Laura Gougeon

Power and Imagination

Prof. Timble
February 27, 2016
Research Journal 3
Ballenger Exercise 3.1: Getting into a Conversation with a fact
Step 1: How do women see mens attractiveness?

Examining the question then viewing the statistic given, i believe this is most likely to be
a true statement. Women are very judgmental and so they judge men very harshly on their
appearance. I believe this has happened because women know how harshly men judge
women so they feel the need to defend herself by judging them harshly as well. Also,
with all the media portraying people on how they are supposed to look women have a
very high standard on how a man should look and behave.

Step 2: How do men view womens attractiveness?

After reviewing the statistic given or this question, I was very shocked with the result. I
would have most definitely guessed that these statistics would be switched. In this case, i
believe the man was just referring to attractiveness to outside appearance and the women
were looking outside and inside the man, so the were including the personality and
mannerism of the man as attractive.

Ballenger Exercise 3.2: Say Back to a Source

What College is For?
Summary: College is all about finding out who you are from your beliefs and morals to you
interests in life. It is the place where you learn to take your thoughts and ideas and expand them
by learning more in depth about it, including the pros and cons. College is not only about finding
out what you are good at and will follow in as a career but also finding lifelong friendships that
will shape who you are as an individual. Overall, college is about becoming the best version of
yourself as you can be.

Ballenger Exercise 3.3: Dialogic Notetaking- Listening in, speaking up

Step 1: LEFT SIDE OF TABLE
1. *Underline Important passages
2. Colleges have changed drastically from two decades ago. This is primarily seen when
looking at how teachers are teaching their courses. The students expectations are the
cause of this because they do not understand that they are paying for the education not the
credits, they dont know what good teaching is, and the teachers do not want to lose their
reputations over students poor assessments on them.
3. ...what students expect from their college experience varies greatly. A quality, highly
respected education, is of course, always desirable, but that's about as common as the
expectations get. Some college students relish the liberal challenges universities can
provide, some look for a cultural experience and others simply want to be trained for a
career (117-118).
When the driving mechanism for faculty evaluations shifts from educating to pleasing,
many problems occur (118).
Step 2: RIGHT SIDE OF TABLE
I believe that students expectations of colleges is not where they should be. There needs to be a
middle ground from the students and the teachers. Students cannot enter college thinking it's
going to be a walk in the park then if it isn't they cannot turn around and be upset with the grades
they receive. The education you are receiving isn't free, so you have to take advantage of it. On
the other hand, teachers must be understanding and adaptable on the way they teach their course
material because it is one thing to teach a class through application and synthesis but there also
needs to be concepts laid out. So before bringing it into the real world the students will
understand what is happening and have a better idea on how to deal with the situation.

Ballenger Exercise 3.4: Annotated Bibliography

Berkowitz, Dana, Namita N. Manohar, and Justine E. Tinkler. Walk Like a Man, Talk Like a
Woman: Teaching the Social Construction of Gender. Teaching Sociology 38.2 (2010):
132143. Web.
This journal was written to teach a sociology classes to undergraduate students. The purpose is to
show just how the idea of how gender was created from society. The authors explain how gender
there is a social stratification created with gender. They want to make just how prevalent gender
roles play in today's society and how it needs to change.
Julie A. Nelson and Marriane A. Ferber. "Introduction: The Social Construction of Economics
and the Social Construction of Gender" Beyond Economic Man: Feminist Theory and
Economics. University of Chicago Press, 1993. 1-22.
This essays that compose this book talks about current economic practices from the viewpoint of
a feminist. Acknowledging that gender differences were socially constructed rather than just the
normal difference in male and female characteristics. The authors bring it back to history where
this all started with men influencing the economy rather than in the household.

Heyes, Cressida J. "Feminist Solidarity after Queer Theory: The Case of Transgender." Rev. of
Gender and Sexual Identity: Transcending Feminist and Queer Theory. n.d.: n. pag. Web.
This article takes a look at the feminist point of view on transgender and different sexualities.
How are feminist supposed to search for liberation if people are changing their sex and gender?
Feminist goal is to remove oppressive sex discrimination, but it becomes a whole new story
when people are changing their sex.
Lorber, Judith, and Susan A. Farrell. The Social Construction of Gender. Newbury Park, CA:
Sage Publications, 1991. Print.
This book is an overview on how gender has been socially constructed. Girls and boys are born
with certain genitalia and from birth they are put into a category of either boy or girl with a
common view by society. With these gender categories come gender roles and mannerisms on
how boys and girls are supposed to be and act. She emphasizes on the fact that since men are

seen as a higher value to society they are able to earn more money doing the same job as a
woman.
Lott, Bernice. "Gender as an Integrated but Still Traditional (Not Deconstructed) Construct."
Rev. of The Developmental Social Psychology of Gender. The American Journal of
Psychology 115 (2002): 141-45. Print.
Throughout the duration of social construction of gender, it has changed history dynamics
around the world. The changes in todays society on gender is due to the fact of new attitudes and
beliefs and behaviors toward the topic. They explain the way gender was originally created
through society.
Salaff, Janett. "Review." Rev. of Social Construction of Gender Inequality in the Housing
System. The China Journal (2000): 225-28. Print.
This review gives the perspective of gender roles and gender construction in Hong Kong. They
relate it back to how it compares and contrast with the gender roles and construction of America.
The author emphasizes on the point of gender roles in the households and in the workplace.

