Download Study Guide, Exam 3

Study Guide, Exam 2, SOCY1001 Spring Semester 2013
Prof. Hunter
****note that the exams contain questions from the Witt textbook,
recitation readings/discussion and lecture.
**highlights are especially central topics – but it’s important that your knowledge cover the entire study guide!
Chapter 12: Gender & Sexuality

Why does Witt open this chapter with excerpts from Half the Sky?

What are “quotidian cruelties” and what do they have to do with gender?

Can you define sex? gender? Why do sociologists find the concept of gender useful? In what ways is the
distinction complicated?

What are primary sex characteristics? Examples? Secondary sex characteristics? Examples?

What is the “dimorphic” model of sex? What is gender polarization? Examples? How are these two concepts
related?

Consider the SOCThink box on page 293 -- is shaving legs a rite of passage among American women? Why or why
not?

Can you explain the following statement --- People of the same sex vary in the extent to which they meet their
society’s gender expectations.

What is illustrated by the lists of gender norm violations presented on page 293?

Why did Harvard not formally admit women to its undergraduate program until the early 1970s? How does this
illustrate the “social construction” of gender?

What are gender roles? (refer back to definition of “status” and “roles” from earlier in the semester and think
about as related to gender)

How are masculinity and femininity related to Sociology? Can you define them? Give examples of characteristics
reflecting these as socially constructed within contemporary U.S. culture.

What are “gender displays”? Can you give examples? How does this social process relate to the dramaturgical
model?

What is gender role socialization? How does it happen? Is it related to homophobia? How?

As related to masculinity and femininity, can you define women’s gender roles and men’s gender roles? In
Sociological terms, what happens when someone violates a gender norm?

What does body weight, and satisfaction with body weight, have to do with gender role socialization (see “going
global”)? How might cross-cultural variation shed light on this association?

Why is the film “Killing Us Softly” of relevance to our study of gender?

What does the looking glass self have to do with gender?

Do gender roles constrain both men and women? If so, how? If not, why not?

Can you give some examples of how socialization operates to teach people society’s gender expectations? What
are agents of socialization and how do they influence our perception of gender norms? What examples did
Professor Hunter offer in lecture and how do they illustrate this point? Can you give other examples?

What does the “commercialization” of gender ideals mean? Can you give examples from lecture and the
readings?

Does gender vary across cultures? In what ways? Does this illustrate the social construction of gender? If so,
how?

Is gender related to inequality? If so, how do you know?

In what ways is gender related to the potential to be an “instrumental leader” or an “expressive leader”?

Focusing on the US, can you describe patterns of women’s labor force participation? How do these patterns also
reflect the social construction of gender?

What is the glass ceiling and how might it relate to the social construction of gender?

How does income vary by gender? The association between home and work? What is the second shift?

Is there an explanation for gender inequality in pay for the same job? (information from both lecture and the text
will be useful here)

How does political representation vary by gender? Voting?

“Women grow half of the world’s food but rarely own land.” (Witt) How does this reflect gender inequality across
cultures?

What is the feminization of poverty and what does it have to do with the social construction of gender?

What is sexism? Examples? Feminism? Examples? As related to the video shown in lecture, what does the
typical “person on the street” think about feminism? Same as Sociological perspective?

What is discrimination (as related to gender)? Institutional discrimination (as related to gender)?

Can you describe women’s movements and feminism since the mid-1800s?

What is sexuality as distinct from gender? What does Witt mean by the “social construction of sexuality?”

In what ways is sexuality linked to identity?

What is sexual orientation? Can you give examples?

What is heteronormativity and it what ways is it socially constructed? What are the implications of
heteronormativity?

What distinctions exist in relationship values related to gender and sexual identity?

What type of research has been done on sexuality?

What are the central points of this week’s recitation assignment’s reading?
Deviance, Conformity and Social Control

Why is Venkatesh’s research highlighted in this chapter’s introductory section? What insight does it offer with
regard to deviance?

In Sociological terms, what is social control? Can you give examples? What does social control have to do with
norms?

What are sanctions? Can you give examples?

How do Sociologists define conformity? Obedience? Can you give example?

Why is Milgram’s experiment used as an example in the chapter? What ethical implications does it have? How
might social structure be related to “performance” in Milgram’s experiment?

What is the difference between formal and informal social control?

Why is binge drinking used as an example in this chapter? Discuss in Sociological terms.

What is a law? What is control theory? What is the association between the two? Can you give examples?

In Sociological terms, what is deviance? Can you give examples?

What is stigma? How is this related to deviance?

Why is the issue of eating disorders used as an example in this chapter?

What is crime, in Sociological terms? How does this relate to deviance? Is all criminal behavior deviant?

Is all deviant behavior criminal?

What are index crimes? Can you describe trends in crime? Limitations of crime statistics?

What is a victimization survey?

What is white-collar crime? Can you give examples?

What about victimless crimes? Are they deviant? Can you give examples?

What about international crimes – can you give examples of transnational crimes? Describe international crime
rates? What is anomie and what does it have to do with criminal behavior and deviance?

What are some sociological perspectives on crime and deviance? Can you clearly describe Durkheim’s
perspective? Merton’s? Give examples?

What about deviance as related to interpersonal interaction and local context? What is cultural transmission?
Differential association? Social disorganization theory? Labeling theory? Societal-reaction approach?

What do power and inequality have to do with deviance? Can you relate aspects of social structure (race, class,
gender) to the issues covered in this chapter?

Why do most people abide by norms?

Can you give examples of behavior that is perceived as deviant within some groups but not others? What about
behaviors that used to be deviant but are no longer so today?

What does socialization have to do with deviance?

How does the U.S. rank in incarceration rates as compared to other nations? How might you explain these
differences?

What is the functionalist perspective on deviance? What does Durkheim have to say about deviance?