Sociology 1201: Week
Three
1.
2.
3.
Symbolic Interactionism
Because I am a (Fe)male
Sociology of Sexuality
Sociology 1201
Symbolic Interactionism as a
sociological perspective
Our world is a social construction, built
through the web of social relationships
and meanings.
 We react to the meaning of social things
and not to the things themselves.
 Our self (selves?) in important part a
social construction

Sociology 1201
Charles Horton Cooley: Looking
glass self
“Society is an interweaving and interworking
of mental selves. I imagine your mind and
especially what your mind thinks about my
mind. I dress my mind before you and
expect that you will dress yours before
mine. Whoever cannot or will not do this
is not properly in the game.”
Sociology 1201
Primary Groups
Lewis Coser: “Sensitivity to the thought of
others, responsiveness to their attitudes,
values and judgments--that is the mark of
the mature man (or woman) according to
Cooley. This can be cultivated and
fostered only in the close and intimate
associations of the primary group.”
Sociology 1201
George Herbert Mead: the “me”
and the “I”
Mind, self and society
 Mind = my communication with myself
 Two parts to the self

– the “me”—very similar to Cooley’s looking
glass self
– The “I”—individual and unique part of me,
probably in part biological
Sociology 1201
Herbert Blumer’s synthesis
“Humans act toward a thing on the basis
of the meaning they assign to the thing.”
 “Meaning are socially derived, which is to
say that meaning is not inherent in a state
of nature…. Meaning is negotiated
through interaction with others.”
 “The perception and interpretation of
social symbols are modified by the
individual’s own thought process.”

Sociology 1201
Key concepts in the construction of
self and society
Culture: a design for living passed from
one generation to the next
 Norms: rules defining expected situations
and appropriate behaviors
 Socialization:

– 1. the process of learning the norms of your
culture
– 2. the process of learning who you are
Families particularly central to this process.
Sociology 1201
Sex and gender
Sex the biological distinction between
male and female
 Gender the culturally elaborated
distinction between masculine and
feminine… differs across culture and
across history
 Groups: “Because I am a Fe(male)
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Sociology 1201
Sociology of sex

How do we learn about sex in the United States?
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–
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Families: reality or an idealized version
Schools: the facts but often not the meanings
Church
Mass Media: commercialization of sex
Peers and lovers
Sex and the double standard
 The sexual revolution: when, why, where, what?

Sociology 1201
How do sociologists study sex?
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Survey Research
– 1st efforts: the Kinsey Reports
– Lauman et. al: The Social Organization of
Sexuality 1992 N=3,432 Adults
– National Survey of Family Growth: Sexual
Behavior and Selected Health Measures 1995
N=12,571 Ages 15-44
Sociology 1201
Lauman et al: The Social
Organization of Sexuality
Sociology 1201
Bogle, Hooking Up, 2008

A. “During my own college career in the early 1990s, hooking up seemed to
be at the center of the social scene.”

B. 2000: as a graduate student, she found herself trying to explain hooking
up to an older faculty member with two sons soon to enter college. He said:
“Why don’t you do a study of that?” and it became her Ph.D. thesis
–
1. Interviews with 76 people, at two colleges on the East Coast (one a large state university,
one a small Catholic institution). Interviewed 76 people from 2001 to 2006, 34 men and 42
women, 51 undegraduates and 25 alumni, 95% white, some in fraternities and sororities,
some who neither drank nor attended parties.
2. More informally, she has spoiken to hundreds of college students about these issues and
to many twenty-something singles.

C. “Ultimately I found that one of the most useful ways of comparing
today’s hooking-up culture with the dating era is to look at each as a
script.”
Sociology 1201
Script for the dating era
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Dating, at least formally, controlled by men; they did the
inviting; they paid; and there was a sexual double
standard.
Sexual experience a status marker for men.
An elaborate code, learned informally: “necking” and
“petting,” above the waist and below the waist
Women expected to apply the brakes? “Why would he
marry you when he’s already sleeping with you?”
Only 17% of baby boom brides had sex with someone
besides their husband before marriage, and if you got
pregnant, marriage was expected (though it didn’t
always happen, of course)
Sociology 1201
Script for hooking up
Bogle: “Define hooking up”
 Tony, quote, p. 24; Lisa, p. 26
 B: “Both men and women may have
reason to be intentionally vague.” Leaves
men free to exaggerate and women to
minimize.
 How it happens: Jack, p. 30; Lisa, p. 31,
Bogle, p. 33; Kevin, p. 34; Emily, p. 35,
Max p. 36.

Sociology 1201
Hooking Up Script II: What
Happens Next?
No strings attached? (p. 40)
 The least likely outcome (p. 42)
 Rebecca, p. 42-3
 “Several women indicated that knowing
nothing might come of a hookup was
something they learned over time… the
hard way.”
 Central role of alcohol

Sociology 1201
Alternatives to hooking up?
“Students who do not participate in the
hookup culture on campus are on the
margins of the social scene and they know
it.” p. 69-71
 “Although some students were able to find
a relationship without hooking up, most
students see hooking up as the only game
in town.”

Sociology 1201
Still a double standard?
“One thing that has not changed with the
shift to hooking up is that men continue to
hold most of the power, as they did in the
dating era…”
 Quote, p. 173
 Waller, 1930s study at Penn State,
“principle of least interest”
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Sociology 1201
After college
“After college, the men and women I
interviewed became increasingly focused
on finding a girlfriend/boyfriend, and in
order to do so most virtually abandoned
hooking up in favor of traditional dating.”
 Elizabeth (p. 130): “It’s kind of funny
because no one has really ever asked me
out during college….”

Sociology 1201
“How is the hookup scene now
compared to college?
Matthew: “Now it’s more date
oriented…(p. 134
 KB: “Do you even try for a hookup and it
doesn’t work, or don’t you even try?
 Matthew: “I would have to say I don’t
even try.
 KB: “So if you are interested in
someone…” “I ask them for a date.”

Sociology 1201
Why the change?

“A major factor …is the change in
relationship goals for both men and
women…. They are increasingly looking
for relationships with marriage potential.”
(p. 137)
Sociology 1201
Very traditional dating script
“According to alumni, the man
generally…initiated the date by first asking
for the phone number and then following
up with a phone call to ask for a date.”
 Will: “I would say 75 to 80 percent of the
time, the girl wants the guy to call; the
girls wants the ball to be in the guy’s
court”

Sociology 1201
Who pays?
KB: “So, you call and ask them out to
dinner. Then do you drive, do you pay,
how does that work?”
 Jake: “I am old fashioned. I take care of it
all.” (p. 140)
 KB: “After college, men seem to interact
with the opposite sex as one might expect
their grandfathers to have done.” Very
much NOT “Sex in the City.”

Sociology 1201
Sex and dating
KB: “Suddenly the same people who
hooked up in college now believe men and
women should find out more about each
other before anything sexual happens.”
 Carol: p. 142
 KB: “By senior year many women had
figured out that the more they liked
someone and the more they wanted a
relationship, the less they should do
sexually.”
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Sociology 1201
Revisiting the double standard
KB: “The change, with a dating script, to
more conservative sexual norms is
ironic…” p. 145
 Matthew: “I would never , never date a
girl I banged on the first date. “
The men I talked with were also concerned
about their date’s sexual history…
Jake, Matthew.. Pp. 149-150
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Sociology 1201
Groups
Discussion: Questions from chapters 3 and
4 of Promises I Can Keep
 When you finish, attach the group
questions from each member of your
group to the group worksheet and put it in
the appropriate stack on the piano.
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Sociology 1201
Sociology 1201