Social and Cultural Construction of Gender - Assignment Example

Gender & Sexual Studies Gender and Womens Studies Section 1) Oppression (a)Definition: a term used to refer to the use of economic power and control to limit, control and destroy the lives (Pharr 53). (b)An example of oppression is women marginalization. (c) The relevance of Oppression to Gender & Women’s Studies is evident in the way women bodies are viewed as sexual, whereas the bodies of men are regarded powerful (Lorber 50). Men take advantage of the women’s perceived inferiority and oppress them in return. 2) Defined Norm (a) Definition: A term used to describe a standard of correctness and, often, morality wherein all the others are judged in relation to it (Pharr 53). (b)An example of a Defined Norm is the inferring of a person’s intelligence by his or her ability to speak fluent English. (c) The relevance of Defined Norm to Gender & Women’s Studies relates to the way the advertisements and television commercials) depict a beautiful woman to look like; slim, long hair and designer clothing. Henceforth, the benchmark for analyzing beauty is laid down (Killing Us Softly). 3) Myth of Scarcity a) Definition: a term used to depict the limited nature of resources and the blame thereof being on the poor for using up too much of the little that is left to go around (Pharr 54). b) An example of Myth of Scarcity is a scenario in which a Member of Parliament blames poor people for not looking for jobs, whereas the job opportunities are intentionally limited. c) The relevance of Myth of Scarcity to Gender & Women’s Studies relates to the manner in which the men respond to crises, blaming the women, who are incapacitated, for not taking part in solution finding (Rosie the Riveters of World War II). 4) White Privilege a) Definition: A term used to describe the disproportional representation of people of color and women in institutions (Pharr 54). b) An example of White privilege at work is the ability of a white rapper like Eminem to market himself through alternative radio stations such as rock, rap, RnB and pop, whereas the black counterparts seldom receive airplay outside the realm of rap. c) The relevance of White privilege to Gender & Women’s Studies is the manner in which feminine traits are deemed weak. As a result, women end up being paid less than men for performing identical work are. For instance, male clothing designers and chefs are paid more than their female counterparts are (SCWAMP 7). 5) Blaming The Victim a) Definition: A term used to describe the tactics that are used to make oppression successful by involving the victim in it. The victim is confined in a negative image and message environment, victim hating and violence, with a result of self-blaming and low self-esteem (Pharr 59). b) An example of Blaming the Victim is a rape victim who is blamed for being the agent of a rape instance because she is deemed to be in control of male aggression and sexuality. c) The Relevance of Blaming the Victim to Gender & Women’s Studies is when the male workers blame the female counterparts for not performing as much as them, as it was the case in the World War II (Rosie the Riveters of World War II). 6) Internalized Oppression a) Definition: A term used to describe the phenomenon in which the oppressor leads the victim of oppression into believing his or her negative views, with a result of self-hatred, which can be expressed through self-abuse, despair and depression (Pharr 60). b) An example of Internalized Oppression is when women are convinced that being light skinned is beautiful, leading the women to go to an extent of bleaching. c) The relevance of Internalized Oppression to Gender & Women’s Studies is when a woman is contented that she should be loved for her body and not mind (Killing Us Softly). 7) Horizontal Hostility a) Definition: A term used to describe the tendency of a member of an oppressed group, who has been led to self-hatred through internalized oppression, to express hatred, prejudice and even lacking hope for the group and its members (Critical Terms Sheet). b) Horizontal Hostility takes place when women, who have been rape victims before, condemn all the subsequent rape victims, terming them as agents of rapes, because of their provocative dressing habits. c) The relevance of Horizontal Hostility to Gender & Women’s Studies relates to the way other women criticize and disdain their fellow women when they are successful in getting something good like a boyfriend. They instead refer to it as a mere fling (Greasy – Summer Nights). 8) The Other a) Definition: A term used to refer to the group (especially women) who do not adhere to the norms requirements being; controlled, excluded and denied their rights and instead do contrary to the norm (Pharr 58). b) An example of The Other is a person facing marginalization because of being overweight, contrary to the norm of attractiveness that purports attractiveness to go hand in hand with health and right body size. c) The relevance of The Other to Gender & Women’s Studies relates to when women who do not follow to the norm of being skinny since it is viewed as beauty, and a marriage initiator. They are the other and are perceptibly abnormal (Killing Us Softly). Section II Institutional power is a through pass to oppression. According to Pharr, institutional power refers to the representation of a group of people in institutions. The more a group is represented in institutions like the congress, criminal justice system, military, leadership of churches and synagogues and financial institutions, the more a group has institutional power. When, for instance, the white-dominated criminal justice system executes the laws made by the U.S. Congress, which predominated