Evaluate the idea that gender and sexuality are socially constructed Essay Example for Free

Evaluate the idea that gender and sexuality are socially constructed Essay In recent years sociologists have been studying the great extent to which gender roles are learned. Many behaviors that have traditionally been thought to be genetically determined male or female behaviors turn out to be learned behaviors and therefore subject to change in future generations. In a summary of gender role socialization studies, David Shaffer (1979) points out that by the age of two, children have generally learned to recognize â€Å"maleness† and â€Å"femaleness† on the basis of clothing and hair styles. By the age of three, children usually have learned to prefer sex-typed toys and recognize that girls become â€Å"mommies† and boys become â€Å"daddies†. By school-age, children realized that they are expected to engage in appropriate gender behavior and if they do not, they will meet with disapproval from other children and adults. Many sociologists have personally questioned the value of such early gender-role learning and raised questions about how this learning can inhibit later opportunities in terms of education and career selection (Howe, 1979). To understand how gender and sexuality are socially constructed we must look at the adaptive and functional nature of socialization. One can look at the content of socialization as adaptive for the individual and functional for the society. As adaptive for the individual, the content of socialization involves knowledge necessary for individual to adapt to the changing situation of their daily lives, while, as a function for society, the content of socialization involves the knowledge necessary for its members to maintain a society as an ongoing entity. Knowledge of social rules, appropriate emotional behavior, social situations, technical knowledge, one’s self-identity, and communicative abilities give individuals an ability to adjust their behaviors to one another in the different groups and situations in which they encounter each other. Such adjustments are necessary for the ongoing existence of a society. Only people know how to adjust their behaviors to each other can the group activities and relationships which make up a society be maintained. Only with a socialized adult population can anything such as a society be said to exist. The particular content of socialization becomes highly important in terms of the make-up of the society that one is observing. If the content of socialization were to change, people’s activities and motivations would change, and clearly the society would change. So, on a sociological quest the content of socialization is something to which the sociologist should and must pay attention (O’Brien, 2001). Charles H. Cooley (1964), a pioneer of American socialization studies, referred to an individual’s self-concept as a â€Å"looking-glass self†. Cooley implied that our self-conceptions reflect our interpretation of the relations to our behavior of those around us with whom we interact. According to Cooley, we not how others respond to our actions, which produces in us a feeling about ourselves, which influences how we perceive ourselves. For instance a person who drops something and overhears another’s remark about how clumsy he is, may come to think of himself as a clumsy individual. We come to think of ourselves in terms of our understanding of how others think about us. It is through interaction that we come to apply to ourselves such labels as â€Å"kind† or â€Å"mean†, â€Å"awkward† or â€Å"graceful†. To see oneself as beautiful is to interact with persons who see you as meeting the criteria of beauty. Whether one sees oneself as an ugly duckling or a beautiful swan depends upon the flock with which one swims. As a naturalistic and empirical quest for understanding the various aspects of social reality is that everyone both influences and is influenced by society, sociology is ultimately a quest for self understanding. Humans beings are not isolated entities; we are not hermits who live apart uninfluenced by one another. Rather, we are social beings who can only be fully understood when the social context of our actions are taken into account and carefully studied. In order to carry out the quest for sociological knowledge it is necessary to have an understanding of the types, uses and limitations of the various sociological tools or methods. The sociological quest can be the appropriate sociological map or theory (Shaffer, 1979). Now I want to look at social life as a process and structure in the social construction of gender and sexuality. Social life involves processes of socialization, culture, and deviance. Learning how to act in society via socialization, developing and sharing of orientations toward social life via culture, and the negative sanctioning of inappropriate behaviors via the labeling process of deviance are universal processes, which are necessary to social life, and found in all societies. Although their particular make-up will vary from society to society, these three processes exist in all human societies. But, in addition to these processes, there also exists in all societies some relatively permanent patterns of organized social life that sociologists refer to as social structures. It is within and through social structures that the processes of socialization, culture and deviance take place. Just as the processes of human life take place in the structure of the human body so, too, the processes of society take place within and are influenced by social structures (Macionis, 1997). The most basic social structure around and through which social life takes place are groups; groups range in size from relatively small informal groups such as families, to large bureaucracies and formal organizations such as businesses and governmental agencies. All groups are composed of members who have met certain criteria for membership, who play