THE STUDY OF GENDER COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE CHAPTER 1 QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS Gather data that can be quantified and analyzed to draw conclusions Common Quantitative methods Descriptive statistics Describe populations proportions frequencies May be written or oral ask people to report their feelings thoughts experiences Surveys Experiments Controlled studies that manipulate one thing to determine how that affects another thing QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS Aim to understand the nature or meaning of experiences that cannot be quantified Two popular methods Textual analysis Involves describing communication texts and interpreting their meaning Ethnography Relies on extensive and sensitive observation on human activity to discover what things mean to humans REASONS TO LEARN ABOUT GENDER AND CULTURE It enhances your appreciation of complex ways in which cultural values and practices influence your views of masculinity and femininity and men and women It will enhance insight into your own gender both as it is now and as you may decide to revise it It should strengthen your effectiveness as a communicator GENDER IN A TRANSITIONAL ERA What are your grandparents ideals of manhood and womanhood What are your ideals of manhood and womanhood We live in a transitional era in which many of us no longer accept traditional views yet we haven t become comfortable with alternative views and their implications for our own identities and relationships SEX VS GENDER Sex is a designation based on biology Gender is socially constructed and expressed Sex and gender go together in most cases Most men are primarily masculine Most women are primarily feminine SEX Sex is a designation based on biology Society designates people as male or female based on external genitalia and internal sex organs The presence of a Y chromosome determines whether a fetus will develop into what we recognize as male or female Women have XX sex chromosomes Men have XY sex chromosomes INTERSEXED People who have biological qualities of each sex People whose internal and external genitalia are inconsistent In the past they were called hermaphrodites Involves outward expressions of what society considers masculine or feminine We demonstrate gender roles by how we speak dress style GENDER our hair and so on Gender is learned MASCULINE Strong Ambitious Successful Rational Emotionally controlled FEMININE Physically attractive Emotionally expressive Nurturing Concerned with people and relationships SEXUAL ORIENTATION A person s preference for romantic and sexual partners Heterosexual Attracted to members of the other sex Homosexual Attracted to members of the same sex Bisexual Attracted to members of both sexes TRANSGENDERED Individuals who feel that their biologically assigned sex is inconsistent with their true sexual identity Woman despite having a male body Man despite having a female body They often adopt the dress and behavior of the gender with which they identify TRANSSEXUAL Individuals who have bad surgery and or hormonal treatments to make their bodies more closely match the sex with which they identify After the surgery transsexuals may describe themselves as post transition males to females or post transition females to males Most transsexuals are attracted to the same sex before and after transition TRANSVESTITES Cross dressers Enjoy wearing clothing of the other sex They may wear just one or two articles of clothing associated with the other sex or may dress completely from underwear to outerwear and accessories in the other sex s clothing The majority of cross dressers are biological heterosexual males who are sexually attracted to women CULTURE A culture is made up of structures and practices that reflect and uphold a particular social order They do this by defining certain social groups values expectations meanings and patterns of behavior as natural and good and others as unnatural bad or wrong Our culture is patriarchal Rule by the fathers COMMUNICATION Communication is a dynamic systemic process in which 2 levels of meanings are created and reflected in human interaction with symbols Communication continually changes evolves and moves on It has no beginning or end It occurs in particular situations that influence what and how we interact and what meanings we attach to messages COMMUNICATION Communication is a dynamic systemic process in which 2 levels of meanings are created and reflected in human interaction with symbols Content Level Literal meaning Relationship Level It defines the relationship between communicators by indicating each person s identity and the communicators relationship to each other COMMUNICATION Communication is a dynamic systemic process in which 2 levels of meanings are created and reflected in human interaction with symbols It calls our attention to the fact that humans are symbol using creatures We typically reflect on what was said and what it means before we respond We are inclined to project our own thoughts desires and so forth onto others messages THEORETICAL APPROACHES TO GENDER DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 2 THEORIES Very practical phenomena behaviors Help us understand explain and predict what happens in our lives and the world around us A way to describe explain and predict relationships among Theories about sex and gender affect our thoughts and You hold consciously or unconsciously how you see yourself as a woman or man what you expect of women and men generally and what possibilities you see as open to each sex BIOLOGICAL THEORIES OF GENDER Biological theory maintains that biological characteristics are the basis of gender differences Biologically based theories focus on how X and Y chromosomes hormonal activities and brain specialization influence a range of individual qualities form body features to think and motor skills BIOLOGICAL THEORIES OF GENDER Most males have XY chromosome structure Most females have XX chromosome structure because they inherit an X chromosome from each parent Genetic evidence shows that several genes that control intelligence are located only on X chromosomes Some aspects of males intelligence are inherited only from their mothers whereas females who usually inherit an X chromosome from each parent may inherit their intelligence from both parents BIOLOGICAL THEORIES OF GENDER The primary gene responsible for social skills is active only on the X chromosome The X is larger than the Y and the X holds 1 100 genes whereas the Y holds 50 The Y chromosome s
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