Masculinity In Sociology
SOCIOLOGY
ANALYSIS OF HEALTH WITH REGARDS TO GENDER IN MODERN SOCIETY.
The social institution I have chosen for this CIA is health. Health is defined as ‘a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being’. Though it is mainly a biological issue, it is just as much a social issue in many aspects. Sociologists study health to understand how society works (as according to sociologists, health and illness is a result of the organisation of society) and how social forces have a chief impact on the well-being of people. For example, poor people die earlier than the rich as, among other factors, they may have less access to health care; poor housing or working conditions may cause illnesses.
The study of health related to gender …show more content…
has undergone a period of transition in recent times. New perspectives are emerging, replacing traditional ones. One such traditional perspective is that ‘men experience higher levels of earlier mortality, while women live longer but experience higher levels of morbidity in their lives’ which emerged with reference to the domestic work roles and stereotypical social roles held by men and women. Though these perspectives provided a lot of important research, in recent times, many sociologists like Macintyre et al (1999), Kandrack et al (1991), Annandale and Hunt (2000), have contributed new perspectives and understandings of gender and health. This ‘rethinking’ is influenced by factors such as the fact that our present society consists of increasingly complex gender relations. Old assumptions like men are typically the ones who earn and women are the ones who stay at home and perform domestic work do not apply to modern society. Hence, such changes have an effect on the health of men and women in different ways.
Before going further, there is a need to make a distinction between the terms ‘sex’ and ‘gender’. ‘Sex’ refers to the biological distinction between men and women whereas ‘gender’ refers to the social, cultural and psychological aspects of being a man or a woman. Hence, the sociological study of gender and health looks at how ideas of what it is to be masculine and feminine tends to affect people’s health.
FEMININITIES AND HEALTH
A long held view in sociology is that women have a higher morbidity rate than men, there are a larger number of women patients than there are men and that women in general live longer. With this in mind, sociologists focus and bring to light the ways in which being socialized as a woman can affect their experience of health.
Though women tend to live longer, between the ages 15-44, women are hospitalized more than men mainly because this is their period of reproduction. Outside of this age group, women are hospitalised less than men. Statistics show that there are more women patients. This is found to be mainly because they are simply represented more in health statistics due to their roles as caretakers of children and other dependent adult members of their family. It is usually expected that women fulfil such social roles and are held responsible for the well-being of the people in their family. Women tend to be the unpaid caretakers of the elderly or the disabled. It is found that a minimum of 15 percent of working age women in Britain act as caretakers for the disabled, the elderly or the sick in their domestic environment. Hence, these factors cause them to be in more contact with the health care system and hence be over-represented in the health statistics. Also, such social roles as caretakers tend to have an adverse impact on their own health as well, due to factors such as stress in satisfying the social role. Women, on being forced into such social roles, tend to have lower wages, longer work hours, lower status, perform more unpaid work, have larger emotional and social commitments and have lesser time for leisure and sleep, all these factors contributing to greater ill health (Bird and Fremont, 1991).
Research has found that marriage is healthy for women and leads to lesser assaults and lesser non-fatal accidents (Cheung, 1998). General roles in families tend to be good for women. According to Arber ‘Family roles are important for women; women without children and previously married women have particularly poor health status especially those not in paid employment and living in local authority housing’ (Arber, 1991: 425).
Another factor which can explain why there are more sick women than men is that men and women are socialized to experience and describe their sensations of the body in differing ways. Women tend to discuss their heath issues with doctors more than men do (unless men have some physical ailments) and are hence diagnosed more with illnesses. Advertisements also can reinforce a distinction between genders with regards to health and illness. Kempner studied the pattern of advertising for migraine treatments by companies. She found that by constantly marketing these products to women, pharmaceutical companies tend to build the idea that migraine is a ‘women’s disorder’, hence ensuring that women are more likely to ask for help, and be diagnosed with migraines than men (Kempner, 2006).
Therefore, in conclusion, it is important to note that there are more women patients as a result of their social role and because they tend to talk about their illnesses more than men do and not as a result of them being biologically sicker than men.
MASCULINITIES AND HEALTH
Doctors describe ‘coronary-prone behaviour’ (also known as ‘Type-A personality’) as a mixture of unrestrained ambition, chronic impatience and free-floating hostility towards one’s environment.
A sociological perspective shows that this syndrome is a reasonably precise explanation of how our culture defines masculinity. In the past, health of men was considered to be unproblematic and they benefited from hegemonic masculinity (refers to the most dominant form of masculinity in society. In present times, this refers to white, healthy, wealthy, assertive men who portray a ‘macho’ persona). But in contemporary society, men seem to suffer in health due to the expectations and challenges of portraying masculinity. For example, in the UK, young men are pressured to portray masculinity by living a ‘laddish’ lifestyle, mostly consisting of engaging in activities such as rash driving, large consumption of alcohol, etc; which can prove to be quite dangerous and fatal. Statistics of morbidity and mortality show that early death among young men is mostly alcohol or drug …show more content…
related.
