Lecture 4: Masuclinity and Femininity

1. Eric C. Thompson
Semester 2, 2011/2012

2. Where We Have Been…
 History of Gender Studies
 From the study of women
to theories of gender
 Sex/Gender Distinction
 Gender is built on sex
differences but not
determined by them.
 Becoming Male or Female
 Gender socialization;
paths to learning gender.

3. Where We Are Going…
 Gender Systems
 Gender as systems of
beliefs and behaviors
 Gender in Popular Culture
 Gender in Social Relations
 Gender and Power
 Gender and Work
 Gender, Here and Now
 Gender in Singapore

4. Today’s Lecture…
 Part 1: What are gender
systems?
 Part 2: How do gender
systems work?

5. PART 1: What is a Gender System?

6. What is Gender?
 Gender is our cultural interpretations of and social
practices associated with (not caused or determined
by) our biological system of sexual reproduction.
 GENDER: Is a social and cultural construct. . .
the ways in which we organize our society, interpret,
and give meaning to the fact that we are a sexually
reproducing species.
 Gender systems are complex, multilayered and variable
through time and from place to place.

7. Things
(without Meaning)
Dress
Skirt
Clothes Shirt Signifiers
Jeans Sari Pondan/
T-Shirt Ah Kwah
Girl Guy Boy
Man
Make-Up
Feminine Masculine Sissy
Woman
Nurturing Handsome Pretty
Shopping
Estrogen Androgen Strong
Sports Testes
Activities Work Home Gentle
Business Ovaries
Petite
Architecture Breasts Dispositions
Muscles Tall
Engineering
Arts Aggressive
Bodies

8. We pick out “meaningless things”
and give them meaning by associating
them with masculinity (or femininity)
Chinese
Batik Dress Skirt
Clothes Dress Signifiers
Batik Chinese Sari Pondan/
Shirt Shirt Ah Kwah
Jeans
Boy
T-Shirt Guy Man
Masculine Sissy
Woman Feminine
Shopping Nurturing Handsome
Estrogen Strong
Activities Sports Home
Testes
Gentle
Business Ovaries
Petite
Architecture Breasts Dispositions
Tall
Engineering
Muscles
Arts Aggressive
Bodies

9. The things we associate with masculinity
or femininity are largely arbitrary.
Chinese
Batik Dress
Clothes Dress Skirt Signifiers
Batik Chinese Sari Pondan/
Shirt Shirt Ah Kwah
Jeans A skirt is feminine not
Boy
masculine!! (Isn’t it?)
T-Shirt Guy Man
Masculine Sissy
Woman Feminine
Shopping Nurturing Handsome
Estrogen Strong
Activities Sports Home
Testes
Gentle
Business Ovaries
Petite
Architecture Breasts Dispositions
Tall
Engineering
Muscles
Arts Aggressive
Bodies

10. Tell that to these guys…

11. Mapping things onto a
gendered structure gives
them meaning.

12. Gender: Binary or Plural?
 Binary “Two Gender” Systems:
 Divide the world into two and only two genders.
 All gender systems have at least two genders
 Plural or “Third Gender” Systems:
 Cultural recognition of more than two genders.
 Can have three, four, five or more genders.
 “Third” Genders may be seen as inferior, superior or
equal to other genders. (Just as men or women may be
seen as inferior, superior or equal to each other.)

13. A Gendered Structure of Meaning
Woman Man Guy
Girl Boy
Gentle Masculine
Feminine
Nurturing Aggressive
A
T-Shirt
Make-Up Two Gender
Dress Jeans
Sari System: Shirt
Skirt
Binary Testes
Estrogen Ovaries Strong Androgen
Breasts Oppositions Muscles
Pretty Petite
Tall Handsome
Arts Sports
Shopping Engineering
Home Work
Pondan/
Ah Kwah ?? Sissy

14. A Different Gendered Structure of Meaning
A Three Gender Boy
Girl
Nurturing System Man
Guy
Woman Gentle Masculine
Skirt Feminine Aggressive
Breasts Sports Androgen
Estrogen T-Shirt
Dress Jeans Engineering
Pretty
Ovaries Work Shirt
Shopping Strong
Petite
Arts Handsome
Home
Tall Muscles
Pondan/
Ah Kwah
Testes
Make-Up
Feminine Sissy
Dress

15. The Gender Tango
 Gender (Masculinity, Femininity) as a structure of
appropriate behavior.
 Third Genders and Gender Pluralism (ex. Berdache)
 Gender diversity: in the Amazon, Sambia, Trobriands.

