American society does view identity and social belonging through intersecting lenses of race, class, and gender. The lenses through which people view society and themselves determine everything from self-concept to worldview and values. According to Lareau, lenses of gender and class are persistent because they are consciously and unconsciously transmitted through generations (747). The persistence of sociological lenses creates the illusion that race, class, and gender are deterministic, that they actually serve as legitimate means of classification, stratification, and judgment. The problem with lenses of all types is that they can too easily distort reality, making it seem like race, class, and gender are immutable when in fact they are socially constructed categories. Gender roles and norms are so persistent that even as society professes to have become more egalitarian, in fact the discourse on gender equity “did very little to change straight people’s perspectives on gender,” (Truscheit 1). Lip service to equality is qualitatively different from actual, meaningful means of deconstructing institutionalized racism, sexism, and classism. Cognitive biases persist, even through widespread campaigns to raise awareness. The recent movement to expose entrenched sexism, for example, focuses on the phenomenon of harassment. Harassment,...
Most Americans can agree there are problems with the lenses of race, class, and gender, but beyond talking about these problems, experience powerlessness to change.Works Cited
Garcia, Kelli. “Ending Discrimination in Health Care.” The Latest. 13 Nov, 2015. https://nwlc.org/blog/ending-sex-discrimination-health-care/
Gramlich, John. “10 things we learned about gender issues in the U.S. in 2017.” Pew Research Center. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/12/28/10-things-we-learned-about-gender-issues-in-the-u-s-in-2017/
Lareau, Annette. “Invisible Inequality.” American Sociological Review 67(5): 747.
Truscheit, Tori. “How Can The Queerest Generation (Ever) Still Believe In Gender Roles?” HuffPost. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/how-can-the-queerest-generation-ever-still-believe_us_5956c1eae4b0f078efd989ca
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