1. The Study of Communication, Gender & Culture
Chapter 1

2. Research on Gender, Comm., & Culture
Classes widespread only last 20 years
First handbook of research on gender and communication – 2006
Learn more at: RelatedProducts.nav?prodId=Book &currTree=Subjects&level1=K0 0&level2=K60

3. Research on Gender, Comm., & Culture
Research on gender from range of fields
Communication
Anthropology
History
Philosophy
Psychology
Sociology

4. Studying Communication, Gender, & Culture
Learning about communication, gender, and culture:
Enhances appreciation of ways culture influences views

5. Research on Gender, Comm., & Culture
Quantitative research methods
Data that can be quantified and analyzed
Descriptive statistics
Surveys
Experiments

6. Research on Gender, Comm., & Culture
Qualitative research methods/ interpretive methods
Understand nature of meaning or experiences
Textual analysis
Ethnography

7. Research on Gender, Comm., & Culture
Critical research methods
Identify and challenge inequities and problems

8. Learn About Comm., Gender, & Culture
Learning about communication, gender, and culture:
Enhances appreciation of cultural complexities
Enhances insight to your own gender

9. Learn About Comm., Gender, & Culture
Learning about communication, gender, and culture:
Strengthens effectiveness as communicator

10. Gender in a Transitional Era
Probably don’t prescribe to grandparents’ ideals
Likely are confused about gender issues

11. Gender in a Transitional Era
On one level
Think women and men equal
On another level
May hold traditional values
Live in a transitional era

12. Differences between Women & Men
Difficult to find language to discuss patterns of communication
Women and men troublesome
Imply all can be grouped together

13. Differences between Women & Men
Essentializing
Tendency to reduce to characteristics assume are essential in every member of category
Presume all members of sex alike

14. Differences between Women & Men
Essentializing
Obscures range of individual characteristics
Book’s generalizations do not imply essentializing

15. Gender, Culture, & Communication
Sex, gender, sexual orientation, culture, communication interlinked
Cannot study one without understanding others

16. Sex Sex = designation based on biology
Gender = socially constructed and expressed
Sex and gender usually go together
Can be inconsistent

17. Sex Male or female based on external genitalia and internal sex organs
Genitalia and sex markers determined by chromosomes

18. Sex Y chromosome determines how fetus develops Females usually have XX
Males usually have XY

19. Sex
Occasional variation XO
XXX, XXY, XYY
XY and XX

20. Sex All have cells with at least one X Males typically have one X
More vulnerable to X-linked recessive conditions

21. Sex Some born with biological characteristics of each sex
Traditionally called hermaphrodites
Today intersexed preferred
Learn more at:

22. Sex Hormones influence development Fetuses with Y bathed in androgens
Development of male sex organs
Fetuses without Y - fewer androgens
Development of female sex organs

23. Sex Female fetus may be exposed to excessive progesterone
May not develop female genitalia
Male fetus may be deprived of progesterone
Male genitalia may not develop

24. Sex Influence of hormones continues throughout lifetime
Males more sensitive to hormonal activity
Biology influences how develop but doesn’t determine behavior or personality

25. Gender Gender Neither innate nor necessarily stable Defined by society
Expressed by individuals as they interact with others and media

26. Gender Gender changes over time Born male or female (sex)
Learn to act masculine and/or feminine (gender)

27. Gender
Gender identity:
Person’s own identification as male or female

28. Gender Gender depends on society’s values, In America
Masculine = strong, successful, rational, emotionally controlled
Feminine = attractive, nurturing, deferential, expressive

29. Gender
From infancy, encouraged to learn how to embody gender that society prescribes

30. Gender
Gender grows out of cultural ideas that stipulate social meaning and expectations
Society’s views permeate public and private life
See as normal, natural, right

31. Gender Not passive recipients
Make choices to accept, modify, or reject
Views challenged by people who define themselves as trans or gender queer

32. Gender Meanings of gender also changed by: Personal communication
Role models
Interactions with friends
Reciprocal relationship between communication and cultural views