certain understood roles in the group, and who have a sense of group belonging, which is sometimes termed a â€Å"we-feeling† or a â€Å"consciousness-of –kind†. Groups, related to one another in terms of their performing similar social activities, together from the social structures called social institutions. For example all the groups primarily involved in educational activities together form a society’s educational institution. It is through and in groups, and the institutions that they compose that the basic social processes of a society take place. It is in social groups that the learning of socialization takes place that cultural roles are shared and acted upon, and that deviance is ascertained and punished. People know how to perform roles in groups because they have knowledge of how to act which they developed in the process of socialization, because they share cultural understandings with other group members with whom they interact, because they have an understanding of what is considered deviant and unacceptable behavior in the various groups to which they belong (O’Brien, 2001). When we consider how females and males differ, the first thing that usually comes to mind is sex, the biological characteristics that distinguish males and females. Primary sex characteristics consist of a vagina or a penis and other organs related to reproduction, secondary sex characteristics are the physical distinctions between males and females that are not directly connected with reproduction. Secondary sex characteristics become clearly evident at puberty, when males develop more muscles, a lower voice, and more hair and height while females form more fatty tissue, broader hips, and larger breasts. Gender is a social and not a biological characteristic. Gender consists of whatever traits a group considers proper for its males and females. This is what makes gender vary from one society to another. Sex refers to male or female, gender refers to masculinity or femininity, so sex you inherit and you learn your gender as you are socialized into specific behaviors and attitudes (Gilmore, 1990). The sociological significance of gender is that it is a device by which society controls its members. Gender sorts us on the basis of sex, into different life experiences. It open and closes doors to power, property, and even prestige. Like social class, gender is a structural feature of society. Biology plays a significant role in our lives. Each of us begins as a fertilized egg. The egg, or ovum, is contributed by our mother, the sperm that fertilizes the egg by our father. At the very moment the egg is fertilized, our sex is determined. Each of us receives twenty-three pairs of chromosomes from the ovum and twenty-three from the sperm. The egg has an X chromosome. If the sperm that fertilized the egg also has an X chromosome, we become female. If the sperm has a Y chromosome we become male. That’s the biology. Now the sociological question is, does this biological difference control our behavior? Does it make females more nurturing and submissive and males more aggressive and domineering? (Macionis, 1997) Almost all sociologists take the side of â€Å"nurture† in this â€Å"nature vs. nurture† controversy. The dominant sociological position is represented by the symbolic interactionists. They stress that the visible differences of sex do not come with meanings built into them. Rather each human group determines what these physical differences mean for them and on that basis assigns males and females to separate groups. It is here that people learn what is expected of them and are given different access to their society’s privileges. Most sociologists find compelling argument that if biology were the principal factor in human behavior all around the world we would find women to be one sort of person and men another. In fact, ideals of gender vary greatly from one culture to another and as a result, so do male-female behaviors. For example the Tahitians in the South Pacific show a remarkable contrast to our usual expectations of gender. They don’t give their children names that are identifiable as male or female, and they don’t divide their labor on the basis of gender. They expect both men and women to be passive, yielding and to ignore slights. Neither male nor females are competitive in trying to attain material possessions (Gilmore, 1990). Society also channels our behavior through gender socialization. By expecting different attitudes and behaviors from us because we are male or female, the human group nudges boys and girls in separate directions in life. This foundation of contrasting attitudes and behaviors is so thorough that, as adults most of us think, act and even feel according to our culture’s guidelines of what is appropriate for our sex. Our parents are the first significant others who teaches us our part in this symbolic division of the world. Their own gender orientations are so firmly established that they do much of this teaching without even being aware of what they are doing. This is illustrated by a classic study done by psychologists Susan Goldberg and Michael Lewis (1969). They asked mothers to bring their 6 month old infants into their laboratory to supposedly observe the infant’s development. Secretly these researchers also observed the mothers. They found that the mothers kept their daughters closer to them. They also touch and spoke more to their daughters. By the time the children were 13 months old, the girls stayed closer to their mothers during play, and they returned to them sooner and more often than did the boys. When they set up barriers to separate the children from their mothers, who were hiding toys, the girls were more likely to cry and motion for help, the boys ere likely to try to climb over the barrier. Goldberg and Lewis (1969) were able to conclude that in our society mothers unconsciously reward their daughters for being passive and dependent, their sons for being active and