Subject Positions, Identity, and Intersectionality

Question 1

Discourses work to construct …

Answer 1

truths about the world

Question 2

Discourses create ____ _____.

Answer 2

subject positions

Question 3

Subject positions:

Answer 3

• sets of ideas about who someone is and how they should and shouldn’t behave
• the truth about who you are is temporarily fixed within a discourse

Question 4

Subjectivities reflect the ways…

Answer 4

people take up the various subject positions available to them

Question 5

When someone tries to occupy a subject position different from what the _____ constructs, they risk…

Answer 5

• discourse

- being incomprehensible and marginalized

Question 6

____ is the effect of discourse.

Answer 6

truth

Question 7

Your very self is a _____ production:

Answer 7

• discursive

- you are who you are vs you are who you have been made into and are being made into

Question 8

The power of discourse is to make…

Answer 8

certain things truer than others (eg. the idea that your selfhood exists outside discourse is a very true idea)

Question 9

What the discourse allows is taken to be…

Answer 9

within the true

Question 10

What the discourse doesn’t allow is taken to be…

Answer 10

outside the true

Question 11

No one _____ discursive power or is ____ for it.

Answer 11

• directs

- responsible

Question 12

Discursive power is located in the _____ not ____ _____.

Answer 12

• discourses

- various people

Question 13

_____ themselves are products/producers of discourse.

Answer 13

people

Question 14

Performativity is based on ____ ____’s work.

Answer 14

Judith Butler

Question 15

Judith Butler believed that there is no _____ before its _____.

Answer 15

• gender

- doing

Question 16

Identity politics normally assume a ….

Answer 16

stable identity category (eg. black, upper class, gay, etc)

Question 17

Performativity:

Answer 17

• there is no essential identity inside us or before the performances that make up that identity
• thus ‘our self’ is really just a shifting constellation of performances given meaning (temporarily) by various discourses in society

Question 18

____ are a truth effect.

Answer 18

We

Question 19

Intersectionality theorists argue that people always hold ….

Answer 19

overlapping, multiple, and shifting socially constructed identities

Question 20

Intersectionality is:

Answer 20

social identities understood together within political, economic, and additional structures offer a much different perspective than when viewed in isolation

Question 21

Discrimination operates differently on different _____ with different _____.

Answer 21

• people

- consequences

Question 22

_____ can be hard to see.

Answer 22

intersectionality

Question 23

The termination of Harris from the team was seen as evidence of _____.

Answer 23

homophobia

Question 24

Harris was asked to …

Answer 24

• dress more feminine

- conform to heterosexual norms and white norms

Question 25

There is no such thing as a…

Answer 25

non-racial heterosexuality

Question 26

Harris’ coach saw her as …

Answer 26

too masculine but also (covertly) as too black

Question 27

Baggy clothes and cornrows are issues of both ____ and ____.

Answer 27

• gender

- race

Question 28

Redundant reading of “be more feminine and stop wearing cornrows”:

Answer 28

both mean stop being a butch homosexual

Question 29

Conjunctive reading of “be more feminine and stop wearing cornrows”:

Answer 29

the first means stop being a butch homosexual while the second means be less black

Question 30

What did media do with the Jennifer Harris case? How did this work against Harris?

Answer 30

• separated these, saw them as non-interacting
• her argument was that she was discriminated against for her race/sexuality combination had no place in media and legal frameworks

Question 31

Black women have a number of subject positions available to them that differ from white women, such as:

Answer 31

• if you work hard at a job = bad mother who neglects her children
• if you stay home to raise those children = welfare queen
• if you enjoy sex = hoe
• if you don’t need a man for sex = emasculating

Question 32

Black women have ____ healthy, positive subject positions to engage.

Answer 32

few

Question 33

To compensate for implied lesbianism, a black female athlete risks…

Answer 33

becoming a ‘hoe’ whereas a white female athlete does not

Question 34

Jennifer Harris case is the intersection of…

Answer 34

• race
• gender
• sex
• sexual orientation

Question 35

White people are not as often depicted as _____. For a white person, being ____ is not equivalent to being an _____.

Answer 35

• animals
• strong
• animal

Question 36

For a black individual, being…..is risky.

Answer 36

• fast
• strong
• confident
• powerful

Question 37

Being animalistic is also linked to being ____ _____:

Answer 37

• sexually aggressive
• for black women: emasculating
• for black men: sexual criminal (rapist)