33. Gender Uphold or remake meanings of masculinity or femininity
1970s – androgyny coined
Androgynous individuals embody qualities considered both feminine and masculine

34. Gender Meanings of gender can vary across cultures:
New Guinea – three genders
Arapesh – all feminine
Mundugumor – all aggressive
Tchambuli – gender reversal

35. Gender Body ideals for women socially constructed
Current Western culture values thinness

36. Gender 1950s – fuller-figures preferred
See photos of Marilyn Monroe at:
Some cultures regard heavier women as beautiful

37. Gender Some cultures view person’s gender as changeable
Some Native American groups – more than two genders
These individuals esteemed

38. Gender In U.S., gender varies across racial-ethnic groups
African American women more assertive
African American men more communal

39. Gender Social meaning of gender varies over time
Prior to Industrial Revolution – family and work intertwined
Industrial Revolution – division into spheres of work and home
Femininity and masculinity redefined

40. Gender Meaning changes over time
Social context changes and affects sense of identity
Relational concept
Femininity and masculinity make sense in relation
As meanings of one changes – so do meanings of other

41. Beyond Sex & Gender Can also define self in terms of:
Sexual orientation
Transgendered
Transsexual
Society assumes connections between these categories

42. Beyond Sex & Gender Sexual orientation
Preference for romantic and sexual partners
Heterosexual
Gay
Lesbian
Bisexual

43. Beyond Sex & Gender
Other cultures’ views of sexual orientation challenge U.S. views
Sambia in Melanesia
Ancient Greece
Victorian society

44. Beyond Sex & Gender Changing views of gender and sex
Intersexed individuals
Biological characteristics of male and female

45. Beyond Sex & Gender Transgendered individuals
Biological sex inconsistent with identity
Often dress and adopt behaviors of gender with which identify

46. Beyond Sex & Gender
See the trailer from the movie Boys Don’t Cry (R-rated):
v=aOarssJWHhI

47. Beyond Sex & Gender Transsexual individuals
Surgery and/or hormonal treatments
Posttransition males to females
Posttransition females to males

48. Beyond Sex & Gender MTF – Deidre McCloskey FTM – Thomas Beatie
Gave birth to a child

49. Beyond Sex & Gender Cross-dressers/transvestites
Enjoy wearing clothing of other sex
Varying motivations
Majority biological, heterosexual males, attracted to women

50. Beyond Sex & Gender
Transgendered, transsexed, and intersexed people challenge dualities

51. Culture
Culture = structures, institutions, practices that reflect and uphold social order
Upheld by defining certain groups, values, expectations, as good

52. Culture
Surrounded by communication that announces social views of gender
Women give up name in marriage
Judicial system
Western culture is patriarchal

53. Culture Messages that reinforce culture views pervade lives
Seldom pause to reflect
Take for granted
Don’t question
Learning to reflect empowers
Increases freedom to choose

54. Communication Communication is dynamic Continually changes, evolves
Process
No beginnings or endings

55. Communication is Systemic
More than context affects meaning
All aspects of communication are interlinked
Influenced by how we feel
Time of day, etc. may influence

56. Communication is Systemic
Largest system affecting communication is culture
Societies’ views of men and women change over time
Systems interact – each part affects all others

57. Communication is Systemic
Communication has two levels:
Content level of meaning
Literal meaning
Relationship level of meaning
Tell how to interpret content and how communicators see themselves in relationship

58. Meanings Created through Interaction with Symbols
Humans symbol-using creatures
Have to think to figure out what symbol means
Symbols can be ambiguous
More than one meaning

59. Meanings Created through Interaction with Symbols
Significance of communication not in words themselves
Communicating increases meanings

60. Meanings Created through Interaction with Symbols
Verbal and nonverbal behaviors not neutral
Meaning arises from interpretation

61. Meanings Created through Interaction with Symbols
Differences in interpretation are sources of misunderstanding
Can become more effective:
Ask for clarification
Check to see how others are interpreting us