5 REASONS to buy your textbooks and course materials at 1 SAVINGS: 2 CHOICE: 3 4 5 Prices up to 75% off, daily coupons, and free shipping on orders over $25 Multiple format options including textbook, eBook and eChapter rentals CONVENIENCE: Anytime, anywhere access of eBooks or eChapters via mobile devices SERVICE: Free eBook access while your text ships, and instant access to online homework products STUDY TOOLS: Study tools* for your text, plus writing, research, career and job search resources * availability varies Find your course materials and start saving at: www.cengagebrain.com Source Code: 14M-AA0107 Engaged with you. www.cengage.com Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. TWELFTH EDITION Gendered Lives Communication, Gender, & Culture Julia T. Wood Lineberger Distinguished Professor of Humanities Emerita The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Natalie Fixmer-Oraiz Department of Communication Studies Department of Gender, Women's, and Sexuality Studies The University of Iowa Australia • Brazil • Mexico • Singapore • United Kingdom • United States Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. This is an electronic version of the print textbook. Due to electronic rights restrictions, some third party content may be suppressed. Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. The publisher reserves the right to remove content from this title at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. For valuable information on pricing, previous editions, changes to current editions, and alternate formats, please visit www.cengage.com/highered to search by ISBN#, author, title, or keyword for materials in your areas of interest. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the eBook version. Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Gendered Lives: Communication, Gender & Culture, Twelfth Edition Julia T. Wood, Natalie Fixmer-Oraiz Product Director: Monica Eckman Product Manager: Nicole Morinon Content Developer: Kate Scheinman Associate Content Developer: Karolina Kiwak Product Assistant: Colin Solan Media Developer: Jessica Badiner Marketing Manager: Sarah Seymour © 2017, 2015, 2013 Cengage Learning WCN: 02-200-203 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 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Content Project Manager: Dan Saabye Art Director: Marissa Falco Library of Congress Control Number: 2015939479 Manufacturing Planner: Doug Bertke ISBN: 978-1-305-28027-4 IP Analyst: Ann Hoffman Cengage Learning 20 Channel Center Street Boston, MA 02210 USA IP Project Manager: Farah Fard Production Service: Lumina Datamatics Compositor: Lumina Datamatics Cover Designer: Gary Ragaglia Cover Image: Maria Donovan Cengage Learning is a leading provider of customized learning solutions with employees residing in nearly 40 different countries and sales in more than 125 countries around the world. Find your local representative at www.cengage.com. Cengage Learning products are represented in Canada by Nelson Education, Ltd. To learn more about Cengage Learning Solutions, visit www.cengage.com. Purchase any of our products at your local college store or at our preferred online store www.cengagebrain.com. Printed in the United States of America Print Number: 01 Print Year: 2015 Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. This book is dedicated to Susan B. Anthony, Frederick Douglass, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Emma Goldman, Sarah Grimke, Francis Ellen Watkins Harper, Alice Paul, Margaret Sanger, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Maria Stewart, Sojourner Truth, Mary Wollstonecraft, and other women and men who began the conversation about gender in this country; and to Maya Angelou, Gloria Anzaldúa, Ella Baker, Robert Bly, Judith Butler, Karlyn Campbell, Mary Daly, Simone de Beauvoir, Marilyn French, Michael Kimmel, Betty Friedan, Ellen Goodman, J. Jack Halberstam, bell hooks, Jackson Katz, Evelyn Fox Keller, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Bill McCartney, Gloria Steinem, and other women and men who have added to the cultural dialogue about gender; and to Jason Muehlhoff, Malia Obama, Sasha Obama, Niko Pezzullo Striphas, Daniel Wood Wilco, Harrison Wood Wilco, Michelle Wood Wilco, and other boys and girls whose voices will shape the next generation’s understanding of women and men, masculinity and femininity, and the meaning of gender in our society. Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Brief Contents PREFACE ABOUT THE AUTHORS INTRODUCTION PART 1 Opening the Conversation xvii xxiii 1 CONCEPT UAL FO UND A TIONS CHAPTER 1 The Study of Communication, Gender, and Culture 14 CHAPTER 2 Theoretical Approaches to Gender Development 35 CHAPTER 3 The Rhetorical Shaping of Gender: Competing Images of Women 57 CHAPTER 4 The Rhetorical Shaping of Gender: Competing Images of Men 79 CHAPTER 5 Gendered Verbal Communication 101 CHAPTER 6 Gendered Nonverbal Communication 122 PART 2 G E N D E R E D C O M M U N I C A T I ON IN P R A C T I C E CHAPTER 7 Becoming Gendered 142 CHAPTER 8 Gendered Education: Communication in Schools 165 CHAPTER 9 Gendered Close Relationships 185 CHAPTER 10 Gendered Organizational Communication 208 CHAPTER 11 Gendered Media 233 CHAPTER 12 Gendered Power and Violence 255 GLOSSARY REFERENCES INDEX 281 289 317 v Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Contents PREFACE ABOUT THE AUTHORS INTRODUCTION PART 1 CHAPTER 1 Opening the Conversation The Social Construction of Inequality Feminism—Feminisms Becoming Aware Why We Wrote This Book Communication as the Fulcrum of Change The Challenge of Studying Communication, Gender, and Culture Features of Gendered Lives 1 2 3 5 7 10 11 11 CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS The Study of Communication, Gender, and Culture Communication, Gender, and Culture as an Area of Study Research on Gender, Communication, and Culture Reasons to Learn about Communication, Gender, and Culture Gender in a Transitional Era Differences between Women and Men Relationships among Gender, Culture, and Communication Sex Gender Beyond Sex and Gender Culture Communication Communication Is a Dynamic Process Communication Is Systemic Communication Has Two Levels of Meaning Meanings Are Created through Human Interaction with Symbols CHAPTER 2 xvii xxiii Theoretical Approaches to Gender Development Theoretical Approaches to Gender Biological Theories of Gender Interpersonal Theories of Gender Psychodynamic Theories of Gender Development Psychological Theories of Gender Development Social Learning Theory Cognitive Development Theory Cultural Theories of Gender 14 14 15 15 16 17 18 19 20 25 29 30 30 30 31 32 35 35 36 41 41 42 42 43 45 Anthropology Symbolic Interactionism 45 46 Critical Theories of Gender 48 Standpoint Theory Queer Performative Theory Theories Working Together 48 50 54 vii Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. viii CONTENTS CHAPTER 3 The Rhetorical Shaping of Gender: Competing Images of Women The Three Waves of Women’s Movements in the United States The First Wave of Women’s Movements in the United States Liberal Ideology: The Women’s Rights Movement Cultural Ideology: The Cult of Domesticity The Second Wave of Women’s Movements in the United States 61 62 68 Contemporary Feminism 70 The Rhetorical Shaping of Gender: Competing Images of Men Profeminist Men’s Groups NOMAS ACT UP: The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power Men’s Antiviolence Groups The White Ribbon Campaign Walk a Mile in Her Shoes Mentors in Violence Prevention 71 71 72 75 79 80 82 83 84 84 86 86 Masculinist Men’s Groups 87 Men’s Rights Father’s Rights Groups Mythopoetic Men Promise Keepers The Million Man March 87 88 89 90 93 Contemporary Men’s Movements The Good Men Project CHAPTER 5 59 60 Liberal Ideology Cultural Ideology Riot Grrrl Power Feminism Mainstream Third-Wave Feminism Hip-Hop Feminism CHAPTER 4 57 58 59 Gendered Verbal Communication Verbal Communication Expresses Cultural Views of Gender Male Generic Language Excludes Women Language Defines Men and Women Differently Language Shapes Awareness of Gendered Issues Language Organizes Perceptions of Gender Language Evaluates Gender Language Allows Self-Reflection Gendered Styles of Verbal Communication Gendered Speech Communities The Lessons of Children’s Play Boys’ Games Girls’ Games 94 96 101 102 102 102 105 106 107 108 109 109 109 110 110 Gendered Communication Practices 112 Feminine Communication Masculine Communication The Gender-Linked Language Effect 112 114 116 Gender-Based Misinterpretations in Communication Showing Support Troubles Talk 116 116 117 Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. CONTENTS The Point of the Story Relationship Talk Public Speaking CHAPTER 6 Gendered Nonverbal Communication Functions of Nonverbal Communication Supplement Verbal Communication Regulate Interaction Establish the Relationship Level of Meaning Responsiveness Liking Power or Control Forms of Nonverbal Communication Artifacts Proximity and Personal Space Haptics (Touch) Kinesics (Facial and Body Motion) Paralanguage Physical Appearance Interpreting Nonverbal Behavior Respecting Gendered Styles of Nonverbal Communication PART 2 CHAPTER 7 119 119 119 122 123 124 124 124 124 125 125 125 126 129 130 130 132 132 137 138 G E N D E R E D C O M M U N I C AT I O N I N P R A C T I C E Becoming Gendered Gendering Communication in the Family 142 144 Unconscious Processes Gender Identity Ego Boundaries Parental Communication about Gender Parental Modeling 144 144 147 148 150 The Personal Side of the Gender Drama 151 Growing Up Masculine Don’t Be Feminine Be Successful Be Aggressive Be Sexual Be Self-Reliant Embody and Transcend Traditional Views of Masculinity Growing Up Feminine Appearance Still Counts Be Sensitive and Caring Negative Treatment by Others Be Superwoman There Is No Single Meaning of Feminine Anymore Growing Up Outside Conventional Genders CHAPTER 8 ix Gendered Education: