Chapter 3: GLOBALIZING BODY POLITICS: Embodied Verbal and Nonverbal Communication

Test Bank

Multiple Choice

1. When race or gender is socially constructed, it means that

a. people are born with their race and gender as part of their biological characteristics.

b. people assign meaning to the physical characteristics and create social conventions, norms, and practices associated with the meaning.

c. people can choose their own race and gender according to their preferences.

d. people have no freedom or agency to claim who they are.

Learning Objective: 3-2: Explain how “race” is a social construct that was “invented” historically to serve economic and political ends.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Semiotic Approach to Difference
Difficulty Level: Medium

2. Signifier and signified can be best explained by which one of the following?

a. Signified is the word, image, or material form; signifier is idea or mental concept.

b. Signifier is the word, image, or material form; signified is idea or mental concept.

c. Signified is the objective meaning; signifier is subjective meaning.

d. Signifier is the subjective meaning; signified is the objective meaning.

Learning Objective: 3-2: Explain how “race” is a social construct that was “invented” historically to serve economic and political ends.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Semiotic Approach to Difference
Difficulty Level: Easy

3. When Robert hears the word “Apple,” he thinks of healthy snack fruit, while Shirley thinks of her favorite computer. This is because the relationship between signifier and signified is

a. personal.

b. objective.

c. arbitrary.

d. a mystery.

Learning Objective: 3-2: Explain how “race” is a social construct that was “invented” historically to serve economic and political ends.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Semiotic Approach to Difference
Difficulty Level: Medium

4. What does the statement “Race is a social construction” mean?

a. It means race is a biological trait determined by DNA.

b. It means racial categories are fixed and will never change.

c. It means racial categories are universal across the world.

d. It means race is a product of social norms and practices shaped by the relations of power.

Learning Objective: 3-2: Explain how “race” is a social construct that was “invented” historically to serve economic and political ends.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Semiotic Approach to Difference
Difficulty Level: Medium

5. Mary purchased a bottle of perfume because she liked the floral and sweet scent. The scent of her perfume is the ________, and the feminine and romantic association she makes with the scent is the __________.

a. signified; signifier

b. semiotics; sign

c. signifier; signified

d. sign; semiotics

Learning Objective: 3-2: Explain how “race” is a social construct that was “invented” historically to serve economic and political ends.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Semiotic Approach to Difference
Difficulty Level: Medium

6. The genocide of millions of indigenous peoples during the conquest of the Americas is an example of what kind of history?

a. Silenced

b. Revised

c. Cultural

d. Ethnic

Learning Objective: 3-3: Identify a process of “reading” body politics to reveal the social, economic, and political implications of the meanings we attach to “difference.”

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: The Power of Texts
Difficulty Level: Medium

7. The social construction of race is deeply rooted in

a. ethnic histories of those who chose their racial labels and identifications.

b. the history of European colonization and the invention of racial hierarchy.

c. the scientific discovery of biological differences that constitute racial differences.

d. the innate differences that manifest in physical features such as skin color, hair texture, and eye color.

Learning Objective: 3-2: Explain how “race” is a social construct that was “invented” historically to serve economic and political ends.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: The Power of Texts
Difficulty Level: Medium

8. The important characteristic of power in intercultural communication is

a. that power functions as a one-way proposition; that is, some people are powerful and others are powerless.

b. that power is pervasive, and individuals are never outside of relationships of power.

c. that power influences intercultural interactions only in international contexts.

d. that power is present only during war and political conflict.

Learning Objective: 3-4: Explore how we, as intercultural communicators, can resist and transform socially constructed categories that maintain hierarchies of difference.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: The Power of Texts
Difficulty Level: Hard

9. Which of the following is NOT true about Whiteness/White identity in the United States?

a. Whiteness is always marked and made visible in understanding race relations.

b. White Americans (European Americans) have a set of cultural norms and practices.

c. Whiteness is linked to privilege and structural advantage.

d. Whiteness is a particular standpoint from which individuals see the world.

Learning Objective: 3-1: Describe how our physical bodies are sites where categories of social difference (race, gender, etc.) are marked and negotiated.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: From Race to Culture: Constructing a Raceless, Color-Blind, Post-Race Society
Difficulty Level: Medium

10. How does the notion of “race” as a social construct inform our understanding of race?

a. It suggests that race is a simple concept.

b. It suggests that racial identities are fixed and will never change.

c. It suggests that racial identities are objective.

d. It suggests that race is a constructed concept that is influenced by relations of power.

