Images of Masculinity from Soc Images Blog

Right AFTER we our class discussed the Construction of Masculinity, the Sociological Images blog posted several items on that topic.

The cover the “Battleship” game in the 1950s.

Viagra lightswitch

A CNN newscast about a school district’s decision not to allow a male student to wear Goth-style makeup:
Embedded video from CNN Video

Advertising Images of Women – Killing Us Softly 3

Gender Stereotypes

Chapter 3 – Videos

The video segments that I  have made are NOT uploading to WordPress in spite of hours of effort and frustration.  If IT can help with the sound, these notes will be replaced with audio.

The most important part of the content (apart from the text) is the chart that we handed out in class, also available HERE:  summary-of-modes-of-production.  This table connects with Table 3.1 in your textbook – but notice that a period of time is a ROW across this table and a COLUMN down the page in your book.

The video clip on the San Bushpeople shows this impact of technology by introducing ONE new tool into a traditional H-G society. Pay attention to its impact, and ask yourself whether the explanation of its effect is a CONFLICT or a FUNCTIONALIST explanation.

The handout sees TECHNOLOGY as the force that changes society.  We discussed the impact of domesticating plants in class: HORTICULTURE develops.  This produces just enough food surplus for a few things to happen:

• People don’t have to wander from place to place
• Therefore they can store up possessions and some become richer than others
• There is not a lot of extra food, but enough to allow a small number of people to spend some of their time NOT involved with getting food. These may be warriors, kings and leaders, priests and shaman – they get a share of food grown by others.
• Groups become larger and settle in villages.
• As methods of horticulture become better, towns get larger, the rich get richer,  the types of non-food work that people can do become more numerous. Society develops.

AGRARIAN: The next big development comes with the discovery of iron and the development of the plow.  The plow lets farmers grow food on much larger plots of land; each farmer can feed more than one family, selling or bartering food for the specialized things made by potters, weavers, metalsmiths, and the like.  This generates more impact on families and society:

• The rich can become richer still by owning land and hiring (or enslaving) others to farm it. The gap between the wealth of the richest and the poorest grows.
• Larger and larger armies can be supported, and wars between regions become possible.  Some people can be warriors or soldiers for most of their lives.
• As people practice trades like weaving, metalsmithing, and pottery full-time, they become expert and more productive.
• People live in larger groups, and governance is needed to organize them.
• Reading and writing develop, and forms of education prepare people for some jobs.

INDUSTRY: This begins with the invention of the steam engine, the first time that “work” is done without being powered by a human or an animal.  Farm work benefits from tractor and reapers, so farmers grow still more food per farmer – enough to support an entirely new type of person, the factory worker.  The huge machines that develop require a concentration of workers nearby, so cities grow in size.  Workers are poorly paid, and the living conditions in cities are unhealthy.  Children are put to work as young as 5 years old, and many are injured.  Those who own the factories become fabulously wealthy, while those who work in them have smaller wages.

The second video clip, made for the U.S. government, is about 5 minutes long, and focuses on health and safety of workers. It includes some of the earliest movie footage made of workers – not actors, but the real thing. Pay close attention to the language of the narrator.  Can you determine whether he is working from a CONFLICT or a FUNCTIONALIST perspective?