...typically with reference to social or cultural differences rather than biological.’(Michigan University – 2010). In this essay I will explore and investigate both sex and gender, whilst identifying the differences between the two. I will start by elaborating on the given definitions. Sex is defined on the Princeton University website as ‘biological’. This is a word that has recurred in many other definitions that I have researched for the word ‘sex’. This would suggest that sex is able to be categorized in a straight forward manner. However, there are several high profile cases in the media, when the issue of ‘sex’ has come into question. Perhaps most recently is the case of South African athlete, Caster Semanya. Semanya won the 800m race during the African Junior Championship, with the fastest time of the year. This lead to some spectators questioning her sex. When looking at the athlete she has an incredibly muscular and angular frame, and this coupled with her record breaking run made the International Athletic Association ask for a sex test. This case brought the issue of ‘sex’ into much disrepute. Now, we are led to believe that there is a third option, rather than just Male or Female. Scientists use the term ‘intersex’ to describe an individual who is ‘born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that does not seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male.’ (Tasmanian Department of Education- 2010). This somewhat confuses the majority of definitions of ‘sex’...
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...The essay focuses on the social construction of crime, and the possible reasons for these social constructions. In the first section, the essay explains what crime is, and the constructionist perspective theory. In the Second section my essay focuses on the crime as socially constructed and why it is socially constructed. In the third section essay explains, three levels of explanation in the study of deviant and criminal behaviour. In the final section, it focuses on the historical theoretical periods, which plays an important role in revitalising past discoveries. Crime is a term that refers to many types of misconduct that is forbidden by law. There are a number of different reasons as to why crime can be viewed as a social construction. There cannot be 'social problems' that are not the product of social construction - naming, labelling, defining and mapping them into place - through which we can 'make sense' of them' (Clarke, 2001). In this essay I will explain what is social construction, also what crime is, and why we think, that crime is socially constructed. Furthermore, I will explain how media construct crime and the stigma of black crime. In the last paragraph I will explore the importance of Marxist and Durkheim's theories on the emergence of crime....
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...Some of the lessons and insight provided through school finance, school choice, and disciplinary policies and reform has included: equity in school financing, establishing stability in school financing, and targeting schools who need it and valuing marginalized mentalities and norms. The Promise Neighborhoods Program, with a slight change, would be a great remedy in helping to solve the inequalities and inequities in the public school system. It addresses the multi-faceted nature that contribute to inequalities in the educational system by first identifying that race plays a role in the outcome of children and youth in low-income neighborhoods. The program also addresses establishing stability and a more permanent solution, rather than a bandage solution, in helping the public schools that it serves by helping to develop the local infrastructure of systems and resources for public schools in order for them to sustain and scale up proven, effective solutions across the broader region beyond the initial neighborhood. The program also addresses the problems in zero-tolerance policies because it helps to build a comprehensive continuum of cradle-to-career solutions in both educational programs as well as family and community supports, with great schools at the center. Empirical studies have shown...
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...Race and Ethnicity has been equivalently used by people as referring to both meanings being the same. Race is a biological myth, because society believes that it’s real. Ethnicity is a self-identity with a shared culture. Society is structured around one’s social perception of race and ethnicity, which enables society to categorize according to importance. I’ll discuss how one’s position in the racial hierarchy encourages and permits prejudice and discrimination. Today’s society is structured in a way by the dominant group that prejudice and discrimination comes across more subtlety and even at times unintentionally. This wasn’t always depicted that way in the past. For instance, in the 1930’s and 40’s the Nazi Party, the dominant group, was very open about their prejudice and discrimination toward the subordinate groups which included Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, and Jehovah Witnesses. Not only did they express their feelings of hate, but also acted upon them by taking away their civil rights and perused them with violence. The terms race and ethnicity are often used synonymously to each other. The definition of race has altered by society and time. These terms need to be independently defined in order to fully understand when and how to use the terms race and ethnicity correctly. Race is socially defined as a category based on people’s distinctive physical characteristics that are inherited, such as color of skin, shape of eyes, facial structures. Many groups have...
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...Karen D. Brodkin’s main claim is that race and ethnicity are socially constructed concepts. She argues this claim by examining how European immigrants, Jews in particular, were treated and viewed more superior as the times changed in America. She explains how initially, European immigrants were not viewed as white. Much of this had to do with the strong anti-Semitism view that much of the nation felt. Brodkin explains, “American anti-Semitism was part of a broader pattern of late-nineteenth-century racism against all southern and eastern European immigrants, as well as against Asian immigrants.” The author makes it clear that this discrimination was not only felt by European immigrants. It got to the point where immigration from these countries...