Learning Objective: 3-2: Explain how “race” is a social construct that was “invented” historically to serve economic and political ends.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Semiotic Approach to Difference
Difficulty Level: Medium

11. The meanings associated with being a “man” or a “woman” have changed over time and are different in different cultures. This suggests that

a. gender is a social construct.

b. gender is biological.

c. there are only two genders.

d. gender is a personal expression.

Learning Objective: 3-1: Describe how our physical bodies are sites where categories of social difference (race, gender, etc.) are marked and negotiated.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Semiotic Approach to Difference
Difficulty Level: Medium

12. To understand her identity, Kiera carefully examined how her race, gender, class, sexuality, and ability/disability operate in relationship to each other. She is using the notion of

a. standpoint theory.

b. ethnocentrism.

c. racial historicism.

d. intersectionality.

Learning Objective: 3-1: Describe how our physical bodies are sites where categories of social difference (race, gender, etc.) are marked and negotiated.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: From Race to Culture: Constructing a Raceless, Color-Blind, Post-Race Society
Difficulty Level: Medium

13. Statements such as “I’m colorblind,” “we transcended racial differences,” and “we live in a postracial society” are supported by the ideology of

a. racial historicism.

b. racial naturalism.

c. body politics.

d. cultural imperialism.

Learning Objective: 3-4: Explore how we, as intercultural communicators, can resist and transform socially constructed categories that maintain hierarchies of difference.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: From Race to Culture: Constructing a Raceless, Color-Blind, Post-Race Society
Difficulty Level: Medium

14. Resignifying “race” as “culture” is problematic because

a. it argues that class intersects with racial hierarchy.

b. it assumes that cultural differences are the cause of racial disparity.

c. it ignores how cultural differences are disappearing in the context of globalization.

d. it assumes that everyone belongs to the same culture.

Learning Objective: 3-4: Explore how we, as intercultural communicators, can resist and transform socially constructed categories that maintain hierarchies of difference.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: From Race to Culture: Constructing a Raceless, Color-Blind, Post-Race Society
Difficulty Level: Hard

15. Why is hip-hop culture a useful example of body politics?

a. Hip-hop culture demonstrates how culture is a resource in the global context.

b. Hip-hop culture has a universal appeal.

c. Hip-hop culture provides space for individuals to negotiate gender and racial codes marked on their bodies.

d. Hip-hop culture can be appropriated by various cultures.

Learning Objective: 3-3: Identify a process of “reading” body politics to reveal the social, economic, and political implications of the meanings we attach to “difference.”

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Hip Hop Culture: Alternative Performances of Difference
Difficulty Level: Medium

16. A ______ is an idea or phenomenon that has been “created,” “invented” or “constructed” by people in a particular society or culture through communication.

a. social construct

b. social norm

c. political body

d. political construct

Learning Objective: 3-1: 1. Describe how our physical bodies are sites where categories of social difference (race, gender, etc.) are marked and negotiated.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Constructing Social Worlds Through Communication
Difficulty Level: Easy

17. ______ refers to people whose gender identities do not match their biological sex.

a. Transgender

b. Third gender

c. cisgender

d. gendered

Learning Objective: 3-1: Describe how our physical bodies are sites where categories of social difference (race, gender, etc.) are marked and negotiated.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Gender Difference
Difficulty Level: Easy

18. Which of the following is true of signs?

a. The meaning of signs is created through the marking of sameness.

b. signs belong to systems, but their meaning is separate from other signs within the system.

c. Signs have permanent or essential meanings,

d. The relationship between the signifier and signified is arbitrary.

Learning Objective: 3-1: Describe how our physical bodies are sites where categories of social difference (race, gender, etc.) are marked and negotiated.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Semiotic Approach to Difference
Difficulty Level: Medium

19. ______ is an approach to understanding how socially constructed categories of difference—race, gender, class, and sexuality—operate in relationship to each other.

a.

b.

c. Intersectionality

d. Body politics

Learning Objective: 3-4: Explore how we, as intercultural communicators, can resist and transform socially constructed categories that maintain hierarchies of difference.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Intersectionality
Difficulty Level: Easy

20. ______ is a historically based, institutionally perpetuated system of exploitation and oppression of continents, nations, and people of color by people and nations of European descent for the purpose of establishing and maintaining wealth, privilege, and power.

a. Intersectionality

b. White supremacy

c. Whiteness

d. Body politics

Learning Objective: 3-3: Identify a process of “reading” body politics to reveal the social, economic, and political implications of the meanings we attach to “difference.”

