Deck 9: Constructing Gender and Sexuality

Question 1

In March 2008, The Advocate published an article by Thomas Beatie, describing his decision to become pregnant. Beatie had undergone sex reassignment surgery but had not had his ovaries or uterus removed, so he was still able to get pregnant when his wife Nancy proved unable to bear children. Despite this fact, he wrote, "To Nancy, I am her husband carrying our child. . . . I will be my daughter's father, and Nancy will be her mother." What does this tell you about gender?

A) Primary sex characteristics do not define gender for many people.
B) The transgender community has done away with gender.
C) The transgender community has accepted the principle of human sexual dimorphism.
D) Like many individuals within the transgender community, Thomas is both a trans man and a gay man.
E) Public displays of gender are more important than private displays.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

What two roles did the structuralist Talcott Parsons identify within the family?

A) conflicting and conciliatory
B) instrumental and expressive
C) interactionist and noninteractionist
D) biological and social
E) men's rights and pro-feminist

Answer 2

B

Question 3

The belief that the experiences of women and men differ as a result of differences in anatomy is called:

A) gender theory.
B) social lens theory.
C) transsexuality.
D) human sexual dimorphism.
E) social constructionism.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Sociologically, what is the best way for scientists to approach the nature vs. nurture debate?

A) by looking at the interaction between nature and nurture
B) by emphasizing the social nature of gender
C) by looking more closely at the biological origins of gender
D) by assuming that nature only matters for children's gender socialization
E) by looking for evidence that nature influences grooming and body modification

Question 5

What group of people is challenging contemporary society to broaden its definitions of sex and gender?

A) female engineers
B) female athletes
C) older men whose sex and gender largely match
D) transgendered people
E) housewives

Question 6

The family member who is task driven, breadwinning, and authoritative is taking the ____________ role.

A) expressive
B) patriarchal
C) constructionist
D) instrumental
E) essentialist

Question 7

According to conflict theory, why are women's contributions to family life devalued?

A) The resources provided by men are ultimately more valuable.
B) Juvenile delinquency and crime decline when both parents work.
C) When no one plays the expressive role, family life remains the same.
D) Women are entering the workforce in greater numbers.
E) As a social group, men attempt to maintain their dominant status.

Question 8

According to Talcott Parsons and other functionalists, which role are women better suited for?

A) the feminist role
B) the patriarchal role
C) the expressive role
D) the instrumental role
E) the mainstream role

Question 9

The roles, traits, and behaviors that are associated with a particular gender are called:

A) social learning.
B) instrumental roles.
C) a sexual continuum.
D) feminism.
E) gender identity.

Question 10

Why are doctors and parents so quick to seek a surgical "fix" for babies born intersexed?

A) Intersexed babies face serious health risks later in life.
B) Intersexed babies may die otherwise.
C) The prospect of an ambiguously gendered person seems threatening and disturbing.
D) Doctors and parents can always tell the sex a baby was meant to be.
E) It is impossible to change a baby's sex later in life.

Question 11

Some people suggest that women are better suited to be homemakers because they are naturally more caring and emotional than men. What perspective is being expressed in this statement?

A) an essentialist perspective
B) a constructionist perspective
C) a macro perspective
D) an interactionist perspective
E) a gender role socialization perspective

Question 12

How do sociologists define patriarchy?

A) female domination
B) gender equality
C) male domination
D) as the head of the household
E) as the leader of the country

Question 13

Most sociologists see gender as a social construction and acknowledge the possibility that male-female categories are not the only way of classifying individuals. This perspective is called:

A) a constructionist perspective.
B) an essentialist perspective.
C) a macro perspective.
D) biological determinism.
E) a gender role socialization perspective.

Question 14

People who see gender as immutable and deriving solely from biology are called:

A) essentialists.
B) social constructionists.
C) queer theorists.
D) structural functionalists.
E) globalists.

Question 15

The Vanatinai, a small group in New Guinea, grant women equal access to positions of prestige, power, and control over the means of production. What kind of society is this?

