Making Gendered People
R.W. Connell

I really enjoyed this reading mainly because it uses examples to show gender differences and also similarities. It also lays out clearly the changing stereotypes surrounding gender and sex. There have been a lot of positive changes such as the increasing tolerance of homosexuality but there is still a long way to go. The mention of homosexuality brings me to my favorite part of this reading, namely, the discussion on foreign societies. I have learned a lot throughout my college career about how sex and gender are defined in Western culture but seeing how it is defined and ever changing in foreign societies is something new to me. It shows that we are not unique in this respect. It also begs the question, is homosexuality more natural than we would like to believe? If all of these other cultures are practicing forms of it, how can it be an inately "bad" thing? Why is it so demonized in our society whereas in others it is somewhat glorified?  

Chapter 6: Issues of Subjectivity and Identity

The topic of identity is a very interesting one. Everyone has an identity, both social and self, so everyone can readily relate to this idea. I really liked Gidden's idea of the identity project. Our identities are certainly changing and reshaping constantly depending on our situation. For example, I don't view myself now as I did when I was younger. Things change and therefore so does our self-identity. Our social identity changes also. As we go through different social situations, our social identity rightfully adjusts itself. If we were to have but one identity for our whole lives, it would have to be constructed at birth. We are social beings and so our identities are socially constructed. This follows the idea of the sociological subject which I obviously agree with. The postmodern subject is also a very intriguing idea. I believe that people have multiple identities. I am a softball player here at Juniata, a tour guide, and an intern. All of these activities require me to act like and essentially be different people; to have different identities.

First Blog!

I'm not positive whether I did this right or not but hopefully people can see this! I'm super excited to begin learning about gender and conflict. It should be interesting to see other peoples' points of view on this topic.