Communication in Schools Gendered Expectations and Pressures Facing Students 152 152 152 153 154 154 155 156 157 157 158 159 161 161 165 166 Academics 166 Males Females 166 167 Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. x CONTENTS LGBTQ Students Gender Isn’t the Whole Story 172 173 Athletics Gender Pressures from Peers 173 175 Pressures to Conform to Masculinity Pressures to Conform to Femininity CHAPTER 9 Gendered Expectations and Pressures Facing Faculty 180 Gendered Close Relationships The Meaning of Personal Relationships 185 185 Models of Personal Relationships 186 The Male Deficit Model The Alternate Paths Model Gendered Styles of Friendship Feminine Friendships: Closeness in Dialogue Masculine Friendships: Closeness in the Doing Friendships between Women and Men Gendered Romantic Relationships Developing Romantic Intimacy Gendered Patterns in Committed Relationships Gendered Gendered Gendered Gendered CHAPTER 10 176 177 Modes of Expressing Affection Preferences for Autonomy and Connection Responsibility for Relational Health Power Dynamics Gendered Organizational Communication Gendered Stereotypes in the Workplace Stereotypes of Women Sex Object Mother Child Iron Maiden Stereotypes of Men Sturdy Oak Fighter Breadwinner Masculine Norms in Professional Life Traditional Masculine Images of Leaders Traditionally Masculine Norms for Career Paths Gendered Patterns in Organizations 187 187 188 189 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 198 208 209 209 209 210 213 213 214 214 214 215 216 216 218 219 Formal Practices 219 Leave Policies Work Schedules 219 220 Informal Practices 222 Unwelcoming Environments for Women The Informal Network Mentoring Relationships Glass Ceilings and Walls Efforts to Redress Gendered Inequity in Institutions Equal Opportunity Laws Affirmative Action Policies Quotas Goals Diversity Training 222 223 223 224 225 225 226 228 229 230 Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. CONTENTS CHAPTER 11 Gendered Media Media Saturation of Cultural Life Media Impacts 233 234 235 Set the Agenda Regulate Images of Women and Men 235 236 Underrepresent Women and Minorities Portray Men Stereotypically Portray Women Stereotypically Gendered Images in Advertising 236 237 238 241 Motivate Us to Consume Gender and Social Media Social Networking Learning and Sharing Information Holding Others Accountable Activism Consequences of Gendered Media Normalize Unrealistic Standards Normalize Violence against Women CHAPTER 12 xi Gendered Power and Violence The Many Faces of Gendered Violence 244 246 246 248 249 249 251 251 251 255 256 Gender Intimidation Sexual Harassment 256 257 Quid Pro Quo Hostile Environment 257 257 Sexual Assault Intimate Partner Violence Genital Surgery Male Circumcision Sunna Excision or Clitoridectomy Infibulation Gender-Based Murder Reproductive Violence Cultural Foundations of Gendered Violence The Normalization of Violence in Media The Normalization of Violence by Institutions Schools Family Law Enforcement Language Resisting Gendered Violence: Where Do We Go from Here? Personal Efforts to Reduce Gendered Violence Social Efforts to Reduce Gendered Violence 258 262 266 266 267 267 268 269 269 272 272 272 273 273 274 274 274 274 275 Taking a Voice 276 GLOSSARY REFERENCES INDEX 281 289 317 Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. L IST OF E XPLORING G ENDERED L IVES B OXES INTRODUCTION About “Male-Bashing”: Julia and Natalie—the Authors—Comment 6 Multicultural Perspectives on Gender 7 CHAPTER 1 Journals That Feature Research on Gender and Communication 16 Grown-Up Tomboys 19 Social Views of Intersexuality 20 T Troubles 21 Pink Is for Boys? 24 Trans Students 27 Chromosomal Variations 37 The Claims of Sociobiology 39 Biological Differences That Make a Difference 40 Varied Cultural Approaches to Fathering 46 Ga Ga for Lady Gaga 53 A’n’t I a Woman? 60 Reproductive Rights 61 The Famous Bra Burning (That Didn’t Happen!) 63 About NOW 64 To Be Womanish, To Be a Womanist 66 Antifeminism 68 The Text of the Equal Rights Amendment 69 Lesbian, Bisexual, Trans, and Queer-Identified Women 70 “Don’t Tell Us How to Dress. Tell Men Not to Rape.” 74 A Postfeminist Era? 76 The Scariest Phrase? 82 Men Can Stop Rape 85 Rites of Manhood 90 Grassroots Men’s Ministries 93 CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 3 CHAPTER 4 xiii Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. xiv LIST OF EXPLORING GENDERED LIVES BOXES Misogyny 95 “If You Don’t Like What’s Being Said, Change the Conversation.” 97 CHAPTER 5 Parallel Language? 104 What’s in a Name? 105 Seeing the Unseen/Naming the Unnamed 106 Fat Talk 108 Gender and Gaming Culture 111 Scholarship versus Popular Psychology 118 Guns Are for Girls; Tea Parties Are for Boys 127 Indecent Dress for Women 128 Beauty for Sale 132 A New Model for Models? 134 Modeling Physical Beauty 137 Superheroes and Slackers 146 Sisterhood? 159 Careers for Women: Gendered, Raced, and Classed 160 Single-Sex Educational Programs 167 Name That (Wo)man 170 Straddling Two Cultures 174 Title IX: Fiction and Fact 176 Schoolyard Bullying 178 Hooked Up 179 When Focusing on Feelings Makes Us Feel Bad 190 Fertile Expectations 199 Dads at Work 201 Scientists and the Second Shift 203 Fathering in Other Species 204 The Mommy Myth 204 Global Nannies 205 CHAPTER 6 CHAPTER 7 CHAPTER 8 CHAPTER 9 Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. LIST OF EXPLORING GENDERED LIVES BOXES xv CHAPTER 10 Personal Choice or Institutional Discrimination? 211 Can Women (and Men) Have It All? 212 Strategies for Women’s Success in the Workplace 214 Gendered Wages 215 If She’s a He, He’s Better and Paid Better Too! 217 Work-Life Balance for All 222 The Glass Escalator 225 When Quotas Raise Questions—and When They Don’t 229 The Geena Davis Institute 236 Beyond Sexy Sidekicks and Damsels in Distress 239 Miss Representation 243 Is Censorship the Answer? 244 Am I Pretty? 247 Watch out for Sparks 250 Hollaback! 256 First Rape, Then Marriage 260 Sexual Assault of Men 261 The Victim 262 Corrective Rape 263 Myths and Facts about Rape 263 The Cycle of Intimate Partner Violence 265 Myths and Facts about Violence between Intimates 266 To Circumcise or Not to Circumcise: That Is the Question 267 A Vacation to Remember 268 Forced Abortion 270 Whose Rights? Whose Protection? 271 Refusing to Be Defeated 276 CHAPTER 11 CHAPTER 12 Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Preface We wrote Gendered Lives for two reasons. First, we want to introduce students to a rich body of research that informs us about the intricate connections among communication, gender, and culture. Second, we think that learning about these connections empowers students to make more informed decisions about how they personally enact gender, address gender issues in their lives, and contribute to cultural attitudes, perspectives, laws, and policies related to gender. Since the first edition of this book appeared in the early 1990s, our understandings of gender have changed and issues related to gender have mushroomed. Society has acknowledged a greater range of options for individual women and men—in the military, in the home, in professional life, in social life, and in politics. During the past 20 years, society has become more accepting of gay, lesbian, and transgender identities, new women’s and men’s movements have emerged, mass media have challenged some gender stereotypes while creating others, and social media have added to the content and forms by which gender is continuously negotiated. Academic researchers have continued to map the ways that communication, gender, and culture influence one another. This new edition responds to social changes in the United States and around the world, as well as to feedback from students and faculty who generously offered ideas for ways to improve this book. We discuss this book’s origins and features in the Introduction (“Opening the Conversation,” pages 1–13). Here, we want to describe changes that make this edition different from the last and identify supplementary resources available for students and instructors. Changes in Gendered Lives, Twelfth Edition The most important change in this edition is the addition of a coauthor: Natalie Fixmer-Oraiz. Julia authored the first 11 editions of this book. Over the last 15 years, her conversations and writing with Natalie have deepened her understanding of the profound ways in which gender and power are imbricated. Invariably, Natalie’s ideas found their way into Julia’s thinking and writing about issues discussed in this book. Deciding to write the book together is an organic outgrowth of our long-term intellectual collaboration. Natalie’s groundbreaking research and her passion for teaching make her the ideal coauthor for Gendered Lives. In addition to being coauthored, five significant changes differentiate this edition from its predecessors. xvii Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. xviii PREFACE Enhanced Coverage of Gendered Health Issues This edition gives greater attention to the ways in which cultural understandings and expectations of gender influence physical and mental health. For instance, in the Introduction, we note that pharmaceutical companies have constructed “low T” as a problem men need to address by buying prescription testosterone, which can cause serious health problems, including heart attacks. Chapter 1 points out that women bear the vast majority of responsibility for reproductive matters ranging from contraception to parenting. These responsibilities are accompanied by risks, some of which are significant. Chapter 6 discusses the push for and dangers of cosmetic surgery and the pressure many people, males as well as females, feel to achieve media-created physical perfection. In addressing gendered violence, Chapter 12 catalogs a wide range of health problems that result from rape, female genital mutilation, and reproductive violence. Chapter 12 also covers recent efforts by colleges and