A) patriarchal
B) functionalist
C) essentialist
D) more pro-feminine than most
E) matriarchal

Question 16

In addition to who we are, gender identity is also about:

A) how we act.
B) our biological sex.
C) our hormones.
D) our genitalia.
E) our chromosomes.

Question 17

How many babies out of every thousand are born intersexed?

A) 100
B) 17
C) 35
D) 2
E) 10

Question 18

What do functionalists generally believe to be true about gender?

A) Some social roles are better suited to one gender than the other.
B) There are at least three complementary gender roles.
C) Men maintain control of the most valuable roles.
D) The current system of gender stratification is based on conflict.
E) Gender is constructed and maintained through everyday actions.

Question 19

All of the following are secondary sex characteristics, except:

A) facial hair, body hair, musculature.
B) internal reproductive organs.
C) genitals and gonads.
D) hormones and pituitary glands.
E) skin texture.

Question 20

How do most sociologists differentiate between sex and gender?

A) Sex is biological; gender is social.
B) Both relate to genetics, but hormones have a greater influence on gender.
C) Sex comes from DNA; gender comes from hormones.
D) Sex is genetic; gender is about primary and secondary sex characteristics.
E) Gender is biological; sex is social.

Question 21

Sociologists who examine the ways gender is constructed and maintained in our everyday lives tend to come from which school of social theory?

A) essentialism
B) symbolic interactionism
C) structural functionalism
D) conflict theory
E) feminism

Question 22

Who is most likely to be mocked by their peers for violating gender norms?

A) girls
B) minorities
C) overachievers
D) children for whom English is a second language
E) boys

Question 23

Which of the following disorders occurs more often in women than in men?

A) heart disease
B) cancer
C) spinal meningitis
D) type 1 diabetes
E) depression

Question 24

Why do men usually make more money than women?

A) Men are naturally predisposed to competition.
B) Men tend to have higher levels of testosterone, which gives them an edge in the business world.
C) Employers understand that men are usually their families' breadwinners.
D) Men are more likely than women to spend their family's money.
E) The values and norms of contemporary society encourage men to make more money.

Question 25

What is one of the ways "Agnes," a person born with male genitals and raised as a boy before undergoing sex reassignment surgery, managed to pass as female while in public?

A) She made brief, meaningless interactions with others.
B) She learned to show deference to her male boss.
C) She rejected the expectations of her boyfriend and his family members.
D) She dressed exclusively in long, flowing dresses and wore wigs.
E) Agnes was never able to actually pass as female.

Question 26

Which of the following is NOT one of the four major agents of socialization?

A) peers
B) schools
C) families
D) the criminal justice system
E) the media

Question 27

The process of learning behavior and meanings through social interaction is called:

A) social learning
B) the rules of beauty
C) sexual orientation
D) media consumption
E) essentialist gender identity

Question 28

According to the text, how would a conflict theorist, such as Friedrich Engels, feel that capitalists benefit from a patriarchal system?

A) Women serve as a cheap source of emergency labor.
B) Men work harder.
C) Women do the work of reproducing for the labor force.
D) Capitalism forces women to enter the workforce.
E) Men serve as a cheap source of labor.

Question 29

Which of the following is not true regarding how schools socialize children into gender roles?

A) Textbooks often contain sexist language.
B) Women are rarely treated as appropriate objects of study.
C) Very little gender role socialization takes place in elementary school.
D) Books by women are rarely assigned.
E) Women tend to be concentrated in the lower levels of the teaching profession.

Question 30

From a symbolic interactionist perspective, what is the most important way schools socialize children into their gender identities?

A) through interactions between teachers and parents
B) through conflict theory
C) by exposing children to mass media
D) by punishing children for minor violations of gender norms on the playground
E) through interactions between teachers and students

Question 31

At what age do babies become aware of their own gender?

A) at birth
B) by the age of two
C) when they begin attending school
D) by six weeks after birth
E) when they start walking

Question 32

How do single fathers' incomes compare to those of single mothers?

A) They are about the same.
B) Single fathers make more money in urban, but not in rural, areas.
C) Single mothers with only one child make more money, but not mothers with more children.
D) Single fathers make considerably more money.
E) Single mothers make considerably more money.

