Transcript Feminism - ResourcdBlogs

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Question?
Why or how might feminist sociologists
criticise the theories of Functionalist
and Marxist sociologists?
‘Malestream’ sociology
• Heidensohn (1985) accuses the CCCS of being
‘malestream’.
• Which means that their accounts were
written by male sociologists about young
males.
• Traditionally all academics were men and
naturally men are more interested in
researching and writing about male behaviour
• Some feminists might argue that by making
the female element invisible male sociologists
have been reinforcing patriarchal dominance!
Origins of Patriarchy
• A prominent Greek general Meno, in the Platonic dialogue of the
same name, sums up the prevailing sentiment in Classical Greece
about the respective virtues of men and women. He says:
• Let us take first the virtue of a man—he should know how to
administer the state, and in the administration of it to benefit his
friends and harm his enemies; and he must also be careful not to
suffer harm himself. A woman's virtue, if you wish to know about
that, may also be easily described: her duty is to order her house,
and keep what is indoors, and obey her husband."[20]The works of
Aristotle portrayed women as morally, intellectually, and physically
inferior to men; saw women as the property of men; claimed that
women's role in society was to reproduce and serve men in the
household; and saw male domination of women as natural and
virtuous.[
Gender
• Patterns of socially constructed
behaviour
• Talcott Parsons (a functionalist in the
1950s) supported the biological
determinist argument:
• Male instrumental role of breadwinner
• Female expressive role of carer
Masculinity
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What does it mean to be masculine?
Traditional masculinity includes:
Male supremacy
Heterosexuality
working class ideology
Aggression
Laddish culture
Nayak (2006) argues that men used to be
the breadwinners and do physical jobs
which enabled them to opt out of domestic
duties… how has this changed?
Femininity?
• What does it mean to be feminine?
• Is femininity changing?
Is Audrey Hepurn the
essence of a feminine
role model?
Gendered language
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Compassion
letters
lovehearts
Logic
leadership
lovely
Algorithm
dancing
fighting
Emotional
technology
nature
Newspaper
magazine
rabbit
Curtains
washing machine
Lawnmower
car
decisive
• 3 waves
Feminism
1
3
2
• 3 theories
Radical
Marxist
Liberal
Suffragette
The suffragettes
Women had to campaign long and hard before they were
given voting rights.
In the early twentieth-century, this campaign was led by
the suffragettes.
The suffragettes
were groups of
women across the
country who fought
for more
than 30 years to
receive equal
democratic rights
with men.
1960’s 2nd Wave
Radical Feminism
Society for Cutting Up Men
Radical Feminism
• Men are the ruling class - Patriarchy
• Female oppression exists
• Male strength, rape and sexual violence
underpin male control.
• Exploitation in the media increases
likelihood of violence
• Some become ‘separatists’ that women
need to be completely independent of
men
• Lesbian only relationships, Celibacy for
some
Marxist
Feminism
Capitalism requires an
unpaid carer in the home
and a reserve army of low
paid labour to draw on and
control pay
Women are more likely to
be in poverty than men.
Liberal
Feminism
Campaign for equal
rights and an end to
gender inequality
Gradual change rather
than revolution
Inequality is the result
of sexism,
discrimination, sex-role
stereotypes and
socialisation
Rebecca Walker future
president of the USA?
Statistics
• http://www.forbes.com/billionaires/list/
• Of the top 100 richest people in the world only 7
are women.
• There is a 20% pay gap between men and
women in the UK
• 147 of 650 MPs are female i.e 22%
• The scientific world especially engineering,
technology and computing is male dominated.
• Female dominated professions are generally
lower paid e.g nursing, teaching, social work.
• Female GPs will overtake male GPs by 2017!!
Watch to see if relative pay decreases.
1. Does female oppression still exist?
2. How might oppression take place? (Think
about agents of social control/
socialisation)
3. Estimate the % of women who are victims
of domestic violence.
4. Estimate the % of women who are victims
of sexual violence.
5. Why might female victimisation be
increasing?
6. Why might female crime be increasing?
1. Not as much in western societies although there is still
significant inequality and exploitation in the media.
2. Sanctions for behaviour which is constructed as
unfeminine perpetuates inequalityValerie Hey
described a world in which girls use sexual innuendo
‘ugly’, slag’, ‘dyke’ to punish those who stray out of line
in terms of being ‘feminine’ and ‘normal’.
3. According to BCS 1 in 10 per year
4. BCS claims 1 in 20 each year 45% by current partners
5. Crisis of masculinity, improved policing and reporting of
crimes
6. Decreasing controls on women, laddettes
• Use your own throughts to debate
Ideological and Physical control of women
leaves them disadvantaged:• In the home
• In the workplace
• In Educational attainment
• In criminal justice
• Financially
• Globally
Feminism and Youth Culture
• Women have been involved in the
development of youth cultures in several
ways
• Girls were involved in spectacular youth
cultures
• Women were involved in music and
fashion industry
• More recently girl sub-cultures have
emerged.
Feminist culture
• Lesley Gore
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAsMF2
knxq8
• Ladettes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jKfxRR
kd4E
• Kelly Clarkson
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0C_oN
MH0GTk&list=PL2D22FBC7E1F1DBC9
What do you know?
• Can you identify any female
subcultures?
• Have you been aware of different
female groups within school?
• Were they attached to equivalent male
groups?
• Have you been aware of any groups of
males that do not have female
members? (or visa versa)
• What was revealed in your
observations?
New wave girls
Blackman (1995)
10 girls
School study
Doc Martin
boots
Popular
punk & new
black trousers
wave music
T-shirts & over
academically able
sized jumpers
working or lower non-conformist,
middle class
resist masculine &
parental control
McRobbie & Garber (1976)
• Bedroom culture
• What are your views on
girls’ magazines?
• What sort of content do
they have?
• Smart (1976)
• Parents exercise
different levels of control
over boys and girls.
• What difference does this
make?
• Sharpe (1976/1994)
• Used structured interviews so that views
could be compared over time.
• In 1976 revealed girls’ priorities as being
love, marriage, children, husband and jobs
in that order !
• In 1994 this had changed to more career
orientated aspirations.
• What are the potential problems with
structured interviews?
• She used only a small sample !!
Anti-feminism
• ? Challenge was for you to identify
feminist and anti-feminist messages in
following :• Barbie song
• Afro-jack – Take over control
• Robin Thicke – Blurred Lines
• Fifty Shades of Grey
• The Twilight series
• If you want to take up hand in by 1st Dec
Girl only subcultures?
• The Riot Grrrls
in the USA
• Display feeling
of anger and
oppression
• SK8er girls
associated with
Avril Lavigne in
the US and
Canada…
Analysis and Criticisms
• What might be the purpose of female
sub-cultures?
• How can we criticise feminist theories
of youth subculture?
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Only focused on gender issues
Rise of androgynous cultures
Emo and club culture
(Thornton)
Quick check
• What name did McRobbie and Garber give
to the girl youth culture which centred
around romance, fashion and a certain
private domestic space
• What girl sub-culture grew up in the USA
associated with Avril Lavigne
• Why was there so little research done on
girl sub-cultures before the 1990s
PEEA Mindmap!
• Discuss the view that females have little
involvement in youth cultures (30)
• Use three colours to identify the
• AO1 Knowledge
• AO2 Application
• AO3 Evaluation and analysis
Peer Marking
• Markscheme
• Look at the markscheme and put the
essay into a band for AO1/AO2/AO3 and
Give them a mark for each.
• Calculate their grade
• Write a comment for improvement