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Inventing Race and Constructing the “Other”
Difficulty Level: Medium

True/False

1. The relationship between the signifier and the signified remains the same over time and in different contexts.

Learning Objective: 3-3: Identify a process of “reading” body politics to reveal the social, economic, and political implications of the meanings we attach to “difference.”

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Semiotic Approach to Difference
Difficulty Level: Easy

2. In Chapter 3, hip-hop culture is used as an example of body politics to show that the meanings marked on our bodies can be negotiated and transformed.

Learning Objective: 3-4: Explore how we, as intercultural communicators, can resist and transform socially constructed categories that maintain hierarchies of difference.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Hip Hop Culture: Alternative Performances of Difference
Difficulty Level: Easy

3. When analyzing cultures such as hip-hop, it is important to use a both/and approach to avoid essentializing and stereotyping.

Learning Objective: 3-4: Explore how we, as intercultural communicators, can resist and transform socially constructed categories that maintain hierarchies of difference.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Hip Hop Culture: Alternative Performances of Difference
Difficulty Level: Medium

4. The relationship between the signifier and signified is arbitrary.

Learning Objective: 3-3: Identify a process of “reading” body politics to reveal the social, economic, and political implications of the meanings we attach to “difference.”

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Semiotic Approach to Difference
Difficulty Level: Easy

5. Transgender refers to people whose gender identities match their biological sex.

Learning Objective: 3-1: Describe how our physical bodies are sites where categories of social difference (race, gender, etc.) are marked and negotiated.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Gender Difference
Difficulty Level: Easy

6. There is no question that human differences are visible and physically embodied.

Learning Objective: 3-3: Identify a process of “reading” body politics to reveal the social, economic, and political implications of the meanings we attach to “difference.”

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Racial Difference
Difficulty Level: Medium

7. Patriarchy is not historical.

Learning Objective: 3-4: Explore how we, as intercultural communicators, can resist and transform socially constructed categories that maintain hierarchies of difference.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Gender Difference
Difficulty Level: Medium

8. What “race” means has not changed over time.

Learning Objective: 3-2: Explain how “race” is a social construct that was “invented” historically to serve economic and political ends.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: The Social Construction of Race: From Colonization to Globalization
Difficulty Level: Easy

9. In settler colonial societies, settlers come to stay.

Learning Objective: 3-4: Explore how we, as intercultural communicators, can resist and transform socially constructed categories that maintain hierarchies of difference.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: The Power of Texts
Difficulty Level: Easy

10. Claims of a raceless society attempt to erase or neutralize the centuries of historical injustice, exploitation, and asymmetrical relations of power that have produced current conditions of race-based inequity.

Learning Objective: 3-2: Explain how “race” is a social construct that was “invented” historically to serve economic and political ends.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: From Race to Culture: Constructing a Raceless, Color-Blind, Post-Race Society
Difficulty Level: Medium

Essay

1. What is semiotics, and what is the difference between the signifier and the signified? How is semiotics useful to understand cultural differences?

Learning Objective: 3-3: Identify a process of “reading” body politics to reveal the social, economic, and political implications of the meanings we attach to “difference.”

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Semiotic Approach to Difference
Difficulty Level: Medium

2. Briefly explain what “body politics” is, and discuss how race or gender is an example of body politics.

Learning Objective: 3-3: Identify a process of “reading” body politics to reveal the social, economic, and political implications of the meanings we attach to “difference.”

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: GLOBALIZING BODY POLITICS
Difficulty Level: Medium

3. What does it mean when something is socially constructed? Explain and provide an example.

Learning Objective: 3-2: Explain how “race” is a social construct that was “invented” historically to serve economic and political ends.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Constructing Social Worlds Through Communication
Difficulty Level: Medium

4. Briefly explain the difference between racial naturalism and racial historicism. Discuss why racial historicism is as problematic as racial naturalism.

Learning Objective: 3-2: Explain how “race” is a social construct that was “invented” historically to serve economic and political ends.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: From Race to Culture: Constructing a Raceless, Color-Blind, Post-Race Society
Difficulty Level: Medium

5. Why do you think talking about race/racism is difficult? Discuss how we can use intercultural praxis to have a more constructive and meaningful dialogue on race and racism.

Learning Objective: 3-4: Explore how we, as intercultural communicators, can resist and transform socially constructed categories that maintain hierarchies of difference.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Intercultural Praxis
Difficulty Level: Medium