and mating
strategies
...
-
is often condition or context dependent in ways that improve biological
fitness
...
Hermaphrodism雌雄同体
-
Many invertebrates and fishes and some frogs are naturally both male and
female
...
-
Simultaneous hermaphrodites do not lack sexual conflict because they alw
ays mate as both male and female (trading sperm)
...
phenotypical variation within a sex
-
is not always less than differences between sexes
...
-
can include mimicry of the other sex in species with apparent sexual dim
orphism
...
traits have evolved convergently in humans and other cooperative breeders
-
Maternal commitment that is contingent on social context
...
-
Empathy and enhanced social learning skills
...
-
A capacity to benefit reproductively from exploiting or coercing the lab
or of others
...
-
on females favors traits that improve access to help and resources for r
eproduction
...
-
on males do not favors traits that reduce male-male competition
...
-
Before modern medicine babies with more alloparents were more likely to
survive
...
-
Social support has impact on mother-infant bonding
...
Alloparental care
-
is a critical resource that affects reproductive decisions and success i
n cooperative breeders
...
PAGE 9
-
creates the need and opportunity for children to develop skill in unders
tanding others
...
g
...
-
is not a part of our history made largely irrelevant by modern technolog
y
...
Non-reproductive sexual behavior in primates
-
may confer other social benefits such as conflict resolution and allianc
e formation
...
-
requires mechanisms separating sexual behavior from hormonal control of
fertility
...
-
is not restricted to adult heterosexual couples except in bonobos and hu
mans
...
-
is the most likely selective force favoring female promiscuity
...
-
affect a mother’s interval between giving birth and her next ovulation
...
（the culturally and historically constructed roles and stereotypes associ
ated with the sexes
...
● Argument: the analysis of the causes of women’s oppression → what w
ould have to be changed in order to achieve a society without gend
er hierarchy
View:
● gender
○ part of sex/gender system that produces domesticated women
○ a socially imposed division of sexes
○ focus on political economy of gender
● women’s oppression in social systems → women as a gift
○ women are the objects of exchange
○ cannot exchange themselves
○ used to build social relationship between man and other man
● kinship
○ women are used for families to secure solidarity and mutual a
id
○ social connections (instead of biological or genetic connecti
ons)
○ diverse among societies
PAGE 9
○ impose a cultural organization upon the fact of reproduction
● incest taboo
○ not to prevent genetically-deficit baby
○ turn marriage into a social link or business link
○ impose the social aim of linking kinship groups upon the biol
ogical event of sex
○ exist due to exchange of women (men send women to marry other
men from other tribes in order to build relations with other
tribes )
○ generates in-laws
Sex/gender System
raw material (biological females) → Product (domesticated women)
Freud
- Oedipus and electra complex 恋母 / 恋父情结
- femininity is a consequence of our anatomy (woman’s oppression is bio
logical)
Higuchi, Ichiyo (famous for Japanese Literature)
Midori si Gift Giver
Midori’s gifts to friends:
PAGE 9
- money from sister’s geisha house —> ”small gifts but certainly beyo
nd her age or station”
Science Fiction
- protagonist (Marina)
- Narration
- Author (Matsuo, Yumi)
Defamiliarization
Free Indirect Speech/Discourse
Free Indirect Speech - Narration of the character’s thought through the
voice of the narrator
...
genre —> defamiliarize
Karhide （Kemmer）
Balloon town破案
immersion
translated from Japanese
introspective
straightforward
observant / investigative
detective fiction: Marina is a women and police woman =>
strong female
How does this story figure pregnancy?
Pregnancy: “be a good vessel” “rigid” “barbaric”
PAGE 9
Marina is shocked about pregnancy: getting really uncomfortable
Is she really a woman?
how “womanhood” is structured in the society—> how woman is useful in the s
ociety
AU(人造子宫): freedom — free woman from a vessel
technology liberate woman?
