Sociology Essay

Patricia Hill discusses in her article Get Your Freak On: Sex, Babies, And Images of Black Femininity the history behind the word "freak". "Freaks were described as people who were different from other people. Now the word freak is being reconstructed into its own new meaning and understanding. Rick James and Missy Elliot use this word to mean a kinky sexuality. Collins categorize "freak" with other terms such as "bitch", "nigger" and etc. Collins distinguishes between class differences and how the term was being used in the African American community. For example, African Americans can use the term "bitch" meaning aggressive, loud, rude, and pushy. Whereas, women who are represented as a black bitch are super tough, super strong are often celebrated. But in other communities, the word "bitch" is considered to be racism, sexism, and heterosexism. In the African American community, such terms are could be represented as female sexuality, which is part of their freedom and independence. Terms that were used in the nineteenth century are now being reconstructed into new meanings. In addition, the chapter mainly talks about the differences between sex and gender. Sex is an individual's membership in one of two biologically distinct categories male or female. Gender the physical behavioral and personality traits that a group considers normal for its male and female members. This chapter also talks about, essentialist, gender identity and gender inequality. Essentialists are people who believe that gender roles are genetic or biological and thus cannot be changed, gender identity is the self-definition of an individual's gender to themselves and gender inequality is where an individual is treated unequally based upon their gender. Gender inequality is very popular in many countries, where the male society is dominant and females are considered to be of very little value.