Since this is being posted a day later than expected, it isn\'t due until Thursd
ID: 3472369 • Letter: S
Question
Since this is being posted a day later than expected, it isn't due until Thursday!!!!!
Notes on last week's readings, and some connection to the current readings:
We began the semester focusing on the subject of Education and its relationship (for better or for worse) to race and class. As your essays discussed, we centered our focus on the potential inequalities that exist in education based solely on zip code and community type.
All authors are dealing with a type of systematic division. Each author is forced to work through the fact that public education and what is deemed as socially acceptable is implanted in our minds by our communities and the movies we watch, etc. For many students, they aren't able to understand that they are part of a larger system of oppression, and they simply accept that they are "dumb" or "unable" because what the community is giving them. If a community trains you from birth to think that you aren't cut out for school and should just get good at a trade, you're probably going to be influenced to choose that path. And that's not fair. Why is it ok for a community to influence a person's life, based solely on a commonly accepted idea? An idea of success that the community doesn't even necessarily know the origins of!
We observe a similar instance of racial/cultural pushback when we discuss the topic of gentrification (as you read in this week's Discussion Question). Much like education is being serialized to better fit certain and pre-decided parts of the city, inner-city living is also changing at the whims of the affluent society, and the lower class, predominately people of color, are being forced out by managers and developing companies to make way for those who make more money and can afford better things. We must ask ourselves why is this type of Post-Colonial, I-have-more-money-so-I-take-over-what's-yours, mentality is still acceptable? Some would suggest it goes back to the same very masculine, very white, patriarchal and constantly evolving view of the American Dream; a dream that may require the dreamer to ruin other people's lives. I think this is related to the same idea of power and ideology that we are seeing with education; where the powerful few control what's "normal" for the masses.
I want to continue through this conversation of systematic division and re-center it on the subject of gender. I want us to start thinking about gender as a possible construct of society, like our views of success and race identity. Not that there aren't obvious differences between male and female parts, but I want us to consider that our perception of what we call male or female, girly or boyish, and feminine or masculine, could all be results of things we've been taught to believe, instead of some "natural order" of things.
Readings:
"Becoming Members of Society: Learning the Social Meanings of Gender" by Aaron Devor
As you're completing the first readings for this week, I hope you are annotating the texts, underlining any important ideas, and looking up any words or ideas you may be unfamiliar with.
For this Short Response I want you to answer the following 3 questions in complete, well thought out PARAGRAPH LONG RESPONSES. That means you should be shooting for 1 paragraph PER question. You should end up with AT LEAST 3 paragraphs. Format this as you would any other type of essay assingment (MLA, 12pt font, Double Spaced, Times New Roman).
There are Two Questions specifically for the Devor article, and then a third question that involves the "Visual Portfolio-Gender" file in the modules:
1. How, according to Devor, do children "acquire" gender roles? What are the functions of the "generalized other" and the "significant other" in this process?
2. Using examples from Devor and from other reading or observation, list some "activities and modes of expression"(para. 12) that society considers characteristically male. which are acceptable cross gender behaviors, and which are not Search for a "rule" that defines what types of cross-gender behaviors are tolerated.
3. Look at the photos in the visual portfolio and compare two of them. Devor defined patriarchy, or the "patriarchal gender schema," as a human biology that favors the masculine body for its power, and only values the female for her reproductive value, thus making her existence dependent on males (476). To what extent does each image reflect this "patriarchal gender schema" that Devor defines? How are our reactions to some of the pictures also reflective of that same patriarchy?
Explanation / Answer
1. Gender roles as male and female are natural way of acting or performing. The society and family teach gender roles such an early age previous the child even realized that they do not need to follow these societal standards. Children habitually base their behavior and personality on their interpretations of others around them. They then tune their behavior to robust those around them.
Generalized other functions as a kind of observing or measuring device with how individual judge themselves as male and female against universal conceptions of how members of society are predictable to act.
The significant other means, children should just recognize their nature of acting and what gender they were born with. It means with deciding behavior as a male or female.
2. ‘Boys will be boys, and girls will be girls’ is a cultural mythology. Aron Devor shows how these signals are not “natural” at all but instead are cultural constructs. He suggested that the traits of boyish- masculinity, aggressive posture, self-confidence, and a tough appearance are only normal traits and these do not relate with biological or psychological necessities. Like that the girlish traits- gentleness, passivity, and strong nurturing instincts are also normal traits not biological or psychological necessities. These traits richly mixed and varied for a male and a female. Culture terms the male characteristics as masculinity and femininity for female characteristics.