SOC275H5 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Joan Acker, Sex Organ, Postmodern Feminism
Document Summary
Chapter 5 notes social construction of gender relations. Sociology"s bedrock assumption, upon which its analyses of structures and institutions rest, is that individuals shape their lives within both historical and social contexts. To a sociologist, both our biographies (identities) and histories (evolving social structures) are gendered. It is that interaction, not our bodies, that makes us who we are. It"s the task of the sociological perspective to specify the ways in which our own experiences, our interactions with others, and the institutions combine to shape our sense of who we are. Sociological constructionists rely on the work of anthropologists and historians to identify the commonalities and the differences in the meanings of masculinity and femininity from one culture to another and to describe how those differences change over time. Social constructionism adds specific dimensions to the exploration of gender the elements that the social psychology of sex roles cannot explain adequately: difference, power, and the institutional dimensions of gender.