universities to take campus sexual assaults seriously. The sharpened focus on health issues shows that social views of men and women are not simply abstract; they are also very concrete in terms of consequences on our well-being and even our very lives. Integrated Emphasis on Digital Media Digital and online media are pervasive in our lives. Not only are digital media sources of gender socialization, but also they are powerful platforms for rethinking gender and for gender activism. Accordingly, we revised Chapter 11, Gendered Media, to track the increasingly blurred lines between digital and mass media. We also incorporated discussion digital media into other chapters. For example, we revised Chapter 9, Gendered Close Relationships, to call attention to the ways in which computer-mediated communication (CMC) is changing/reinforcing gendered expressions of care, friendship, and intimacy. Chapters 3 and 4 note ways that social movements about gender rely on social media, and Chapter 12 points out ways that social media are used to challenge gendered violence. Revised Coverage of Women’s and Men’s Movements This edition continues our commitment to tracing the evolution of women’s and men’s movements. Chapter 3, which focuses on women’s movements, includes new material on La Raza, an organization that represents interests of Chicana feminists, and the Riot Grrrl movement, which laid the foundation for the third wave of U.S. feminism. Chapter 3 also includes a new section on “postfeminism,” in which we invite students to consider whether it is accurate to assume feminism is no longer needed in the United States. Chapter 4, which covers men’s movements, includes new material on the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), a men’s health movement that began when the AIDS crisis first surfaced in the United States and which marked a critical juncture in which men’s and women’s groups worked together. Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. PREFACE xix Explicit Emphasis on Application Since the first edition, Gendered Lives has encouraged students to apply material in the book by reflecting on gendered issues in their lives and by taking a voice in their personal lives as well as the public sphere. This edition enlarges the commitment to application by providing more explicit invitations for students to think, act, and otherwise do something active and personal related to what they learn in the book and the course it accompanies. The Exploring Gendered Lives boxes that appear in every chapter now conclude by asking students to take a stand on the topic discussed. At the end of each chapter, the Reflection, Discussion, and Action feature now includes a Gender in Action item that encourages students to apply or extend a concept or topic discussed in the chapter to their lives. The Gender in Action items are highlighted by the icon . Up-to-Date Research A final focus of this revision is updating research. Understandings of gender and issues connected to it change at lightning speed. To keep up with these changes, a textbook must be continuously updated to reflect the most current research and events. To ensure the currency of Gendered Lives, we’ve incorporated more than 250 new references into this edition. Pedagogical Features to Engage Students Five features are aimed to heighten students’ engagement with the text and issues related to gender. First, each chapter opens with “Knowledge Challenge” questions, which focus on issues that are often misunderstood and which are covered in the chapter. Second, to encourage active engagement with material, selected Exploring Gendered Lives boxes conclude by asking students’ opinion about issues raised in the feature. Third, each chapter concludes with questions for thought, discussion, and application. These may be assigned for students to think about or as journal entries. They may also be prompts for class discussion. Fourth, “Gender Online,” which appears after each chapter summary, invites students to visit websites related to chapter content and to search online for videos and information about concepts and ideas in the chapter. Finally, at the end of each chapter, we suggest two to four sources—films, articles, websites, and books. Our criteria for selecting these are that (1) we consider them either classic or especially insightful, and (2) they are accessible to undergraduate students. In making these five changes, we’ve avoided “page creep”—the tendency of books to grow longer with each new edition because old material is not deleted to make room for new material. We have eliminated dated coverage and references to make room for more current research and coverage of timely topics. We hope the changes make this edition of Gendered Lives a valuable resource for instructors and students who want to explore the complex and fascinating ways in which communication, gender, and culture interact and affect our lives. Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. xx PREFACE Supplementary Resources for Students and Instructors Gendered Lives, twelfth edition, offers electronic supplements to assist in making the gender communication course as meaningful and enjoyable as possible for both students and instructors, and to help students succeed. Cengage Learning has prepared the following descriptions for your consideration. Instructor Companion Website. The password-protected instructor’s website includes electronic access to the Instructor’s Resource Manual, PowerPoints, CogneroTesting Program, Comprehensive Video Program, and links to Cengage Learning technology resources. Written by Emily Anzicek at Bowling Green State University, the Instructor’s Resource Manual comprises two main parts, the first titled and addressing Special Issues in Teaching Communication, Gender & Culture, and the second a Chapterby-Chapter Guide for Teaching Gendered Lives, which provides chapter outlines, activities, and test questions. PowerPoint presentations prepared by Larry Edmonds at Arizona State University contain text and images, and can be used as is or customized to suit your course needs. Please consult your local Cengage Learning sales representative or cengage.com /login for more information, user names and passwords, examination copies, or a demonstration of these ancillary products. Available to qualified adopters. ® Acknowledgments One of the most gratifying aspects of writing a book is the opportunity to thank those who have offered support, insight, and advice. First and foremost, we thank our students. The women and men in our classes and those we meet when we visit other campuses are unfailing sources of insight for us. Their questions and ideas, their willingness to challenge some of our notions, and their generosity in sharing their perceptions and experiences have shaped the pages that follow in both obvious and subtle ways. Among the undergraduate students who have pushed us to think in new ways about gender, communication, and culture are Jordana Adler, Cutler Andrews, Brandon Carter, Ethan Cicero, Alexis Dennis, Madeline Fitzgerald, Paige Pennigar, and Nisha Verma. Among the graduate students who have influenced our thinking are J. Beckham, Jen Cronin, Kate Harris, Naomi Johnson, Kristen Norwood, Tim Muehlhoff, Julia O’Grady, Phaedra Pezzullo, Stace Treat, and Grover WehmanBrown. Our thinking and writing also reflect conversations with colleagues. We are particularly grateful to Professor Bonnie Dow, Vanderbilt University, who has provided wise advice and challenges since the first edition of this book. We are also indebted to Lynn O’Brien Hallstein, Boston University, for her generative research Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. PREFACE xxi and her passion for wrestling with questions about gender, communication, and culture. We have benefited from the professional support of Nicole Morinon, Senior Product Manager for Communication Studies, and Kate Scheinman, Content Developer, who made our job as authors far easier and far more satisfying than we had a right to expect. Along with Nicole and Kate, others at Cengage Learning have contributed in important ways to this edition of Gendered Lives. They are Colin Solan, Production Assistant; Karolina Kiwak, Associate Content Developer; Sarah Seymour, Marketing Manager. Daniel Saabye, Content Product Manager; and Ann Hoffman, Permissions Manager. As well we thank Samantha Ross-Miller, who managed the production of this book. Finally, we are indebted to the reviewers for this edition: Sandra Alvarez, American International College Sandy Berkowitz, Minneapolis Community and Technical College Mary Carver, University of Central Oklahoma Linda Dam, University of Connecticut Abby Dubisar, Iowa State University Charlotte Jones, Carroll College Mary L. Kahl, Indiana State University Myrna Kuehn, Clarion University of Pennsylvania Amanda Martinez, Davidson College Julie Mayberry, Meredith College/North Carolina State University Kelly McKay-Semmler, University of South Dakota Susan McManimon, Rider University and Kean University Nina-Jo Moore, Appalachian State University Kaneez Naseem, Monroe College Jessica Papajcik, Stark State College Kimberly Parker, Bellarmine University Mairi Pileggi, Dominican University of California Joquina Reed, Texas A&M International University Henrietta Shirk, Montana Tech of the University of Montana Erika Thomas, California State University, Fullerton Joseph Velasco, Sul Ross State University Justin Walton, Cameron University Carrie West, Schreiner University Debbie Wigington, Chemeketa Community College And, always, we thank our partners. Julia thanks Robbie for his support, criticism, and, most of all, his steadfast presence in her life. Natalie is ever grateful to Vanessa for sharing her mad smarts, generosity, compassion, and love. Julia T. Wood Chapel Hill, North Carolina Natalie Fixmer-Oraiz Iowa City, Iowa June 2015 Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. About the Authors