Gender Studies (class) Notes

By King Meera -
2 Nov 2016
Introduction
  • closely related with sex and sexuality
  • introduction to basic concepts, theories, movements
  • gender as a process, not a product
  • gender as a discourse
  • how the gender discourse has changed other discourses
  • the biological, political, ideological constructs that normalize the social construct that gender is
  • approaching gender in therms of the body, especially with respect to queer sexuality, or gender roles
  • the teleological process of identity determined by sex -> gender -> sexuality (like body -> role -> position)
  • the subversion or even reversal of this identity
  • gender a relevant consideration in postmodern spaces - architecture, media, technology, psychology
  • almost all institutions (law, government, education) discuss and are shaped by gender
  • the personal is the political
  • from women studies to gender studies
Historical progress:
  1. Feminism (1st, 2nd, 3rd wave)
  2. Masculinities
  3. Queer Theory
  • immediacies not intimacies
4 Nov 2016
Sex vs Gender vs Sexuality:

Analysis of dictionary definition:

Sex: (i) sexual activity (ii) either of the two main categories, male and female, into which humans and most other living things are divided on the basis of reproductive function; synonyms: gender, penetration (sexual, vaginal, anal)
1. Why is procreation (still(?)) the foundation of social identity and function?
2. Sex is defined with regard to the male body, in terms of penetration, which is what the penis does.

Sex: supposedly acquired at birth, biological (- biological determinism, essentialism; social construction). It is an attribution (an ascribed, quality/character) at birth (and then lifelong), in terms of a lack (of the phallus). Chromosomes have come to define or determine sex, but they are inanimate, material entities that manifest in 'sexual' characteristics (*) (they are not inherently male or female). (note that sex is canonically constructed as a binary opposition (male/female) and consequently disregards hermaphrodites and transsexuals)
(*) - these characteristics include but are not limited to reproductive function, physical appearance, and attraction to the "opposite" sex, influenced by hormone activity)
//
i. sex and gender are interpellations that reinforce each other
ii. cultural materialism and gender
//

Gender: described as the state of being male or female (inference: your femininity or masculinity validates your having been born female/male)

Sexuality: (not equal to sexual orientation)
formally entered the lexicon of the discourse of sex in 1869 - French "sexualité" (also relevant: "science" vs "natural law")
//
sexuality is not legitimized unless it is normative and conformative)
//
  • the relationship between sex and gender is sexuality
  • in addressing the dialectics of sex and gender we must learn to see them not as nouns but as present continuous verbs
  • gender and sex as ontological
11 Nov 2016

//
3 points:
1. questions sex as the basis for gender and sexuality
2. subverts the progression of the normative discourse of: sex -> gender -> sexuality"
3. refutes the alienation of the body from the social, thereby challenging the division between sex and gender
//

//sexuality: it is easier to determine what sexuality means by eliminating what it does not encompass, rather than trying to define it
//
  • various discourses define the body, not just biology - primarily, philosophy, theology, and religion, but also architecture and planning
  • look at body and embodiment
  • when ideologies are narrativized, normalized, they become discourses
  • the body is a process of interactionism
  • effectio - performance
14 Nov 2016

//
cultural feminism: works from within the system/institution
//

Foucault
  • 17th C most volatile w.r.t. blatant regard for the body
  • on the one hand was a clear distinction between mind and body - 
  • Freud termed it Victorian prudishness - the denial of having been born as sexual bodies
  • on the other, in certain spaces, language was bawdy and sexuality could be openly discussed
  • in this regard, Foucault describes "we 'other' Victorians", and the 'othering' of morally reprehensible people
"Sexuality was carefully confined, it moved into the home; the conjugal family took custody of it and absorbed it into the serious function of reproduction .... the legitimate and procreative couple laid down the law .... a single locus of sexuality was acknowledged in social space as well as the heart of every household."

sexuality sanctioned as things that happened between two individuals in a closed space to fulfill the social function of procreation

-------
Body is not a natural object, it is a cultural representation, the site of ideologies, a discursive construction, a narrative

The relationship between ideology and discourse - discursive:
1. belonging to a discourse
2. not straight - anything that does not give you a clear meaning

the body exists at 3 levels: discourse, ideology, narrative
- narratives negotiate ideologies, and ideologies alter and form discourses
- bodies are represented w.r.t. the ideal, as in natural/ideal/perfect/functional
interactive symbolism

21 Nov 2016
THE WAVES OF FEMINISM - new post

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