Evaluate the idea that gender and sexuality are socially constructed Essay

In recent years sociologists pack been studying the great extent to which devolve on work onuateivity cases ar viewed. Many carriages that give tradition each(prenominal)y been judg custodyt to be genetically determined mannish person or fe phallic doingss turn extinct to be understanded behaviors and on that pointfore proceeds to change in future generations. In a summary of exciteual urge role enculturation studies, David Shaffer (1979) points out that by the hop on of ii, children retain generally learned to variousiate maleness and femaleness on the rump of clothing and hair styles.By the era of three, children usually have learned to opt stimulate-typed toys and recognize that little girls fail mommies and boys become daddies. By school-age, children realized that they atomic number 18 expected to admit in appropriate sexual activity behavior and if they do not, they leave alone meet with check from different children and adults. Many soci ologists have personally necessitatei mavend the value of much(prenominal) early sexuality-role in socio-economic illuminateation and raised questions close how this learning toilet inhibit later opportunities in scathe of education and c atomic number 18er selection (Howe, 1979).To sympathize how sexual practice and sexuality ar friendlyly constructed we essential look at the reconciling and avail able nature of enculturation. One dirty dog look at the core of fondisation as adaptive for the individual and functional for the lodge. As adaptive for the individual, the content of heartyization involves knowledge necessary for individual to adapt to the changing situation of their daily lives, while, as a function for parlia custodytary procedure, the content of favorableization involves the knowledge necessary for its members to go for a hostelry as an ongoing entity.cognition of affectionate rules, appropriate emotional behavior, societal situations, technical knowledge, iodins self-identity, and communicatory abilities give individuals an ability to groom their behaviors to ane an many other in the different ag stems and situations in which they encounter each other. much(prenominal)(prenominal) ad butments ar necessary for the ongoing existence of a orderliness. Only people know how to adjust their behaviors to each other empennage the barren radical strikeivities and relationships which make up a society be maintained. Only with a sociableized adult population can anything such(prenominal) as a society be said to exist.The finical content of favorableization becomes highly important in ground of the make-up of the society that one is observing. If the content of socialization were to change, peoples activities and motivations would change, and distinctly the society would change. So, on a sociological quest the content of socialization is aboutthing to which the sociologist should and must pay attention ( OBrien, 2001). Charles H. Cooley (1964), a hunt down up of American socialization studies, referred to an individuals self-concept as a looking-glass self.Cooley implied that our self-conceptions hypothesise our interpretation of the relations to our behavior of those about us with whom we move. According to Cooley, we not how others react to our actions, which produces in us a popular opinion about ourselves, which influences how we perceive ourselves. For instance a person who drops something and overhears anothers watch over about how clumsy he is, whitethorn come to think of himself as a clumsy individual. We come to think of ourselves in terms of our understanding of how others think about us.It is finished interaction that we come to maintain to ourselves such labels as anatomy or mean, awkward or fair. To see oneself as beautiful is to interact with persons who see you as meeting the criteria of beauty. Whether one sees oneself as an ugly duckling or a beautiful swan depends upon the flock with which one swims. As a naturalistic and semiempirical quest for understanding the various aspects of social reality is that everyone two influences and is influenced by society, sociology is terminally a quest for self understanding. earth creations ar not isolated entities we argon not hermits who live apart untouched by one another.Rather, we argon social beings who can only be amply understood when the social context of our actions atomic number 18 taken into account and c befully studied. In order to carry out the quest for sociological knowledge it is necessary to have an understanding of the types, uses and limitations of the various sociological tools or methods. The sociological quest can be the appropriate sociological map or theory (Shaffer, 1979). Now I unavoidableness to look at social smell as a process and structure in the social construction of gender and sexuality. Social tone involves processes of socialization, gardeni ng, and aberration.Learning how to act in society via socialization, phraseing and communion of orientations toward social life via enculturation, and the negative O.K. of inappropriate behaviors via the labeling process of deviance ar universal processes, which are necessary to social life, and found in all societies. Although their particular make-up will substitute from society to society, these three processes exist in all military personnel societies. But, in addition to these processes, there too exists in all societies some relatively permanent patterns of organized social life that sociologists refer to as social structures.It is within and by dint of social structures that the processes of socialization, refinement and deviance take federal agency. Just as the processes of human beings life take come forward in the structure of the human soundbox so, too, the processes of society take point within and are influenced by social structures (Macionis, 1997). Th e closely basic social structure approximately and through which social life takes place are groups groups range in coat from relatively small in pass wateral groups such as families, to large bureaucracies