Fun Home
by Alison Bechedel
“Bechedel Test”
-
has to have at least two women
-
who talk to each other
-
about something besides a man
Duke “controversy”
distinction between erotic and sexual image and written words
Heteroglossia as quality of novel
Heteroglossia of the Graphic Neovel/Memoir
● Portrait of family
-
health
-
delusion / illusion
-
surly / irreverent / dark humor (coping)
● family = identity
● presence of absence
Butler: midunderstanding of gender trouble
● how primary experience of the body is registered
PAGE 9
● greater freedoms to define and pursue our lives without pathologization,
re-realization, harassment, threats of violence, violence and criminaliz
ation
...
But we
can’t know in advance how they will be different
...
○ Minoritizing/universalizing not equal to essentialist/ constructiv
ist but related
○ Compunction to just “choose” a sexual identity if “constructed” → Similar to
Butler concern
○ Robin → polital economy → challenging sex is binary
○ not looking at the effect on minority but look at the effect on ev
eryone as a whole
● Axiom 7
○ ignorance (无知v → 对于任何东西 我们都不能说自己知道这是什么 因为每
个人理解或者对这个东西的定义是不一样的)
○ is produced by particular knowledges
○ participates in particular regimes of truth
○ is something that cannot be overcome by scientific progress
○ Even to say “I am heterosexual” or “I am homosexual” – we sho
uldn’t assume we entirely KNOW what that means or that that the p
erson we are talking to will
...
g
...
g
...
● allows queer people to make their own story/culture instead of fitting i
nto dominant, heteronormative consumerist story
● enable “homosexual” to be a “normal” sexuality
○ queerness exist because others decide queer is defined as others
○ inequality have a part in how this “normal” gets defined, and th
e very need to have such a category
...
● we should look at global structures of sexuality affect everyone, but no
t people that are currently suppressed
○ not just queer people who are defined as others
○ universalizing vs
...
○
PAGE 9
In “Gender Trouble,” Judith Butler responded to feminist efforts to separate and redefi
ne sex and gender by
-
recognizing the value of refusing to allow sex to dictate gender and the social me
anings of women’s experiences
...
-
The sexual division of labor makes the smallest viable economic unit 1 man and 1 w
oman
...
-
enable writers to imagine totally different sex-gender systems
...
-
social classes and oppressive categories exist
...
-
In Epistemology of the Closet Eve Sedgwick suggests that gender and sexuality are
inextricable but can be thought of as distinct for the purposes of cultural analys
is
...
Professor Warkentin has shown us the pitfalls of trying to predict “adult gender identit
y” based on any one biological factor, saying “Gender identity is a complex combinatio
n of these (and probably other) factors
...
age, race
Achieved Status: accomplished through own effort (eg
...
erotic market
2
...
PAGE 9
○ who control the circulation? who profit?
● Neoliberal perspective
○ focus on individual gains
○ ignore women’s collective losses
● Missing political economy
○ distribution of wealth and resources among a group
Traffic in Women: ‘Political Economy’ of Sex (1975)
The Sex/Gender system of traffic in women:
- any given society transforms biological sexuality into products of h
uman activity
- gender is a socially imposed division of the sexes
- women as a gift, exchnaged between men
- Women cannot benefit from the profit that their circulation affords
to men
- women consent to unequal systems, and take pleasure in them
Institutions as gendered and gendering
Social Stratification —— when individuals or groups occupy unequal pos
itions in society based on socioeconomic factors
PAGE 9
Three types of equality
1
...
quality of condition = equal resources
3
...
family, state, education, science, religion, media, healt
h
● patterned social positions (statuses), rules and norms that operate
to some degree independently of the individuals filling these posi
tions
● gendered social institution → Bathroom
Equality of opportunity → inequality of outcome
Institutional inequality:
the uneven access by group membership to resources, status, and power th
at stems from facially neutral policies and practices of organizations a
nd institutions
...