New perspectives look into how men’s health is affected by the ways in which they relate to hegemonic masculinity and how that affects their experience of illness. Research work by O’Brien et al (2005) conducted on fourteen focus groups of men from varying backgrounds indicates how ideas of masculinity influence men’s decisions regarding health and illness. The researchers found that a majority of men prefer to be ‘a man’ in the face of illnesses and tend to put off seeking any professional help to address their illnesses. Ideas of masculinity such as being able to endure pain and suffering, physical strength, being able to cope in the face of adversity and not appearing to be weak were the reasons given by the research participants for not voicing out their illness. In contrast, women do not tend to have such socially defined ideas and hence find it easier to talk about their health problems. Men usually consult professionals only in the face of physical, external ailments rather than emotional or mental health problems. Due to this reason, men are less likely to be diagnosed to be suffering from stress or depression, and more likely to be diagnosed as having a physical ailment (Verbrugge, 1989). But there are certain exceptions to such behaviour by men of not voicing out their illnesses. For example, men like firemen whose job gives them access to a great masculine persona show no difficulty or apprehension in voicing out their health concerns.
Cameron and Bernardes (1998) conducted a study of prostate ill health on a wide pool of men in Britain. They found that the men did not discuss their symptoms with anyone, and six percent of them did not even discuss it with their spouses and they even delayed seeking medical attention in the face of extremely overt symptoms, for example, one respondent who received medical attention only due to an emergency admission to a hospital for urine retention. They also found that men tend to make bad patients, refusing to come back for follow-up check-ups and examinations. Some respondents even said that they could have digital rectal examination only if a man performed it because, according to them, ‘only men can understand what you are going through’. This study portrays the social structuring of masculinity in modern society. Such focus on masculinity means that ‘men emerge both as the dominant gender and the real victims of masculinity’ (Ramazanoglu, 1989: 346).
GENDER AND MENTAL HEALTH
Most perspectives and researches related to sociology and mental health comes to a conclusion that women suffer from higher rates of mental illnesses than men (Foster 1995; Bebbington 1996).
Various explanations for this conclusion are that men tend to have various outlets to mask their depression or relieve their stress like drinking; some explain that role strain/conflict is a contributing factor, or even social factors like poor housing or class distinction. Another major factor is the pressure on women, mostly in developed, modern societies, to match the prevailing expectations of femininity and attractiveness. Media images portray almost exclusively thin and extremely attractive models and actresses which infuses an idea, especially among young women, that being thin is the epitome of attractiveness and failing to have such a body type can have damaging consequences on their mental health, causing feelings of low self esteem, distress, anxiety and
depression.
Eating disorders like anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa among young women is a result of such social expectations of what is considered attractive. Studies show that most young women in developed societies consider that men usually find ‘thin women attractive’, that being thin is the only factor of attractiveness and they believe that they are never as thin as men would like them to be. Such false perceptions set up by social expectations lead to habits such as intense dieting and other forms of weight control like taking diet pills which can lead to major eating disorder, having adverse effects on health.
It is a well-established discovery from the one of the earliest sociological research (Brown and Harris, 1978) that women are diagnosed with depression more than men and the pattern has not altered for over a staggering 20 year period. A major reason why women are diagnosed with depression more than men is mainly because women talk about their mental health more openly with professionals than men, as mentioned earlier. Another reason, researchers like Nazroo et al found, is that women are more prone to develop depression if a crisis involved children, reproduction or housing. The chance of depression increases if a woman attaches greater importance to the areas of her role identity. For example, if a woman feels a great attachment and responsibility towards child/children as a result of her role identity, then a chance of depression becomes greater if any child-related problem arises, for example, poor health or drug abuse.
Mental illness among men is least reported out of fear or embarrassment of being regarded as unmanly. In fact, to admit to having mental illness appeared to be the one aspect that caused the most direct challenge to masculinity. But research by Emslie et al (2006) found that some men would talk about their mental illnesses, mostly depression, only if they considered that their bouts with depression was a result of some heroic struggle (like fighting a war in Afghanistan) and employed a very masculine approach to seeing the illness.
Hence, it can be seen that various social factors and social constructions of what masculinity and femininity should be like has a major impact on the physical and mental health of men and women in modern society. Though health is primarily a biological aspect, the social aspects cannot be ignored.
REFERENCES
Barry, A., Yuill, C. (2008). Understanding the sociology of health: An introduction (2nd ed.). Great Britain: Sage Publications.
Macionis, J. (1996). Sociology. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
White, K. (2009). An introduction to the sociology of health and illness (2nd ed.). Great Britain: Sage Publications.