Question 33

Why don't girls, who tend to get better grades than boys, translate their advantage into material success after graduation?

A) They tend to flaunt authority.
B) They are typically credited for hard work rather than intellectual ability.
C) They are more likely to misbehave.
D) They are poorly socialized.
E) They don't work as hard as males.

Question 34

At what point in children's school careers do gender norms become firmly established?

A) by first grade
B) by their sophomore year of high school
C) by fifth grade
D) shortly after they enter school
E) before the end of high school

Question 35

How do teachers treat boys and girls differently?

A) Boys are less likely than girls to be called on in class.
B) Boys are more likely than girls to be punished for misbehaving.
C) Boys receive less attention than girls.
D) Boys are given less praise than girls for the intellectual quality of their work.
E) Boys are naturally better at math and science, so teachers call on them more.

Question 36

What sort of sex role behavior is portrayed by the media?

A) The media typically portray extreme gender stereotypes.
B) The media tend to portray a fairly gender-neutral world.
C) Television is highly stereotypical, but the same cannot be said for other forms of mass media.
D) Mass media aimed at teenagers contain more stereotypes than media directed at other age groups.
E) The mass media teach children that women should be assertive, strong, and analytical.

Question 37

Why are female runaways more likely to be reported as missing by their parents?

A) Girls are seen as weak and needing protection.
B) Girls are more likely to run away at a younger age.
C) Girls are more likely to go further when they run away.
D) Boys seldom run away.
E) Parents are generally happier when boys are out of their home.

Question 38

In terms of health and life expectancy, what is "the great equalizer"?

A) smoking
B) handguns
C) Title IX
D) college education
E) immigration

Question 39

When does gender role socialization begin?

A) at birth
B) around the age of two
C) around puberty
D) when children begin attending school
E) before birth

Question 40

For what category of crime are women more likely to be arrested than men?

A) burglary
B) embezzlement
C) blackmail
D) prostitution
E) theft

Question 41

Why might gay and lesbian groups be predisposed to believe that homosexuality has a genetic origin?

A) They believe that sexuality is fluid and changes over the course of a person's lifetime.
B) They want to emphasize the importance of difference.
C) They believe that a person's sexuality is closely related to his relationship with his mother.
D) If sexual orientation is something one is born with, then discrimination is much less acceptable.
E) Gays and lesbians are predisposed to believe in science.

Question 42

Approximately what percentage of inmates in correctional institutions are men?

A) 62.5 percent
B) 90 percent
C) 10 percent
D) 47 percent
E) 50 percent

Question 43

What was the first network television show to feature an onscreen gay male kiss?

A) Ellen
B) Queer Eye for the Straight Guy
C) Will and Grace
D) Dawson's Creek
E) The Homosexuals

Question 44

In 1913 Rebecca West said that whenever she expressed sentiments that differentiated her from a doormat or a prostitute she was called a:

A) lesbian.
B) social constructionist.
C) Marxist.
D) bitch.
E) feminist.

Question 45

What criticism do third-wave feminists commonly level against the first two waves of feminism?

A) They marginalized the concerns of women of color.
B) They included too many men.
C) They were too pushy.
D) They focused too much on jobs and the economy.
E) They compromised too much.

Question 46

In the workplace, aggressive men are often considered to be "go-getters," but aggressive women are often considered to be "bitches." This is an example of:

A) labeling theory.
B) the double standard.
C) feminism.
D) romanticism.
E) male liberationism.

Question 47

Which of the following best defines homophobia?

A) people who identify with a sex they were not born into
B) the dread of being in close quarters with homosexuals
C) violence directed at gays and lesbians
D) the unusual and deviant behavior engaged in by gays, lesbians, and bisexuals
E) people who are sexually attracted to both men and women

Question 48

Positions of power and authority, like "chairman" and "policeman," often emphasize the male gender in their names. Why does this matter?

A) The names imply that one gender is more suited for a particular job than the other.
B) The names are rude and inconsiderate.
C) The names are confusing, as more and more women are entering these professions.
D) It doesn't really matter what words are used to describe a position.
E) The names help deter men from entering into incompatible fields.

