QUESTION 1

Using the lecture, weekly reading and key terms in the textbook from Week 7, discuss the following quotation from the textbook in relation to the TED Talk Shameem Akhtar: To learn is to be free.

'While sex is a relatively fixed set of characteristics attached to being male or female at birth, gender is changeable. Sociologists have for a number of decades aimed to understand the ways in which gender works as a social phenomenon, and how it manifests diversely in different cultural and temporal spaces.' (P. 121)

QUESTION 2

Using the lectures, weekly readings and key terms in the textbook from Week 8, discuss the following quotation from the textbook in relation to the TED Talk Chris Urmson

How a Driverless Car Sees the Road.

 'For example, in your car, what is the process of deciding to wear a seatbelt? In my car, you can start the car without doing up the seatbelt, but a very unpleasant, loud noise soon starts up. Doing the right thing in this situation is not an entirely human moral decision, but is partially distributed to a non-human actor: my car! I have driven cars in Europe where the seatbelt automatically snakes around you and does itself up, and you cannot engage the gears until this action is complete. Here the action— doing up the seatbelt— is fully distributed to things. (P. 377)

QUESTION 3

Using the lecture, weekly reading and key terms in the textbook from Week 12, discuss the following quotation from the textbook in relation to the TED Talk Triona McGrath: How Pollution is Changing the Ocean's Chemistry.

'Have you imagined a greener future in which environmental problems have been solved, perhaps through new technology or by changing human behaviour? Or have you imagined an impoverished future riddled with pollution, burdened with extreme climate change, mass migration, inequality and bad health? (P. 345)

QUESTION 4

Using the lecture, weekly reading and key terms in the textbook from Week 14, discuss the following quotation from the textbook in relation to the TED Talk Eleanor Longden: The Voices in my Head.

'Our answer is simple: 'You can change the world.' There are two ingredients you need to change the world. The rest is education and knowledge— which is what this book is all about. The second is a belief that 'a better world is possible'—something that we describe as 'hope'.' (P. 419)

QUESTION 1

Social construction is a part of who we are as a society. It is often common for the people from varied walks of life to be limited by the stereotype imposed on them. For example, even if male in certain society does not want to take a dominating role, even then it is expected from them to accept such responsibilities. Meanwhile, the subjugation of women is something that many have accepted over the years, simply as a form of constriction or the social imagination enabled by the society. For a long time, boys have been the tough figures, while, women have accepted the role of a nurturer in the society. As a result of which, there has always been a constriction in the society with respect to the gender roles. Yet, to presume that such constriction will remain constantly, or will not be challenged is ignorant. When I look at the statement, 'While sex is a relatively fixed set of characteristics attached to being male or female at birth, gender is changeable', I look at the glass ceilings shattered by many women across the world, and how the sex of the individual does not define the value system for any being anymore'

Gender in the present age is a changeable entity, safe is to say that this does not literally mean that physically a boy will be changed to a girl. Rather, the sociological representation of the gender in the society will be altered. For example, in the case of the present TED talk case, it soon became obvious that the Pakistani girls have some restrictions in life, and hence, a role reversal or a portrayal as a boy was adopted. Meanwhile, she enjoyed some forms of luxuries like attending a school, which were unheard of in that age. Over time, she also became confident in voicing her opinion, and seeking justice for self and other women, and in this sense broke the gender norms that the social constructivism has imposed upon her. Through this particular example, I would not say that the women in question are the only one who are breaking the gender perceptions and are able to use gender as an interchangeable social entity, but the same is evident in the context of male across the country as well. In either context the gender interchangeability is discussed as a social construct in the society, through this example, and in this sense, I agree with the statement at hand.

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