...closing by one fifth of a cent per year (Lips). The question is then, why has it taken so long for the gender gap to close? The answer is sexism and stereotyping. The main reason why women have not reached equal pay is because the culture is still very sexist and promotes gender stereotypes. This culture is started at a very young age during school. According to an article by D. Sadker, M. Sadker, and Zittleman, “Research has documented how teachers call on boys more often, wait longer for boys’ responses, and provide more precise feedback to boys in classroom settings. Moreover when students ask for help with difficult problems presented in the classroom, teachers tend to encourage...
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...Running Heading: Discrimination or Inequality: The Ideal Women Body Shape Kelly Rowland Research Paper: SOC – 412 - 341 Tarleton State University- Central Texas Professor: Dietert, Michelle Summer, 2008 Discrimination or Inequality: The Ideal Women Body Shape When I think of how the American culture views the woman body shape as the epitome of feminity, I get a little worried. In our society and in many other cultures, women are judged according to their physical appearance. Whether it is Africa, Asia, or the United States, women psychic can make life easier or harder for them. Many women become obsessed, depressed, and compulsive about their body shape. Body dissatisfaction can lead to eating disorders and low self-esteem Research on eating disorders have been concentrated on the effects of the wafer thin western Europe and North America body types (Forbes, Doroszewicz, Card, and Adams-Curtis, 2004, pg 333). Being wafer then started between the 1940’s and 1950’s. Very slim fashion models paraded across the run ways wearing the latest fashions on display to the world. As we all know, fashion models are seen as some of the most beautiful women in the world. Thus the ideal woman body shape surfaced. Rodin, Silberstein & Striegel- Moore are just a few of the researchers who have concluded that women who achieve extreme slender body types is unhealthy and unobtainable for long period of time ((Forbes, Doroszewicz...
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...gain respect or even promotion in that field. In today’s world women of different race are forced to deal with racism and sexism and they have to tolerate it if they want to keep that job but when does this behavior stop; I mean how long can this women continue to keep silent just because they want to provide for their families and if they fight back they are painted as the aggressor “saying she wanted it” but do a young woman walking an office asking for job, or even walking the office asking to be harassed about her body or been called names wanting it. In order for women to talking seriously in his century they have to act like men, be aggressive like them, make their presence by been hard which sometimes can lead to people calling her names; but as a woman of color I understand that they have no choice but to act that way because that’s the only way anybody in that office will take them seriously. With most women of color today the perception of how they see other women been treated can alter their choices in career, so sometimes they settle for career where they feel more comfortable it may not be the dream career they want, if you take a look at most fortune 500 companies almost all their CEO’s are men it rarely before you see a woman CEO in any company unless she started that company by herself and even if that comes a lot of degrading and sexism from male competitors who believes a woman and especially one from a different race can’t beat or even compete with them in...
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...The Rap Culture’s Negative Side In America women are supposed to be equal to men. In rap music though, it is portrayed that men are superior to women. Rap music was created in the 1970s and it is a fast growing culture. Rap has “taken the center stage in both the music and television worlds” (why we need to…). This is a problem in our society because women are not portrayed fairly in rap music. This has a negative effect on how the audience perceives women. Rap culture can influence men to think of women as sex objects, normalize domestic abuse, and can instill misogynistic views towards women. Sex is a big part of rap music and culture. It is mentioned in the majority of songs at an alarming number. This has a big influence on males. Rap music contains very explicit content of sexual acts, sexual thoughts, and sexual images. The problem is that most rap songs aren’t about love. The songs are only about the act of sex with a lot...
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...Reducing Sexism: Equality Between Men and Woman November 2015 Introduction Reducing Sexism –Equality Between Men And Woman * #YesAllWomen! Tweets with key words like “gender” and “violence” reveal that equality between men and women is on the minds of many Americans. An inspiring 1,936,516 tweets put this subject in eighth place within the 10 social issues Americans talk the most about on Twitter (Dwyer, 2014). * Average earnings of men almost always exceed the earnings of women in the exact same occupation (Buckley, 2001). According to Statistics Canada, based on data collected from men and women aged 16 and over, men make an average of $68 500, whereas women make an average of only $45,500. Men employment rates are also significantly higher than women (Statistics Canada, 2009). * Sexual violence is a problem for college communities. The National College Women Sexual Victimization study estimates that one in five college women experience completed or attempted rape during their college years. (Fisher, Cullen, & Turner, 2000). Women have always faced significant challenges throughout their lives due to inequality between men and women. Stereotyping, lack of opportunity, pay differences, sexual harassment, gender-based violence and discrimination represent some of these challenges, which ultimately is disempowering women. This disempowerment has numerous consequences for society today. Times have changed and although unlike in the past...
