Transcript The Study of Communication, Gender & Culture

The Study of
Communication,
Gender & Culture
Chapter 1
Research on Gender,
Comm., & Culture
Classes widespread only last 20 years
 First handbook of research on gender
and communication – 2006
◦ Learn more at:
http://www.sagepub.com/booksProd
RelatedProducts.nav?prodId=Book22
6595&currTree=Subjects&level1=K0
0&level2=K60

Research on Gender,
Comm., & Culture

Research on gender from range
of fields
◦ Communication
◦ Anthropology
◦ History
◦ Philosophy
◦ Psychology
◦ Sociology
Studying
Communication,
Gender, & Culture

Learning about communication,
gender, and culture:
◦ Enhances appreciation of ways
culture influences views
Research on Gender,
Comm., & Culture

Quantitative research methods
◦ Data that can be quantified and
analyzed
 Descriptive statistics
 Surveys
 Experiments
Research on Gender,
Comm., & Culture

Qualitative research methods/
interpretive methods
◦ Understand nature of meaning or
experiences
 Textual analysis
 Ethnography
Research on Gender,
Comm., & Culture

Critical research methods
◦ Identify and challenge inequities
and problems
Learn About Comm.,
Gender, & Culture

Learning about communication,
gender, and culture:
◦ Enhances appreciation of cultural
complexities
◦ Enhances insight to your own
gender
Learn About Comm.,
Gender, & Culture

Learning about communication,
gender, and culture:
◦ Strengthens effectiveness as
communicator
Gender in a
Transitional Era
Probably don’t prescribe to
grandparents’ ideals
 Likely are confused about gender
issues

Gender in a
Transitional Era
On one level
◦ Think women and men equal
 On another level
◦ May hold traditional values
 Live in a transitional era
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Differences between
Women & Men

Difficult to find language to
discuss patterns of
communication
◦ Women and men troublesome
 Imply all can be grouped
together
Differences between
Women & Men

Essentializing
◦ Tendency to reduce to
characteristics assume are
essential in every member of
category
◦ Presume all members of sex
alike
Differences between
Women & Men

Essentializing
◦ Obscures range of individual
characteristics
◦ Book’s generalizations do not
imply essentializing
Gender, Culture, &
Communication

Sex, gender, sexual orientation,
culture, communication
interlinked
◦ Cannot study one without
understanding others
Sex
Sex = designation based on
biology
 Gender = socially constructed
and expressed
◦ Sex and gender usually go
together
◦ Can be inconsistent
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Sex
Male or female based on external
genitalia and internal sex organs
 Genitalia and sex markers
determined by chromosomes
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Sex
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Y chromosome determines how
fetus develops
◦ Females usually have XX
◦ Males usually have XY
Sex
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Occasional variation
◦ XO
◦ XXX, XXY, XYY
◦ XY and XX
Sex

All have cells with at least one X
◦ Males typically have one X
 More vulnerable to X-linked
recessive conditions
Sex

Some born with biological
characteristics of each sex
◦ Traditionally called
hermaphrodites
◦ Today intersexed preferred
 Learn more at:
http://www.itpeople.org/
Sex
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Hormones influence development
◦ Fetuses with Y bathed in
androgens
 Development of male sex
organs
◦ Fetuses without Y - fewer
androgens
 Development of female sex
organs
Sex
Female fetus may be exposed to
excessive progesterone
◦ May not develop female
genitalia
 Male fetus may be deprived of
progesterone
◦ Male genitalia may not develop
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Sex
Influence of hormones continues
throughout lifetime
◦ Males more sensitive to
hormonal activity
 Biology influences how develop
but doesn’t determine behavior
or personality
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Gender
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Gender
◦ Neither innate nor necessarily
stable
◦ Defined by society
◦ Expressed by individuals as
they interact with others and
media
Gender
Gender changes over time
 Born male or female (sex)
 Learn to act masculine and/or
feminine (gender)
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Gender
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Gender identity:
◦ Person’s own identification as
male or female
Gender
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Gender depends on society’s
values,
◦ In America
 Masculine = strong, successful,
rational, emotionally controlled
 Feminine = attractive,
nurturing, deferential,
expressive
Gender

