Gender identity plays a role in how people see each other and how people react to someone else. In this PowerPoint we take a look at this from the movie "Portrait of Jason"

1. Performance
and Gender as
seen in Portrait
of Jason
Morgan Moreno

2. Thesis: Those of differing genders have
specific roles that they must perform.
– Brief History of gender roles and the recent changes
– Difference of roles people must play based off of race
– How race and gender play into the lives of people

3. Social norms and gender
expectations
– Many religions practice gender segregation and tend to cater the the male view
point and needs rather than the women.
– In traditional synagogues the women would be separated from the men by a wall or
curtain called a mechitzah.
– This was due to the fact that the men were not allowed to pray in the presence of women so that
they won’t be distracted.
– Some more ‘left wing’ synagogues have a shorter mechitzah that the men can see over, but most
traditional ones have the men and women separated by a complete wall.
– In the Islamic faith men and women worship separately in most mosques. Women are also
not permitted to enter a mosque without covering their hair with their hijabs and their
bodies with modest attire.
– Women are not allowed to wear makeup of any kind; perfume, nail polish or basically anything
that can cause sexual arousal or distress for the men.

4. – Clifford Nass, a professor of Human-Computer Interaction at Stanford, conducted a study on gender bias.
– This study was comprised of two lesson plans, one being on “love and relationships” and the other being “physics”.
– These lessons were taught by either a male sounding computer generated voice or a female sounding computer generated voice.
– The participants were randomly assigned a lesson and when asked which voice gave a better speech, even though the
speeches the voices made were the same, there was an almost unanimous opinion that the male voice taught physics
better and the female voice taught love and relationships better.
– Societal norms and gender roles are formed due to the humans brain to pick up on patters and form clear biases
towards our own experience.
– Throughout history men were seen as ruff and tumble. They were the hunter, they were the fighter, they even were
the bread winner. This pattern of men typically doing the “harder” or more physically demanding jobs formed the bias
that men were the stronger sex.
– Women on the other hand historically stayed home and watched the children, they were the gatherer and the
cleaner. This patter set up the view that women were naturally good caretakers and that they are just inherently
weaker then men.
Social norms and gender
expectations

5. – Many cultures have languages that use male and female tenses such as French and
Spanish with the words le and la, le being used for masculine words while la for feminine.
The way these languages were made had a sort of ideal in mind when it came to who
would interact with what the most, feminine words as belonging to women and
masculine as belonging to men.
Social norms and gender
expectations

6. – Since birth people are taught that how they act, what they like, and who they will
become is directly tied to their sex and while this may seem innocent or even
harmless they do have a negative affect on the lives of people.
– Many of these roles say that women are more passive while men are more aggressive,
men should be able to hold their composure extremely well while women should be
emotional and not be able to hide it well.
– If a man is not naturally good at keeping his feelings hidden then he is wrong and needs to stop
being such a wimp, while if a woman is cold and hides her feelings she is wrong and needs to stop
being self-righteous.
– When a person is forced to change who they are for fear of being shamed by those around them it causes
many difficulties and even a type of inner conflict called cognitive dissonance
– Cognitive dissonance: the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as
relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change.
Social norms and gender
expectations

7. Social norms and gender
expectations
– Gender roles may seem harmless and even practically nonexistent today, but they
have huge negative effects on peoples lives.
– They set up how the house hold is run, with the father being the head of the house and
bringing the food and money home while the mom is the passive house wife who cleans and
cares for the home and the children.
– They affect how a person is raise and how they preserve themselves by labeling their traits
and behavior as male or female typical.

8. Racial Divide
– Racism: prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a
different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior.
– Racism claims two things, one being its claim of racial differences in things like
character or intelligence and secondly it asserts superiority over other races in the
favor of one.
– It also seeks to maintain this dominance through a system of beliefs, behaviors, and the
use of policies.
– Many beliefs of those who have racial biases are as followed
– White people are smarter than people of color
– White people make better teachers
– Black people abuse substances more than white people

9. Racial Divide
– White people have many benefits of being white that they themselves may not even notice.
Small things that don’t seem important may actually cause a type of dysphoria for others.
– Dysphoria: a state of unease or generalized dissatisfaction with life.
– These instances is a form of privilege that is afforded to a select number of people solely
based on their skin tone.
– Going to the doctor and getting a Band-Aid that matches your skin tone
– Going to a hotel and having shampoo that matches the texture of your hair
– Having the ‘nude’ color tights or pantyhose actually matching the color of your skin
– Your hair care products are located in the same location as other hair products and not in the ‘ethnic
products’ section
– You can buy travel size bottles of your hair products at most local drug stores
– Store security personnel following you around a store

10. Racial Divide
– In the book written by Ta-Nehisi Coats “Between the World and Me” he talks
about how people of color are constantly used and extorted and he warns his
son of the injustices of this world begging him to protect himself and not allow
people to use him because of his blackness.
– The writer also talks about some of the systematic oppression that he has
experienced in his life.

11. Racial Divide
– Many people of mixed racial backgrounds experience their own form of
discrimination. Some forms of discrimination are as follows:
– No one can tell their race
– People think they are of a different race than they actually are
– They feel like outsiders on their own communities

12. – Intersectionality: the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and
gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and
interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.
– Whenever it comes to people no one is exactly alike, but many people claim that isn’t true.
People lump others into groups and systems to cause a greater understanding or a simpler
understanding of a culture.
– Many people look at the sex of a person and form an initial judgment of the person based on that.
– For instance if the person were a man you would probably think of a strong and stern person while a
woman you would think delicate and caring.
– Another thing people look at to form their initial judgment is a person’s race
– Many people would see a person of color and judge them based on the color of their skin with any number
of stereotypes and when it comes to white people they tend to be judged by the actions and legacies of
the people of the past.
Race and Gender an
intersection

13. – According to an article from opportunity.org named “Perceptions of and by Black
Men” one way to alleviate racial tensions may be to have more contact between
communities.
– An excerpt:
– Positive behaviors toward black people are predicted by racial contact, while negative behaviors
are predicted by aggressiveness and family/peer racial attitudes. Lipset and Schneider, in their
1978 analysis of the Bakke case, and Katz and Hass in their study of “Racial Ambivalence and
American Value Conflict” (1988) found that: Positive attitudes toward black people are based in
humanitarianism (sympathy toward the disadvantaged), while negative attitudes are based in
individualism (self-reliance).The conscious attitudes about racial and ethnic groups reviewed in this
section probably tell only one small part of the story, and subsequent sections (for example,
discussions of personal responsibility and altruism) are highly relevant to attitudes of racial groups
as well.
Race and Gender an
intersection

14. Race and Gender an
intersection
– People from all walks of life experience many things differently, it may be harder
in some places to receive a job solely based on your race or gender than it
would be for someone of another race or gender.
– In the next video aid We get to hear the experience of Angela Yea who is a business
woman in a male dominated field. She is also a black woman and she talks about how
it was difficult for her to get her own segment on the radio.

15. URLS
– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_and_religion
– https://kateheddleston.com/blog/social-norms-and-gendered-expectations
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNvg_7fxUEo&t=0s&list=LLR06UcN82vb0AbyKcQVSTLg&index=2
– https://www.theodysseyonline.com/grim-recollection-fear-and-loathing-for-california-medical-cannabis-patient-
who-has-close-call-texas
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNr3x1kVVEc
– https://www.tolerance.org/professional-development/on-racism-and-white-privilege
– https://opportunityagenda.org/explore/resources-publications/review-public-opinion-research-related-black-
male-achievement/perceptions-of-and-by-black-men