Julia T. Wood is Lineberger Distinguished Professor of Humanities Emerita at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She joined that university at the age of 24. While on the faculty, she was named the Lineberger Distinguished Professor of Humanities and the Caroline H. and Thomas S. Royster Distinguished Professor of Graduate Education. She has authored 17 books and edited 10 others. In addition, she has published more than 100 articles and book chapters and has presented numerous papers at professional conferences. She has won 12 awards for undergraduate teaching and 15 awards for her scholarship. Julia lives with her partner, Robert Cox, who is Professor Emeritus of Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Filling out their immediate family are their dog, Cassidy, and two cats, Rigby and Rowdy. When not teaching or writing, Julia works with, and consults on sex and gender issues, and volunteers at the Carolina Tiger Rescue. Natalie Fixmer-Oraiz is an Assistant Professor of Communication Studies and Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies at the University of Iowa. She has published articles on rhetoric and reproductive justice, the commercial surrogacy industry, and third-wave feminism, as well as book chapters on the public debates surrounding birth control and communication activism pedagogy. She is currently at work on Homeland Maternity, a book that examines contemporary struggles over reproductive health and motherhood in the context of homeland security culture. In addition, Natalie has been honored by teaching awards from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the American Association of Colleges and Universities. She is committed to service-learning and experiential education as means of helping students make connections between theory and practice; and the community and the classroom. She continues her involvement in reproductive health and justice initiatives in United States and transnational contexts. She currently resides in Iowa City with her partner of over ten years and their three furry companion animals. xxiii Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice. —WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN i Opening the Conversation Knowledge Challenge: • When was the term feminism first used? • How many bras were burned in feminist protests in 1968? • As a group, are heterosexual men happier in relationships with feminist or nonfeminist women? • What is at stake in how we think about gender? Textbooks typically begin with a preview of chapters and features, but we want to launch our conversation a bit differently. We think you’re entitled to know something about the people behind the words you’ll be reading, so we want to open the book by introducing ourselves and explaining why we wrote Gendered Lives. Most people regard books as impersonal sources of information. Like anything that people create, however, books reflect the experiences, identities, and historical context of the authors who write them. Authors influence books when they decide which topics to include and which theories to present. This doesn’t mean that books are not informative or reliable, but it does mean that authors’ experiences and perspectives have an impact on books. By telling you a little about who we are and why we wrote this book, we are inviting you to think about how our backgrounds, experiences, beliefs, and values have shaped the book you’re reading. Let’s start with some simple demographic information. Julia is a EuropeanAmerican, middle-aged, heterosexual, spiritually engaged, middle-class woman who has been in a committed relationship with Robbie (Robert) Cox for 44 years. Natalie is a white, thirty-something, queer, middle-class woman in a committed relationship with her partner, Vanessa, for over ten years. Yet, if you think about it, this information isn’t simple at all. It implies a great deal about our identities and experiences. For instance, Julia became an adult when the second wave of the U.S. Women’s Movement was ascending, 1 Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 2 INTRODUCTION Opening the Conversation and it influenced her personal life, political views, and perspective on gender and culture. Natalie grew up in a culture that presented far greater opportunities to girls and women than that of previous generations. But even as feminism seemed to be part of the air she breathed, she also began to notice how sexism and other forms of social and economic injustice remained stubbornly intact. The “simple” demographic information also shows that Julia and Natalie are privileged by their race and economic class, which are approved by mainstream Western culture. Yet they are disadvantaged by their sex, because women continue to be valued less than men in Western culture. Natalie suffers additional discrimination because her sexual orientation is not favored by mainstream culture. We did not earn the privileges conferred by our skin color and economic class, nor did we earn the inequities that come with being female and, for Natalie, being a lesbian. That is the nature of much privilege and inequity— they are unearned. They do not reflect the achievements, efforts, or failings of the individuals who enjoy or suffer them. The Social Construction of Inequality To speak of being privileged in some ways and disadvantaged in others does not mean that these aspects of life are fixed in stone. The fact that being female makes approximately half of the population vulnerable to job discrimination, violence, and other injustices is not unchangeable. Nor is it immutable that some people’s sexual orientation or race or economic class or gender identity makes them vulnerable to inequity. In fact, one reason we wrote this book is because we believe society can change, and each of us can be part of bringing change about. To participate in changing society, we cannot limit ourselves to our personal identities and experiences. We need to learn about the experiences, perspectives, and circumstances of people in other social positions: the anger and hurt experienced by transgender people in a society that defines them as abnormal; the resentment felt by some heterosexual white men toward laws and policies that increase rights and opportunities available to women and minorities; what it means to be a person of color in a sea of whiteness; the sense of restriction many women feel knowing they cannot venture out at night without risking assault; the frustration felt by poor and working-class citizens whose needs and circumstances often are not represented in legislation that claims to help everyone. We can never fully understand the lives of people who differ from us, but can realize that our feelings, identities, values, and perspectives are not everyone’s. Recognizing the limits of our own perspectives and experiences encourages us to learn from people who have different perspectives and experiences. We do this by respecting the specific conditions that shape their lives and by recognizing that only they can Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Feminism—Feminisms 3 define the meanings of their experiences, feelings, thoughts, hopes, beliefs, problems, and needs. We cannot speak for them, cannot appropriate their voices as our own (González, Houston, & Chen, 2012). But to listen is to learn, and to learn is to broaden our appreciation of the range of human experiences and possibilities. Feminism—Feminisms Finally, in introducing ourselves to you, we should tell you that we are feminists. Before you form an impression based on your understanding of feminism, let’s define the term. The word feminism was coined in France in the late 1800s. It combined the French word for “woman,” femme, with the suffix ism, meaning “political position.” Thus, feminism means “a political position about women.” Ironically, although many people in their 20s do not call themselves feminists, they do think that women’s rights activism has improved the conditions and opportunities available to women. Also, many people—both male and female—believe women and men are equal and should have the same rights. This suggests that, for many people, there is greater reservation about the label feminist than about the actual goals, values, and achievements of feminism. When we talk with students who say they aren’t feminists, we often discover that we agree on most issues relevant to gender but disagree on the meaning of the word feminism. There’s good reason for this. First, feminism is not one single belief or political position. Chapter 3 discusses a variety of feminist positions, and Chapter 4 explores the different stances—some feminist, some not—endorsed by men’s movements. Second, most people’s impressions of feminism have been shaped by bias in media portrayal of feminism and feminists. Beginning with the inaccurate report that feminists burned bras at a protest of the 1968 Miss America Pageant (no bras were burned at that protest), media have consistently misrepresented feminists as man-hating, shrill extremists. Many people, like a student named Andrea (see her commentary), say they aren’t feminists because they associate feminism with media caricatures that emphasize male-bashing, being unfeminine, and engaging in radical protests. ANDREA I would never call myself a feminist, because that word has so many negative connotations. I don’t hate men or anything, and I’m not interested in protesting. I don’t want to go around with hacked-off hair and no makeup and sit around bashing men. I do think women and men are equal and should have the same kinds of rights, including equal pay for equal work. But I wouldn’t call myself a feminist. Media stereotypes of feminists don’t fit many women and men who identify as feminists. Most feminists are not extremists, and most, like the two of us, have strong and loving relationships with both women and men. Many women who Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 