by the whites, the blacks do not have the power to institutionalize their grievances and hatred towards the white society (Pharr 54).The oppressed forever remain helpless. On the other hand, Pharr categorically distinguishes institutional power from individual prejudice and Bigotry. Bigotry and individual prejudice involves intolerance of people with contravening opinion as that of the black women and black persons; however, this is not enforced through institutionalization and is a mere wish (53). On the contrary, institutional power enables the bearers to institute their discriminatory agenda with an intention of oppressing the disadvantaged minority. Economic power is very pivotal to institutional power. Through the use of economic power, that is in the hands of a few oppressors, the rest of the people can be controlled easily by the use of tactics like; limitation of mobility, limitation of access to resources and limitation of employment opportunities. The oppressors then go on to blame the poor for over utilizing the scarce resources (Pharr 55). By so doing, institutional power is bestowed on a single group in society. The groups forever remain on the extreme points of economic power, poor and rich. Besides, the threat of violence works in support of institutional power. The approval of the threat of violence comes from the military and the criminal justice system. These two institutions work to appease the uprisings of groups. The oppressors use their ability to forcefully command control of resources and ensure that their superiority, in terms economy, prevails (Pharr 56). The violence used to silence the minority further aids in maintaining institutional power. Gender has been constructed socially and culturally in many ways. According to Lorber, in the Olympics, there are often cases of chromosomal ambiguity in which one is not clearly identified as male or female. In that case, the participants who are destined to participate as females ought to go through physical and gynecologist’s examinations with an aim of ensuring that one is ‘female enough’ to participate in that competition. For the participants who intend to participate as male, no examinations exist. Intrinsically, all men are presumed as identical in strength and size, and are dissimilar from women. The intention of the examinations performed is to avoid instances of men participating in female competition since that will pose a size and strength advantage to them over the other female competitors. The social construction of gender has barred women from participating in Olympics, not until two decades ago. Surprisingly, the women have come to outdo men in terms of finish times (Lorber 49). This discovery has exhibited the injustice that the female gender faces. Media coverage of sports, also, trivializes the female gender. A research carried out in 1989 showed that the television sports news covered ninety two percent of male sports, five percent of female sports and the rest entailed gender-neutral sports. While the media glorifies the male athletes, the female counterparts are brushed aside. Similarly, the women sport teams are named and marked in ways that suggest inferiority (Hubbard 46). For instance, a men’s team would be named Tiger whereas the women’s is referred to as Kittens. Apparently, Tigers claim superiority over kittens. The trend stretches into the hierarchy of calling names; women are called by the first names, while men use their last names (Lorber 50). Despite the efforts that women put to rise above the spell of inferiority, the social and cultural norms castigate them. Using SCWAMP framework, the feminist instructors can help the students to drop their gender and racial based indiscrimination. The framework prompts the students to give their various thoughts on the salient components of the framework that include straightness, Christian, whiteness, ability masculinity and property holding. Once all the thoughts are laid on the table, the scholars are first able to understand the disparities that exist in opinions and thoughts. The instructor will then approve the positive thoughts and instill them into the students of contrary opinion. For effective outcomes, the instructor should use a popular culture that the students relate to (SCWAMP 8). By explicating the effects of a culture and the subsequent consequences on the lives of other people, the students get the sense of having a different perspective about a given component of SCWAMP (McIntosh 142). Further, SCWAMP can serve in an environment of multicultural learning whereby students of diverse cultures weigh in on discussion of various cultures as pertaining to race, class, gender, ethnicity and sexual preference (Kellner 18). Diversification of the learning experience will enlighten the students in their pursuit of resisting racial, homophobic and sexist representations and ideologies. Works Cited “Grease- Summer Nights HD”. Kurt Harmsworth. 21 July 2014. Documentary. Hubbard, Ruth. (1990). "Rethinking Womens Biology". In The Politics of women’s Biology. Rutgers University Press: Rutgers. Kellner, Douglas. (1995). Cultural studies, Multiculturalism and Media Culture. In Dines, G., &“Killing Us Softly 4 Advertisings Image of Women”. CallnmgingMedia. 21 July 2014. Documentary. Lorber, Judith. (1992). “The Social Construction of Gender”. In The 1992 Cheryl Miller Lecture. Thousand Oaks, Calif: SAGE Publications. McIntosh, P. (1989). White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack. S.l: s.n. Print. Pharr, Suzzane. (1988). The Common Elements of Oppression. In Homophobia: A weapon sexism. Inverness, CA: Chardon. “Rosie the Riveters of World War II”.VideoRations. 21 July 2014. Documentary. SCWAMP Lecture # 4 Notes Read More