Lec 9- gender identity sexuality Flashcards
1st wave feminism (1848-1920)
suffragettes (pejorative term invented by the daily mail, playing off the archaic ‘suffrage’)
focussed efforts on securing the right to vote for women
used disruptive, and at times violent, tactics: heckled MPs, smashed post boxes, planted bombs in london
when arrested they went on hunger strikes
US suffragettes: originially integrationist, then became an exlusionary movement for white women
2nd wave feminism (early 1960s-1980s)
started with Betty Friedan’s the Feminist Mystique about the dissatisfaction of married suburban women
focussed, like the early civil rights movement, on issues of work, economic independence: right to credit cards, mortgages, employment
from the mid-late 1960s, issues of reproductive freedom (inseparable from economic freedom), sexual harassment, marital rape
also tackled casual, systemic discriminiation in portrayal of women expectations of dress, odious practices such as bum patting
black women played a large role but tensions developed over sterilization
largely hostile to lesbian movement on substantive and strategic grounds
third wave feminism (1990-present)
anita hill hearings arguably the starting point, a sort of #metoo1.0
share many second waver goals but a greater accent on gender fluidity, queer inclusion, transgender rights
more sex positive
coopted like the gay community, derogatory terms
“me too” was a paradigm shifting moment
intersectionality
gender rights
problematizing gender; gender vs. sex. category is socially constructed
supposed immutable gender attributes are deployed often with a great deal of help from religion, to maintain male dominance
the feminist movement is both about achieving concrete rights and about challenging these constructions
arguably also about creating a more inclusive and varied understanding of both femininity and masculinity, and as such also benefits the majority of men who fail to live up to alpha male stereotypes
rights of women
achieving them required changing norms
and changing the law
norms: public debate, protests, and argument by second-wave feminists
hollywood’s portrayal of strong female characters helped
institutions: the legislature played. arole
legislature: equal pay act in 1963 established the principle of the same pay for the same job
imitated by the UK in 1970 following a Ford strike in Dagenham. amended multiple times since
1964 civil rights act: included sex discrimination
1974: housing discrimination on the bases of sex outlawed by congress
1978: pregnancy discrimination act outlaws discrimination against pregnant women
1994: gender equity in education act
2005: reauthorization of violence against women act: allocates federal funds to victims for housing, justice, and children
but: ERA failed, following 3 states short in 1982 and languishing since
the courts being the real actor
1965: Griswold v. Conneticut: right to contraception (even if married)
1971: phillips v. martin marietta: outlaws discrimination against women with children in hiring
1973: roe v. wade: right of a women to end her pregnancy until the fetus is viable (third trimester), on health grounds after that. overturned by Dobbs v. Jackson (2022)
1973: frontiero v. richardson: laws differentiating inheritance benefits by sex are suspect (ginsburg case)
1975: weinberger v. weisenfeld: sex-based distinctions in awarding social security benefits are unconstitutional (ginsburg case)
1981: kirchberg v. feenstra: invalidates right of husband to control marital property without his wife’s consent
1984: hishon v. king and spalding: law firms are “employers”, and thus sex discriminations apply
1986: thornburgh v. american college of obstetricians and gynecologists: invalidates state law requiring abortion methods designed to save the fetus even when such methods threaten the woman’e health or life
1994: JEB v. Alabama. courts holds that equal protection clause prohibits excluding jurors soley on the basis of gender
sexuality
1920s: germany and above all berlin was the capital of gay sexual liberation
thriving cafe, bar, sex club scene
gay icons like marlene dietrich frequented these clubs
achieved a presence, and acceptance, not seen again until the early 1970s
legislation drawn up in 1929 to overturn paragraph 175; nazis strengthened it
strains of 1920s gay/lesbian/bi liberation
magnus hirschfeld: sexologist founded the institute for sexology in berlin and defined sexuality as biological/ fluid. coined the term transvestite
hans bluher and the men’s movement: universalism of bisexuality, homosexuality as the ultimate expression of malesness, masculinist, misogynist, antisemtitic
adolf brand and the comminuty of the unique: combined sparta valorization of marital values with greek valorization of man-adolscent love
hans raduszuweit: businessmen, profited from gay/lesbian clubs, publications, theatre. was repulsed by the previous three dudes. believed homosexuality had to be tamed and domesticated to be accepted by the heterosexual majority
1950s
object of nostalgia, but it was a highly conservative, homophobic decade
hard not to view it as a dark interlude between the itnerwar period and the liberal 1960s
reasons complex, but anti-communist paranoia created a climate of fear and denunciation
framework was needed to get women out of factories and back into the kitchen
horros of the war probably encouraged a retreat to the comforting certainties of religion, home, conservatism
sexuality and LGBT+ rights today
stonewall riots: marks beginnings of contemporary LGBTQ+ movement and pride marches
1970s saw a flourishing gay culture
1980s marked a political thatcher/reagan/christian fundamentalist backlash
aids crisis fed prejudices, but, like anita bryant in the 1980s, encouraged countermobilization
since the 1990s, two trends: steady improvement plus global divergence
2000-2020 equal marraige
few would have predicted the speed
in 1996 the economist had a lead article entitled “let them wed”. the author did not think he would see equal marriage in his lifetime
2003: USSC validated anti-sodomy laws
2008: sodomy (anal) still illegal in panama
the case of younger populations
africa, middle east, turkey have younger populations but age itself determines nothing because these societies still do not accept homosexuality.
wealth
strong correlation:
global north are among the wealthiest parts of the world
but… lots of couterexamples: the middle east and singapore have increasing wealth in turkey and russia have not correlated with improving attitudes; on the contrary
religion
secularism? the young grow up in a less religious, more tolerant, more open culture
strong explanation:
is a tight correlation between the most religious countries/ regions and negative attitudes towards LGBTQ+ people: middle east, indonesia, northern ireland, etc
russia, once very secular has become more reilgious
but in secular china, 57% viewed homosexuality as unacceptable
what matter?
- the state: where it leads an active campaign against and for queer people thus shifting attitudes in a positive or negative direction
- democracy: most possitive attitudes are found in democracies because they open space for social activism: street demonstrations, official representations to parliament, talk/radio shows, and contact theory
- in the case of gender, they key actor was the courts, in the case of sexuality, the legislature
courts, not legislature
why? arguably because the courts led in most cases on gender rights; the legislature followed on equal marriage
but even where the legislature followed, some countries moved very quickly: netherlands, canada, spain, while others dragged: austria, germany, and switzerland
and, following the pelz reading estonia have moved while other very similar countries like lithuania and latvia have not.
conclusions
of the topics covered, institutional account is possibly the least convincing in the case of quality rights
legislatures enacted equal marriage, but as legislatures enact everything calling this fact “institutional” risks being true but trivial
the courts are important-more so for gender than sexuality- and this reflects an age-old concern about the implications for minorities of majoritarianism; nothing particularly new here
pelz’s arugment is the most convincing institutional account and does explain the baltic states
likely have to search for the answer at the social level: mass coming out in NA/Europe (harder to be a homophobe when you know someone who is gay)
