SOCI 255 Chapter Notes - Chapter reading : Gender Role, Erving Goffman, Trans Woman
Document Summary
Gender is a routine accomplishment embedded in everyday interaction. At the beginning said was said to describe biology: anatomy, hormones and physiology. They said that gender was constructed through physiological, cultural and social means. The difference between the two was believed to be hermaphrodites. There are ambiguous and conflicting criteria for the two terms gender and sex. The relationship between biological and cultural processes are more complex. "doing" gender involves complex and socially guided perceptual, interactional and micropolitical activites that cast particular expressions as masculine or feminine. Both gender role and gender display focus on behavioural aspects of being a male or female. Sex is a determination made through the application of socially agreed upon biological criteria for classifying people as male or female. The criteria for classification can be genitalia at birth or chromosomal typing before birth. Gender is the activity of managing situated conduct in light of normative conceptions of attitudes and activities appropriate for one"s sex category.
