Social Construction (of Gender)Diversity Literacy Week 2 / Lecture 1

Prepared by Claire Kelly

1. Gender is “doing”Girls (Insert: stereotypical girl picture)

Pink Flower patterns Barbie Dolls Toy houses and household goods

Boys (Insert: stereotypical boy picture) Blue Camouflage patterns Military toys and cars Playing tough and rough

Prepared by Claire Kelly

1. Gender is “doing”We are born sexed, not gendered

“Doing” gender can shape biology

“Doing” gender is inscribed on our bodies

Gender is “doing” difference

Gender is ascribed and achieved

Gender has a material base, rendered in social and cultural practice

Prepared by Claire Kelly

2. Gender is normalisedGender is so obvious, we don't notice it until it

is “disrupted”: Third gender (Blackwood) – Institutionalised Transgendered/transsexual people – not

institutionalised

Implications for sexuality

Prepared by Claire Kelly

“Third” Gender Insert articles/headline on the “third” gender

recognized by the census of Nepal & India http://articles.cnn.com/2011-05-31/world/nepal.ce

nsus.gender_1_gender-identity-citizenship-first-openly-gay-lawmaker?_s=PM:WORLD

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2011/05/31/nepalese-census-includes-category-for-third-gender/

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47408

Prepared by Claire Kelly

3. Gender is positioningGender is about more than the individual, it is

about the social institution

“Cult of the individual” – difficult to think of ourselves as positioned

Subjectivity

Individuals are not passive in these social structures, we challenge them or we rearticulate them (remember the moving train?)

Prepared by Claire Kelly

4. Gender can be bentWhat does “gender bending” tell us about

gender?

Shows us that boundaries: exist contain gender are breachable are social

Insert: Picture of someone “bending gender” like a drag queen or king or cross dresser

Prepared by Claire Kelly

5. Gender as process, stratification and structure

Process – doing, creates difference

Stratification – e.g. gendering of jobs nurse vs. doctor

Structure – division of labour, devaluing of “feminine” labour

Prepared by Claire Kelly

Social Construction of Difference“… is produced and maintained by identifiable

social processes and built into the general social structure and individual identities deliberately and purposefully” (Lorber, p. 35)

“The paradox of human nature is that it is always a manifestation of cultural meanings, social relationships and power politics” (Lorber, p. 35)

“For humans, the social is natural” (Lorber, p. 36)

Prepared by Claire Kelly