Question 49

One reason women are more likely than men to live in poverty is the expense of child care. How can this connection between poverty rates and child-care costs be explained?

A) Women are more likely to be responsible for the "second shift."
B) There are more single women than single men with sole financial responsibility for their children.
C) Married couples tend to divide their expenses, and women are more likely to be responsible for child care.
D) Women tend to take the expressive role.
E) Women are more willing to pay for child care.

Question 50

In 1962 the future United States senator Elizabeth Dole was told that she shouldn't be attending Harvard Law School. Why did her critics believe this?

A) She hadn't received very good grades as an undergraduate.
B) They believed that she was admitted only because she was female.
C) She had children to raise.
D) They felt she was taking an opportunity away from a man.
E) They thought that she could do more for feminism by working to change the system than by working within it.

Question 51

According to the pro-feminist men's movement, which isn't a reason men should support feminism?

A) They should out of fairness to women.
B) Men's lives, as well as women's, are constrained by gender roles.
C) The ideology of male superiority is a burden.
D) Men would be happier if society were less sexist.
E) It will improve their relationships with the women in their lives.

Question 52

How is "hooking up" as a social system different from more traditional dating patterns?

A) There really isn't much of a difference.
B) In "hook ups," physical intimacy comes before getting to know each other.
C) "Hook ups" are just one night stands and don't lead to relationships.
D) "Hooking up" is seen as more meaningful than traditional dating.
E) Traditional dating is a faster way to get to know someone.

Question 53

Women are more likely than men to live in poverty, a situation often referred to as:

A) the wages of sin.
B) the double standard.
C) the feminization of poverty.
D) third-wave feminism.
E) the men's movement.

Question 54

What issue is first-wave feminism most strongly associated with?

A) sexual harassment
B) women's suffrage
C) education and equality in the classroom
D) equal opportunity in the workplace
E) reproductive rights

Question 55

Social movements organized around a belief in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes are called:

A) sexism.
B) interactionism.
C) men's liberationism.
D) queer theory.
E) feminism.

Question 56

How do men and women experience gender harassment differently in the military?

A) Men never report being harassed.
B) Men are more likely to be harassed by their fellow trainees, while women are more likely to be harassed by their drill sergeants.
C) Men are more likely to be harassed by their drill sergeants, while women are more likely to be harassed by their fellow trainees.
D) Women are most often harassed by their superior officers.
E) Men are more likely to report being the object of unwanted gender harassment.

Question 57

Why might some college students prefer the term "hooking up" to similar terms like "booty call" or "friends with benefits"?

A) "Hooking up" sounds cooler than the other terms.
B) "Hooking up" implies more of a connection than do either of the other terms.
C) "Hooking up" is something that only students do, so they're more likely to embrace the term.
D) "Hooking up" is more ambiguous than the other terms.
E) "Hooking up" has been used in the media more than the other terms.

Question 58

In the opening pages of The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan wrote about a problem that "laid buried, unspoken, for many years in the minds of American women." What was this problem?

A) Women didn't have the right to vote.
B) Unrealistic beauty standards were imposed upon women by the media.
C) Women experienced dissatisfaction with traditional gender roles.
D) Female genital mutilation was a problem around the world.
E) Women in western countries worried about women in Third World countries.

Question 59

A belief in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes is called:

A) conflict theory.
B) feminism.
C) social constructionism.
D) interactionism.
E) Darwinism.

Question 60

Which group argues that, as a result of feminism, men suffer discrimination?

A) the Republican Party
B) the men's rights movement
C) third-wave feminists
D) gay and lesbian groups
E) the Masons

Question 61

The indie rock musician Anthony Hegarty has always identified as transgendered and has been a cross-dressing performance artist but has never taken medical steps to change his sex. During one tour, he performed a live cover of "Crazy in Love," originally by the pop superstar Beyoncé. At the end of one performance of the song, he laughed and said, "Who says I'm not a teenage girl." While he might have been joking, his words suggest that:

A) primary sex characteristics always have a stranglehold on our gender identities, determining how we will be classified and how we classify ourselves.
B) gender is biological in origin.
C) although gender is socially constructed, our gender identities are, by our teen years, almost set in stone.
D) society develops the gender roles that will be most useful in maintaining equilibrium.
E) some individuals' sense of self and gender identity differ from their physical sex.