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...The journal article I chose, Race: The World’s Deadliest Social Disease by Timothy McGettigan, discusses racism in our society and how this ‘socially-constructed disease’ is due to a specific type of ignorance. The article goes into details on how racism can be avoided if people were more educated on science. This argument is then supported throughout the article with specific details and information on how humans are all essentially the same and that if certain people hate others due to their genetic attributes then, technically, they hate themselves as well. Furthermore, the article explains how genetic diversity is adaptively advantageous since there is a greater chance of a species to be plagued by parasites if they are too genetically similar. The wider the variation in the gene pool, the more difficult it is for parasites and other undesirable invaders to interfere. I think this article not only relates to me but to everyone since we all live in a society with lots of diversity. Diversity is not something that we can escape and I think it’s important to know how to handle it. This article is very informative about what causes diversity to emerge among humans and how we should not be afraid of it or discriminate towards those who not look like us. At the end of the day, diversity is only beneficial to the human race. Also, I can relate to this article since I come from a different country so I have been exposed to a great amount of diversity in my life. This eye opening...
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...created a gender argument producing an identity that does not precisely match my so called gender. I argue that cross dressing on a woman does not define a woman’s gender nor sexuality. With what is considered male clothing, I am still a woman. My intentions are to show the relationship between gender and sex and how gender and sex is socially constructed. To address the nature of identity through feminist ideas and how it is represented. I offer to show that one's...
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...Scholar Essay Who am I to judge ones race, class or gender? , from the way they to look to the sway in their, who am I to judge what they should be called or what they shouldn’t be called. Just because the individual is a lighter color than me or from a different ethnicity, aren’t we all consider to be as an equal? The binary stereotyping and mixed cultural signals of African American and Latino females are identified in Mammies, Matriarch and Other Controlling Images and The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria examines the race, class, gender, and sexuality and how these representations speak to the African American and Latino women .Race, Class, and Gender are constructed categories that causes controlling images such as Mammy, Hot Tamale, Bad Black Woman, and Jezebels to become a natural way of thinking leading women to act and believe that is who they are and eventually they who will become. Patricia Collins article (Chap 4), “Mammies, Matriarchs, and Other Controlling Images” (2000), defines the oppression, objectification, and controlling images of African American women in the society, as well as the social acceptance of African American women. Collins supports her theories and hypothetical thinking with supporting statements from other black feminist that illustrate similar beliefs and theories that she asserts in her article. Collins purpose and objective is to point out the stereotypical condition of African American women in the society and...
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...Comparing and Contrasting Essentialist Approaches to Social Psychology with Social Constructionist Approaches to Social Psychology. A widely recognised definition of social psychology is “an effort to understand and explain how the thought, feeling, and behaviour of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others” (Allport, 1985). However, how to measure this, the research methods to be used and what constitutes useful evidence has caused much debate in the history of social psychology. This essay will compare and contrast the two epistemologies of essentialist and social constructionist approaches to social psychology and the research methods of quantitative and qualitative used in each approach. Essentialists’ view of the world is that the properties possessed by a group are universal in that group and do not depend on context. However, a member of a group may possess other characteristics that are not required to include it as a group member but, it must not have characteristics that preclude it from being a member of the group (Burr, 1995). For example, essentialists believe that personality consists of a number of traits and personality of an individual is established by the level of each of these traits. Essentialists also believe that these traits remain more or less stable over time and it is our personality that influences behaviour (Maltby, 2010). As essentialists are able to classify groups as such, they use quantitative research...
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...Throughout this essay the main aim will be to convince the reader that gender is a social construct and is socially determined. This will be done by analysing evidence, both biological and social and showing how social research is much stronger and what we can learn from it. The ways in which society determines gender will be brought to light and then the main points which biologist thinkers tend to ignore will be explained. it will then be shown why and how this can effect not just women but men as well. By doing this the reader will understand relevant research, identify the key points of how gender is socially constructed and then finally be able to realise how this is effecting individuals lives and how it would be beneficial to some...