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...Sexism in American Commerce: Past and Present Representations Sexism has become an integral commodity in the U.S. marketplace. Marketing experts and large corporations resort to this trait to bolster sales, reach out to target audiences, and deliver misrepresented perceptions of the female body. Sexism in advertisements has seemingly been one-dimensional as products advertised for men usually encompass this tactic more frequently than their female product counterparts. Moreover, this is a method that is not relatively new but, instead, has been incorporated into advertisements since the boom of big business in the early 1900’s. The two advertisements that I chose to share provide insightful information about the changing landscape of sexism...
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...Running head: SEXISM IN THE MEDIA 1 Sexism in the Media Ada Anderson Chamberlain College of Nursing/DeVry SOCS 185N: Sociology Feb, 24, 2013 SEXISM IN THE MEDIA 2 Television and commercial advertising have been a dominating force for over sixty years, and people learn to specialize and are trained to create ads that entertain and provoke the viewer into buying certain products. The main purposes of commercials are to stand out from competitors, and to sell an idea or way of life for those who allow themselves to become influenced by the appeal. Women and young girls are often subjected and greatly influenced by these advertisements, and many from an adolescent age will alter and pattern their lives to partially adhere to this televised fantasy. Often, some young girls use these forms of advertisements to psychologically change their views about themselves, and thus, may have an unhealthy attitude towards their body type or status in society. I would hope to analyze the effect that commercials have upon society, and how it can create a prejudice frame of mind through subtitle symbols. Television commercials are an agent of socialization and have been used to persuade the viewer into voting for a certain president, stereotyping a certain ethnic group or race because of comical value, using sex to make a product look appealing, or learning what qualities in a beer is important. Yet, although such trivial information exists in commercials and would permeate...
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...conception of "feminine" and "masculine." Much about these conceptions is not biological at all but cultural. The way we tend to think about men and women and their gender roles in society constitute the prevailing paradigm that influences out thinking. Riane Eisler points out that the prevailing paradigm makes it difficult for us to analyze properly the roles of men and women in prehistory "we have a cultural bias that we bring to the effort and that colors our decision-making processes." Sexism is the result of that bias imposed by our process of acculturation.Gender roles in Western societies have been changing rapidly in recent years, with the changes created both by evolutionary changes in society, including economic shifts which have altered the way people work and indeed which people work as more and more women enter the workforce, and by perhaps pressure brought to make changes because of the perception that the traditional social structure was inequitable. Gender relations are a part of the socialization process, the initiation given the young by society, teaching them certain values and creating in them certain behavior patterns acceptable to their social roles. These roles have been in a state of flux in American society in recent years, and men and women today can be seen as having expanded their roles in society, with women entering formerly male dominions and men finding new ways to relate to and function in the family unit. When I was growing up a woman was never heard...
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...children will eventually alter the biological composition of future generations. This evolution of race will impair the variables that scientists use to classify race. Society distinguishes a person’s race based on collective conjecture; while the majority of us accept appearance as the driving force we assign a race or ethnicity. As the races intermingle, societies’ ability to categorize American’s by “social construct,” will be contingent more so on “Social assumptions,” such as language, religion, customs and ethnic group membership to determine race. White like me—Judith Levine I loved reading this! Ms. Levine has step outside herself and realized what the majority of white people in America may never be aware—“whiteness” (48). This became evident to Ms. Levine as she moved from New York’s highly diverse culture, to mainstream white neighborhood in Vermont. She says “Whiteness purports to be both nothing and everything” (48). She explains how whiteness is this invisible power that makes the majority of white people their race is superior bar none. She realized her skin shielded her from the struggles of minorities and afforded her perks that are associated with being white. I value the openness of Ms. Levine for sharing her experience. Change Just One Drop—Clarence Page Mr. Page shares with us a growing concern for with the racial designation of the U.S. Census forms. A number of people organized a march on Washington, the number of attendees was low; however...
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...Assignment All the ‘isms’ The Education of the Sexes From a very young age, we, men and women alike were programed into the expected roles of the genders. Those roles were reinforced through television, school, and experiences. Many boys received trucks and guns as gifts, while many girls received dolls and make believe ovens. We were taught boys grow up to be doctors and pilots; girls nurses and stewardesses. Boys build houses; girls keep house. Boys can become president; girls first lady. We grow up hearing phrases like men are strong; women are the weaker sex. These life experiences can lay seed to limitations to, and de-evaluation of the female gender, weather intentioned or not. Many women conformed to the prescribed role assign them. Those who do not are likely to confront prejudice in the form of sexism and chauvinism in their daily lives. The Results Sexism, also known as gender discrimination, is often in combination with male chauvinism, the belief that women are inferior to males therefore, deserving of less than equal treatment or benefit. Women should know their place. They should know that place does not include anywhere men consider their stronghold. For a woman to do so, even now in the 21st century is risky, and at times outright dangerous. Women who aspire to, or compete with the male dominated, or male stereotyped roles become vulnerable. She risks being called a man, a feminist, a lesbian, or obscene four letter words. Although these words injure emotionally...
