Quiz 2 (2 points each)

1.    In The Female World of Love and Ritual, Carroll Smith Rosenberg states that "[t]he twentieth century tendency to view human love and sexuality within a dichotomized universe of deviance and normality, genitality and platonic love, is alien to the
emotions and attitudes of the nineteenth century and fundamentally distorts the nature of these womens emotional interactions." Explain.

    Rosenberg is saying that the language of the nineteenth century was placed within a completely different context.  The understanding of sexuality was totally unlike a contemporary perspective. Women in the nineteenth century freely expressed their love and undying devotion to one another, but by todays standards, women using that type of language would be considered lesbians.

2.    According to Barbara Welter, true womanhood in the mid nineteenth century was defined by four cardinal virtues.  What were they?

    Purity, Piety, Submissiveness, and Domesticity.

3.    Who is missing from Welters analysis of true womanhood?

     In her article Welter did not discuss women of lower social classes or women of    different ethnic backgrounds. Her article was restricted to discussing white women from middle or upper class backgrounds.
 

*     Class Discussion: What is Gender?

     *    Thinking about Gender
           *    The opposite sex vs. the opposite of sex
           *    What is Sex?
                  *    Biological difference
                  *   Copulation
                  *    Genitals
                  *    Reproductive role
            *    What is Gender?
                  *    Either you are male or female (physical/genetic differences)
                  *    It is a social construct
                  *    It is a constellation of personal attributes assigned to men and women across cultures.

    *    Gender constructs intimate relations.
        *    E.g Love in Sparta 700 B.C.
        *    Military society
        *    Gender segregated
        *    Marriage for reproduction of warriors and family continuity
        *     Male bonding for love
        *    Infanticide mostly for female babies

    *    Gender divides labor
          *    Men- president, drug dealer, doctor
          *    Women- homemaker, welfare cheat, nurse

    *    Gender assigns social value and grants privilege
          *    Who matters? How?
                  *    Movies and television- not representative of society, mostly beautiful, white, young men and women
                  *    American heroes- mostly men- e.g- George Washington, Abe Lincoln etc..
                  *    News stories- overwhelmingly written by men and about men
                  *    Wealth- more wealthy men than women
                  *    National resources- less money is given to social programs that benefit woman and children
 

*    We begain class with the quiz on the Smith-Rosenburg and Welter readings.  We then had a class discussion about the
        quiz questions.
*    Professor McBride noted that there was an error in the sylibus, we do not have to start Essay #1, it will be assigned on
        Tuesday.

*    We then preceded to have a discussion on gender. We discussed the definition of gender as well as some major
        stereotypes created by gender.
    *    We also discussed the highly debatable gay, lesbian, and bisexual theory.

*    There were a few main ideas that were the focus of our discussion on gender.
    *    1. That the body has been brought into conformity by certain social norms.
        *    For example, one of the most popular thing for women to do today, in order to fit into these socail norms, is breast
                augmentation. Women fell that their beauty is defined by the size of their breast. This feeling is reinforced every day
                by the images of "perfect" women with big breast, and skinny stomachs splattered all over the magazines, television,
                and all other forms of mass media.
    *    2. Personal attributes assigned to men and women because of their gender.
        *    For example, men are attributed to being strong while woman are thought of as gentle or supposedly men are
                rational, women are emotional. These attributions effect who gets what job, and who gets the credit or blame for
                certain situations.
    *    3. How we divide labor according to gender.
        *    For example in this day and age men get the better higher paying jobs in any profession. Women are still dealing with
                the glass ceiling in job opportunities.
    *    4. How social value and privileges are giving according to gender.
         *    One of the most disturbing examples of this is China's infacide. In China there is a one child only rule, so in a society
                where men are considered as more valuable assets, female babies are being aborted or killed.

*    We looked at a couple slides as visual aids to help us see how both genders and represented in our society. The effects of
        gender prejudices are embedded in our sociey whole social structure, the way women feel about themselves and how
        they are treated by others are all effected by what we see in the mass media and what happens in our everyday lives.
 
*    We were reminded of our assigned readings for tuesday and that was the end of class.