What is Gender? - libcom.org

1 What is Gender? Holmes(Gender) 5/29/2007 8:42 PM Page iThis SAGE ebook is copyright and is supplied by NetLibrary. Unauthorised distribution (Gender) 5/29/2007 8:42 PM Page iiThis SAGE ebook is copyright and is supplied by NetLibrary. Unauthorised distribution is Gender? Sociological ApproachesMary HolmesHolmes(Gender) 5/29/2007 8:42 PM Page iiiThis SAGE ebook is copyright and is supplied by NetLibrary. Unauthorised distribution forbidden. Mary Holmes 2007 First published 2007 Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research orprivate study, or criticism or review, as permitted under theCopyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, this publicationmay be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form, or byany means, only with the prior permission in writing of thepublishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction, inaccordance with the terms of licences issued by the CopyrightLicensing Agency.

2 Enquiries concerning reproduction outsidethose terms should be sent to the Publications Ltd1 Oliver s Yard 55 City RoadLondon EC1Y 1 SPSAGE Publications Teller RoadThousand Oaks, California 91320 SAGE Publications India Pvt LtdB 1/I 1 Mohan Cooperative Industrial AreaMathura RoadNew Delhi 110 044 SAGE Publications Asia-Pacific Pte Ltd33 Pekin Street #02-01 Far East Square Singapore 048763 Library of Congress Control Number: 2006939135 British Library Cataloguing in Publication dataA catalogue record for this book is available from theBritish LibraryISBN 978-0-7619-4712-7 ISBN 978-0-7619-4713-4 (pbk)Typeset by C&M Digitals (P) Ltd.

3 , Chennai, IndiaPrinted in Great Britain by The Cromwell Press Ltd,Trowbridge,WiltshirePrinted on paper from sustainable resourcesHolmes(Gender) 5/29/2007 8:42 PM Page ivThis SAGE ebook is copyright and is supplied by NetLibrary. Unauthorised distribution Introduction to the sociology of gender12 How different are women and men?183 Is gender something that we do?404 How can gender best be explained?635 Is gender about bodies?876 What are the politics of Gender? 1107 How is gender intertwined with class?1298 How is gender intertwined with race ?1499 Conclusion: So what is gender?

4 171 References183 Index203 ContentsHolmes(Gender) 5/29/2007 8:42 PM Page vThis SAGE ebook is copyright and is supplied by NetLibrary. Unauthorised distribution of this book was written within the warmth of supportiveness of thesociology department at the University of Aberdeen. I am indebted to my col-leagues there in so many ways and I continue to miss their bookwas finished at Flinders University and I apologize for ruining some of ourpleasant lunches by making everyone discuss things like symbolic capital. I amvery grateful to colleagues at those and other universities who read draft chap-ters for me: Alex Howson, Karen O Reilly, Chris Beasley, Paula Black, JaneHaggis, Heather Brook, and Mike Hepworth.

5 Thank you to CarolynCorkindale, the Department of Sociology s excellent research assistant atFlinders, for tracking down many of the references and doing much tidying upof the faults, of course, remain mine. I commend you to thosefaults as points where as readers you can engage with the text and say: Hangon a minute, I m not so sure about that . It is that engagement which will makethe book had no leave to help me complete this book, apart from a few weeks atthe end of one semester, so I hope you all feel very sorry for me. Thank youto Brent for always feeling sorry for me when I needed it.

6 I am glad that I wasable to complete this book and writing it reminded me of all the students Ihave taught and how much I learnt from them. So thank you to them. For stu-dents or colleagues who might read this, email me and tell me if you like thebook or hate it, or have is what I think it should be (Gender) 5/29/2007 8:42 PM Page viThis SAGE ebook is copyright and is supplied by NetLibrary. Unauthorised distribution got up and went to the bathroom. Leaving pyjamas on the floorand turning on the shower, Chris stepped into the water. It was not ahair-washing day, so after a quick rub with the soap it was time to getout and dry off.

7 After towelling and applying hair putty to the new shorthaircut, Chris dabbed on some moisturising lotion and went to getdressed. Nothing special was happening today so jeans and a T-shirtwould be fine. The only choice really to be made was betweenbasketball boots or is a paragraph I made up. When you read it I imagine that youassumed either that Chris was a woman, or that Chris was a man. YetChris is a shortened name which both Christophers and Christines useand I have not used any pronouns to indicate sex. There is nothing inthis description that definitively identifies masculinity or protest that real men do not use moisturiser, or that women are lesslikely to have short hair.

8 Nevertheless, most people know of men whoare into face creams and other such products and women who haveshort decision is not defensible, but the point is that you madea decision. We do not know how to think about people as neutral; wealways think about them as women or as men and we interact with themaccordingly. If you decided Chris was a woman, go back and read theparagraph again and imagine Chris is a man. Does that change how youread it or what you think about Chris? Do you think it typical of a manjust to leave his pyjamas on the floor; do you feel a little titillated byimagining a naked man in the shower?

9 Try to continue describingChris s day without giving away whether Chris is a man or a woman. Itis very difficult to live in a world which is organized around the idea that womenand men have different bodies, different capabilities, and different needsand desires. This book examines these assumptions, drawing on sociologi-cal and related approaches to understand how and why the social world1 Introduction to the sociology of genderHolmes(Gender) 5/30/2007 11:16 AM Page 1 This SAGE ebook is copyright and is supplied by NetLibrary. Unauthorised distribution arranged around such gender distinctions.

10 This introduction beginsthat task by defining key terms, then looking briefly at the history ofgender within sociology. In some senses the rest of this chapter outlineswhat the book is not about or, to put it more positively, why I focuson the issues that appear in the book and not on facts about inequalitiesor on media images of gender. I want to explain why I say so little aboutthese things because long experience of teaching this topic tells me thatpeople come to it with a strong sense of what is important. Many assumethat women and men are equal now and that the media are most crucialin how we now behave as women and men.