independent. These lessons continue throughout childhood. On the basis of their sex, children are given different kinds of toys. Preschool boys are allowed to roam farther from home than their preschool sisters, and they are subtly encouraged to participate in more rough and tumble play. Even get dirtier and to me more defiant. Such experiences in socialization lie at the heart of the sociological explanation of male/female differences (O’Brien, 2001). In today’s society mass media plays a vital role in gender and sexuality roles. Sociologist stress how this sorting process that begins in the family is reinforced as the child is exposed to other aspects of society. Especially important today are the mass media, forms of communication that are directed to large audiences. Powerful images of both sexes on television, music and the internet reinforce society’s expectation of gender. Television reinforces stereotypes of the sexes. On prime time television, male characters outnumber female characters by two to one. They also are more likely to be portrayed in higher status positions. Viewers get the message, for the more television that people watch; the more they tend to have restrictive ideas about women’s role in society. The expectations to the stereotypes are notable and a sign of changing times. Video games have some youths spending countless hours playing games. Even college students, especially males, relieve stress by escaping into video games. But more studies into the affect of these games on the ideas of gender are needed. Because the games are the cutting edge of society, they sometimes also reflect cutting edge changes in sex roles (Macionis, 1997). As women change their roles in society, the mass media reflects those changes. Although media images of women are passive, subordinate, or as mere background objects remain and still predominate, a new image has broken through. Exaggerating changes in society, this new image nonetheless reflects a changing role of women, from passive to active in life outside the home, from acquiescent to dominate in social relations. Books, magazines, DVD’s and video games are made available to a mass audience. And with new digital advances they have crossed the line form what we traditionally think of as games to something that more closely resembles interactive movies. Sociologically, what is significant is that the content of video games socializes their users. Gamers are exposed not only to action, but also to ideas as they play. Especially significant are gender images that communicate powerful messages, just as they do in other forms of mass media (O’Brien, 2001). Lara Croft, an adventure seeking archeologist and star of Tomb Raider and Tomb Raider 2, is the essence of the new gender image. Lara is smart, strong, and able to utterly vanquish foes. With both guns blazing, she is the cowboy of the twenty-first century, the term cowboy being purposely chosen, as Lara breaks gender roles and assumes what previously was the domain of men. The old remains powerfully encapsulated in the new. Lara is a fantasy girl for young men of the digital generation. No matter her foe, no matter her predicament, Lara always is outfitted in form fitting outfits, which reflect the mental images of the men who created this digital character. Their efforts have been so successful that boys and young men have bombarded corporate headquarters with questions about Lara’s personal life. Lara had caught young men’s fancy to such an extent that more than 100 web sites are devoted to her. The final reward of the game is to see Lara in a nightie one can question that regardless of tough girl images just how far stereotypes have been left behind (Macionis, 1997). Gender stratification gives males and females unequal access to power and prestige and property on the basis of sex. It is closely associated with class and caste stratification and is a related phenomenon of gender stratification. Some but not all societies have men and women as unequal with the latter being more seen. Sexual in equality is characteristic of societies that are stratified in other ways as well. Women have historically occupied a position of inferiority to men in the class structured societies of the Western world. Sexual inequality may sometimes be seen in societies that are not otherwise stratified, in such instances men and women are always physically as well as conceptually separated from one another. The rise of gender stratification often seems to be associated with the development of strongly centralized states. Because social stratification of any kind tends to make life oppressive for large segments of a population, the lower classes are usually placated by means of religion, which promises them a better existence in the hereafter. Gender inequality is not some accident; instead it is the institutions of each society that work together to maintain the group’s particular forms of inequality. Customs throughout history both justify and maintain these arrangements. Although men have resisted sharing their privileged positions with women, change has come (O’Brien, 2001). By playing a fuller role in the decision making processes of our social institutions, women are going against the stereotypes and role models that lock males into exclusively male activities and push females into roles that re considered feminine. As structural barriers fall and more activities are engendered, both males and females will be free to pursue activities that are more compatible with their abilities and desires as individuals. As they develop a new consciousness of themselves and their own potential, relationships between females and males will change. Certainly distinctions between the sexes will not disappear. There is no reason for biological differences to be translated into social inequalities. The reasonable goal is appreciation of sexual differences coupled with equality of opportunity which may lead to a transformed society.