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...The most important elements of her theory involve knowledge, meanings, and truths which are made not discovered. In other words, knowledge is how social organization functions, and indeed, creates the organization of society (as society in turn creates knowledge). This is why the discipline of history produces (rather than to gather or reflect) knowledge about the past generally. Her theory is also influenced by Jacques Derrida (deconstruction of language) and Michel Foucault (power and knowledge production). Scott’s purpose is discovering the range in sex roles, as well as, symbolism in different societies and periods to find out what meaning they have and how they function. Feminists use the term gender to explain social organization in a relationship between the sexes; to fix certain characteristics, or define traits to the sexes. Her theoretical approach studies women, men, and gender. She explores the theories of patriarchy, Marxism, psychoanalysis. Scott generally speaks about and to the historical...
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...What?: In society, race has always been an uncomfortable topic to talk about. Maybe the reason why people choose to be so closed minded when discussing race and racism is that they don’t know how to express their understanding of the topic. As Glenn E. Singleton and Cyndie Hays says in their chapter “Beginning Courageous Conversations about Race” we need to expect to feel discomfort when talking about a sensitive subject. They also state that we must be willing to move past the discomfort and work towards staying engaged, speaking the truth, and expect and accept a lack of closure (Singleton & Hays, 18-21). The author, Pollock wants the audience to understand or at least examine why it is important to address racism at a societal level and not just as an individual attitude. At the start of the book, Defining Everyday Antiracism, she states that, “We collectively define "racism" as any act that, even unwittingly,...
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...Gender/Sex/ Sexuality: Trans Gender History goes into detail about these three definitions. First talking about sex and how it has to do with reproductive potential. Then speaking about gender relating to different kinds of bodies in the system and how political forces are controlling it. Finally, sexuality is how and who we are intimate with. These are important because most people confuse the three. They are all different and it is important to know and understand these terms not only for the class but for furthering our knowledge. 4. Biological Determinism: Biological determinism is the idea that we are destined for certain things due to things we can’t change such as; race, class, gender, etc. In Visualizing the Body: Western Theories and African Subjects, “biology is destiny” is brought up, explaining how Western thought has been based off of biology to explain the trends with in society. This is often seen as an absolute truth even though this idea is a socially constructed one. In the same piece, the example of the police is brought up and how we as a society think of white men. It is assumed and based off of stereotypes certain...
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...Melody Lane Assignment 1 SOC100 Professor Farr 7/27/2013 How does sexuality and religion conflict in society? Sexuality is the way a person perceives oneself through the means of sexual attitude or desires. Human sexuality is socially constructed and sexual desires are imbedded in particular sociological and biological contexts (Tolman & Diamond, 2001) which are in turn influenced by an individual's upbringing and exposure to familial or religious interactions. Whereas religion plays a role of a person attitude and desire towards sex and what is deviant behavior. The article I have chosen “Sexuality& Religion” touch basis on how different religions play a role on human sexuality in sociological concepts. Although this article is primarily based on existing research cause it also has history of sexual beliefs in different religions. This article is informational and I learned a few things about how some religions had different views on human sexuality. Based on Christian beliefs we are taught that sex is immoral and its temptation of the flesh. According to the article early Christians believed the same thing. Through the means of marriage is to encourage monogamy, and place parameters around sexuality. Through the years I have learned sex is a sin and one should wait till they are married. “Sexual abstinence was seen as a central and indispensable means of salvation and was achieved through contemplative withdrawal from the world.” (Sprague Sexuality...
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...come a flurry of accompanying issues that must be addressed, this includes gay and lesbian fertility rights. Many gay and lesbian couples undergo assisted reproductive techniques (ARTs) in order to have children. In the United States, fertility clinics are privatized, this means, among other things, that doctors have the right to pick and choose whom they take on as patients. There is no guarantee for gay couples seeking fertility treatment; many couples trying to have a baby are turned away based on how a doctor feels about same sex families. As it stands, no physician or hospital receiving government funding can discriminate against a patient based on his or her race, color, religion or national origin (Appel, 2006). It goes against the human rights of the potential patient to discriminate against them based on their sexual orientation. How do anti gay legislation further conceptualize the idea the nuclear family? Using a Symbolic Interactionist perspective, this paper looks at how gay and lesbian families use family symbols and rituals as strategies to negotiate family identity in interactions with families of origin, social network members, and community institutions, as well as challenge hetero-normative ideologies of family life. Context Increasingly, there has been a rise in non-biological parenting in gay and lesbian families. An increasing number of lesbians and gay males form families with children. In a 2001 census, the first to collect data on same...
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