4 INTRODUCTION Opening the Conversation label themselves feminist enjoy wearing feminine clothes, experimenting with hairstyles and makeup, and engaging in traditionally feminine activities such as baking, knitting, and caring for children. Research shows that heterosexual men in relationships with feminist women are happier and consider their relationships healthier than heterosexual men in relationships with nonfeminist women. The converse is also true: Women in heterosexual relationships with feminist men are happier and more satisfied with their relationships than women in heterosexual relationships with nonfeminist men (Rudman & Fairchild, 2004; Rudman & Phelan, 2007). Being a feminist does not conflict with being feminine, but it does mean being reflective about how women define and express femininity. Likewise, being a feminist does not conflict with being masculine, but it requires men to make conscious choices about how they define and express their masculinity. Because feminism means different things to different people, we want to tell you how we define the term. We understand feminism as an active commitment to equality and respect for all forms of life. For us, this includes respecting all people, as well as nonhuman forms of life and the Earth itself. Simply put, we see feminism as resisting oppression, be it the oppression of women, men, people with disabilities, people with any gender or sexual identity, people of any race, ethnicity or religion, elderly people, children, animals, or our planet. We don’t think oppression and domination foster healthy lives for individuals or societies as a whole. We believe there are better, more humane, and enriching ways for us to live, and we are convinced each of us can be part of bringing these alternatives into existence. During the course of reading this book, you will encounter varied versions of feminism, which should shatter the myth that feminism is one position, and which should also invite you to consider where to locate yourself among diverse viewpoints. Feminism does not just happen. It is a process and an achievement. Julia was not raised to be a feminist. In fact, quite the contrary. She was brought up to be a traditional Southern woman who deferred to men and devoted her life to home and family. In the 1970s when a friend first introduced her to some readings about discrimination against women, her initial response was denial. She tried to rationalize inequities or repress her knowledge of discrimination, perhaps because recognizing it was painful. When denial failed to work, Julia became angry about the ways in which women, including herself, were devalued and denied opportunities. She was also angry at herself for having been unaware of society’s devaluation of women and for conforming to the roles assigned to women. Eventually, Julia transformed the anger into an abiding commitment to working for changes in society. Natalie came to feminism somewhat differently. She was raised to believe that girls and women were equal to boys and men. Her parents, both of whom identified as feminists, encouraged her love of reading, music, dance, and math equally, and cheered her athletic and academic pursuits. She was fortunate to have a series of teachers throughout her schooling who believed in her and pushed her to excel. Upon entering graduate school, she was assigned to Julia’s teaching team for the class, Gender, Communication, and Culture, using the very textbook you are reading right now (albeit an edition from a few years back!). The material resonated profoundly: Despite the fact that Natalie had grown up in a culture that Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Becoming Aware 5 proclaimed sexism to be over and feminism no longer needed, the new set of concepts she encountered in Gendered Lives named persistent patterns of inequity that she had noticed but had not had language to label and critique. Like Julia, sometimes Natalie’s response to this new information was denial or anger, but it also ignited her curiosities and passions. She began exploring the histories of feminist social movements and contemporary gendered injustices and now devotes her research, teaching, and activism to these issues. Becoming Aware Whether you identify with feminism or not, you are gendered. Reading this book will expand your understanding of gender—how it is shaped and expressed in contexts ranging from the political arena to intimate relationships. The awareness you gain will enhance your insight into yourself and your society. At the same time, you may feel unsettled as you read this book. If you are a woman, you may find it disturbing to learn the extent to which Western culture (and other cultures) devalues women’s experiences and limits their opportunities. If you are a man, reading this book may increase your awareness of the ways in which cultural views of masculinity constrain your life choices. You may be uncomfortable learning about social expectations for men to succeed, to be selfsufficient, to repress feelings, and to put work ahead of family. You may also be surprised to learn that your maleness benefits you in ways that you may not have noticed, particularly if you are white. We also realize that a number of people reading this book—both women and men—have been raped, sexually abused, sexually harassed, or battered. Some of you have eating disorders; some have suffered job discrimination; some of you have been taunted for not embodying current social expectations for males or females; some of you have been bullied because of your sexual orientation or gender identity. Reading Gendered Lives is likely to stir up these issues. If you don’t wish to deal with such difficult issues, then you may choose to forgo or delay study in this area. However, if you are ready to wrestle with serious personal and social matters, then this book should help you understand issues in your life as not only personal but also deeply rooted in social values and institutions. Becoming aware of inequities in social life may lead you to speak out against practices and attitudes that sustain discrimination and disadvantage. Realize that some people will respond negatively if you make thoughtful criticisms of current social attitudes and practices. Women who speak out against inequities and discrimination are sometimes accused of male-bashing. Men who speak out against discrimination against women are sometimes regarded as wimps or as disloyal to men. Such responses reflect an unwillingness to engage in the substance of the criticism. If you want to take an active role in shaping our shared world, you must anticipate struggles with those who are less willing to consider ideas that question familiar perspectives and behaviors. Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 6 INTRODUCTION Opening the Conversation EXPLORING GENDERED LIVES Occasionally, a student tells one of us that Gendered Lives “bashes men.” This comment puzzles us, because we don’t see ourselves as male-bashers. Both of our lives include men we love. We have many male friends and colleagues; and we’ve done as much to mentor male students and colleagues as female ones. When we ask students to explain why they think the book bashes men, they tell us it gives more attention to discrimination against women than to discrimination against men and that it points out that some men harm women. They are correct in this observation, but the difference in attention to harms to women and men reflects findings from research rather than any personal views we hold. Like all scholars, what we write depends largely on available information. Existing research shows that, although both men and women experience violence from intimate partners, 95% of people who are known to be physically abused by romantic partners are women (Haynes, 2009; Johnson, 2006). It would be inaccurate to give equal space to discussion of men who are physically abused by intimate partners. The same is true of sexual About “Male-Bashing”: Julia and Natalie—the Authors— Comment harassment: Although members of both sexes are sexually harassed, most victims are female and most perpetrators are male. The only way we could present a gender-balanced discussion of sexual harassment would be by misrepresenting facts. You should also realize that this book includes more information about men and men’s issues than any other textbook for a course in gender and communication. In the chapters that follow, you’ll learn about men’s movements, pressures men face to succeed and conform to stereotypes of masculinity, and consequences, such as depression, of social perspectives that limit men in the workplace and in personal relationships. You’ll also learn that men, like women, can be victims of sexual violence. In addition, you’ll discover that men find it stressful to balance work and family, yet men today are contributing more to raising children than previous generations of men. Research throughout this book shows how social expectations of women and men can restrict all of us. We hope that, as you read this book, you’ll perceive the coverage as fair. PATRICK I don’t want to be lumped with all men. I am not sexist; I don’t discriminate against women; I believe in gender equality and try to practice it in my relationships with women. It really makes me angry when people bash males as if we are all oppressors or something. I don’t oppress women or anyone else, and I don’t want to be blamed for unfair things that others do. Patrick makes an important point. We need to distinguish between the actions and attitudes of individuals and the social practices and values of our culture. Most individual men do not aim to oppress women. The point is that Western culture as a whole has constructed inequalities between women and men, and these inequalities continue in our era. Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Why We Wrote This Book 7 The problem, then, is not individuals, but rather a social system that accords unequal value and opportunity on the basis of sex. This kind of prejudice diminishes us all. It limits our appreciation of human diversity by defining a very narrow zone of what is good, normal, and worthy of respect. Regardless of whether you are privileged or oppressed by social evaluations of what is normal and good, your study of gender, communication, and culture may be unsettling. If you are seriously disturbed by what you read, you might find it helpful to talk with your instructor or to visit the counseling center at your school. Why We Wrote This Book We wrote Gendered Lives because we believe that change is needed in how we view and embody gender. We also believe research presented in this book can empower you to make more informed choices about your personal identity and our shared world. Since the first edition was published, we’ve received many positive responses EXPLORING GENDERED LIVES Multicultural Perspectives on Gender What’s feminine? What’s masculine? What’s gay? It depends on which culture’s perspective you take. • • • • The Agta in the Philippines and the Tini Aborigines in Australia see keen hunting ability as a feminine ideal (Estioko-Griffin & Griffin, 1997). In Melanesia, young Sambian boys perform fellatio on adult men. The Sambia believe that swallowing the semen of adult men helps boys grow into healthy adult males (Herdt, 1997). Berdaches are members of approximately 150 North American societies, many of which are Native Americans. Although berdaches often enact the behaviors of a gender other than that associated with their birth sex, within their societies they are recognized as distinct third and fourth genders (Roscoe, 1993). In addition to male and female, India recognizes a hijra, who are female • • men. Hijras sometimes remove their external genitalia to appear more womanlike (Herdt, 1997; Nanda, 2004). In addition to males and females, Juchitán in Oaxaca, Mexico, recognizes muxes, who are biological males who, from an early age, identify as females and adopt the roles and practices assigned to females in their community. Many residents of Juchitán believe that muxes have special abilities (Lacey, 2008). In Samoa, there is a third gender called the Fa’afafine. It is believed that the first Fa’afafines were in families with only boys, so one of the boys was raised as a girl. Today, Samoans consider Fa’afafine a third gender. Fa’afafines engage in sexual relations almost exclusively with heterosexual males, who are not perceived as homosexual for having sex with Fa’afafines (Bartlett & Vasey, 2006). TAKE A STAND: Do you believe you would view masculinity, femininity, and sexual orientation differently if you were Samoan or belonged to one of the other cultures mentioned above? Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 8 INTRODUCTION Opening the Conversation from colleagues who teach classes that use the book and from students in our classes as well as from students around the nation. We’ve also received helpful criticism and suggestions that have motivated us to rethink and improve the book. In the chapters that follow, you’ll learn about the extent to which gender inequities and discrimination persist and diminish individual and collective life. For instance: • Is there any way to justify the fact that, each day in the United States, at least four women are killed by their partners or ex-partners? • Is it fair that men who want to spend time with their families are often evaluated negatively in professional contexts? • Is it acceptable that a Pakistani court sentenced a woman to be gang-raped because of an offense allegedly committed by her brother? • Is it right that most of the advances won by women’s movements have benefited white, middle-class women more than minority and poor women? • Is there any reason why women still earn 76.5 cents for every dollar men earn, even when they do the same jobs (Cronin, 2013)? • Is it fair that, in divorce proceedings, mothers have an advantage over fathers in gaining custody of children? • Is it right that women bear the primary responsibility and nearly all of the risks in reproductive matters, including fertility, contraception, and parenting? If you don’t want inequities such as these to continue, read on. Becoming aware of how our culture establishes and normalizes inequities is necessary, but that alone will not lead to changes. In fact, concentrating exclusively on what is wrong tends to depress us, which can paralyze impulses toward reform. Awareness of inequities must be coupled with realizing that change is possible. Through individual action and social movements, many blatant sex inequities have been eliminated. In the 1800s, women weren’t allowed to vote. They also had no access to a university education, could not own property if they married, and were barred from participating in most professions. Women can now vote, attend universities, own property, and pursue professional careers. Today, women pursue careers in business, construction, science, education, politics, and the military. Views of men, too, have changed. In earlier eras, our society defined manliness in terms of physical strength and bravery. After the Industrial Revolution, the ability to earn a good salary became the social standard of manliness. Today, many men are challenging social definitions of men as income providers and are seeking greater opportunities to participate in personal relationships. Forty years ago, it would have been almost unthinkable for a man to have been a stay-at-home dad. Today, a number of men are stay-at-home dads. In recent decades, sexual harassment, acquaintance rape, and marital rape have been named and recognized as illegal. Changes such as the ones we’ve discussed mislead many people into thinking that gender equality has been achieved. Some commentators call our time a “post-feminist era” in which all the issues that feminism focused on have been resolved. Many of our students tell us that gender discrimination is history and that sexism has been overcome. Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Why We Wrote This Book 9 • They tell us that women now have freedom of choice, but they don’t seem to recognize that some health insurance companies will not pay for contraceptives, and that there are more barriers to reproductive choice in the United States than in some other countries. • They cite high-visibility politicians such as Hillary Clinton as evidence that the playing field in politics is now level, but they don’t seem to realize that women make up less than 19% of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives and only 5% of CEOs of Fortune 500 companies (Sandberg & Chávez, 2014). • They believe that the United States opposes discrimination against women, but they don’t seem disturbed that the United States—along with a few other nations such as Somalia and Sudan—has refused to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Jimmy Carter signed the treaty in 1980, and the Senate has yet to act on it. • They tell us that heterosexual women and men now have egalitarian relationships, but they don’t seem concerned that, in two-worker families, women still spend twice as much time as men on housework and child care (Beck, 2011). As the above listing shows, not all of the inequities based on sex and gender are history. Even in the United States, gender equity has not been fully achieved. In a ranking of measures that affect women’s lives (health, education, economics, politics, and justice) the United States ranked eighth, behind Iceland, Sweden, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Switzerland, and Norway (Streib, 2011). Although we’ve made progress toward gender equity, there are more changes to be made before we have a truly level-playing field for everyone. The consequences of how we define and embody gender are not abstract. There are very real stakes involved. Individuals’ health and even their lives can be on the line. Consider a few examples of the concrete impacts of social views of gender: • Women suffer far more adverse side effects, including potentially fatal heart arrhythmia, from sleeping pills than men because only men were used in trials when many of the drugs were in development (Rabin, 2013). • Transgender people lack access to adequate health care because they often face outright refusal of services, discrimination, and/or lack of understanding and cultural competence from health care providers (National Center for Transgender Equality, 2012). • Although female infertility accounts for only approximately one-third of heterosexual couples’ trouble with conceiving, women bear the disproportionate burden and risks of fertility treatments. Regardless of the cause of infertility, virtually all treatments are interventions on women’s bodies, and effects include bruising and soreness from shots, nausea, allergic responses, ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, multiple miscarriages and stillbirths, gestational diabetes, maternal hemorrhage, and preterm labor and delivery (American Society for Reproductive Medicine, 2014). • Testosterone levels naturally decline as men age, yet men today are bombarded with advertising that urges them to treat “low T” or “low testosterone” (Jaret, 2014). Since 2001, prescriptions for testosterone have tripled. And prescription testosterone has some dangerous potential side effects, including adding Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 10 INTRODUCTION Opening the Conversation massive numbers of red blood cells to the bloodstream, shrinking testes, and increasing the risk of heart attacks (LaPuma, 2014). The above facts make it crystal clear that the stakes are high when it comes to gender. Communication as the Fulcrum of Change The stakes we’ve noted provide a compelling reason to work for changes in how we understand and embody gender. Communication is the heart of social change. Through communication, we