16. Gender Systems are Multi-Layered
 “Micro” level: subjective, personal, psychological
 How we feel about our selves.
 “Meso” level: interaction, relational, everyday
 How we relate to others.
 “Macro” level: institutional, systemic
 How cultures and societies are organized.
 Gender is operating at all of these levels, all of the time!

17. Gender Systems Change over Time and
Vary across different Places
 Masculinity and Femininity are constructed differently
in different times and places.
 “Where Have all the Trans-Gender Ritual Specialist
Gone?” (Peletz 2006)
 Hollywood Images of Masculinity in the Late 20th
Century (More on this in Lecture 6)

18. Examples of Transgender Ritual Specialists
(Peletz 2006, Current Anthropology)
 Pre-Colonial Southeast Asia: Widespread Evidence
of “Trans-Gender” Ritual Specialists
 Sida-Sida (Peninsular Malay)
 Bissu (Bugis)
 Basir and Balian (Ngaju Dayak)
 Hau Bralin (Khmer Initiation Ritual)
 Acault (Burma)
 As well as others…

19. “Where Have All the Trans-Gender Ritual
Specialist Gone?”
 Contemporary Southeast Asia: Apparently less
“Tolerant” Attitudes; Marginalization of Trans-
Gender Individuals (But still many examples)
 Pondan, Mak Andam (Malaysia)
 Banci (Indonesia)
 Khateoy (Thailand)
 Bakla, Bantut (Philippines)
 Why? Modernity? Bureaucratic Rationality?
Religion (esp. Spread of Islam and Christianity)?
Capitalism? Westernization?
 Transition from “Gender Pluralism” to “Gender
Dualism”

20. Gender versus Sexuality
 Sex: Biology, Bodies
 Gender: Cultural Ideas and Social Practices.
 Sexuality: Sexual Practices and Preferences.
 Gender & Sexuality are closely related, but not the same.
 Gay, Lesbian, Straight, Homosexual, Heterosexual – refers
to sexuality (sexual practices and preferences)
 Pondan, Katoey, Berdache, Man, Woman, etc. are
“gender” identities (a broader category that mere sexual
practices).
 Example of “Katoey” gender (gender, not sexuality)

21. Gender Systems at Play
 Gender systems (cultural beliefs) provide us a basis for
knowing how to behave.
 This enables and empowers us to act (as gendered
individuals) in society.
 It can also be constraining and limiting (for example,
Billy Tipton, who had to go to great length to overcome
gender constraints).
 Gender is also a source of pleasure, amusement and
play in all cultures.

22. PART 2: “Unpacking” Gender Systems
How do gender systems work?

23. Gender Is Not an Essence
 Gender is systems of beliefs and practices. It is not
something we are but something we think and do.
 We come to think of gender as identity or essence
(“who/what I am”) as a result of regular reinforcement
of these beliefs and enacting these practices.
 Masculinity and Femininity are “Structures of
Appropriate Behavior” (see: The Gender Tango); they
are socially constructed in relationship to each other.

24. “Unpacking the Gender System”
(Ridgeway and Correll 2004)
 Gender is a System of:
 Gender Beliefs
 Institutionalized Social
Practices
 “Unpacking” the Gender
System means Critically*
examining these Beliefs
and Practices
*”Critical” Social and Cultural theory does not mean “criticizing” or
bashing; it means carefully and reflectively examining.