ANALYSIS OF HEALTH WITH REGARDS TO GENDER IN MODERN SOCIETY.
The social institution I have chosen for this CIA is health. Health is defined as ‘a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being’. Though it is mainly a biological issue, it is just as much a social issue in many aspects. Sociologists study health to understand how society works (as according to sociologists, health and illness is a result of the organisation of society) and how social forces have a chief impact on the well-being of people. For example, poor people die earlier than the rich as, among other factors, they may have less access to health care; poor housing or working conditions may cause illnesses.
The study of health related to gender …show more content…
has undergone a period of transition in recent times. New perspectives are emerging, replacing traditional ones. One such traditional perspective is that ‘men experience higher levels of earlier mortality, while women live longer but experience higher levels of morbidity in their lives’ which emerged with reference to the domestic work roles and stereotypical social roles held by men and women. Though these perspectives provided a lot of important research, in recent times, many sociologists like Macintyre et al (1999), Kandrack et al (1991), Annandale and Hunt (2000), have contributed new perspectives and understandings of gender and health. This ‘rethinking’ is influenced by factors such as the fact that our present society consists of increasingly complex gender relations. Old assumptions like men are typically the ones who earn and women are the ones who stay at home and perform domestic work do not apply to modern society. Hence, such changes have an effect on the health of men and women in different ways.
Before going further, there is a need to make a distinction between the terms ‘sex’ and ‘gender’. ‘Sex’ refers to the biological distinction between men and women whereas ‘gender’ refers to the social, cultural and psychological aspects of being a man or a woman. Hence, the sociological study of gender and health looks at how ideas of what it is to be masculine and feminine tends to affect people’s health.
FEMININITIES AND HEALTH
A long held view in sociology is that women have a higher morbidity rate than men, there are a larger number of women patients than there are men and that women in general live longer. With this in mind, sociologists focus and bring to light the ways in which being socialized as a woman can affect their experience of health.
Though women tend to live longer, between the ages 15-44, women are hospitalized more than men mainly because this is their period of reproduction. Outside of this age group, women are hospitalised less than men. Statistics show that there are more women patients. This is found to be mainly because they are simply represented more in health statistics due to their roles as caretakers of children and other dependent adult members of their family. It is usually expected that women fulfil such social roles and are held responsible for the well-being of the people in their family. Women tend to be the unpaid caretakers of the elderly or the disabled. It is found that a minimum of 15 percent of working age women in Britain act as caretakers for the disabled, the elderly or the sick in their domestic environment. Hence, these factors cause them to be in more contact with the health care system and hence be over-represented in the health statistics. Also, such social roles as caretakers tend to have an adverse impact on their own health as well, due to factors such as stress in satisfying the social role. Women, on being forced into such social roles, tend to have lower wages, longer work hours, lower status, perform more unpaid work, have larger emotional and social commitments and have lesser time for leisure and sleep, all these factors contributing to greater ill health (Bird and Fremont, 1991).
Research has found that marriage is healthy for women and leads to lesser assaults and lesser non-fatal accidents (Cheung, 1998). General roles in families tend to be good for women. According to Arber ‘Family roles are important for women; women without children and previously married women have particularly poor health status especially those not in paid employment and living in local authority housing’ (Arber, 1991: 425).
Another factor which can explain why there are more sick women than men is that men and women are socialized to experience and describe their sensations of the body in differing ways. Women tend to discuss their heath issues with doctors more than men do (unless men have some physical ailments) and are hence diagnosed more with illnesses. Advertisements also can reinforce a distinction between genders with regards to health and illness. Kempner studied the pattern of advertising for migraine treatments by companies. She found that by constantly marketing these products to women, pharmaceutical companies tend to build the idea that migraine is a ‘women’s disorder’, hence ensuring that women are more likely to ask for help, and be diagnosed with migraines than men (Kempner, 2006).
Therefore, in conclusion, it is important to note that there are more women patients as a result of their social role and because they tend to talk about their illnesses more than men do and not as a result of them being biologically sicker than men.
MASCULINITIES AND HEALTH
Doctors describe ‘coronary-prone behaviour’ (also known as ‘Type-A personality’) as a mixture of unrestrained ambition, chronic impatience and free-floating hostility towards one’s environment.
A sociological perspective shows that this syndrome is a reasonably precise explanation of how our culture defines masculinity. In the past, health of men was considered to be unproblematic and they benefited from hegemonic masculinity (refers to the most dominant form of masculinity in society. In present times, this refers to white, healthy, wealthy, assertive men who portray a ‘macho’ persona). But in contemporary society, men seem to suffer in health due to the expectations and challenges of portraying masculinity. For example, in the UK, young men are pressured to portray masculinity by living a ‘laddish’ lifestyle, mostly consisting of engaging in activities such as rash driving, large consumption of alcohol, etc; which can prove to be quite dangerous and fatal. Statistics of morbidity and mortality show that early death among young men is mostly alcohol or drug …show more content…
related.