New Urbanism Essay -- Suburban Developement Planning Essays

New Urbanism New Urbanism, a burgeoning genre of architecture and city planning, is a movement that has come about only in the past decade. This movement is a response to the proliferation of conventional suburban development (CSD), the most popular form of suburban expansion that has taken place since World War II. Wrote Robert Steuteville, "Lacking a town center or pedestrian scale, CSD spreads out to consume large areas of countryside even as population grows relatively slowly. Automobile use per capita has soared, because a motor vehicle is required for nearly all human transportation"1. New Urbanism, therefore, represents the converse of this planning ideology. It stresses traditional planning, including multi-purpose zoning, accessible public space, narrow street grids for easy pedestrian usage and better placement of community buildings. Only a few hundred American communities are utilizing this method of planning, but the impact is quickly growing in an infant field dominated by a few inf luential architects and engineers. Perhaps the most well known pioneers of New Urbanism are Andrà ©s Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck of Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company (DPZ), a wildly successful architectural firm boasting three offices across the eastern seaboard.2 Although the company was founded in 1980, it gained national recognition for its design of Seaside, Florida in 19892. Seaside, a beautiful coordination of simple Floridian cottage design along the white beaches of northwest Florida became a model for building pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods and integrating communities by enforcing a strict uniform building code, utilizing sensible and aesthetic planning methods (for instance, every street extends to the... ...sterplan." http://www.dpz.com/projects 8 Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company. "St. Louis." http://www.dpz.com/projects 9 Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company. "Hillsborough." http://www.dpz.com/projects  · Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company. "San Juan Bautista. (Architecture)" http://www.dpz.com/projects 10 Rohn, David. "Chesterton, Ind., Development Project Incorporates Environmental Concerns." Indianapolis Star. July 30, 2001. 11 Coffee Creek Center. "Ecology." http://www.coffeecreekcenter.com/pages/design/ecology.htm  · Coffee Creek Center. "Design Code Book." http://www.coffeecreekcenter.com/media/mediaattn/CCC-Codebook_web.pdf 12 Miller, Jason. "New Towns - Issaquah Highlands, Washington." The Town Paper. http://www.tndtownpaper.com/Volume 5/issaquah_highlands.htm 13 Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company. "Oakhurst. (Suburban Retrofits)" http://www.dpz.com/projects

How to Write Police Report Essay

A police report is a description of facts surrounding a crime. It is used to report who, what, when, where, why and/or how a crime took place, although some of those facts may not be known at the time it is written. The term â€Å"police report† can be used to describe a report filed by a victim or witness of a crime or the preliminary report filed by an officer investigating a crime. These reports are often passed on to other policemen or crime scene specialists, who use them as a factual basis for investigating the crime. Unlike other prose-based essays, the main focus of preliminary reports is to report the facts, rather than argue a thesis. Read more to find out how to write a police report Gather your evidence or other reports. You will need to refer to them throughout your report. If you have a lot of evidence, take time to make a physical or mental list so that you are less likely to forget important elements 1. Gather witness testimony. This will be an essential part of your report. If you are the witness to the crime, then make notes about what you saw as soon as you can after it happened. * Many studies with memory have shown that our memories of events, even important moments like crimes, change in time. They may also be swayed by speaking with other people who have witnessed the event. Increase your accuracy by writing police reports immediately after you witness events. 1. Request a police report form. If you are a policeman, there is likely to be a template available to you. If you are reporting as a victim or witness to a crime, go online or call your local police department to inquire about the correct procedure for filling and filing a police report. Writing the Report 1. 1 Fill out a form, if one is given to you. Not all police reports are written in sentence structure. You may simply be asked to fill in the appropriate boxes on a form, according to the crime, witnesses and any other data you have gathered. 2. 