and formal organizations such as businesses and governmental agencies.All groups are composed of members who have met certain criteria for membership, who comprise certain understood roles in the group, and who have a sense of group belonging, which is sometimes termed a we-feeling or a consciousness-of kind. Groups, think to one another in terms of their consummateing similar social activities, together from the social structures called social institutions. For pattern all the groups primarily involved in educational activities together form a societys educational institution. It is through and in groups, and the institutions that they compose that the basic social processes of a society take place.It is in social groups that the learning of socialization takes place that cultural roles are parceld and acted upon, and that deviance is ascertained and punished. People know how to perform roles in groups because they have knowledge of how to act which they developed in the process of socialization, because they share cultural understandings with other group members with whom they interact, because they have an understanding of what is alloted deviant and unacceptable behavior in the various groups to which they belong (OBrien, 2001).When we consider how females and males differ, the scratch business sector thing that usually comes to fountainhead is sex, the biological peculiar(prenominal)s that distinguish males and females. Primary sex characteristics consist of a vagina or a penis and other organs link to reproduction, secondary sex characteristics are the corporal distinctions among males and females that are not straight connected with reproduction. Secondary sex characteristics become clearly evident at puberty, when males develop m uch than muscles, a swallow voice, and to a greater extent(prenominal) hair and height while females form more fatty tissue, broader hips, and larger breasts. sexuality is a social and not a biological characteristic. Gender consists of whatever traits a group considers proper for its males and females. This is what makes gender vary from one society to another. Sex refers to male or female, gender refers to masculinity or femininity, so sex you inherit and you learn your gender as you are socialise into specific behaviors and attitudes (Gilmore, 1990). The sociological significance of gender is that it is a device by which society sustains its members.Gender secernates us on the alkali of sex, into different life experiences. It open and closes doors to power, seat, and as yet prestige. Like social class, gender is a structural feature of society. Biology plays a large role in our lives. each of us begins as a fertilized freak. The egg, or ovum, is contributed by our mot her, the sperm that fertilizes the egg by our father. At the very moment the egg is fertilized, our sex is determined. Each of us receives twenty-three pairs of chromosomes from the ovum and twenty-three from the sperm.The egg has an X chromosome. If the sperm that fertilized the egg in any case has an X chromosome, we become female. If the sperm has a Y chromosome we become male. Thats the biota. Now the sociological question is, does this biological difference control our behavior? Does it make females more nurturing and humble and males more aggressive and domineering? (Macionis, 1997) some all sociologists take the side of hold up in this nature vs. nurture controversy. The predominant sociological position is represented by the symbolic interactionists.They stress that the visible differences of sex do not come with meanings build into them. Rather each human group determines what these physical differences mean for them and on that stand assigns males and females to sep arate groups. It is here that people learn what is expected of them and are given different access to their societys privileges. to the highest degree sociologists find compelling argument that if biology were the principal factor in human behavior all around the existence we would find women to be one sort of person and men another.In fact, ideals of gender vary greatly from one culture to another and as a result, so do male-female behaviors. For example the Tahitians in the to the south Pacific show a remarkable contrast to our usual expectations of gender. They male parentt give their children names that are specifiable as male or female, and they dont divide their labor on the basis of gender. They expect twain men and women to be passive, yielding and to ignore slights. uncomplete male nor females are competitive in trying to attain material possessions (Gilmore, 1990). confederacy also channels our behavior through gender socialization.By expecting different attitudes and behaviors from us because we are male or female, the human group nudges boys and girls in separate directions in life. This foundation of contrasting attitudes and behaviors is so natural that, as adults most of us think, act and even out feel according to our cultures guidelines of what is appropriate for our sex. Our parents are the first significant others who teaches us our part in this symbolic division of the world. Their own gender orientations are so firmly open up that they do much of this teaching without even being aware of what they are doing.This is illustrated by a classic study make by psychologists Susan Goldberg and Michael Lewis (1969). They asked mothers to bring their 6 month old infants into their laboratory to supposedly observe the infants teaching. Secretly these researchers also observed the mothers. They found that the mothers kept their daughters nearer to them. They also touch and spoke more to their daughters. By the time the children were 1 3 months old, the girls stayed approximate to their mothers during play, and they returned to them sooner and more often than did the boys.When they set up barriers to separate the children from their mothers, who were hiding toys, the girls were more potential to cry and motion for help, the boys ere plausibly to try to climb over the barrier. Goldberg and Lewis (1969) were able to conclude that in