WVCS223 - The Construction of Gender and Race - Week 1 PDF

CO P YR IG H T © 2 022 E DIT ION WVCS223 – THE CONSTRUCTION OF GENDER AND RACE - WEEK 1 C REATED BY: PRO F. C H AN TELLE GR AY A N D D R AÏD A TER BLAN CH É-G R EEFF DESCRIPTION OF CONTENT In the first study unit you learnt what social constructs are. You may ha...

CO P YR IG H T © 2 022 E DIT ION WVCS223 – THE CONSTRUCTION OF GENDER AND RACE - WEEK 1 C REATED BY: PRO F. C H AN TELLE GR AY A N D D R AÏD A TER BLAN CH É-G R EEFF DESCRIPTION OF CONTENT In the first study unit you learnt what social constructs are. You may have noticed that they are often conceived of negatively – and rightly so – because many of them have caused harm in the world. But social constructs can be useful too; they did, after all, emerge from shared experiences and from the desire to collectively produce meaning in order to foster communal understanding and values. Arts and crafts are good examples of more useful constructs because they enable societies to share and communicate something about their common interests and acquired skills. Having said that, we also know that crafts became viewed as less valuable than art for quite a long time, in part due to the industrial revolution, but also because crafts were associated with ‘women’s work’ and with products created by non-Western cultures. Although much work has been done to debunk the arbitrary division between arts and crafts, this example illustrates how easily a social construct can be transformed into something useful or harmful – which itself depends on many factors, such as socio-economic and political arrangements in the world. In this study unit, we take a closer look at the social constructs of gender and race – some of the most dominant social constructs in our societies. In particular, we look at the creation of the gender binary and the inclusionary-exclusionary mechanisms it uses to reinforce certain gendered norms. These norms are used, in turn, to police gendered expressions, behaviour and expectations. We also look at the construction of race and the fact that it does not exists as a scientifically verifiable category (because it does not have predictable characteristics – even if you share physical features with other people which you associate with race, such as skin colour or hair, those are superficial and change across generations). More importantly, none of these so-called ‘racial’ characteristics give you any information about inferiority or superiority. Yet they are deeply linked to our perceptions of racial identity and the enactment of racial discrimination. It will be part of our task, then, to understand how and why gender and race were constructed and how we can decode them in order to change their harmful applications. Study Section 2.1. The Social Construction of Gender During the first week of Study Unit 2, we learn about how and why the category of gender was constructed. In particular, we look at the creation of the gender binary – that is, MAN vs WOMAN. We also study the inclusionary-exclusionary mechanisms it uses to reinforce certain gendered norms, for example, the idea that blue is for boys and pink is for girls. By decoding some of these arbitrary assumptions, we can better understand how the gender binary is used to police gendered expressions, behaviour and expectations. Study Section 2.2. The Social Construction of Race and Racism During this week, we look at the concepts of race and racism, tracing the historical reasons for their creation, chief amongst which are economic reasons. But, as we will see, the creation of racial categories and perceptions linked to these are not enough to sustain racial ideologies. For this to occur, race and racism have to become institutional or structural, meaning racial hierarchies need to become codified by laws and accepted by social institutions so that these hierarchies become reinforced and normalised. We may think here, for example, of the geographical segregation – in other words, planned geography – during Apartheid. This is why the National Museum of African American History & Culture (Smithsonian, n.d.) argue that: “Racism = Racial Prejudice (Unfounded Beliefs + Irrational Fear) + Institutional Power.” Our aim in this part of the study unit will thus be to recognise that racism is not grounded in the objective observation of something called race, and that our perceptions of race can be traced historically as the product of a complex confluence of factors driven by forced economic relationships. By understanding the history of racism, we are in a better position to decode this social construction and the subtle (and not-so-subtle) ways in which it continues to reproduce itself through our language and actions. LEARNING OUTCOMES On completion of this study unit, students should: 1. have a fundamental knowledge base of the social constructions of gender and race, and be able to demonstrate a critical understanding thereof; 2. be able to analyse and evaluate how gender and race function in natural and social systems, and how they are upheld by prejudice and institutional power; and 3. be in a position to articulate their personal understandings of the social constructs of gender and race, as well as argue for achievable solutions to these core issues of our time in a typical academic manner. KEY CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS STUDY SECTION 2.1. THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF GENDER What do you think of when you hear the word binary? Do you think of 1s and 0s (as in binary code)? Do you think of gender because you’ve heard someone talk about the gender binary? Do you know what the gender binary is? Before working through the rest of this study section, take a moment to watch the following video: THE ORIGIN OF GENDER (ORIGIN OF EVERYTHING, 2019) One of the things you may have noticed in this video is the idea that gender is not biologically determined but stems, rather, from cultural conditioning. To unpack what this means, it helps to go back a step and distinguish between sex and gender. Commonly, sex refers to the physical differences in hormones, chromosomes and genitals between male, female and intersex bodies. According to these variations, you are assigned a sex at birth, though even these seemingly ‘simple’ physical attributes are rarely homogenous – for instance no two men have exactly the same mixture of hormones, nor do their genitals look the same! This is further complicated by intersex persons whose reproductive and sexual