The Marked and the Unmarked: Toward a Sociology of Cognitive Asymmetry

• In Event: 497 - Regular Session. Sociology of Knowledge

Abstract

This paper examines the sociological potential of the classic semiotic distinction between "the marked" and "the unmarked," drawing in particular on the cases of gender, race, and sexual orientation, and their pronouncedly asymmetrical classifications of masculinity and femininity, whiteness and blackness, and heterosexuality and homosexuality.

Author

• Eviatar Zerubavel, State University of New Jersey-Rutgers