our society mothers unconsciously reward their daughters for being passive and dependent, their sons for being progressive and independent. These lessons continue throughout childhood. On the basis of their sex, children are given different kinds of toys.Preschool boys are allowed to roam farther from home plate than their preschool sisters, and they are subtly encouraged to figure in more rough and crack play. Even get dirtier and to me more defiant. Such experiences in socialization lie at the heart of the sociological explanation of male/female differences (OBrien, 2001). In at onces society luck media plays a brisk role in gender and sexuality roles. Sociologist stress how this sorting process that begins in the family is beef upd as the child is exposed to other aspects of society.Especially important today are the mass media, forms of communication that are directed to large audiences. Powerful images of both sexes on television, music and the internet reinforce societys expectation of gender. idiot box reinforces stereotypes of the sexes. On prime time television, male characters outnumber female characters by two to one. They also are more likely to be portrayed in high status positions. Viewers get the message, for the more television that people watch the more they tend to have restrictive ideas about womens role in society. The expectations to the stereotypes are notable and a sign of changing times.Video games have some youths spend countless hours contend games. Even college students, peculiarly males, relieve stress by escaping into s cene games. But more studies into the affect of these games on the ideas of gender are needed. Because the games are the in the buff edge of society, they sometimes also resound cutting edge changes in sex roles (Macionis, 1997). As women change their roles in society, the mass media reflects those changes. Although media images of women are passive, subordinate, or as unstained background objects remain and still predominate, a invigorated image has broken through.Exaggerating changes in society, this new image nonetheless reflects a changing role of women, from passive to active in life outside the home, from obedient to dominate in social relations. Books, magazines, videodisks and video games are make available to a mass audience. And with new digital advances they have crossed the line form what we traditionally think of as games to something that more closely resembles interactive movies. Sociologically, what is significant is that the content of video games socializes t heir users. Gamers are exposed not only to action, but also to ideas as they play.Especially significant are gender images that communicate powerful messages, just as they do in other forms of mass media (OBrien, 2001). Lara Croft, an adventure seeking archeologist and star of grave Raider and Tomb Raider 2, is the essence of the new gender image. Lara is smart, strong, and able to utterly vanquish foes. With both guns blazing, she is the cattleman of the twenty-first century, the term cowboy being purposely chosen, as Lara breaks gender roles and assumes what previously was the domain of men. The old rest powerfully encapsulated in the new. Lara is a fantasise girl for young men of the digital generation.No division her foe, no matter her predicament, Lara always is outfitted in form fitting outfits, which reflect the mental images of the men who created this digital character. Their efforts have been so roaring that boys and young men have bombarded corporal headquarters wi th questions about Laras personal life. Lara had caught young mens determine to such an extent that more than c web sites are devoted to her. The final reward of the game is to see Lara in a nightie one can question that regardless of tough girl images just how far stereotypes have been odd behind (Macionis, 1997).Gender social stratification gives males and females poor access to power and prestige and property on the basis of sex. It is closely associated with class and caste stratification and is a related phenomenon of gender stratification. Some but not all societies have men and women as unequal with the latter being more seen. Sexual in equality is characteristic of societies that are stratified in other ways as well. Women have historically occupied a position of low quality to men in the class structure societies of the Western world.Sexual inequality may sometimes be seen in societies that are not otherwise stratified, in such instances men and women are always physic ally as well as conceptually separated from one another. The rise of gender stratification often seems to be associated with the development of strongly centralized states. Because social stratification of any kind tends to make life oppressive for large segments of a population, the lower classes are usually placated by doer of religion, which promises them a better existence in the hereafter.Gender inequality is not some accident instead it is the institutions of each society that work together to maintain the groups particular forms of inequality. Customs throughout history both justify and maintain these arrangements. Although men have resisted sharing their favor positions with women, change has come (OBrien, 2001). By playing a fuller role in the decision making processes of our social institutions, women are going against the stereotypes and role models that lock males into alone male activities and push females into roles that re considered feminine.As structural barriers fall and more activities are engendered, both males and females will be free to pursue activities that are more congenial with their abilities and desires as individuals. As they develop a new consciousness of themselves and their own potential, relationships between females and males will change. Certainly distinctions between the sexes will not disappear. There is no effort for biological differences to be translated into social inequalities. The fairish goal is appreciation of sexual differences conjugated with equality of opportunity which may lead to a transformed society.