Ballenger Exercise 4.1: Dialogue with Dave

Q: Whats the big deal about this anyway? Why should I care?
A: Segregated gender perspectives causes discrimination between males and females in all of
cultures throughout society. Identifying the causes of this problem from the socialization of
children to the language systems will allow individuals to be aware of the situation. If people are
aware, there can be a solution to stop the discrimination if all of society is on the same page.

Q: What do you mean by socialization of children and the language systems affecting the
segregation of gender perspectives?
A: The way that our language was made, there are several different systems that are used in
different societies. In America, the one that is correlated with our language forces the
nouns/pronouns to have a corresponding behavior that coexist with it. So he and she have
specific gender roles that are subconsciously attached to them were segregates the two genders.
Then the socialization of children plays a huge impact on the gender perspectives because
children learn the world around them by observing and then reacting and role playing. Schools
and families separate males and females and this cause stereotypes to be formed amongst the two
genders and then children feel forced to follow the gender that they were assigned as babies.

Q: What should we do about this?

A: To try and diminish the discrimination between males and females, we need to stop the
inequality and stereotypes taught in schools. Since the socialization of children plays a key role
in the segregation, we need to stop the problem from the start or prevent it from happening at all.

To do this, pronouns in textbooks and teaching curriculum should change to gender neutral. Also,
if parents don't assign their children a gender from when they are born by the sex of the baby and
allow the child to choose what gender they would like to be when they are old enough, they will
be able to stop the discrimination.

Q: Okay, this is all very interesting. But based on everything so far, what's your point?
A: My point is, there are solutions to stopping discrimination amongst females and males. If
people become aware and informed on the issue, the segregation and discrimination between the
two genders can be reduced by taking actions to prevent it from starting in the first place.

Ballenger Exercise 4.2: Sharpening your Point

Thesis from a Hypothesis Question

My research on the social construction of gender appears to confirm my impression that

socialization in institutions and language systems are the key aspects to the segregation of
gender perspectives and discrimination between males and females.

Thesis from a relationship question

There is a strong relationship between the socialization in institutions and language

system to the segregated gender perspectives and discrimination between males and
females.

THESIS:
Social construction of gender has led to the divergence of gender perceptions and roles between
females and males through the language systems and social institutions including the education
system and families which has created segregated discrimination and inequalities.

Ballenger Exercise 4.3: Three Ways In

1.

The theory of social construction was created to develop an understanding of reality and
shared assumptions of the world with other people. One of the most controversial socially
constructed topics is gender and gender roles. In this paper, I will explain how an individual's
family is the first encounter with gender they will have and how that will carry with them
throughout their time in the education system. The physiological developmental process of
children enforces that they will have gender ingrained in them from the day they are born
through socialization in their society. The concept is inevitable due to the fact that it dates
back from thousands of years ago. Social construction of gender has led to the divergence of
gender perceptions and roles between females and males through the language and social
institutions including the education system and families which has created segregated
discrimination and inequalities.

2. Gender and sex were never topics that I put much thought into because I thought they were the
same thing. Gender has been ingrained in my head so much that I have become just another
socialized individual. Segregated gender perspectives was never a shock to me since I have never
acknowledged it since it has been part of my life since the day I was born. After researching the
impacts of the social construction of gender and the effects the discrimination that comes with it
has on females and males.
3. The acknowledgment of discrimination and inequality from gender is opening up the eyes of
individuals across America. A social movement of individuals changing their original pronoun of
either he or she to They/Them is progressing slowly throughout major such as Portland,
Oregon. The idea behind changing pronouns is to try and eliminate the segregated gender
perceptions and the discriminations that coexist between the two main genders, male and female.

