Exam 1 study guide

The first exam (Monday, February 18) will consist of multiple-choice, short-answer and short essay questions.  The exam questions will be drawn from 1) material covered in class; 2) important concepts in the assigned readings from Renzetti & Curran, Disch, and the Reader from ECS; 3) video and guest speaker presentations and 4) your own ideas and syntheses of all the above.  In your studying, go beyond label recognition – be sure you understand the concepts enough to EXPLAIN THEM IN YOUR OWN WORDS.  Study hint: go through this study guide and treat it like a worksheet -- answer all the questions in writing -- working with the material this way will help it sink in and be of great help on the exam.

DON'T FORGET TO STUDY YOUR LECTURE NOTES TOO!

Renzetti & Curran

Study terms and definitions at the end of the chapters (you don't need to memorize the different "syndromes" at the end of Ch. 2).

Chapter 1 (pp. 1-13 only)
What's a sex/gender system and what are its components?
What's patriarchy?  Sexism?
The basics of structural functionalist theory of gender, especially the idea of "gender roles"
The feminist sociological critique of structural functionalist theory on sex/gender (pp.8-9)
The basics of feminist sociology (of gender) and its influence on sociological research (pp. 10-13)

Chapter 2
Sexually bipotential 33-35
What are the methodological limitations of research on such occurences? 41
Why are different people either happy or unhappy with the suggestion that homosexuality is biologically based? 44-45
Why do you think we as a society are so interested in the above question?
What do we know about testosterone and competitive challenges among boys and men? 48
What do we know about PMS? 49-54  Why do we need to be careful in interpreting findings about PMS?
Biological determinist, social constructionist, and "transformative" accounts of gender development.

Study question:
What do unusual prenatal occurrences teach us about the relationship between sex and gender?  (Come up with your own answer to this question -- not just the book's answer -- the Fausto-Sterling article, video and discussion on intersex are part of this)

Chapter 3
What is socialization?
Basics of Psychoanalytic, Social Learning, and Cognitive Developmental theories of childhood gender socialization (table on 68 is helpful)
Bem's three lenses of gender - what are they and how do they work in our society?
How does parent-child interaction differ by sex of the child?  How do efforts to raise children in non-gender-polarizing ways affect socialization? 77, 79
How do toys and children's books contribute to gender socialization?
How do childhood peers socialize one another re: gender? 77-78

Chapter 4
Basic trends in women's participation in education during the 20th century -- why did it go up, then down, then up again?  86-87
How do teachers treat students differently according to sex, race and class?
What are other ways children receive messages about gender in school?  What are those messages? 91-93
What are the most important sources of prestige and popularity in secondary school for boys and girls?
Trends in what proportion of college and graduate students are women
What is Title IX and what have been its effects?
What are micro-inequities and how do they contribute to patterns in gendered experiences and behavior?
What are the two types of sexual harassment?  How does sexual harassment affect the educational experience?
What are the pros and cons of single-sex education?

Chapter 5
What is semantic derogation and what is the process by which it happens? 121
What is linguistic sexism?  What are the arguments for and against its importance?  How can it be changed?  122-4
What have different researchers found about men's and women's styles of communication?  What do power and status inequalities have to do with it? 124-6
What is the reflection hypothesis? 126
What is symbolic annihilation?  How does it work in newspapers, magazines, TV and advertising?  127-141, 145
How do magazines for women and men differ?  How does this vary across ethnic groups?  129-134
How much time do U.S. residents and households spend watching TV?  What are the prominent messages about gender conveyed by most TV programs? 134-135
How do gender stereotypes on TV intersect with racial and ethnic stereotypes, disability and sexuality? 135-36
How do different researchers explain the strong correlation between violent TV and film viewing and violent behavior?  (3 theories) What is the role of probabilistic causation in this correlation? 142-143

Study question:
Some say the media "mirrors" already-existing social norms.  Others say the media is important in creating/shaping those norms.  Which do you think is more true?  Why?  Give examples of how your argument is true for TV, magazines and newspapers.
(See R&C pp. 126-145 to start)
 

Disch & course reader

Espada (Disch 41)
What are the different definitions of "macho" and "machismo" Espada talks about -- positive and negative, Puerto Rican/Latino and Anglo?
What is Espada's relationship to violence in his own life, his wife's and his son's?
On p. 45 he says "I would not deny [my son] the option of physical self-defense."  What does he mean by this?  Do you agree/disagree with his position?  Why?
Who/what are the "puppeteers?"

Fausto-Sterling article (reader, along with the video & discussion on intersex)
To what does the term "intersex" refer?
What are the "five sexes?" (Be able to explain each of the five)
What are different estimates of the frequency of intersexuality?
What does "Emma" mean in saying her vagina is her "meal ticket?" (article p. 23)
According to Fausto-Sterling, how did early explanations and treatment of intersexed contribute to/exemplify Foucault's concept of "biopower?"
How many instances of psychosis and/or suicide were reported among intersexual people between 1930 and 1960?

Coventry (Disch 183)
How often is "gender-corrective" surgery performed on a child in the U.S.? 184
What is the role of truth/lies in communication among doctors, parents and children in relation to intersex?
How does discussion of clitoral surgery on intersex children compare to discussion of FGM in the U.S.?

Stoltenberg (Disch 230)
According to Stoltenberg, how does the way men are taught/conditioned to have sex relate to their masculinity/gender as men?  What does he mean by: "sexuality does not have a gender, it creates a gender" (235)?

Lorber (Disch 73)
What do West & Zimmerman (and Lorber) mean by "doing gender?"
What's the difference between transgender, transvestite and granssexual? 74
How does Lorber describe gender as 1) an institution, 2) a process, 3) a stratification system, and 4) a structure?  What purposes does gender serve in these various capacities?

Thompson (Disch 157), Staples (172), Kriegel (175), MacDonald (177), and Haubegger (181)
What social messages about gender are these authors talking about, and how do these messages affect them (or the people they're writing about)?  How are these messages influenced by dynamics of race, ethnicity, culture, disability and age?

Fung (reader) & Fong-Torres (Disch 383)
What are the prevalent stereotypes about Asian men and women in U.S. society?  What are the stereotypes about Asian male and female sexuality?
How do these stereotypes affect Asian men seeking jobs as news anchors?
How do they affect Asian gay men?  How do portrayals of Asian gay men's sexuality affect Fung's daily life experience?
How do sexism, racism, homophobia/heterosexism and capitalism play into these dynamics?

(You are also responsible to know the main ideas of other articles in the syllabus: Lai, Gunn Allen, Messner, Rodríguez, Sadler & Sadler, hooks, etc.)