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...Gender Roles and the Identities of Women During the late nineteenth century, there were many stereotypical attitudes regarding the roles of gender and the identity of women. Men were usually portrayed as the “breadwinners,” as well as the well-educated and the sole foundation of the family. Men had to show their masculinity by being the very upper-hand of the family. Women are portrayed as sensitive, sweet, caring, faithful, moody, naïve, etc. As a way to complete them as a whole, women needed men in their lives. However, women held the least power of the family and believed that they only had a purpose of being housewives. The ideal images of gender roles between men and women, and the identities of women can lead to stereotypes that are associated with Kate Chopin’s short story “Desiree’s Baby.” In “Desiree’s Baby” by Kate Chopin, gender played a big role in the life Desiree as well as Armand Aubigny. Desiree was described as “beautiful and gentle, affectionate and sincere— the idol of Valmonde” (1). Desiree was illustrated as if she was down to earth and had a very warm personality. At first she was nameless, like most women when they are first named by their primary families and renamed when they get married. Desiree nameless when she was first found by the Valmonde family, and then they took her in as their own and she adopted their family name. Desiree undergoes another name change when she later marries a wealthy man by the name of Armand and inherited the...
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...is the resilience of those oppressed who continue to inspire change throughout history. Historical Oppressive Forces The Noel Hypothesis is a social learning theory that explains the development of a minority group. It suggest that if two or more groups come together characterized by a differential in power, ethnocentrism, and competition the result will be ethnic/racial stratification (Guadalupe lecture notes, 2008). This theory can also be used to explain the development of gender stratification as well. The majority group in relationship to this paper would be white males especially those who are wealthy and the minority groups, women and people of color. The act of oppressing a particular group begins with pointing out what is different and labeling those differences with negative attributes. Women and people of color were viewed as childlike and needing protection from the world and themselves. They were powerless and uneducated, and keeping...
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...shall try to answer those questions, look at typical forms of language use in relation to gender and I will aim to find possible reasons that explain a gender-based difference. But first it is important to explain why in sociolinguistics the term gender is used rather than sex. While sex refers to biological characteristics, gender is “a social category that is connected to the roles of women and men in society” (Becker & Bieswanger 2010: 185). My term paper will start with some general definitions about gender and language like gender-exclusive speech difference, gender-preferential speech features and gender and class. I will focus especially on women´s linguistic behaviour and answer questions like “Do women talk more than men?”. I will try to find explanations for a different linguistic behaviour. After focusing on explanations for a possible different use of language I will finally give features of women´s language that will make differences obvious. At the end of my paper I will also try to explain what is meant by a “sexism in language” and whether or not English is a sexist language and what could be done to reduce it. I often find myself in a situation were I realize that I sometimes use quite a sexist language and have trouble to avoid it, for example when I am writing a school paper. Because of this, I decided to choose “Language and Gender” as the topic for my term paper. The main source I worked with to write this paper is Janet Holmes´ “An Introduction To Sociolinguistics”...
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...Assignment ------------------------------------------------- ROUGH DRAFT In television, and almost every other medium the media uses today, there’s a fine line between promoting and properly integrating diversity, and exploiting it. In this paper, I will be critically analyzing the hit television show, Lost, and how in leans more towards exploitation because of its incorporation of token characters from different races and genders, which hurts more than helps our society, particularly American society, in its goal of expelling racism and sexism. The racial and gender stereotypes displayed in the hit television show Lost contribute negatively to society and its attempt to expel racism and sexism. By having characters that blatantly follow both racial and gendered stereotypes broadcasted on one of the most popular American television shows, it communicates to its viewers that their own stereotypical views on different races and cultures are inherently true and further cement that view point into the American mindset. If you’ve never seen the television series Lost, then it’s safe to say you’re lost. Although the series has long come to a close, when it was being aired, it was one of the most talked about shows on television. The one thing people didn’t seem to notice, and neither did I until I looked at it with a very critical eye, is that a large amount of the characters on the show fit almost perfectly into the stereotypes of their particular race. Before diving deep into these stereotypes...
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...terms are often interchangeable; there is an important distinction between them. Prejudice is an inflexible attitude (usually negative) about a particular group of people and is rooted in generalization or stereotypes (Kerry Ferris & Jill Stein). Racial discrimination occurs when an individual is subjected to unequal treatment because of their actual or perceived race. The U.S. Constitution and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 work in concert to ensure that each resident’s rights and standing under the law are not damaged by their race. However, it's important to remember that slavery was a significant driver of the U.S. economy when the Constitution was first ratified, so racism has long played a significant (if dubious) role in American culture. The role of this week assignment is to choose an area of discrimination (Ethnicity, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation) and explain how and why we believe our society injuries its own people. "Racial discrimination refers to discrimination against individuals by their race. Policies of racial segregation may formalize it, but it is also often exerted without being...
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