CAS BI 203 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Hegemonic Masculinity, Erving Goffman, Homosociality
22 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
This class:
- Ritual and “the girl hunt”
- From micro to macro
Review:
- Background expectancies
- Preconditioned norms that are shared between members of a society that
operate sort of like recipes (ex. Going to the doctors)
- Sociologists should study how those norms (which most of us take for granted
and never notice) get created.
P.223: Statistics on “Girl Hunt” within norm; Hook up culture in the current gen
- “Why do adolescent men persist in…” = highlighted
What does girl hunting do?
- Creation of social myth = competitive sex talk; sets unrealistic expectations for sex
- BUT, it is actually collective ritual: homosociality (collective talk with each other to build
confidence within men) and a collective performance of hegemonic masculinity
Ritual: a highly routinized act such as taking communion.
- Presents a participation in the unity of a group
- It is a practice not values or beliefs
- Common experience and focus that binds the participants together (ex. Church, bar with
super bowl)
- COLLECTIVE EFFERVESCENCE = the feeling of transcendence of self in a
group; joining into a group and putting self into social instead of individual; ex.
Pregaming
What is hegemonic masculinity?
- “A set of cultural beliefs that prescribe what men ought to be like: physically strong,
powerful, independent, self-confident, efficacious, dom, active, persistent”
- Set of cultural beliefs does not have to actual come true; norm is powerful and prevalent
Garfinkel’ study: To reveal the invisible infrastructure of social norms and how breaking the
norms make people feel uncomfortable or unusual; study of goffman’s theory (goffman did not
do any test of the theory)
Goffman would agree with Garfinkle:
- Saving the pride of each other via social cues
- The act of performing in front of others
- Talk about self/performing to get a reaction
Document Summary
Preconditioned norms that are shared between members of a society that operate sort of like recipes (ex. Sociologists should study how those norms (which most of us take for granted and never notice) get created. P. 223: statistics on girl hunt within norm; hook up culture in the current gen. Why do adolescent men persist in = highlighted. Creation of social myth = competitive sex talk; sets unrealistic expectations for sex. But, it is actually collective ritual: homosociality (collective talk with each other to build confidence within men) and a collective performance of hegemonic masculinity. Ritual: a highly routinized act such as taking communion. Presents a participation in the unity of a group. Common experience and focus that binds the participants together (ex. It is a practice not values or beliefs super bowl) Collective effervescence = the feeling of transcendence of self in a group; joining into a group and putting self into social instead of individual; ex.
