Race, Class And Gender Essays - Gender, Social Constructionism

Race, Class And Gender Race, Class and Gender issues are commonly brought up. Throughout history many groups have been stigmatized not just for their race, but for their sex, and class as well. People of lower class incomes get slandered for where they live and for not having the economical means to purchase most common goods. Women have been considered the weaker sex for centuries, and currently, some of the old fashioned and ignorant theories on women being subordinate to men prevail. In the article Rethinking Womens Biology the author position appeared to be that society dictates what a woman means and teaches it from childhood. The old concept of blue for a boy and pink for a girl starts out from birth and is consistent throughout childhood and into adulthood. The clothes we wear, our activity level, what and how much we eat, the type of vocation we are in, all these variables occur due to society. Society has norms that are expected to continue. Even though society has these notions of what is normal and natural it is the concept people have of themselves that is also a primary dictator on their lives. (Hubbard 1990). The Social Construction of Gender touched on how Western society views gender. This article pointed out historically how women and men appear to be separate species entirely. And that even though physiologically we are similar, male and female, we are of an opposite class. The male and female class should not be labeled how our bodies function for we are all individual and unique. If a scientist views a female to be female based on the fact that physiologically she menstruates, than what is a female that ceased menstruation or never began to? Is she only half woman? Is a male not a man if he is not capable of producing sperm? (Lorber, 1992) The article also mentioned how sports glorified men and ignored the female athlete. Only giving women 5% of television coverage opposed to men receiving 92%. Sports can trivialize women symbolically. For example, College sport teams may name the male team tigers and the womens team kittens. (Eitzen societys prescriptions for those of their gender status because the norms are expectations get built into their senses worth and identity as a certain kind of human being and because they believe that their societys ways are the natural way. (Lorber,1992, p.42). Ah, Ya Throw Like a Girl was similar to the above to articles. It suggested how roles of society predict female and male roles. He referred to personal childhood memories. Reminiscing how while playing sports, his father, would encourage him to throw hard ball overhand. And how if he didnt he was throwing like a girl. He would be teased and taunted by friends and family if he did not play the sport hard and rough, because thats how boys do it. He also pointed out that his sister was more talented in sports than he but could not play. Basically, this authors position was traditional roles needs to be deleted with a new modern way of thinking. We know more now than we did when traditional male and female roles were established and we should all concur with the new age liberation and equality. (Messner, 1992) In A Male Centered World, Female Differences Are Transformed into Female Disadvantages was an article that stressed how because female and male persons have different body types this is what predicted the roles that would follow. Males being strong and dominant in stance and female averaging to be smaller and more petite than men led societys to think women were less capable. The authors position appears to be that because society think males are strong and women are weak this is indented into others positions and continues the cycle of a male centered world. Only by speaking out and protesting for our Civil Rights when we feel they have been disregarded will women take a stand. She uses the term Gender Polarization which refers to the scripts laid out for us within our society.