Structure and agency are two theoretical terms used to explain the capacity at which we as people are able to be individuals, and to what extent those influences limit our individuality. Structure refers to the ways in which a society is organized. Agency refers to the behaviors and actions of the individuals within the social structure. Agency is limited by the structure due to cultural barriers and inequalities within the structure. In this essay, I will present an overview of why critical theorists are concerned with those inequalities, and I will further identify the problems within the system contributing to the unequal access to the public sphere, relating specifically to class and gender inequalities. Society is highly stratified when considering social classes i.e. - upper class, middle class, lower class, and working class citizens. That being said, not everyone has the same access to the superstructure; thus creating tension. The largest problem when considering structure and agency is the constant struggle and negotiation of power inequality. Among the asymmetry of power are two major disparities; class and gender. Thinking as a critical theorist, one must consider the individual’s participation in the public sphere; “The word means a false view of the world that is in the interests of the powerful citizens in order to keep the subordinate classes oppressed” (Habermas, 10). Though the public sphere is virtually a democratic sphere where ideas can circulate and opinions are formed there are certain restrictions when referring to lower classes and women and thus how their agencies as individuals are limited. The public sphere has been falsely represented as a virtual place where one can share and debate opinions; ... ... middle of paper ... ...ies of the bourgeois class remain dominant, the male counterpart also continues to sustain their dominant status in our media driven hegemonic society. Works Cited Habermas, Jurgen. (1997) The public sphere: Introduction. Roberts, J.,Crossley, N. (2004) New Perspectives on the Public Sphere: Introduction. Australia: Blackwell. Golding, P & Murdock, G. (2000) Culture, Communications and Political Economy. Elaborated in Habermas,J (1989) The Structural Transformatin of the Public Sphere. Cambridge: Polity Press. Casey, B., et al. (2002) Televison Studies:The Key Concepts: Gender. New York:Routledge. O’Shaughnessy, M., Stadler, J. (2009)Media and Society: An introduction. Dominant Ideology and Hegemony. London: Oxford. Baran, Stanley & Davis, Dennis. (2009) Introduction to Mass Communication Theory: Critical Theory . Massachusetts: Cengage Learning
Realistically, when someone is more powerful, they have the ability to set the rules. Men have historically held power in society, which means that women did not have as much stance or freedoms as men have had in the past. For example, Canadian women did not have the right to vote until the year 1916. This factor has continued to trail into the present day, creating the ‘weak’ image towards women, overall forcing and pushing men to become the opposite of this factor. Thus, cultural ideals of masculinity rely on the ideas of femininity through patriarchy and gender binaries. The emphasis on characteristics of men are being exaggerated, as society is pressuring men with unattainable standards of masculinity such as being tough, muscular and buff. Men continue to conform to these characteristics, in the fear of being oppressed through exclusion, which only strengthens society’s standards even more. This leads to more societal pressures on men, thus leading men to experience more societal pressures in the fear of feeling excluded. These “systems of inclusion and exclusion are divisions or barriers that prevent people from joining and belonging.” (50). For example, if a man wears nail polish, they may be oppressed and excluded through facing ridicule and bullying, because wearing nail polish is considered “girly”, therefore this boy is rebelling against society’s socially
Patricia Hill Collins outlines the existence of three different dimensions of gender oppression: institutional, symbolic, and individual. The institutional dimension consists of systemic relationship of domination structured through social institutions, such as government, the workplace or education institutions. In other words, this dimension explains “who has the power”. This is completely related to a patriarchal society. Patriarchy is the manifestation and institutionalism of male dominance. This means that men hold power in all institutions, while women are denied the access to this power. The symbolic dimension of oppression is based on widespread socially sanctioned ideologies used to justify relations of domination. It reflects inequality
Each of the texts, although in different ways, suggest that inequality serves as a function of a male dominated social and cultural hier...
Massey et al. states, “To put it crudely, parents of upper-class children have no interest in devoting resources to the education of lower-class children, so that poor and working-class students end up going to lousy schools to receive a lousy education to prepare them for the lousy jobs they will hold as adults.” (Massey et al., 20). This example shows in a simple manner how critical theory functions to generate socioeconomic inequality because the lousy schools that poor and working-class students have to attend are the result of not enough resources going into the educations of lower-class children. Massey et al. shows that the structure of dominance is generating a system that disadvantages historically underrepresented students. Furthermore, hooks writes, “That shift from beloved, all-black schools to white schools where black students were always seen as interlopers, as not really belonging, taught me the difference between education as the practice of freedom and education that merely strives to reinforce domination.” (hooks, 3). hooks was disadvantaged because she was not accustomed to the segregated school as the white students were. Critical Theory states that inequality is reproduced by specific institutional arrangements, such as the arrangements that hooks dealt with. In addition to the experiences in higher education due to the structure of dominance, hooks
Various theorists under the umbrella of critical social theory believe that all subordinate groups are oppressed on personal, cultural and institutional levels by visible and invisible structures as well as by conscious and unconscious means. (Mullaly, 2010 ).