25. Rules for Acting in Society
 Gender systems guide our behavior; they give us a
blueprint for:
 How we ourselves should act.
 How we should act toward others.
 How we evaluate others.
 How we evaluate ourselves.
 Masculinity and Femininity as “Structures of
Appropriate Behavior”

26. “Doing Gender”
 Gender is something we do (a performance) not
something we are (an identity).
 West and Zimmerman 1987 – “Doing Gender”
 Judith Butler 1990 – Gender Trouble
 Masculinity and Femininity are beliefs and guidelines
for appropriate behavior – they are beliefs that guide
us in doing gender.
 Because gender is something we do all the time,
everyday, we experience it as identity – as something
we “are” rather than something we “do”.
 We “do gender” in relationship to cultural rules and
beliefs.

27. Hegemonic Gender Beliefs
 Cultural Beliefs – beliefs that are shared by two or
more people.
 Hegemonic Gender Beliefs
 A belief is hegemonic when everyone in society must act
in relationship to it – whether they believe it or not.
 Hegemonic Masculinity (from Connell).
 Alternative (Nonhegemonic) Gender Beliefs
 Many alternative beliefs may exist in a society
 Different beliefs may be hegemonic in different groups
or different contexts.

28. Hegemonic Masculinity
(Connell and Messerschmidt 2005)
 Not necessarily “normal” (in the statistical sense)…
but “normative” (it sets the standard – it is the way
a man should be).
 Not a fixed idea; differs over time and from place to
place.
 Plurality and Hierarchy of Masculinities.
 The power of Hegemonic Masculinity requires
men (and women) to act in relation to the set of
beliefs that are “hegemonic”
 Adoption, complicity, privilege, defense of status-quo
 Resistance, alternative masculinities, “passing”

29. Hegemonic Femininity?
 Hegemonic Femininity vs. “Emphasized
Femininity”
 Debate over whether forms of femininity can be called
“hegemonic” (because femininity is more often than not
culturally devalued compared to masculinity).
 Can we assume that masculinity is always hegemonic
(powerful) and femininity “emphasized” (subordinate)?
 As with Hegemonic Masculinity; “Emphasized” or
“Hegemonic” Femininity is normative – it sets
standards in relation to which everyone in society
must act.

30. Cultural Operations
 Sex Categorization
 Categorization by sex/gender is a First Order Cultural
Operation; before any interaction with other people we place
them in abstract gendered categories (man, woman; boy,
girl).
 Gender as Background Identity
 Gender is something “always there” but often implicit (and
taken-for-granted); (Ridgeway and Correll 2004)
 Effective Salience
 Gender comes into effect in certain social contexts (but not
always, in all situations).

31. Gender Beliefs and Practice, Example 1:
Gender Beliefs and Evaluation
 One example where there seems to be good
evidence for the effect of Gender Beliefs…
 Peoples skills are evaluated differently, based on
whether they are men or women.
 Many studies have shown that resumes (e.g. in
applying for jobs or schools) with a MALE NAME
are judged more favorably than the same resume
with a FEMALE NAME.
 There is also evidence that men are negatively
evaluated when performing traditionally female
tasks (e.g. domestic work, childcare).

32. Gender Beliefs and Practice, Example 2:
Product Evaluation
 Products are evaluated more highly when portrayed as
produced by men than when portrayed as produced by
women.
 If the products are “masculine” (engineering, military)
then the effect is very strong.
 If the products are “feminine” (domestic and childcare
products) then the effect disappears or slightly favors
women.

33. Gender Beliefs and Practice, Example 3:
“Men in Crisis in Russia” (Ashwin 2004)
 In the 1990s, Russia experienced severe economic
crisis.
 Unemployment among men was high.
 Although men were available to help with domestic
work, women actively excluded them from housework
by controlling the domestic sphere.
 Men were doubly marginalized: in the economy
outside the home (through unemployment) and in the
domestic sphere.
 S. Ashwin “Men in Crisis in Russia: The Role of
Domestic Marginalization,” Gender and Society (2004)

34. How do Gender Systems Change?
 Do changing gender Beliefs change Social Practices
(inequality, discrimination)?
 Argument: The Feminist Movement changed ideas
about women’s place in society, leading to social change.
 Do changing gender Beliefs follow rather than lead
Social Change (changes in practice)?
 Argument: Changes in society (urbanization,
industrialization) broke down traditional gender roles,
leading to changing ideas about women and men’s place
in society.
 What do you think?