can identify and challenge current cultural views that constrain individuals and create inequities. We rely on communication to define alternatives to the status quo and to persuade others to share our visions. Public discourse often sparks and guides collective efforts at political reform. For example, in the mid-1800s Elizabeth Cady Stanton and other early feminists galvanized support for the women’s rights movement through their eloquent speeches. More recently, students are leading the way in persuading women’s colleges to rethink policies that have excluded transgender students. One of the first challenges came in 2011 when students at Hollins, a women’s university in Virginia, challenged the school’s policy stating that any student who had hormone treatment, surgery, or changed her name as part of redefining her sex could no longer attend classes and could not graduate. As Hollins and other women’s colleges were debating whether to allow transgender students to matriculate, The Department of Education, in 2014, ruled that Title IX protects transgender students from discrimination (Feldman, 2014). A number of women’s colleges now admit and accommodate transgender students. Other kinds of communication also instigate change. Perhaps you use social media to circulate articles about gender inequalities, and as a result your friends see injustices they previously had not noticed. Maybe a teacher discusses sexual harassment with his class, and a student is empowered to bring charges against her supervisor who has been harassing her. You talk with your father about ways in which current leave policies disadvantage working mothers, and he persuades his company to revise its policies. Wherever there is change, we find communication. Through your interpersonal, social, and public communication, you can transform yourself and the society in which we jointly participate. Information is the foundation of making effective choices about what you believe and what you want to change. Reading Gendered Lives will provide you with a great deal of information that you can use to develop knowledgeable stands on gender issues. Then, you can make informed choices about what you believe and about the identity you wish to fashion for yourself. You may decide to change how you define yourself, or you may be satisfied with your identity and the existing gender arrangements in our culture. Either stance is principled if it is informed—but no stance has integrity if it is not based on sound information and serious reflection. Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Features of Gendered Lives 11 The Challenge of Studying Communication, Gender, and Culture Studying communication, gender, and culture involves us in perplexing and often painful questions about our society and our personal identities. You need courage to consider new ideas openly and to risk the turmoil of changing values and identities that are familiar. Further, with awareness comes responsibility. Once we are informed about gender and communication, we can no longer sit passively back as if they were not our concern. They are our concern, both because gender and communication affect each of us directly and because we are part of a collective world. Thus, how we act—or fail to act—influences our shared culture. Although studying communication, gender, and culture is disturbing, it can be very worthwhile. By questioning constructed inequality, we empower ourselves to do more than unthinkingly reproduce the cultural patterns we grew up with. Instead, we can assume active roles in creating personal and collective lives that are fairer, more humane, and infinitely more enriching than what might otherwise be possible. Features of Gendered Lives Four features distinguish this book and support the views we’ve just discussed. First, we include discussion of diverse classes, ethnicities, races, gender identities, and sexual orientations whenever research is available. For instance, the Exploring Gendered Lives box on page 7 identifies a range of ways in which cultures define gender and sexual identities. A second feature of this book is language that aims to include all readers. We use terms such as he and she and women and men in preference to he, mankind, and men. But inclusive language means more than including women; it also means using language that refuses to go along with cultural marginalization of any group. For instance, we refer to individuals in intimate relationships as partners rather than spouses, and we generally refer to committed relationships rather than marriages. The terms spouse, wife, husband, and marriage exclude many lesbians, gay men, and transgender, and intersex people because some states don’t recognize same-sex marriage. The terms spouse and marriage also exclude cohabiting partners who choose not to marry. A third feature of Gendered Lives is inclusion of diverse perspectives. We present not only research that reflects different views, but also student voices that reflect widely ranging experiences, values, and identities. In the pages that follow, you’ll meet a lot of students—some like you, some quite different. In many courses on gender and communication, students keep journals or write reflection papers that link class concepts with their personal lives. Many of our own students gave us permission to include their reflections in this book. In addition, students at other campuses around the country have written in response to previous editions of Gendered Lives, and some of their comments appear in this edition. We’ve tried Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 12 INTRODUCTION Opening the Conversation to return their generosity by including an array of individuals and viewpoints, including ones with which we personally disagree. In fact, including ideas with which we disagree, from both students and scholars, is necessary if this book is to reflect the variety of ideas about gender and communication that circulate in our culture. Hannah, a student from a northeastern college, makes a point in her commentary on this page. HANNAH When I was reading Gendered Lives, I had to keep reminding myself that you were presenting information and that not all points were your personal values and beliefs. I didn’t agree with all of your statements or the ideas of others, like the students in their commentaries, but I learned a lot about the ways others see gender. I also learned a lot about how I think about gender by seeing what ideas I agreed with and disagreed with. Hannah’s comment reflects open-mindedness, which fosters learning. As you read this book, we hope you will think about research findings and students’ voices and reflect on how they are similar to or different from your own beliefs and values. We have refrained from evaluating or interpreting the reflections that appear in this book. The students write clearly and eloquently, and we don’t want to muffle their voices with our analysis. Fourth, we encourage your active engagement. One way we do this is by asking you to think about issues both in the chapters and in questions that appear at the end of chapters. Second, we ask you to Take a Stand on issues presented in Exploring Gendered Lives boxes that appear in all chapters. Third, at the end of each chapter, we ask you to apply material in the chapter to your life. We hope you will embrace the challenge of engaging ideas in the chapters that follow. GENDER ONLINE The Organization for Research on Women and Communication (ORWAC) publishes the journal, Women’s Studies in Communication. You can read back issues of the journal online at ORWAC’s site: http://www.cios.org 1. Terms for online searches: “sex-cultural views of,” “feminism,” “hijras.” REFLECTION, DISCUSSION, AND ACTION 1. Using the authors’ self-descriptions as guidelines, consider how your identity influenced your choice to take this course, as well as how it may affect your perceptions of topics in the book and the course. Have you been privileged or disadvantaged by your race, class, sex, and sexual orientation? How have Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Recommended Resources 13 your privileges and disadvantages affected your opportunities, knowledge of issues, interests, abilities, goals, and so on? 2. How do you define feminism? Write your definition, and see if it changes during the course of reading this book and taking this class. 3. Interview two people who are from non-Western cultures. Ask them to explain what it means to be a man (or manly or masculine) and what it means to be a woman (or womanly or feminine) in their cultures. How do their cultures’ definitions of gender cohere with and depart from those in the United States? Ask them what they find most interesting or surprising about U.S. men and women. RECOMMENDED RESOURCES 1. Peggy McIntosh. (2007). White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack. In P. Andersen and P. H. Collins (Eds.), Race, Class, & Gender, 6th ed. (pp. 98–102). Belmont, CA: Thomson-Cengage. This is a classic article that raises awareness of privileges many people enjoy without being conscious of them. 2. Megan Seely. (2007). The F-Word. Introduction to Fight Like a Girl (pp. 1–14). New York: New York University Press. Seely is a young woman who asks why so many of her peers say, “I’m not a feminist, but.…” 3. Allan Johnson. (2006). Privilege, Power, and Difference, 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill. This is an engaging and accessible introduction to thinking about inequalities and how they harm all of us, including those who seem to benefit from them. Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 1 We are looking for permission to be more than our society tells us we are. —STARHAWK The Study of Communication, Gender, and Culture Knowledge Challenge: • How many sexes are there? • Do all males have the same sex chromosomes? • To whom are transgender people attracted? Google “male-female communication,” and you’ll find dozens of sites that offer advice on interacting with the “opposite sex.” If you had watched season 11 of America’s Next Top Model, you would have seen a transgender contestant named Isis King. Watch music videos, and you’ll see mini-dramas about gender dynamics in relationships such as in Beyonce’s “If I Were a Boy” or “Pretty Hurts.” The general public’s fascination with gender and communication is mirrored by college students’ interest. Around the United States and in other countries, many campuses cannot meet student demand for courses on gender and communication. This chapter introduces you to communication, gender, and culture as an area of study and defines key concepts that form the framework of this book. Communication, Gender, and Culture as an Area of Study Had you attended college in the early to mid-1980s, you would not have found a textbook like this one, and it’s highly unlikely you could have found a course such as the one this book accompanies. Today, most colleges and universities offer courses on gender largely because there is now an impressive base of research to inform courses. 14 Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Communication, Gender, and Culture as an Area of Study 15 Research on Gender, Communication, and Culture Research on gender comes from multiple fields including anthropology, communication, history, neuroscience, philosophy, psychology, sociology, and women’s studies. Scholars in these disciplines rely on a number of research methods. Quantitative research methods1 gather and analyze data that can be quantified. Three of the more common quantitative methods are descriptive statistics, surveys, and experiments. Descriptive statistics describe populations, proportions, and frequencies. They answer questions such as: How often do women and men interrupt in conversations? How much do men and women in the same professional positions earn? Surveys, which may be written or oral, ask people to report their feelings, thoughts, experiences, and so forth. They could ask women and men what they do with close friends or what kinds of online activities they prefer. Experiments are controlled studies that manipulate one thing (called an independent variable) to determine how it affects another thing (called a dependent variable). They test the impact of reading fashion magazines on women’s selfesteem and how a particular teaching method affects boys’ and girls’ learning. Qualitative research methods, sometimes called interpretive methods, aim to understand meanings that cannot be quantified. Two popular qualitative methods are textual analysis and ethnography. As the name implies, textual analysis involves studying communication texts, which may be written, oral, or nonverbal. Textual analyses have illuminated the meaning of speeches such as the Declaration of Sentiments, which was given at the first Women’s Rights Convention. Ethnography relies on extensive observation to discover what things mean to people. Ethnographic study has provided detailed descriptions of how gender is enacted in diverse cultures and of U.S. women’s and men’s flirting behaviors. Critical research methods identify and critique the means by which power relations are created or challenged. Critical research has given us insight into ways in which organizational structures and practices create work environments that women and minorities perceive as unwelcoming. Mixed research methods are exactly what the name implies—a combination of two or more of the methods described earlier. For example, a scholar might document the frequency (descriptive statistic) of men’s and women’s smiling in social situations and then interview men and women (qualitative method) to learn why they smile. Reasons to Learn about Communication, Gender, and Culture Learning about relationships among communication, gender, and culture serves three important goals. First, you will gain increased appreciation of complex ways in which cultural values and practices shape understandings and expectations of masculinity and femininity and men and women. Second, as you become more 1 Boldface terms appear in the glossary at the end of this book. Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 16 CHAPTER 1 The Study of Communication, Gender, and Culture EXPLORING GENDERED LIVES Communication Education Communication Monographs Communication Studies Communication and Critical Cultural Studies Gender and Society Journal of Applied Communication Research Journal of Cross-Cultural Research Journals That Feature Research on Gender and Communication Journal of Gender, Culture & Health Journal of Men’s Studies Journal of Social & Personal Relationships Men and Masculinities Sex Roles Sexuality and Culture Signs Women and Language Women’s Studies in Communication TAKE A STAND: Read one article focused on gender in one of the journals listed here. What did you learn as a result of reading the article? aware of ways cultural expectations of gender are communicated to you, you will more deeply understand your personal gender, both as it is now and as it might be if you choose to remake it. You will be empowered to think more critically about the extent to which you wish to identify with cultural prescriptions for gender. Third, studying communication, gender, and culture will strengthen your effectiveness as a communicator. Learning about general differences in women’s and men’s communication will enlarge your ability to appreciate and adapt to diverse communication styles. In addition, learning how your own communication does or doesn’t conform to prevailing cultural prescriptions for gender allows you to make informed choices about how you want to communicate in the future. Gender in a Transitional Era You probably don’t subscribe to your grandparents’ ideals of manhood and womanhood. You may believe that both women and men should be able to pursue careers and that both should be involved in homemaking and parenting. You are probably not surprised when a woman knows how to change a tire or when a man cooks a good meal. Yet, if you’re like most of your peers, there are also a number of gender issues about which you feel conflicted. • You may think that both parents should participate in child rearing but also assume that the mother, not the father, should be the primary caregiver during the early years of children’s lives. • You may support equal opportunity but still think that colleges and universities should be allowed to offer more scholarships to male athletes. • You may believe that gender is fluid but are unsure how to react when your roommate identifies as transgender. Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Differences between Women and Men 17 • You may think it doesn’t matter whether a man or woman in a heterosexual couple earns more but want the man in your own relationship to be the primary wage earner. TRACY The issue of women in combat really troubles me. I have a son who is 17 and a daughter who is 15. I don’t want either of them in combat, but I’ve always known my son could be in combat. Would I argue that my son should be and my daughter shouldn’t be? That’s like saying I value her life more than his. I can’t say that. When we grapple with issues like these, we realize that our attitudes aren’t always clear or wholly consistent. Many of us no longer accept all traditional views, yet we haven’t become comfortable with alternative views and their implications for our own identities and relationships. This makes our lives and our relationships interesting, unsettling—and sometimes very frustrating. MICHAEL The other day in class, we were talking about whether women should have combat duty. I’m really uncomfortable with where I stand on this, since I think one way, but I feel another. I do think women should have to serve just as much as men do. I’ve never thought it was right that they didn’t have to fight. And I think women are just as competent as men at most things and could probably be good soldiers. But then when I think about my mom, my sister, or my girlfriend being in the trenches, having to kill other people, or maybe being a prisoner who is tortured and assaulted, I just feel that’s wrong. It doesn’t seem right for women to be involved in killing when they’re the ones who give life. Then, too, I want to protect my girlfriend, sister, and mom from the ugliness and danger of war. But then, this other part of me says, “Hey, guy, you know that kind of protectiveness is a form of chauvinism.” I just don’t know where I stand on this except that I’m glad I don’t have to decide whether to send women into combat! Differences between Women and Men Are women and men really as different as pop psychologists proclaim? The answer is not a simple “yes” or “no.” Certainly, there are some differences between the sexes, but there are also many similarities among women and men. In addition, there is substantial variation within each sex as a result of experience, heredity, sexual orientation, race, economic class, and other factors. Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 18 CHAPTER 1 The Study of Communication, Gender, and Culture KATHERINE I am really skeptical of books that describe women and men as “opposite” sexes. They focus on a few ways that most women and most men are different. They totally ignore all of the ways that women and men are alike. Even worse is that they act like all women are the same and all men are the same. People are just such individuals that you can’t sum them up as “man” or “woman.” Katherine’s commentary is insightful. Terms such as women and men are troublesome because they imply that all women can be grouped into one category and all men can be grouped into another category. When we say, “Women’s communication is more personal than men’s,” the statement is true of most, but not all, women and men. Yet some women don’t engage in much personal talk, an...
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