From infancy, encouraged to
learn how to embody gender that
society prescribes
Gender
Gender grows out of cultural
ideas that stipulate social
meaning and expectations
 Society’s views permeate public
and private life
◦ See as normal, natural, right
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Gender
Not passive recipients
 Make choices to accept, modify,
or reject
◦ Views challenged by people who
define themselves as trans or
gender queer
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Gender
Meanings of gender also changed
by:
◦ Personal communication
◦ Role models
◦ Interactions with friends
 Reciprocal relationship between
communication and cultural views
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Gender
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Uphold or remake meanings of
masculinity or femininity
◦ 1970s – androgyny coined
 Androgynous individuals
embody qualities considered
both feminine and masculine
Gender
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Meanings of gender can vary
across cultures:
◦ New Guinea – three genders
◦ Arapesh – all feminine
◦ Mundugumor – all aggressive
◦ Tchambuli – gender reversal
Gender

Body ideals for women socially
constructed
◦ Current Western culture values
thinness
Gender
• 1950s – fuller-figures preferred
• See photos of Marilyn Monroe at:
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma
rilyn_Monroe
• Some cultures regard heavier
women as beautiful
Gender
Some cultures view person’s
gender as changeable
 Some Native American groups –
more than two genders
◦ These individuals esteemed
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Gender
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In U.S., gender varies across
racial-ethnic groups
◦ African American women more
assertive
◦ African American men more
communal
Gender
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Social meaning of gender varies
over time
◦ Prior to Industrial Revolution –
family and work intertwined
◦ Industrial Revolution – division
into spheres of work and home
 Femininity and masculinity
redefined
Gender
Meaning changes over time
◦ Social context changes and
affects sense of identity
 Relational concept
◦ Femininity and masculinity make
sense in relation
 As meanings of one changes –
so do meanings of other
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Beyond Sex & Gender
Can also define self in terms of:
◦ Sexual orientation
◦ Transgendered
◦ Transsexual
 Society assumes connections
between these categories
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Beyond Sex &
Gender
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Sexual orientation
◦ Preference for romantic and
sexual partners
 Heterosexual
 Gay
 Lesbian
 Bisexual
Beyond Sex &
Gender

Other cultures’ views of sexual
orientation challenge U.S. views
◦ Sambia in Melanesia
◦ Ancient Greece
◦ Victorian society
Beyond Sex &
Gender
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Changing views of gender and
sex
◦ Intersexed individuals
 Biological characteristics of
male and female
Beyond Sex &
Gender
◦ Transgendered
individuals
 Biological sex
inconsistent
with identity
 Often dress
and adopt
behaviors of
gender with
which identify
Beyond Sex &
Gender
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See the trailer from the movie
Boys Don’t Cry (R-rated):
◦ http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=aOarssJWHhI
Beyond Sex &
Gender
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Transsexual individuals
◦ Surgery and/or hormonal
treatments
 Posttransition males to females
 Posttransition females to males
Beyond Sex &
Gender
MTF – Deidre McCloskey
 FTM – Thomas Beatie
◦ Gave birth to a child
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Beyond Sex &
Gender
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Cross-dressers/transvestites
◦ Enjoy wearing clothing of other
sex
◦ Varying motivations
◦ Majority biological, heterosexual
males, attracted to women
Beyond Sex &
Gender

Transgendered, transsexed, and
intersexed people challenge
dualities
Culture
Culture = structures, institutions,
practices that reflect and uphold
social order
 Upheld by defining certain
groups, values, expectations, as
good
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Culture
Surrounded by communication
that announces social views of
gender
◦ Women give up name in
marriage
◦ Judicial system
 Western culture is patriarchal
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Culture
Messages that reinforce culture
views pervade lives
◦ Seldom pause to reflect
◦ Take for granted
◦ Don’t question
 Learning to reflect empowers
◦ Increases freedom to choose
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Communication
Communication is dynamic
◦ Continually changes, evolves
 Process
◦ No beginnings or endings
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Communication is
Systemic
More than context affects
meaning
 All aspects of communication are
interlinked
 Influenced by how we feel
 Time of day, etc. may influence
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Communication is
Systemic
Largest system affecting
communication is culture
 Societies’ views of men and
women change over time
 Systems interact – each part
affects all others
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Communication is
Systemic
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Communication has two levels:
◦ Content level of meaning
 Literal meaning
◦ Relationship level of meaning
 Tell how to interpret content
and how communicators see
themselves in relationship
Meanings Created
through Interaction
with Symbols
Humans symbol-using creatures
 Have to think to figure out what
symbol means
 Symbols can be ambiguous
 More than one meaning
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Meanings Created
through Interaction
with Symbols
Significance of communication
not in words themselves
 Communicating increases
meanings
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Meanings Created
through Interaction
with Symbols
Verbal and nonverbal behaviors
not neutral
 Meaning arises from interpretation
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Meanings Created
through Interaction
with Symbols
Differences in interpretation are
sources of misunderstanding
 Can become more effective:
◦ Ask for clarification
◦ Check to see how others are
interpreting us
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