Question 62

In 2006 New York City announced that it was moving forward with a plan to allow transgender residents to change the sex listed on their birth certificates if they had lived in their adopted gender for at least two years; no physiological change or medical authorization would be required. How is New York City defining gender?

A) New York is separating gender from sex.
B) New York is treating gender as something immutable, or something you are born with.
C) New York is accepting the principle of human sexual dimorphism.
D) New York is taking an essentialist approach.
E) New York is assuming that gender is stable over time.

Question 63

Some contemporary feminists have accused second-wave feminists of being essentialists. They say that women's groups, slogans like "I am woman, hear me roar," and quotes like Germaine Greer's "I do think women could make politics irrelevant by a kind of spontaneous cooperative action" repeat the essentialist logic that created patriarchy in the first place. How are these things essentialist?

A) They pay too much attention to sexual orientation and to transsexuals.
B) They fail to address the lingering traces of inequality that still exist.
C) They tell women to adopt the instrumental role.
D) They treat gender as an unambiguous two-category system.
E) They focus on the social construction of gender roles.

Question 64

For many years, Saturday Night Live ran a series of skits about a character named "Pat." The premise of each skit was that no one could tell if Pat was male or female, and ingenious plots to determine his or her gender all failed. The humor in these skits is based on the fact that:

A) men have historically had access to most of society's material resources and privileges; consequently, they generally seek to maintain their dominant status.
B) gender identity is so important to our social selves that we can barely interact with anyone without first determining that person's gender.
C) if private property were abolished, there would no longer be powerful interests forcing women into a domestic role.
D) Pat is trying to avoid being classified as a woman, because expressive and instrumental roles may be complementary, but the social rewards for filling them are far from equal.
E) transsexuals are challenging old ideas about the relationship between sex and gender.

Question 65

In the introduction to a paper on gender, the sociologist Rae Blumberg said that the central principle behind gender in our society is "remember the golden rule: he who has the gold makes the rules." What kind of theorist is Blumberg?

A) one who focuses on language and interaction
B) a third-wave feminist
C) a conflict theorist
D) a functionalist
E) a symbolic interactionist

Question 66

If a woman feels that she always needs to act cheerful and look her best when her husband gets home from work because he has a stressful job and needs her help to unwind, then she is:

A) living outside the gender dichotomy.
B) taking on the instrumental role.
C) passing as female.
D) taking on the expressive role.
E) a second-wave feminist.

Question 67

If you hear someone say that "real men don't eat quiche," what are they talking about?

A) functionalism
B) gender
C) sex
D) family socialization
E) the second shift

Question 68

The Intersex Society of North America recommends that "Surgeries done to make the genitals look 'more normal' should not be performed until a child is mature enough to make an informed decision for herself or himself." Normally, doctors would always try to involve a patient in her treatment, so why is this advice necessary?

A) There are serious health risks associated with being born intersexed that must always be addressed immediately.
B) So few people are born intersexed that no one knows about them.
C) In our society, the prospect of an ambiguously sexed person seems so threatening that surgical procedures are used long before a child is old enough to know what's happening.
D) Intersex is based on secondary, not primary, sex characteristics, and these won't develop until later in life.
E) Nature almost always gives hints as to which sex a child belongs in.

Question 69

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, replacing a housewife with paid laborers would cost at least $100,000 per year. How could this be interpreted according to conflict theory?

A) The instrumental role is more valuable than the expressive role.
B) Domestic work is a highly functional adaptation that produces gender equality within a family.
C) Gender identity is so important to our social selves that we cannot determine anyone's role in the household without first determining their gender.
D) Men have a great deal to lose if gender segregation disappears.
E) Gender inequality is mostly produced and reproduced through interaction.

Question 70

A little girl notices that, whenever both of her parents are in the car, her father is always driving. From this she deduces that women should be passive and men should be active. What is this process called?

