Gender and Influence

In the last class, we talked about some of the different studies that implicate gender as a factor in exerting an influence over phenomena such as obesity and drinking. In Connected, during a discussion about obesity, the book states, "we found that friends and siblings are much more susceptible to influence by peers of the same sex than by peers of the opposite sex. . . Thus, although spouses are typically friends, they are also typically of the opposite sex, and the two effects cancel each other out" (119). The book makes similar statements a couple of times, so I was wondering if there have been studies done on lesbian and gay couples where the "two effects" don't cancel out?

Along the same lines, one of the things that the book Connected as well as a number of articles, including the one by Scardote, seem to do is equate sex and gender. In actuality, sex refers to the physical, biological differences between people, while gender is described on a continuum between masculine and feminine. Gender is a socialization process that isn't necessarily connected to sex. Given that distinction, it seems that equating the two in such research on social networks might not be a good idea. In fact, I was wondering if there were any social network studies that did any research about influence on obesity and alcohol consumption in transgender or even ,more broadly, in queer communities to see if the findings still held up in places where gender identity isn't so clear cut. For example, "If a woman starts drinking heavily, both her male and female friends are likely to follow suit. But when a man starts drinking more, he has much less effect on either his female or male buddies. . . . it suggests women are the key to the spread throughout the network" (118). A similar study on trans women might have some wide range implications on the question of biology versus socialization, and even tease out the beginnings of how and why gender even matters for the results of these behaviors.