We live in a world full of many societal issues. The aspects that determine whether one will have a successful or unsuccessful life is due to their characteristics such as race, gender, and social status. In the book Is Everyone Really Equal, Ozlem Sensoy and Robin DiAngelo’s exigence is to express the following issues and to encourage the reader to work upon changing the world through social injustice, oppression, power, and community.
David. "Mass Media and the Loss of Individuality." Web log post. Gatlog. N.p., 11 Sept. 2007. Web. 10 May 2014.
Mass Media. Ed. William Dudley. Farmington Hills, MI: Thompson Gale, 2005. 121-130.
Risman, B. J. (2004). Gender as a Social Structure: Theory Wrestling with Activism. Gender and Society, 18(4), 429-450.
This paper will focus on three of these concepts- economic inequality or the separation of the rich and the poor which is defined as the different life chances that a wealthy person may have than an impoverished person (Dykstra, 2014). The next concept that will be discussed is feminism, which is defined as the advocacy of the rights of women to be equal to men in all spheres of life (Applebaum, Carr, Duneier, Giddens, 2011). The last concept that will be discussed in this paper is gender roles, which are the ‘social definition’ of women and men. They vary among different societies and cultures, classes, ages and during different periods in history. Gender-specific roles and responsibilities are often conditioned by household structure, access to resources, specific impacts of the global economy, and other locally relevant factors such as ecological conditions (FAO, 1997).
It is increasingly clear that media and culture today are of central importance to the maintenance and reproduction of contemporary societies. Cultures expose society to different personalities, provide models, which display various forms of societal life and cultivate various ways to introduce people into dominant forms of thought and action. These are the types of activities integrate people into society and create our public sphere. Media and technology surround our society; engrained into the fabric of our existence so much so, that it has become hard to find an aspect of life not influenced by its effects. For this reason, media controllers, wield extreme power and influence over the lives of everyday people. Although, they increasingly continue to feed the audience trash, despite their authority as the creator of our social/cultural interactions, and justify their actions by calling themselves industries. Reducing themselves to just businesses whose sole purpose is to create a profit. This admittance of what they feel to be their true purpose however does not hinder their control and power but instead adds to it. Creating a need for there to be some way to analyze and discuss whether they are using their position and power wisely. Filling this void, scholars have theorized ways for individuals to be critical of the media that they intake. One of these critical theories is the “Culture Industry” theory. Using Cultural Theory, as well as other complementary neo Marxist theories, it is possible to determine how Stacy Peralta, once urban youth culture advocate, became incorporated into the superstructure through media use, thus making him a tool for the continued commoditization of society, and a youth marketer for industries l...
How mass media is using both Ideology and Popular Culture to develop societal expectations and social identities. This essay will look at how Ideology, Hegemony, and Popular Cultural Theory shape common values and expectations of society and media’s influence and compare and contrast differing approaches to understanding the relationship between media and society. The discussion will be contextualized through the use of gender roles and expectations, and how these theories develop and affect the female social identity.
Society has set limits on gender roles with ideals such as male privilege and patriarchy. Patriarchy is the political structure to control womenbs thoughts on their sexuality, laboring, and place in society so...
The United States, like all other societies, places women and men unequally at many different levels of social organization (Long). Gender inequality remains a major barrier to human development. Gender inequality refers to the unequal treatment or perceptions of individuals wholly or partly due to their gender. Gender is a primary marker of social and economic stratification. Gender inequality is a characteristic of most societies, with males on average having more and better opportunities in positions at social, economic and political hierarchies. Gender inequality exists in employment, politics, sports and even formal education. Gender socialization, gender stratification, social construction of gender,
Society has gender specific roles expected for women and men. Women are limited to the traditional roles of cleaning, cooking, and taking care of children. Patriarchal society, in which men rule, imposes these roles on women (Harrison, 302). Men run institutions and make the laws. In fact, social institutions have an impact on the relationship between labor and gender. Different types of jobs are associated with both genders. Society sees women as caring and emotional. Therefore, expects that women will choose careers such as nurses, teachers, or flight attendants. When it comes to men, society sees them as powerful and without emotion, associates them with power and authority, and expects them to be lawyers, doctors, or chief executive officers. This is a source of inequality because these different associations to jobs generate income differences. Men produce more money than women do because there are fewer women engaging in politics or business careers. Women are not socially expected to perform these jobs: “While women represent 50 per cent of the world population, they perform nearly two thirds of all working hours, receive one-tenth of world income and own less than 1 per cent of world property” (Harrison, 296). Women are as smart as men are, yet they do not have the opportunities to prove that. From a radical theory