Gendered Cultures

Abstract

Details of the ‘discovery’ of gender in sociological inquiry, do not belong here, but this chapter shows the importance of ‘gendered’ culture as an aspect of collective life and addresses the question of how culture is involved in the constitution of gender and gender relations. Although the definition of culture remains problematic, the notion that culture is ‘gendered’ presupposes two characteristics: that culture is about how we live and is not homogeneous or monolithic but cut across by major social divisions. We and others have argued that culture is a reflection and working through of social relations, class in particular. It is unsurprising then, that culture also has a complex relationship to and is part of the structural process of gender-differentiation and the production and reproduction of ‘gendered subjectivity’. Post-modern theories (for example, see Fraser and Nicholson, 1988) would emphasise that ‘gender’ and ‘gendered subjectivities’ are not homogeneous or monolithic either. Recently, sociologists, feminists and others have explored these processes in Western industrial societies and shown how cultural forms such as popular romance fiction, soap operas, advertisements, illustrations, pop music, adventure films, and cultural activities like sport, are part of gender representation and reproduction, although the way in which this occurs may be complex and contradictory.