2 1. Write the police report on the computer, unless you are asked to write it by hand. This will make it more legible and allow you to check it for spelling, punctuation and content errors. * If you must hand write a  report, be sure to print, rather than write in cursive or italic handwriting. This will allow your report to be read more clearly by all the parties involved. 2. 3 Write a prose summary of the incident, including only the facts of the case. You may be asked to do this in addition to filling out a police report form. The summary should be in chronological order and include the following elements: * Witness reports. Witnesses will likely be asked to submit their own description of what they saw. Use this to describe any suspects or crimes that were committed. * A description of the crime scene. It is important to start out with the facts of the case, so that people are acquainted with the facts immediately, instead of drawing conclusions. You can use some descriptive words to describe the environment and the people involved. Include addresses, the crime, crime scene evidence, locations, the date and the time. * A chronological narrative. You should include how you came upon the scene, who was involved, what they said and any investigative avenues that are being taken. Instead of repeating what was said in the crime scene description or the witness reports, you can describe other times, the witnesses themselves, the crime that was committed, other officers and any other factors that could be relevant. Continue your narrative up until the present day. * Make sure your narrative contains the following things: the reason you were on the scene, observations, arrests, statements, evidence and booking. 3. 4 Proof your report for any spelling or punctuation errors. Make sure you have spelled witness and place names correctly. Remove any words that could be seen as subjective, unless they are witness reports. 4. 5 Turn in your report to the proper authorities. This could be either a superior officer or a policeman at a station.

Analysis Of Nothing Gold Can Stay By Robert Frost - 742 Words

Style of the Poem The style of the poem is narrative, this means that the poem is telling us a story. Title of the Poem The titles meaning gives you an idea of the poems story behind it. The title Nothing Gold Can Stay gives us a mood of sadness and loss. The title is not representing a contrast between two things, it is simply giving you an idea of the poems meaning. When you hear Nothing Gold can stay you think of loss and something precious being lost. Repetition in the Poem Even though the poem is rather short and doesnt contain much repetition; the word gold is used frequently because gold is what is symbolizing something precious and valuable. Passage†¦show more content†¦Youthfulness, as Johnny Boy saw the lesson is expressed when it claims gold is only for a short time, our youthfulness is that gold. Politically the theme is peace as Robert Frost views the poem, he sees the gold as a time of a precious world with no problems. Rhythm of the Poem As shown in the poem we see an AABB rhyme scheme. The rhythm relates to the poem as it is slow and shows the mood and tones from the poem. While we read the poem we can see a decrease in tempo as we advance farther into the poem. Use of the Senses in the Poem As we read this poem and use our senses we can picture, feel, and almost touch with our fingers everything he is describing. We can see the new blooming and the gold. We can also see the gold withering away as time passed. Imagery in the Poem We may not be able to go exactly where the author wanted us to see this poem’s setting, but we can use the descriptions in our poem to paint a picture in our minds. We can picture the garden with blooming flowers and the precious gold withering away. Language of the Poem The poem is using end rhyme and personification in his poem. The personification gives the nature character and let’s you become more connected to the poemShow MoreRelatedLiterary Analysis : Nothing Gold Can Stay By Robert Frost975 Words   |  4 Pages When Robert Frost wrote the poem he had political views because he thought the world was ending. He was also concerned with the way Germany was acting because it was after a huge war. He wrote this poem in the early 1920s the poem was written in english. Frost wrote the poem around the time World War 1 ended and he was fearful about what would happen next. The poem is lyrical because it is short and rhymes. There is a longer verision that has more stanzas. That poem would be a narative becauseRead MoreEssay about An Analysis Of Nature In The W606 Words   |  3 Pages An Analysis of Nature in the works of Robert Frost When reading poetry by Robert Frost the theme of nature is strongly present and persistent. 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