Paper , Order, or Assignment Requirements

Read The Required Sources and answer the 3 multiple choice quizzes below.

Question 1:

Why did Ebert write in his book Individualisation at work (2012) that ‘the self not only negotiates the social order, but the very process of negotiating defines its very nature and existence’ (p. 27)? What does it mean for his conception of socialisation?

Select one answer:

1. In the fragmented, pluralised and fast changing normative infrastructure of contemporary societies, individuals must be guided by an internalised form of control more than external systemic imperatives beyond the control of those individuals; people in earlier societies did not have to keep adjusting to social change and could rely on external forces to provide normative guidance. Socialisation here refers to the continuous, intensifying processes of individualisation in which a hyper-differentiating society is engaged by a uniquely modern self exercising flexible learning and adaptation through negotiation.
2. The first characteristic of normative individualisation is that, in a society where the pace of change has stepped up beyond that which people in earlier societies had to keep adjusting to, a continuous exercise of flexible learning and adaptation guided by external systemic imperatives beyond the control of individuals becomes fundamental. Socialisation here refers to the continuous, intensifying processes of individualisation in which a hyper-differentiating society is engaged by a self exercising lifelong learning and adaptation through negotiation.
3. ‘Identity’, which is the modern concept of self as opposed to the traditional concept of ‘social character’, reveals what actually remains the same (indicated in its Latin root idem, meaning the same) – the self as given at birth – in a society that nowadays appears to be more fragile, fragmented, pluralised or even paradoxical. ‘Identity’ defines the very nature and existence of the self because it alone is active, autonomous and self-defining in its negotiation. Socialisation here refers to the epic moment of individualisation in which a hyper-differentiating society tries to impose its normative construct of ‘social character’ onto the more natural, essential and authentic ‘Identity’.
4. The ‘I’, which is the true self given at birth, has to negotiate the social order via the ‘Me’, which is the false, socially constructed self, or ‘tabula rasa’; the ‘I’ defines the very nature and existence of the self because it alone is active, autonomous and self-defining in its negotiation. Socialisation here refers to the epic moment of individualisation in which a hyper-differentiating society tries to impose its normative construct of ‘Me’ onto the more natural, essential and authentic ‘I’.

Question 2:

Why did Camhi name her 1993 article ‘Stealing Femininity’, as indicated by the main point of her argument?

Select one answer:

1. Camhi’s concern in this article is with early modern cases of hysteria. This is a medical condition that is distinguished by daydreaming and split states of consciousness. It left patients prone to compulsive theft. Here ‘Stealing Femininity’ means thatall the women who stole (both ordinary thieves and true female hysterics) were ‘stealing femininity’ from normal women, by hiding behind the woman’s reputation of being weak willed and prone to kleptomania.
2. Camhi’s concern in this article is with early modern reports of women stealing items like silk or lace, which represent femininity as a display that covers up for the ‘unaccountable’ anatomical difference of the woman’s body from the man’s. Here ‘Stealing Femininity’ means that the women were stealing signs of themselves, with the appropriated goods offering a mirror of femininity and a fantasy of self-possession.
3. Camhi’s concern in this article is with early modern male doctors – psychiatrists like Freud, Dubuisson and Clerambault – representing femininity as a masquerade, or a display that covers up her shameful lack of a penis. Here ‘Stealing Femininity’ means that the men were ‘stealing femininity’ in putting their false accounts of penis envy in the place of woman’s true identity (e.g. Berthe Pappenheim as feminist and social worker).
4. Camhi’s concern in this article is with early modern cases of kleptomania. This is a medical condition that is distinguished from ordinary theft by the wish to steal being compulsive, and the stolen goods having no use value. The truly pathological were only a small minority of those who stole; yet there were many women at that time who indulged in shoplifting. Here ‘Stealing Femininity’ means that these women – the ordinary thieves – were ‘stealing femininity’ from women (both normal women and true female kleptomaniacs), by hiding behind the woman’s reputation of being weak willed and prone to hysteria.

Question 3:

What point was made regarding the objects of consumption becoming feminised in post-WWII modernity (the pink cars, fridges etc characteristic of the 1950s) made by the lecturer, citing Penny Sparke, As Long As It’s Pink: The Sexual Politics of Taste (1995)?

Select one answer:

1. It reflected the modernist ideology that feminine ‘taste’ was trashy, useless, outmoded and conservative, and belonged in the trivial sphere of popular consumption
2. It reflected the post-WWII ideology that women belonged in the home, and was part of a patriarchal strategy to persuade women to give up their war jobs to the returning male soldiers.
3. It reflected the post-WWII ideology of emphasising gender difference and was part of a capitalist strategy to persuade the primary consumers of this time – men – to buy certain objects for their women on top of what they might need to buy for themselves or the family in general.
4. It reflected the expanding power of the female consumer, and was part of a manufacturing strategy to appeal to feminine ‘taste’ (which the rise of the department store had helped to rehabilitate culturally in the post-WWII period).