Lecture 3: Becoming Male or Female

1. SC2220: Gender StudiesLecture 3: Becoming Male or Female Eric C. Thompson Semester 2, 2010/2011

3. Socialization: Learning group norms and values from others.

4. Often used interchangably.

5. Enculturation emphasizes the influence of a general cultural system of beliefs.

7. Gender Socialization Model 3 (Maccoby): Peer-to-Peer Socialization Children learn gender roles & behavior from each other

8. Gender Socialization Up to age 2 Equal Same-Sex, Cross-Sex Interaction 18 Interactions 9 Same Sex 9 Cross Sex

9. Gender Socialization Age 3 to 6 Same-Sex 66%, Cross-Sex 33% 18 Interactions 12 Same Sex 6 Cross Sex

10. Gender Socialization Age 6 to 10 Same-Sex 75%, Cross-Sex 25%* 18 Interactions 14 Same Sex 4 Cross Sex *These are all rough estimates, based on the research cited in Maccoby, pp.15-29

11. From the perspective of an individual (child), we see how children’s worlds become segregated as they grow up.Increasingly, they are learning, playing, growing in “male” and “female” cultures.

12. Children’s Worlds become Gender Segregated Age Two Boy’s World Girl’s World

13. Children’s Worlds become Gender Segregated Age Four Boy’s World Girl’s World

14. Children’s Worlds become Gender Segregated Age Six Boy’s World Girl’s World

15. Children’s Worlds become Gender Segregated Age Eight Boy’s World Girl’s World

16. Children’s Worlds become Gender Segregated Age Ten Boy’s World Girl’s World

17. Children Reinforce Segregation, Stereotypes and Styles of Play between each other I’m so glad Barbie™ finally dumped Ken™! Let’s go play football Look at my new Power Rangers™ toy! Poor Ken Only sissy’s play with dolls. Let’s go play football Ewwww… boys are yucky! Boys are so mean! Don’t sit with the girls! That dress is so cute, can I borrow it? Boy’s World Girl’s World “Distinctions between males and females are of the group contextual kind.” Maccoby, p.12 In other words, children grow up in different gendered cultures.

18. Becoming Male or Female* Children are active agents Social positioning Striving to “get gender right” Discursive positioning – asserting feminine/masculine identities (e.g. through clothing) Social conditioning Social sanctioning; approval or disapproval Fixing categories *Based on Browwyn Davies, 2002 (1989)

19. Socialization Involves Multiple,Complex Influences (Four Sources) TV DIRECT TEACHING GENERAL CULTURAL INFLUENCES MODELING BEHAVIOR PEER SOCIALIZATION

20. Socialization of Difference (Points to Remember) Gender/Sex segregation is almost never absolute (for example, in the studies cited by Maccoby, a significant minority of interactions are still cross-gender). Within a culture or society, a range of socialization and identities are always available to different individuals. In the peer-to-peer socialization model (and all three models), messages, attitudes, status relations, etc. from the culture/society in general play an extremely important role. They provide the content of socialization.

21. Falling Back on Biology Davies mentions how parents and others revert to biology (“it must be genetics”), when girls act like girls and boys act like boys Hormones may have some role in sex segregation and in preference for play-styles. But, socialization is far more influential and complex. Explaining through biology (“it must be genetics”) is a cultural simplification – “fixing” categories and behavior by reference to simple binaries.

22. A Final Thought:“Partitioning genes from environment, nature from nurture, is a scientific dead end, a bad way of thinking about human development”(Fausto-Sterling pg.235).Bye-bye . . .See you next week