New perspectives look into how men’s health is affected by the ways in which they relate to hegemonic masculinity and how that affects their experience of illness. Research work by O’Brien et al (2005) conducted on fourteen focus groups of men from varying backgrounds indicates how ideas of masculinity influence men’s decisions regarding health and illness. The researchers found that a majority of men prefer to be ‘a man’ in the face of illnesses and tend to put off seeking any professional help to address their illnesses. Ideas of masculinity such as being able to endure pain and suffering, physical strength, being able to cope in the face of adversity and not appearing to be weak were the reasons given by the research participants for not voicing out their illness. In contrast, women do not tend to have such socially defined ideas and hence find it easier to talk about their health problems. Men usually consult professionals only in the face of physical, external ailments rather than emotional or mental health problems. Due to this reason, men are less likely to be diagnosed to be suffering from stress or depression, and more likely to be diagnosed as having a physical ailment (Verbrugge, 1989). But there are certain exceptions to such behaviour by men of not voicing out their illnesses. For example, men like firemen whose job gives them access to a great masculine persona show no difficulty or apprehension in voicing out their health concerns.
Cameron and Bernardes (1998) conducted a study of prostate ill health on a wide pool of men in Britain. They found that the men did not discuss their symptoms with anyone, and six percent of them did not even discuss it with their spouses and they even delayed seeking medical attention in the face of extremely overt symptoms, for example, one respondent who received medical attention only due to an emergency admission to a hospital for urine retention. They also found that men tend to make bad patients, refusing to come back for follow-up check-ups and examinations. Some respondents even said that they could have digital rectal examination only if a man performed it because, according to them, ‘only men can understand what you are going through’. This study portrays the social structuring of masculinity in modern society. Such focus on masculinity means that ‘men emerge both as the dominant gender and the real victims of masculinity’ (Ramazanoglu, 1989: 346).
GENDER AND MENTAL HEALTH
Most perspectives and researches related to sociology and mental health comes to a conclusion that women suffer from higher rates of mental illnesses than men (Foster 1995; Bebbington 1996).
Various explanations for this conclusion are that men tend to have various outlets to mask their depression or relieve their stress like drinking; some explain that role strain/conflict is a contributing factor, or even social factors like poor housing or class distinction. Another major factor is the pressure on women, mostly in developed, modern societies, to match the prevailing expectations of femininity and attractiveness. Media images portray almost exclusively thin and extremely attractive models and actresses which infuses an idea, especially among young women, that being thin is the epitome of attractiveness and failing to have such a body type can have damaging consequences on their mental health, causing feelings of low self esteem, distress, anxiety and
depression.
Eating disorders like anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa among young women is a result of such social expectations of what is considered attractive. Studies show that most young women in developed societies consider that men usually find ‘thin women attractive’, that being thin is the only factor of attractiveness and they believe that they are never as thin as men would like them to be. Such false perceptions set up by social expectations lead to habits such as intense dieting and other forms of weight control like taking diet pills which can lead to major eating disorder, having adverse effects on health.
It is a well-established discovery from the one of the earliest sociological research (Brown and Harris, 1978) that women are diagnosed with depression more than men and the pattern has not altered for over a staggering 20 year period. A major reason why women are diagnosed with depression more than men is mainly because women talk about their mental health more openly with professionals than men, as mentioned earlier. Another reason, researchers like Nazroo et al found, is that women are more prone to develop depression if a crisis involved children, reproduction or housing. The chance of depression increases if a woman attaches greater importance to the areas of her role identity. For example, if a woman feels a great attachment and responsibility towards child/children as a result of her role identity, then a chance of depression becomes greater if any child-related problem arises, for example, poor health or drug abuse.
Mental illness among men is least reported out of fear or embarrassment of being regarded as unmanly. In fact, to admit to having mental illness appeared to be the one aspect that caused the most direct challenge to masculinity. But research by Emslie et al (2006) found that some men would talk about their mental illnesses, mostly depression, only if they considered that their bouts with depression was a result of some heroic struggle (like fighting a war in Afghanistan) and employed a very masculine approach to seeing the illness.
Hence, it can be seen that various social factors and social constructions of what masculinity and femininity should be like has a major impact on the physical and mental health of men and women in modern society. Though health is primarily a biological aspect, the social aspects cannot be ignored.
REFERENCES
Barry, A., Yuill, C. (2008). Understanding the sociology of health: An introduction (2nd ed.). Great Britain: Sage Publications.
Macionis, J. (1996). Sociology. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
White, K. (2009). An introduction to the sociology of health and illness (2nd ed.). Great Britain: Sage Publications.