Speech: The Social Construction of Gender

Hello, Im Laura Gougeon and my research paper is on The Social Construction of
Gender. I had to go through a few inquiry questions from how do pronouns affect gender and
gender roles and how does socializations enforce gender roles. Then I realized I wanted to look
at a bigger problem that comes from all these aspects of gender and decided on the question of
How do language systems and socialization in families and the educations system create
segregated gender perspectives and discrimination between females and males?
So, I started my research my searching the history behind who and where the gender
labels came from. Protagoras, a Greek philosopher, was the one to create the masculine, feminine
and neuter labels in the fifth century BC and this was the start of the study between the
grammatical gender systems to the real world. The main language systems used in todays
society around the world are the Strict semantic system which is the system of language where
the noun/pronoun defines the gender, Formal systems which is based on the use of large
pronouns grouped through formal criteria from either from word structure or sound structure,
Natural gender which is the system where it is possible to predict the gender through the
meaning of the noun with no other outside references and Linguistic gender where the
classification of nouns and pronouns are reflected through the behavior that accompanies that
particular word.
In today's society, sex is referred to as the biological status of an individuals identity. The
features that define a person's sex are their reproductive organs, external genitalia, hormones and
other aspects that an individual is born with. Gender, on the other hand, is a socially constructed
theory that society made to differentiate females and males by behavior.

The written language in America has been one of the biggest criminals of unconscious
sexism. Sexism is a socialized act of segregating and discriminating females from males. Writers
use the noun man with its corresponding pronouns he/him as a term to identify all humanity
but with the lack of the use of the noun woman and its pronouns she/her it creates a mental
picture of just the man. In order to solve the problem of the lack of female nouns and pronouns
used by writers, the concept of creating new pronouns that will intermix the male and female
pronouns is in trial.
Gender socialization in a family starts with the parents of an infant. The mother of a child acts as
the nurturer while the father acts as the provider and discipliner. These gender roles from parents
come from tradition that has been passed down from generation to generation for centuries.
These gender roles become ingrained in the child as they grow older, which soon allow the child
to diverge into the gender that they were assigned to when they were born.
In schools, the two primary sources that influence gender are, teachers and surrounding students.
The teaching curriculum that teachers are given to focus their lesson plans around, are filled
with gender stereotypes of behavior for the different genders.
There is no way of eliminating the concept of gender or the gender roles that accompany
it, but there is possibility in diminishing the discrimination and inequalities that coexist with this
idea, this starts with informing people of the situation to take a step forward in society.
The main sources I used was the book Gender Shifts in the History of English to find the
information on the language systems. For the socialization in the educational system my most
useful source was Encyclopedia on Early Early Childhood Development and for the family side
of socialization is used the book The Developmental Social Psychology of Gender.

NOTES:
Source: The Role of Schools in the Early Socialization of Gender Differences
First thoughts: This article talks about just how the school system socializes gender in children.
Teachers and peers are the biggest factors that play in this idea. Stereotypes of the male and
female gender start in school by teaching students from the appropriate ways of dressing to
playing with other peers. This is the start of segregated gender perspectives and discrimination
amongst males and females.
Notes:

Schools can magnify or diminish gender differences by providing environments that

promote within-gender similarity and between-gender differences, or the inverse (withingender variability and between group similarity).

Schools affect gender differentiation via two primary sources: teachers and peers.
Teachers and peers directly influence gender differentiation by providing boys and girls
with different learning opportunities and feedback.

Teachers often model gender stereotypic behavior. Female teachers, for example, often
exhibit math phobic behaviors.

Upon entering school, children encounter large numbers of peers, many of whom model
traditional gender behavior, producing and reinforcing the content of gender stereotypes.

Second thoughts: After reading this article, I was able to obtain a solid understanding on how
the socialization of students in the educational system can affect the two genders. Teachers and
peer influence gender and gender roles amongst kids which create segregated perspectives on
gender from the stereotypes that are formed. If teachers change their curriculum to one that is
more equal between the genders than there will be less inequality and discrimination because the
stereotypes between females and males would slowly diminish.
Citation:
Bigler, Rebecca, Amy Roberson Hayes, and Veronica Hamilton. "The Role of Schools in the
Early Socialization of Gender Differences." Encyclopedia on Early Early Childhood
Development. N.p., Dec. 2013. Web.

NOTES:
Source: Gender Shifts in the History of English
First thoughts: This book explains all the different language system that are in use in different
cultures. It talks about the difference between the European language system where they don't
have a purpose behind why they labeled everything with a gender pronoun but in English we
have an attachment between nouns/pronouns and behavior.
Notes:

The mysteries of how European languages such as German...categorize nouns as

masculine, feminine or neuter are at best a source of amusement(12).

Linguistic gender, can be defined at the most basic level as a system of noun
classification reflected in the behavior of associated words (12).

Corbett defines a natural gender system as synonyms with a strict semantic one (17)

Second thoughts: After reading this article I was able to receive a deeper understanding of all
the different language system. This has helped me understand how the English language has
caused segregated gender perspectives by corresponding gender with specific roles. This is not a
good system for it causes discrimination between males and females but acknowledging the
problem is the start of diminishing it by understanding the cause.
Citation:
Curzan, Anne. Gender Shifts in the History of English. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge UP,
2003. Print.