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What I Call The Social Constructionist

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When I reflect on chapter 5, what I call the social constructionist chapter, there are numerous concepts that I remember. Michael Kimmel says in the book that gender identity is socially constructed, our identities are a fluid assemblage of the meanings and behaviors that we construct from the values, images, and prescriptions we find in the world around us. In my opinion, Kimmel means that people behave in a way that they chose to, influenced by what they see in their surroundings, or the communities they live in. Additionally they behave the way they do because of fear of disapproval. These social constructs made by people. The idea of doing gender is caused by society. In the lecture, Kimmel’s definition meant identities are changeable …show more content…

In class we were taught gender exists on interactions and in the doing. This is very different from the sex role theory. Psychologists say you learn your role in society from childhood. Gendered identity in our society is usually seen as what we do for a job or career.
Institutions is where we work, go to school, our family home and communities we live in. What we mean by a gendered institution, is the structures that cause gender differences, and our attitudes when interacting with others, in those institutions. The sex role theory says institutions are gender neutral. The social constructionist concept says there is a division of labor between patriarchies, because men dominate those careers. The Iron lady was Britain’s Prime Minister. The impression you get from her, is that she was calculating. In lecture I was told she was tough on crime and Britain was not safe with her in charge. Therefore placing women in a gendered institution is not going to change the institution. Placing this women in charge did not make Britain greater.
According to the social constructionist concept people voluntarily chose to be an outlier or a normal person. The difference theories are deterministic because the facts about biology can’t be changed. In the difference theory, differences cause inequalities and in the social constructionist concept inequalities cause’s differences. Society is not open to the idea of gender equality at that

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