- exist in every society except for Mosuo in China 走婚
Nuclear family —married couple or single parent lives with their own or
adopted children
Extended family — kin and other alloparents in addition to parents and
children
traditional nuclear family
- breadwinner father + homemaker wife
- the result of unusually prosperous economic conditions in American h
istory
...
○ the exchange of women as a way to increase wealth, status and
power
● Modern family (modern industrialized states)
○ love become more important
○ Reason:
■ Ideas of individualism and the right to personal happin
ess emerged in the 18th century
...
research has not identified any gender-exclusive parenting abiliti
es (with the partial exception of lactation)
2
...
This appears to be true irrespective of parental gender,
marital status, sexual identity, or biogenetic status
...
there are small differences in gender-variant co-parenting familie
s
...
there are big differences society attributes to the value of biolo
gical “intact” nuclear families versus all others
Mark Regnerus research paper
● methods:
PAGE 9
large random sample
● view: difference between intact family and gay/lesibian family
● oppose to “no difference” thesis
● argues that children from same-sex couples are worse off than those
of heterosexual couples
...
● does not compare children of biological intact heterosexual couples
to children of intact gay couples
...
racial division of reproductive labor
privileged white women historically outsource their devalued work to wom
en of color
2
...
gender, class, race, suxuality, nationality, abiltiy, religion
Sociaologist Patricia Hills Collins:
● we each occupy positions of relative privilege and disadvantage according
to our standing in categories of gender, race, sexual orientation, class,
nation, ability, region, etc
...
● Asian ascendancy and western decline
Bar
Money
Fantasy
Khong Sao local Vietnamese el Asian ascend
Bar
ite businessmen
ancy
FDI from As
ia
To be recognized
as new power
Lavender
Viet Kieu: overseas Asian ascend
Vietnamese men livi
ancy
ng in the Vietnames
e diaspora
Remittances
to be better tha
n Western men, e
conomic power
Secrets
Western businessmen
& expats
First World
power
FDI from th
e west
To be a sexually
desirable man
Western budget trav Asian povert
elers
y
Remittances
to be a provider
Naug
Male Clientele
Global Imag
inary
Masculinity intersects with Race (racilized claims to superiority)
● Local Vietnamese elite businessmen (conspicuous consumption)
PAGE 9
○ Khong contesting old (colonial) racial hierarchy of First World → asserting
dominane as new Vietnamese money
● Viet Kieu
○ Economic superiority relative to white men
● Western businessmen & expats
○ Sexual superiority relative to Asian men
● Western budget travelers
○ Economic and sexual superiority relative to “poor” “backwards”
Asia
○ Imaging racial and economic privilege because of First World statu
s
Occupational segregation
occupational segregation
● Def → the sorting of people on the basis of some trait (eg
...
■
Expectations of competence are the core of unequal status r
elations
● in most social contexts → men are more competent than wom
en
● sex categorization automatically activates gender stere
otypes
● primes gender belifs to affect judgement
■ gender bias in transmen → Kristen Schilt “the outsiders within”
● stigma of men working in women’s work
● female-to-male transmen receive workplace advantage
○ gain conpetency & authority
○ gain respect & recognition
○ economic opportunities & status
○ social structures (sociology)
■ benefit men and prohibit women without directly meaning to
● institutionized sexism in workplace structure
PAGE 9
○ women are tokens (small proportion different fro
m others)
○ women hit “glass ceiling”
● the glass escalator (Christine Williams)
○ glass escalator → men in women’s occupation
■ hiring preference for men
■ tracking men onto managerial path
■ promotions by men bosses
■ How gender difference socially produced
● structural forces
○ organizational structures (demographics & hierarchies)
→ glass ceiling
● cultural forces
○ shape pull & push into or out of occupations and
industries
■ cognitive bias & discrimination (cultural
expectations shape how others judge our co
mpetence & how you )
■ glass escalator
Neoliberalism
PAGE 9
Neoliberalism → private companies, private individuals, and free markets are in charge
of economic growth and social welfare
...
market rules: Laisses-Faire for corporations
-
deregulation
-
trade liberalization
-
less taxes
2
...
