Understanding Gender Identity And Sociological Behaviour

Select ONLY 3 of the following questions and provide a written response of approximately 1 page  double-spaced. Your answer should clearly demonstrate a link to course readings and other materials.

1. Reread Harsha Walia’s piece “Young, Brown and Proud” and identify two key elements of her piece. Relate the two elements you have identified to one or more of the Three Shifts identified in Chapter 1 of Siltanen & Doucet (I am aware that there are many, I just want you to pick two).

2. Based on your experience attending post-secondary institutions, would you say that we (read: Canada or more broadly) are making progress in terms of gender equality (see pages 31-35 of the course text re gender equality). Discuss and provide at least two key examples.

3. Discuss the work of Ryan Avola in relation to the materials in Chapter 2 of the text. Watch the video at the following link. https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2683981595

4. Discuss the example of KPop with relation to hegemonic gender. What does this example tell us about the ways that young people today experience social expectations around gender? Draw on course materials in constructing your response.

5. Throughout the course text and our in-class lectures, we have seen many examples that highlight the importance of considering intersecting relationships of dominance, as told through lived experience. Pick one story/individual that really brought this idea home for you and explain, as best you can, the different structural power relations that come into play. Why do students of gender studies need to know about this story?

6. In class, we discussed Cecilia Benoit’s contributions to the field of sociology. In groups, students shared common media representations of sex workers. Discuss two of these representations that you were familiar with and analyze with reference to hegemonic gender.

Gender identity development and the social construction

Gender Identity is one of the key factors in understanding the sociological behaviour towards considering gender as a vantage point for critical analysis. As had believed by Simone de Beauvoir, a woman is not born a woman, but as she gradually grows up, she becomes a woman (Siltanen & Doucet, 2008, ch. 1, pp.5). This aspect focuses on the development of the gender identity in the individuals. Gender is not something which one is born with, but rather develops as a part of the social construction. Sex and gender are different objects, of the social order and it is not necessary that the gender and sex be aligned together.

Patriarchy has always one of the most dominant social aspects, which have been used to define the role of the importance of sex role in the society. The patriarchal society has always defined the women as lower to their male counterparts and the process of decision making has always rested in the male dominance (Siltanen & Doucet, 2008 ch. 1, pp. 3). The imposing of the sex-roles has been criticized over the ages, but no possible remedy has been developed to counter the problems. However, in the modern shift change in the society, women have emerged to claim their rights as the true order of the sociological construction.

Hegemonic gender is the establishment of a particular gender as the dominant one in the society. Moreover, it is also considered to be the justification towards the subjugation of the other gender. Primarily, in the human society, hegemonic masculinity plays the major role in the societal construction as it tries to legitimize the male causes of dominating the roles in the society (Siltanen & Doucet, 2008, ch. 3, pp.1). The feminine attributes are looked down upon and the power relations of the society flow in one particular direction. It is a useful concept in understanding the process of social embodiment.

Essentialism:

The concept of essentialism refers to a group of attributes that are used to determine the validity of an idea. Similarly, in the sociology of gender roles the essentialism of the ideas of the social construction helps in determining the substance of the subject. The ideas of feminism, the gender essentialism play an important part in identifying the key essence of a woman character (Siltanen & Doucet, 2008, ch. 3, pp. 3). However, the perception of feminine attributes has changed over the time. The new shift has changed some the classical attributes of the feminine attributes to a more approach, which is to determine various experiences of women in different cultures. 

The impact of patriarchy

Harsh Walia’s piece, ‘Young, Brown and Proud’ is a very powerful message to the society which highlights the different biased treatments that are faced by the immigrant women of colour in Canada. According to Walia (2012, pp. 34), the country exploits the cheap labour that is available due to the immigration of people in the country. However, Walia also points a more severe fact that the immigrant women are subjected to biasedness such as low wages, odd working hours, and unsuitable workplaces.

In the Three Shifts identified in Chapter 1 of Siltanen & Doucet one of the most important aspects that can be related with Walia’s piece is gender identity. This aspect plays a very important role as it can be seen in Walia’s piece, that the idea of a woman, considered as a subordinate gender is imposed upon the women by the society (Walia, 2012, pp. 32). The women put similar efforts like men, but they are paid less. In the Chapter 1, it had been discussed that the categorization of a sex and gender is improper. A person is born with a sex; however, the person in the due course of time develops the gender role. Nevertheless, as it seems in the modern scenario, the person is not allowed to develop the gender naturally by the development of the skills and abilities. The gender roles are more or less imposed upon the women. The women are thought to be incapable of certain types of works or are considered as burden to the company. This results in the underpayment and ill-treatment that are meted out to the. Moreover, the immigrants are hired for the jobs at lower wages, which is an exploitation of their financial conditions and necessities. The women immigrants who are of colour are hence exploited in such a manner which violates the basic human rights.  Hence, pre-assumed gender biasness is not a justified manner of developing a society.

