Gender and Interracial Relationships - Essay Example

Gender and Interracial Relationships: An Examination of the Movie “Guess Whos Coming to Dinner?” The issue of interracial relationships remain to be a sensitive issue, despite many inroads that have already been taken in terms of ending racial discrimination. Despite the increasing number of interracial relationships and despite the fact that many decades have passed since interracial relationships had been declared as legal, there are still many for whom these relationships carry a stigma. In an article entitled “New Generation does not Blink at Interracial Relationships” published on USA Today (USA Today, 2006, Web), it states that younger people are less concerned about race than they are about common interests and common perspectives. And yet, the interracial relationships still remain a difficult terrain for some – particularly when this relationship is set against a backdrop of prejudices and biases that are difficult to budge. Whilst many things have been written about interracial relationships, both from a scholarly and academic perspective and from more mainstream media, an underexplored topic is how different genders perceive interracial relationships, and the degree of the difference. Are women more supportive of interracial relationships than men? Or is it the other way around? What accounts for the discrepancy? It is in this light that this paper discusses the film “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”, which came out in 1967, at a time when interracial relationships were still considered taboo and in most states, even illegal. The movie was considered revolutionary for depicting interracial relationships in a positive light. It centers on a young couple, Joey, the female being white (played by Katharine Houghton) and John, the male being black (played by Sidney Poitier), who have to deal with the disapproval of their respective families on their relationship. The plot of the film revolves around the character of Houghton taking home her chosen man for dinner and arranging that he meets her parents. The New York Times, reviewing the film, had written: "the suspicion arises that were the film made today its makers would come to grips a good deal more bluntly with the problems of intermarriage. Still, this remains a deft comedy and - most of all - a paean to the power of love." It is also interesting to note the differing perspectives of the man and the woman in the film with regard to the reactions of their family. Joey is determined to continue with the relationship no matter what, and is deadest to marry John, whom she loves. John on the other hand finds it more important to gain the approval of both families first – even his own family is adamantly against the relationship – before they can get married. This illustrates a gender difference that this paper proposes to speak of: it is clear here that the male has more regard for social attitudes than his bride, and the female puts a greater premium on the relationship and will fight for it against all odds, despite public opposition. Indeed, there are gender differences in how interracial relationships are perceived. We now touch upon two scholarly articles that deal with the issue. The first one is entitled “Sociodemographic differentials in mate selection preferences” (1991: 928) written by Scott South and published in 1991. This paper draws upon the “Exchange Theory” which “stresses the resources that individuals are able to trade in order to maximize their rewards” (p. 929). The methodology of this research was surveys with over 2000 respondents in the National Survey of Families and Households. In relation to the topic at hand, the most crucial part of the paper’s discussion is as follows – Within the race/ethnic categories, men are consistently more willing than women to marry exogamously. The greater willingness of black and Hispanic males in comparison to their female counterparts to out-marry is consistent with the higher rates of exogamy for these men (Schoen and Wooldredge, 1989; Schoen, Wooldredge, and Thomas, 1989). Curiously, however, the great willingness of white men relative to white women to marry someone of another race is the reverse of the observed out- marriage rates for these groups. Given that nonblack women in interracial marriages are more likely than those in intraracial marriages to marry up in education (Schoen and Wooldredge, 1989), perhaps preferences regarding race of mate are contingent on the socioeconomic status of the potential spouse. (p. 930). The interesting point that this paper makes is that while white males may be truly making decisions based on race when they decide that racial similarity or marrying intraracially does not matter and will marry a spouse of a different ethnic lineage, for women the priority and consideration would be socio-economic status of the spouse, rather than racial considerations. However, this paper does not look at how the different genders deal with social attitudes on their relationship and limits itself to how the different genders select a mate and the likelihood that that selection will result in an interracial relationship. The other article that this paper wishes to explore and look into is entitled “When does Race Matter?: Race, Sex and Dating at an Elite University” (McClintock and Murry, 2010: 45). In contrast to the other article, this article also looks at “hook-ups” – or the phenomenon of uncommitted and spontaneous sexual encounters that often take place among young people in places like universities. For its methodology, the paper used data from the College Social Life Survey, which is an undergraduate students survey in Stanford University, an elite learning institution. The paper found that homophily – or the tendency to love or associate with those of the same kind or the same race – still informs many of the relationships within the university, including hook-ups. The paper found that “groups that share a physical location but avoid social ties will have low rates of interracial relationships.” (p. 46) The paper also demonstrated that blacks are particularly socially isolated where relationships and hook-ups are concerned. The most important and crucial part of this paper with the study is the finding that “Gender differences in attitudes toward interracial partnerships and in the incidence and prevalence of interracial unions are also evident. With the exception of Asians, men report a greater willingness to date interracially.” (p. 50). The main differences between the two articles are the following: first, the first article was a broader spread across educational levels, age, incomes and locations; whilst the second article dealt only with those who are still students (and therefore young) and privileged enough to enter Stanford University (and therefore both intelligent and presumably wealthy). Another difference is that the second article dealt with hook-ups – fleeting sexual encounters – and do not deal exclusively with life-partner choices, the way the first article does. The second article also discussed the factors that might affect choices in relationships – soxial proximity and opportunity were considered as factors, parental interference less so. These factors were not among the survey questions in the first article. However, the consistent point was that males are more likely to be in interracial relationships than women. How then do the theories apply to the movie? It is imperative to note that the movie was shown in 1967, several decades before the papers were published and therefore social attitudes had since shifted. Whilst the movie placed a good deal on the effects of parental and family interference, the Stanford survey demonstrated that it was hardly an issue for the students of the present. The movie’s racial dynamic – black man, white woman – confirms the common dynamic among interracial relationships, in that black men (as shown in the article by South) are more likely to out-marry. Perhaps the only glaring difference in the movie – which is accountable to the times in which it was shown – is the degree to which the families felt that they had a say in the relationship and that they could affect choices made by the young couple. Family intereference is less an issue now than it was before and social attitudes of outsider to the relationship bear little upon the relationship itself. Ultimately, it is the attitudes and framework of the couple that matter and that determine the health and viability of the relationship. In conclusion, interracial relationships still prove to be a veritable petri-dish in which we examine how far society has come in bridging the gap between races and how integrated it has become in more contemporary times. Whilst it cannot claim that racial attitudes are completely gone and that prejudice and biases have been eliminated, the great increase in interracial relationship are manifestations of how racial markers are becoming less and less important, and other considerations play a bigger role in the equation. The effects of gender on racial perceptions change as the decades pass, and continued scholarly work and research is required in order to be apprised of interesting developments and changes where this issue is concerned. Word count: 1475 Bibliography Jayson, Sharon. (2006). “New Generation does not blink at interracial relationships.” USA Today. February 6, 2006. Available at http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-02-07-colorblind_x.htm McClintock, E. and Murry, V. (2010). “When does race matter? Race Sex and dating at an elite university”. Journal of Marriage and Family, Vol. 72, No. 1. 45-72. South, S. (1991). “Sociodemographic Differentials in Mate Selection Preferences.” Journal of Marriage and Family, Vol. 53, No. 4. 928-940. Read More