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Believing Is Seeing: Biology as Ideology

Believing Is Seeing: Biology as Ideology. By Judith Lorber. Key Ideas:. The gender binary is a social construct that creates an artificial divide between ‘male’ and ‘female’ Qualities are then attributed to people

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Believing Is Seeing: Biology as Ideology

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  1. Believing Is Seeing: Biology as Ideology By Judith Lorber

  2. Key Ideas: • The gender binary is a social construct that creates an artificial divide between ‘male’ and ‘female’ • Qualities are then attributed to people • This divide leads people to behave in ways that fit their category, which causes gendered physical transformation

  3. Male/Female or Man/Womannot binary

  4. Sex/Gender are not pure categories • Intersex conditions • Reproductive success/activity does not define woman/man • Story of Thomas Beattie

  5. Sports • Women are genetically tested to establish eligibility to compete; men are not • Assumption is that men have an advantage • Argues sports as a cultural arena has glorified strength in males, makes assumptions about women’s abilities which creates double standard of rules/treatment.

  6. Fastest Male: Haile Gebrselassie, Berlin, Sept. 28, 2008, Time: 2:03:59 Fastest Female: Paula Radcliffe, London, April 13, 2003, Time: 2:15:25 Marathon Times

  7. Sports and Media • Media much more likely to cover men’s sports • Women athletes often depicted as fragile or sexy – strength considered unfeminine • Confluence of the above and companies’ willingness to sponsor events http://sportsjournalism.org/sports-media-news/continued-apathy-by-sports-media-toward-womens-sports-a-bigger-problem-than-first-meets-the-eye/

  8. Male athletes (even highly attractive ones) tend to be shown as strong and active . . . and their athleticism/power is emphasized.

  9. Female athletes tend to be shown as passive . . . and their sex appeal is emphasized.

  10. Research Problem • Research designs compare men and women on an established skill rather than looking at the skill itself and examining qualities of those who excel at it. • Within group differences often wider than between group differences • Lorber suggests grouping patterns of behavior and looking at individual similarities, rather than examining on the basis of constructed categories of sex, race, class, etc.

  11. Gender and Technology • Technology constructs gendered skills • Assumed these differential skills are ‘natural’; Lorber argues they are socially driven • Women do not associate themselves with science and math as careers (even now)

  12. Final Thoughts • Society causes gendered people • People buy into this, and incorporate these qualities into sense of identity and abilities • Deconstructing gender requires examining these abilities not along gender divides, but among humans as a whole

  13. Nike Ads targeted at Women

  14. Nike Ads targeted at Men

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