Tutorial/seminar Portfolio

Week 3

Becoming Gendered

Davies argues that the sex role socialization theory does not adequately explain how we understand and become man and woman (p282 She concedes that the social structure with which man is entrenched influence the conception of gender but the individual is as much a part of that process as the social environment . Davies says that man is an agent in his /her gendered identity , we choose to be masculine or feminine in the context of our social realities and that it is not tied to biology . In

the movie Sabrina (1995 , after being sent to Paris and transformed into a sophisticated woman of the world , David became enamored with her . David responded to her charms when she became feminine and did not notice her when she was boyish and ugly . Sabrina was masculine because she did not have a female figure to emulate , but within the same environment she was able to recognize the attraction she felt for the opposite sex and although it was depicted as a coming of age realization , socialization does not fully demonstrate the shift in gender roles (Rakow , 1986 12 . Davies was correct when she said that the individual is an active and engaged participant in becoming gendered (p284 , Sabrina may have become feminine in her ways , but she was independent , headstrong and speaks her mind , all of which are masculine traits which she had imbibed while she was growing up . Davies (p289 suggested that we become gendered because it is what society expects Sabrina has to be feminine because she was female and the world responds to that reality based on their conception of what is feminine and masculine

References

Pollack , S (Director (1995 , December 15 . Sabrina , Constellation Entertainment

Davies , B (2001 . Becoming male or female . In S . Jackson S . Scott (Eds , Gender (pp . 280-290 . London : Routledge

Rakow , L (1986 "Rethinking Gender Research in Communication " Journal of Communication , Volume 36 , No . 4 , pp .11-26

Week 4

Gender performativity have risen from the early writings of Austin wherein he said that language performativity refers the action associated with a word or phrase (p295 , it transforms a state of being demonstrated in wedding rites when two unrelated people become a couple Judith Butler (p299 , the proponent of gender performativity says that it is in performing the behaviors associated with maleness and femaleness that a person becomes male or female . She said that since society categorizes the sexes into male and female , everyone is expected to behave according to the prescribed concept of what maleness and femaleness is and any deviation from the norm is shameful (p302 . A child born as a girl will then be bombarded with the social expectations of what constitutes femaleness , she is given dresses to wear , dolls to play with , and trained to have ladylike manners (Golombok Fivush 1994 45 . Advertisements and products often target and respond to what is deemed appropriate for the sexes , it is very rare to find a print advertisement of children 's clothes...