Secondly, the aspect of racism is also dominant in Walia’s piece. Racism is a much criticized aspect of social construction, where a certain section of people are looked down upon based on culture, colour and ethnicity. This is a result of the existent hegemony of the people. Most of the people of Canada blame the immigrants for the reduction in the jobs for the local people (Walia, 2012, pp. 38). However, most of the Canadian people do not realise that the immigrants are underpaid and are intentionally hired by the companies to exploit the cheap labour and increase their profits. If the system does not change its idea of exploitation, then the basic human rights will continue to be violated. The idea of freedom for all people is destroyed within the idea of racism. This racism also leads to the unequal distribution of power, which gives one group of the society to dominate and explore the other remaining groups.

Hegemonic gender in the societal construction

In the video of the CBS network, it is evident that the organization works hard to find a boys’ group which focuses on the development of the boys’ culture and attitude towards the society. The role of gender identity and gender hegemony plays a key part in understanding the works and purpose of the organization.

There are several boys who are weighted by the pressure of peer questions, all related to enquire about the progress of the masculinity in them. The questions seem weird; however, it is actually true the pre-assumed gender role is imposed upon the male section of the society. The social pressure triggers the masculine traits that are expected to develop automatically, and it increases the psychological pressure on the individuals. The individuals often feel left out of the society due to their difference in preferences and it certainly affect the well-beings of them.  It is important for the organization to understand the standpoint of the society and accordingly make the males, aware of the situation, that it is not improper to have the requirements of that of a girl. It is not improper for a boy to play with dolls; they should not be frightened to admit it in public. It is true that their peers or the society might subject them to humiliation, but it is the duty of the organization to make the victims aware of such issues and provide them with confidence and courage. Once they are aware of their human rights and be clear of their social dogmas, it will be very easy for them to shred of the social biasness off their shoulders and be happier in life. 

It is also important for the organization to promote activities, which can aware the society about the deep-rooted effects of masculine hegemony or any type of gender hegemony in general. Such regressive mentality is the outcome of the improper education of the children at a very young age. The masculine hegemony is deeply rooted in the society and needs to be modified in order to ensure a safe and reliable social construction.

KPop or the Korean Pop music is a very distinctive feature of the Korean society, which highlights the underlying masculinity of the society. This manufacture of masculinity seems like a hybrid of different cultures and appears multi-layered and contradictory to each other. The primary aspect of masculinity that is portrayed in the KPop music videos is those of pretty boys with softer masculine entities (Manietta, 2015, pp. 5). On the other hand another type of masculinity, which is represented by a more manly, tough and beastly attitude is also present in the KPop culture.

The role of essentialism in identifying feminine attributes

Every aspect of the Korean pop music culture defines different aspects of masculinity. The role playing of the gender distribution of the society is a very important aspect of the social construction. When the performance of the band, is represented by the different people who seem to represent the different aspects of masculinity, it is known as distributed masculinity. The outlooks of the boy bands are very important in this study. The boy bands focus on becoming the ideal boy band, which can serve as the idol for many (Manietta, 2015, pp. 59). The Korean music takes care to distinguish the elements of masculinity from that of the feminine attributes. The polished image of the KPop band members present an ideal image for the Asian population who are influenced by the looks of these artists. The stereotyping of the image makes an illusionary image of what an ideal man should look like in order to win the favours of the society, especially the women. The inability to achieve the idealised look might result in depression in many individuals. The biasness of ignoring the natural looks of the individual and adopting a more artificial look in not a very healthy aspect for the society. The existentialism, is dominant in the undercurrent of the Korean media presentation, and should stop in order to avoid biasedness in the society. The manifestation of the cultural identities as masculine entities is the key element of the Korean stars to establish their popularity (Manietta, 2015, pp. 21).

The exuberant display of masculinity are very much normal in the Korean society. Even many women have accepted the fact that masculinity is a thing to stay and going against it would be useless. The ignorance or the inability to accept the natural aspect of a human being only makes the human being lose his self-confidence. This loss leads to the unnatural balance of the society, which tends to invest more on the aspects of social biasness than on the development of talents. But it is difficult for them to understand that the balance of the society is found only in the equal treatment of both the genders in the process of social construction.

References:

Walia, H. (2012). Young, Brown and Proud: Personal purpose and political activism. Our Schools/Our Selves, 21(3).

Siltanen, J., & Doucet, A. (2008). Gender relations in Canada: Intersectionality and beyond. Oxford University Press, USA.

Manietta, J. B. (2015). Transnational masculinities: The distributive performativity of gender in Korean boy bands.