Gender: A reaction to literature
Charlie Hueber
09/12/00
The subject of men and women has been, and continues to be a mystery to me. Part of that mystery is the question, "Why are we different and how much of that is simply physical?" Reading the articles assigned for gender socialization. Has given me a new perspective on this question.
The article "Playing in the Gender Transgression Zone" by McGuffey and Rich took an interesting study of a day camp and analyzed how children of different race, age, and gender groups acted and reacted with each other. I trying to simply look at gender I will simplify and group this section of my paper into three sections: boys vs. boys, girls vs. girls, and girls vs. boys.
Boys vs. Boys
The article talked about "masculinity" and how boys of high status within a group "minimize gender transgressors by identifying social deviants and labeling them as outcasts." It seems pretty simple, young boys do pick on other boys who do not fit the mold shaped by society. I remember being a young boy and making fun of the kid who was playing dolls with the girls. We called him a "faggot" and other derogatory terms. Did that raise my status in the eyes of other boys? To me yes it did, and it was a good feeling at the time. I seemed to have no conscience.
The article also talked about the positive correlation of athletic skill and status among young men. This is apparent in any pick up game of any sport at any park in the country. Who decides team captains, who gets picked first, and who gets picked last show not the importance of friendship but emphasize the importance of athletic ability. There was always that one guy who was very feminine and uncoordinated he was always picked last or not picked at all. With nowhere left to go he choose to play alone or with the girls.
Girls vs. Girls.
Here we see a bit of a difference in how crossing over is treated among the females than it was with the males. The article talks about how a girl who excels in those types of things normally considered male, is praised. It is especially apparent when a female beats a male in an athletic event. Her status among friends would rise as a result regardless of her age as compared to the young man’s. Girls tended to have smaller social groups but form more of a single unit against boys.
Girls vs. Boys
Girls in tend to have a harder time associating with the male groups and breaking into male roles, while boys were normally accepted under the condition that girl’s rules were followed. I have seen this work in my personal life even in college settings. I have a group of friends who are all guys and rarely do we invite women to do things with us. I also have another social group of predominately women and I was accepted right away. This brings up another question; why are girls so accepting of boys yet we are not very accepting of them.
The article "Boyhood, Organized Sports, and the Construction of Masculinities," by Michael Messner, did give me some insight on the male idea of masculinity. He interviewed 30 male athletes of varying backgrounds. Many of the men interviewed felt that they excelled because they had something to prove, either to their family or their friends. Others claimed it (playing sports) was all they had to do and everyone was doing it. Even the opposite sex tends to reward our efforts in sports. I see this every day in high school; who is the "best" guy for anyone to date? The team quarterback is. With this importance on sports and competition, what are us guys learning? According to Messner we are learning to be "number one" and how to important it is to win. With sport relying mainly on physical prowess and winning being the main key stressed, I wonder why girls are not readily accepted into boys’ groups. This emphasis on the physical and winning will lead to competition on an individual level.
"Learning to Fight," by Geoffrey Canada, illustrates Canada’s experience as a boy growing up and the importance of fighting in his neighborhood. Fights determined social status. The strongest best fighters were the most respected and feared among other boys. He mentioned levels and laws. There was an order to things Boys tended to look for order and create situations that demanded order. Fighting served dual purposes, one to determine social status and determine the leaders of a group and to enforce the rules set by those leaders. This may sound extreme but it happens in all settings with young boys. The fighting may not be as sever but the threat is always there. Every group of boys makes threats like " I’ll kick your butt if you don’t give that back," and "Wanna knuckle sandwich buddy." I know I had my share of this growing up and still see it among college age students. The only difference is, when I was younger these happened more often, now that there are consequences and I have the knowledge that I will die someday, because of this fighting doesn’t really ever happen for me. Young boys of all social status do seem to get into a lot of fights.
The article "Warrior Narratives in the Kindergarten Classroom: Renegotiating the Social Contract?" by Ellen Jordan and Angela Cowan we see how at an early age our gender differences are apparent. Boys played with guns and girls played with dolls. Jordan and Cowan tell us about several "warrior narratives" that play out in boys behavior. They say that boys are reenacting a "transformation of violence and power as exercised by body over body, to control through surveillance and rules."
This seems to be a recurring difference the amount of violence and competition among boys as compared to the amount of cooperation and friendliness among girls. Some we are born with. But playing on our innate differences we have socialized these differences to a point that causes inequality. Is it right or is it wrong and what can we do about it? I wish I had the answer to this but for now I will simply be content with my new knowledge and attempt to learn more in the future.
A more technical look is given in chapter two of Thinking About Women by Margaret L. Anderson. It explains the difference in sex and gender saying that sex is our biological identity and gender is a social concept that we associate with men and women. The chapter goes on to explain more of the biological differences and attempts to explain the process leading to difference in sex. The chapter gets more interesting when it begins to explain socialization. The book states that "Through gender socialization, different behaviors and attitudes are encouraged and discouraged in men and women." It really is a complicated discipline system that society uses to keep us in check. We all are socialized in someway and that amount may vary depending on your personal views of the world and past socialization.
These past experiences are explained in the section of the chapter about Socialization across the Life Course. It begins with Infancy, telling us how we are treated differently as babies. It was even mentioned how parents perceptions of their boys and girls differed. The book moved onto childhood and mentioned how children learn social interaction and develop cognitive and analytical abilities. Toys play a part in the socialization of children at this age as we see predominately male or female toys.
Anderson then explains five theories. First is the identification theory saying that children identify with their same-sex parent. Then we see the object relations theory that is tells us as children develop they must become psychologically separated from their parents. We also have the social learning theory explains learning through outside factors. The cognitive-developmental theory states that children create categories in their minds that emerge as a result of social interaction. Finally the symbolic interaction theory states that people act towards things based on meaning that evolves from culture.
If the object of this assignment was to learn something I did not know before I believe that objective was met. It is going to be awesome to see what science and research will find in the future. Maybe then we will finally have that answers to these questions and controversy will not surround such a topic