individuals take responsibility
-
freedom of choice → the demise of public housing and the imperative
for poor people to make choices in the private rental market
Steps in making the American neoliberal state
● economic change and industrial decline from the Fordist to the post-Fordi
st-economy create two two problems:
○ jobliess single mothers on welfare
○ criminal inner-city men
○ changes caused by anti-black sentiment & hyperghettoization
■ from welfare to workfare
■ from rehabilitation to revanchism
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● welfare reform
○ 1996 replace the right to public assistance by the obligation to accept insec
ure employment as a condition of support → workfare
● crime control → control of black Americans
Mass-incarceration大规模监禁
● confinement concerns large swaths of the citizenry (as with the mass medi
a, mass culture, and mass unemployment)
● prison population is finely targeted (class → race → place)
○ lead to hyper-incarceration of one particular category
■ overtargting Afraican American
○ lower-class African American men trapped in the crumbling ghetto
○ probability of prisonment → Black > White / Men > Women
Paradox of Neoliberal state
- Practices laissez-faire at the top, toward corporations and the privilege
d
- intrusive and disciplinary at the bottom
Review Question:
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In “doing gender”, behavioral differences between men and women can be understood as
- the result of interactional achievement
- the outcome of an achieve status
- not selective traits from evolution
- not the result of different gene expression
- not part of an organisms’ phylogeny
condition that lead to the proliferation of nuclear family in America in the 1950s
- Economic growth in men’s wages enabled single-earner families to thrive
...
- The cost of purchasing a single-family home was relatively low
...
Family leave and childcare policy in the United States today
- is unique in the industrialized world for not including paid parental leave
...
- is incompatible with our evolutionary biology as cooperative breeders
...
- The rise of industrial wage labor enabled people to more freely choose their own par
tners
...
- Marriage emerged not primarily from the natural female tendency towards monogamy
...
- do not focus on intersections of gender with race and class
...
Butler define gender as
- a performative act
- the repetition of acts / behaviors / gestures / bodily stylization
- not expression of sex
- not a cultural construct
Gayle Rubin’s discussion of gender in “The Traffic in Women”
- interested in oppresion of women
- is focused on the historical origins of the sex/gender system not on daily acts
...
- defines gender as a socially imposed division of sexes
- gender as part of a sex / gender system that produces domesticated women
- not the result of evolutionary imperatives
why parents police their children’s gender presentation
- Parents are doing gender on behalf of their children
...
Poverty in the U
...
is:
- most concentrated among children of single mothers
...
- managed partly through the incarceration of the poor
...
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With the growth of imprisonment in the U
...
:
- the U
...
incarcerates more people per capita than any other country in the world
...
The use of domestic workers:
- helps class-privileged women manage the second shift
...
The concept of intersectionality holds that:
- studies of gender should consider intersections with race/class/age/religion and oth
er social positions
...
What research methods do sociologists use to observe patterns of human interaction known
as “doing gender?”
- participant observation -- such as Kimberley Hoang’s study of men in Vietnam’s ho
stess clubs
...
Western budget travelers at the low end of Vietnam’s commercial sex industry…
- like to think that Vietnamese sex workers were poor and desperate
...
- to easily pick up Vietnamese women
...
- ride the “glass escalator” to positions of higher pay and authority
...
In interviews with transmen about their jobs, sociologist Kristen Schilt found that…
- most transmen report receiving more recognition and respect posttransition at work
...
final review
Asexual & sexual reproduction
- Asexual first → then one sexual -> carry down
- obligate sexual & facultative sexual (have options to choose which reproduction)
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Title: WS101 Gender and Sexuality
Description: This is the notes for WS101 at Boston University. The Notes are taken in Fall 2017. Notes include biology, sociology and humanity aspects of gender and sexuality studies.
Description: This is the notes for WS101 at Boston University. The Notes are taken in Fall 2017. Notes include biology, sociology and humanity aspects of gender and sexuality studies.