A) penis envy
B) expressive work
C) transgender
D) social learning
E) gender indoctrination

Question 71

When parents use a sonogram to find out the sex of their baby and only start decorating the nursery after learning the sex, it is an example of:

A) gender socialization.
B) gender and language.
C) conflict theory.
D) passing.
E) feminism.

Question 72

When a man is angry at the amount of alimony his ex-wife receives, even though she didn't earn any money when they were married, he reminds us that:

A) domestic work is unskilled and instinctive.
B) families are often a source of instability and social problems.
C) the expressive role tends to be better rewarded than the instrumental role.
D) women have managed to gain equality through legal means and now have at least as much power as men.
E) the social rewards for filling the expressive and instrumental roles are not equal.

Question 73

Sociologists who study gender in rural areas have noticed that, while everyone in a family has to work on the farm, there is only one person, usually a male, called the "farmer"-the position with the most prestige. This means that rural areas are:

A) constructionist.
B) guilty of forcing women to work the "second shift."
C) relatively gender neutral compared to urban areas.
D) patriarchal.
E) feminist.

Question 74

Margaret Mead spent much of her career documenting the ways in which other cultures had gender roles that differed, sometimes radically, from those of twentieth-century America. Why does this matter?

A) It shows that the American version of gender roles is the most advanced in the world.
B) It shows that aggression is patterned by biological factors, which demonstrates that there is an essential unity to each category, male and female.
C) It shows that the meaning of masculinity and femininity differs in different societies, which demonstrates that our version of gender is not naturally occurring.
D) It shows that the physical environment determines gender.
E) It shows that gender is either male or female from birth to death and that there are no other options.

Question 75

Nineteenth-century explorers and missionaries described Native Americans who were neither male nor female, but somehow both. What did they call them?

A) transsexuals
B) berdaches
C) transvestites
D) queers
E) homosexuals

Question 76

Sometimes transgendered individuals are annoyed when their genders are treated as a matter of "performance" and not as "natural" like other people's genders. This is annoying because:

A) in reality, there is no element of "performance" to transgendered people's genders.
B) transgendered people are the only ones who have to perform in this way, and it's condescending and rude to emphasize difference.
C) most people enact gender in the same way transgendered people do.
D) transgendered people have to suffer much more discrimination than everyone else.
E) transgendered people have such radically different genders from everyone else that no one understands their genders.

Question 77

Medical research has demonstrated that individuals with higher levels of testosterone are more assertive, dominant, and competitive. However, as the social psychologist Allan Mazur reported, testosterone levels rose in chess players before a match and then rose again in the match's winner, but fell in the loser. What does this suggest about the origin of gender?

A) Hormones play a much larger role in gender than is usually acknowledged.
B) Nature is the most important factor in determining gender.
C) Gender is completely social in origin, and bodies are simply arbitrary vessels for society to guide.
D) Gender is a product of economic interactions and the drive for scarce resources.
E) Gender comes from an interaction between nature and nurture.

Question 78

In The Mismeasure of Women, the social psychologist Carol Tavris argues that there is nothing "universal and nonvarying . . . in the natures of men and women." If you agree with her, you would have to reject:

A) human sexual dimorphism.
B) queer theory.
C) symbolic interactionism.
D) conflict theory.
E) second-wave feminism.

Question 79

Homer Simpson, a character on the TV show The Simpsons, has a wife who stays home to take care of the children while he works, but he is often responsible for disciplining the children when they are particularly bad. Even if this is all that you know about the show, you know that Homer:

A) is a symbolic interactionist.
B) can be best explained by queer theory.
C) contributes to the feminization of poverty.
D) has taken the instrumental role.
E) is, by definition, sexist.

Question 80

In the 1970s, after the publication of Iron John, many middle-aged men went on male-bonding retreats, learned to cry, shared their feelings, and learned to be different kinds of men, which demonstrates that:

A) masculinity is more or less frozen and unchanging.
B) gender socialization is a lifelong process.
C) families are the most important element of socialization.
D) boys are more likely to get in trouble by misbehaving and therefore have distanced themselves from emotional responses.
E) gender is still largely based on hormones and neurotransmitters.