Gender Flashcards
Explain the difference between sex and gender
sex: biological-physiological
gender:
- social and cultural construct
- category of difference
- historically contingent
Explain the difference between Erving Goffman and Judith Butler’s views on the concept of performance
Goffman (1959):
- gender displays
- Conscious, deliberate, can be stopped
Butler (1990):
- performative constructs
- repetitive re-enactments
- not deliberate, habitual
- preconceived > performance pre-exists the performer
- no performer
> no body is independent of the way we talk about it > gender & sex are hard to separate
Explain the concept of intersectionality
- discusses interlocking of different issues
- identity politics often ignores intragroup differences
- interaction of disadvantages / inequalities
Explain “on ne nait pas femme, on le devient”
- Simone de Beauvoir (1949)
- gender as social construct
> femininity as social construct
> one becomes female once one becomes subject to these social constructs - Gender as something we do
Summarize Raewyn Connell’s ideas on gender
- 1987
- multiple masculinities / femininities
- hegemonic masculinity vs emphasized femininity
- power hierarchies / dichotomies
Explain the concept of Republican Motherhood
- 2nd half 18th C.
- education for women, so they can educate family
- domestic women’s sphere still separate from men’s public sphere
- dignity and importance added to traditional role
Explain the concept of “true womanhood”
- 1820 to 1860
- cult of true womanhood
- women’s nature especially suited to domestic tasks
- piety, purity, domesticity, submissiveness
- ideology of separate spheres
What took place in Seneca Falls in 1848?
- Declaration of Sentiments
- modeled on declaration of independence > amended to include women on an equal level with men
- signed at first women’s rights convention organized by women
- principal author: Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Explain what “Women’s Suffrage” entails
- suffrage = the right to vote in political elections
- women’s fight for the right to vote
- USA: 1920
- GB: 1928
Explain Betty Friedan’s role within feminism
- “The Feminine Mystique” (1963)
- “The problem that has no name[…]”
- US (suburban) women kept from reaching full capacity
List the key points of the “Women’s Liberation”
- more participation of women
- critique of representation
- ‘consciousness raising’
- rethinking public/private division
- “the personal is political”
Explain the difference between postfeminism and ‘Third Wave’
- postfeminism suggest the struggle is over, the goal achieved
- the name ‘Third Wave’ expresses the need for further steps
Explain Gaga Feminism
- recognizes multiple genders
- contributes to collapse of sex-gender systems
- joining of femininity to artifice
- refusal of sentimentalism within womanhood
Summarize the waves of Masculinity Studies
- 1970s: First Wave - sex role model
- 1980s: Second Wave - normative and hegemonic masculinities and power structures
- 1990s: Third Wave - performativity, normativity, sexuality
Name the main concerns of Masculinity Studies
- hegemonic masculinity
- multiple masculinities
- historical and cross-cultural contexts
- intersectionality
Explain the importance of the ‘Stonewall Riots’
- 1969, NYC
- violent demonstrations against police raids
- de-criminalization & civil rights
- lead to gay liberation movement and modern fight for LGBT rights in US
What was Foucault’s role within Queer Studies
- 1976
- sexuality produced in discourse
- history of (homo)sexuality
- compulsory heterosexuality
- heteronormativity
Name the key points of the Queer Movement
- suspicious of politics of representation
- rejection of identity politics
- utopian politics, public/private division
Summarize the waves of feminism
1) 19th C. and early 20th C.: Suffrage and Seneca Falls
2) 1950’s: sexualities, reproductive rights, wage gap, public/private, representation, personal=political
3) 1980s/90s - : postfeminism / third wave
> HeforShe, Gaga
Explain the difference between Queer and LGBT
- Queer separates one’s sexuality from one’s sex
- Queer refuses identity labeling, sexuality is fluid
> NOTE Queer in itself is a label! - Queer sets itself alongside heterosexuality and LGBT
- LGBT identifies sexuality on the basis of the preferred sex of partner
- LGBT sets itself against heterosexuality
- LGBT only changes sex of partner, keeps ‘traditional heterosexual’ elements (e.g. marriage)
Explain the ‘Crisis of masculinity’
- men no longer stable identity
BUT - no homogenous group, so no crisis as a group
- justifies backlash against women
Explain essentialism
men and women as inherently different beings, belonging to separate categories, with set of essential characteristics
Explain social constructionism
phenomena and identities are products of society rather than nature
Name the key elements of hegemonic masculinity
- culturally idealised traditional ‘cliche’ image of men
- dominance over other masculinities
- negates other types of masculinity
- exercises institutional and structural power
