The topic that myself and my partner investigated was ：主題：我和我的伙伴了

1、Amy Cooper Tutorial Facilitation Report Tutor: Rhoda WilkieThe topic that myself and my partner investigated was essentially how does one become a man or a woman? We were looking at why we adopt a particular gender and identity and the ways in which we, successfully or not, attempt this. Our main qu

2、estion was Is gender socially constructed or is it something that we do? This is a complex question and rather than attempt to tackle it as one question we split it into two sub-questions. I focused on the ways that gender is socially constructed and my partner (Alan), concentrated on the elements r

3、elevant to doing gender. We hoped that by tackling the question in this way it would give the tutorial group a comprehensive overview of both elements of the question. Having said this most of the tutorial time was dedicated to the idea of doing gender as we believed this was the most complex of the

4、 two issues raised and the group would therefore benefit from spending longer on this area. The tutorial began with a brief presentation by me highlighting the ways in which gender can be socially constructed via the socialisation process. This was followed by handing out pictures to the class of wh

5、at we considered masculine men and feminine women to look like. Following this, Alan talked in more depth about the concept of doing gender, posing questions to the group as he did so. The aim of doing this was to keep the attention of the class and to try and engage them rather than just giving the

6、m a presentation. The final part of the tutorial focused on a group based activity. The tutorial group was split into two smaller groups and each group had to discuss a time when they had engaged in passing. This involves adopting certain characteristics in order to pass off an identity that it is n

7、ot considered your own. My partner and myself considered the adoption of this technique to be the key point when discussing doing gender. After carrying out further reading surrounding the subject I believe that this is a complex subject and the question Is gender socially constructed or is it somet

8、hing that we do? is one that requires careful consideration. I do not believe that our gender identity is simply a matter of one or the other but rather a mixture of the two. We are socialised into one gender and following this we learn the appropriate ways in which to act in correspondence to this

9、gender. Should the gender we are socialised into not correspond with the gender we wish to be, we again learn the appropriate ways in which to do the gender identity we want to portray. Gender can be socially constructed via the socialisation process. This is the term for the process through which c

10、hildren are moulded into social beings who have adopted specific norms and values and are aware of the ways in which they are expected to behave (Stanley and Wise 2002: 273). Essentially these behaviours are learned by doing gender. Parents tend to socialise their children into a specific gender ide

11、ntity through the language they use towards them, the activities they engage them in, the toys they give them and the ways they dress them. Davies seems to believe that language is the key factor. It is taken for granted in society that people are either male or female. Children must learn linguisti

12、c practices as a way of understanding the world around them, they learn to accept what adults claim is obvious. In learning about language and engaging with others, children learn that they must be socially identifiable as either male or female (Davies 2002:280). The socialisation process can have a

13、 huge influence on how an individual lives their life. In Oakleys book (1972) she discusses a study by Money and John and Joan Hampson. They conducted a study on 113 hermaphrodites and in 95% of all the cases the sex that they had been brought up as i.e. been socialised into, corresponded to their g

14、ender identity. This correspondence held even for those individuals whose sex they had been brought up as contradicted their biological sex (that is to say, their sex as determined by biological organs, chromosomes and hormones) (Oakley 1972). Once an individual is socialised into a sex category, he

15、 or she learns the ways in which to do their gender i.e. appropriate gender displays. Similarly, if an individual wishes to change their gender identity they must also learn the appropriate behaviours of their desired identity. Goffman (1976) states the following in regards to gender display: “If ge

16、nder be defined as the culturally established correlates of sex (whether in consequence of biology or learning), then gender display refers to conventionalized portrayals of these correlates.” (Goffman 1976 as cited in West & Zimmerman 1998: 171) Doing gender is more than just successfully compl

17、eting gender displays. An example of how we do gender comes from Agnes. Agnes was an intersex baby, raised as a boy due to her biological organs, however she considered herself female. She tried to be completely female at all times and in all situations. So much so, that West & Zimmerman (1998)

18、claim that she could have in fact endangered her secret being revealed by “overdoing her performance.” (West & Zimmerman 1998: 175) Agnes had to go beyond the previously discussed gender displays and be a woman. She learned about how women are expected to behave by listening to comments by peopl

19、e close to her in regards to how other women were behaving. Agnes could also have used the media as a guide in her quest to learn and successfully employ normative behaviour associated with being female; however there are dangers to this. The hints in magazines etc on such subjects are too regimente

20、d and Agnes required a more reflexive approach i.e. the behaviour should be situation specific. As West and Zimmerman write: “to be successful, marking or displaying gender must be finely fitted to situations and modified or transformed as the occasion demands.” (West & Zimmerman 1998: 176) As p

21、reviously mentioned this can be termed as passing. The group activity we set raised some interesting points in regards to this. It became apparent when discussing occasions when one may have attempted to engage in passing that being discovered as a fraud resulted in embarrassment. The threat of such

22、 embarrassment occurring proved to be the main reason for any fear when engaging in passing. Most of the anecdotes were in connection with trying to pass for an age that was not their own. Another story included claiming to have skills that the individual did not actually posses. On all of the occasions when the truth about these individuals was discovered the result was embarrassment. Similarly the individuals in question also noted that they felt uncomfortable with portraying an identity that was not their own. I believe that the tutorial was successful, however perhaps we coul