On the Functionality of Marginalized Masculinities and Femininities: An Ethnography on Organizational Power and Gender Performances
Author(s)
Cheng, Cliff
Abstract
This ethnography tells of the social construction of masculinities and femininities in The Group, a charismatic social change movement. While sex essentialism led to sex-segregated jobs and only two authorized gender performances, men performing hegemonic masculinity and women performing emphasized femininities, alternatives existed. Alternative gender performances–for example, men performing emphasized femininity, men performing marginalized masculinity, and women performing hegemonic masculinity–were functional to organization. While these alternative gender performances were allowed, they were not acknowledged in the sex essentialist organizational discourse. This ethnography attempts to show how an organization has authorized versions of gender performances in its organizational discourse, while at the same time has alternative gender performances that are permitted but not acknowledged. In the subject organization, the definition of which types of gender performances are authorized and which are deviant is a result of patriarchal authority. Organizational and occupational cultures define its authorized gender performances that may differ slightly or significantly from the current Euro-American, heterosexist, middle-upper class, Christian-Judeo norms.