anatomy does not fit either the ‘male’ or ‘female’ box. So even thinking about sex as something that is easily verifiable is false. Nevertheless, it remains less contested than gender which refers to the socially created expectations and behaviours related to the sexes. For example, women are generally thought to be more nurturing than men, whereas men are expected to be protectors. It is true that our conceptions of gender have changed a lot over the past decade or two and most people would agree that gender is not biologically determined, meaning gender is not genetically preordained. Similarly, most people would agree that gender roles and expectations are culturally conditioned, which basically means that they are learnt from parents, at school and from religions, and reinforced via laws, norms and other kinds of rewards or punishments – whether implicit or explicit. Be this as it may, many people still think there are only two genders, MAN and WOMAN. This, despite the fact that many societies did not conceive of gender this way historically. “On nearly every continent, and for all of recorded history, thriving cultures have recognized, revered, and integrated more than two genders” (Independent Lens, 2015). The following interactive map has many examples you can read about: A MAP OF GENDER-DIVERSE CULTURES (INDEPENDENT LENS, 2015) So why did the gender binary become the dominant conception of gender? As with race, which we discuss in the following section, the history of gender can be traced, at least in part, to colonisation and economic expansion. Prior to colonisation, many indigenous cultures valued other genders, but colonial missionaries erased many of these cultural ideas by “banning cultural rituals and enforcing strict cis-hetero standards” (Chen, 2021). With the later industrial revolution, these standards became further entrenched. In Women, Race, and Class, Angela Davis argues that one of the effects of industrialisation was that by the 1830s, “many of women’s traditional economic tasks were being taken over by the factory system”, and although it is true that many women “were freed from some of their old oppressive jobs”, the industrialisation of the economy also eroded “women’s prestige in the home – a prestige based on their previously productive and absolutely essential domestic labor” (Davis, 1981). As a result, their status diminished – so an “ideological consequence of industrial capitalism was the shaping of a more rigorous notion of female inferiority” (Davis, 1981). In turn, this entrenched the gender binary, now firmly rooted in notions of ender essentialism, or the idea that genders have some innate, universal and objective characteristics or essences. Over time, these essentialist notions became culturally accepted as idealised norms and standards that continue to shape our thought and behaviour. Can you think of other consequences the gender binary had on how societies are shaped? The following terms should give you a good clue: heteronormativity, compulsory heterosexuality, hegemonic masculinity. Try to write down what you understand these terms to mean before reading further. The term heteronormativity was coined in 1991 by Michael Warner to “describe the idea that heterosexuality is the default, and therefore superior, expression of sexuality” (Gillespie, 2021). This does not, of course, mean that heteronormativity only started existing from that time – it only means we found an adequate term to describe it. If we had to define heteronormativity, we could say that it “describes the ways in which heterosexuality is normalized through myriad practices, so that it becomes naturalized as the only legitimate form of sexuality” which regulates behaviour in spaces ranging from the home to “work, social space, and public space” (Bell, 2009:387). Heteronormativity is, as you may have surmised, grounded in the gender binary – and this is precisely what makes it harmful because by definition it “excludes LGBTQ+ people” and reinforces homophobia, so much so that it often “underlies discrimination and violence against LGBTQIA people because it views them as ‘abnormal’ and/or erases them” (Gillespie, 2021). Heteronormativity, in other words, induces compulsory heterosexuality, or “the assumption by a male-dominated society that the only normal sexual relationship is between a man and a woman” (Napikoski, 2019), with the result that all other kinds of relationships are viewed ‘abnormal’ or ‘deviant’. (LGBTQIA stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (or questioning), intersex and asexual (or ally). Sometimes this is written as LGBTQ+ to include people who identify as pansexual and two-spirit. It should be quite clear by now that the gender binary and heteronormativity has had (and continues to have!) especially dire consequences for women and LGBTQI+ persons. But while it benefited, and continues to benefit men – especially white, cisgender men – it is also harmful to them in many ways. (Cisgender refers to when a person’s gender matches their sex, for example if a person is born with a stereotypically ‘male’ body and also identifies as a man, that person is cisgender.) Watch the following video on hegemonic masculinity: PROFESSOR RAEWYN CONNELL (ENGAGINGMEN, 2010) Write down what you understand by the term hegemonic masculinity and why it is harmful not only for women and LGBTQI+ persons, but also for men. The concept of hegemonic masculinity emerged in the mid-1980s to refer to the power structures and patterns “of practice (i.e., things done, not just a set of role expectations or an identity) that allowed men’s dominance over women to continue” (Connell and Messerschmidt, 2005:832). Hegemonic masculinity is thus “distinguished from other masculinities, especially subordinated masculinities” – which does not mean that hegemonic masculinity is necessarily enacted by the majority of men – it can be enacted by a minority, but the point is that it is normative and thus requires “all other men to position themselves in relation to it” (Connell and Messerschmidt, 2005:832). In other words, like heteronormativity and compulsory heterosexuality, hegemonic masculinity is a complex system of oppression because it is based on hierarchies of violence. Because it assumes that there is a certain standard type of masculinity that all other men have to conform to, it places limitations on a person’s gender identity and gender expression. Watch the following video on gender identity: U N D E R S T A N D I N G G E N D E R I D E N T IT Y ( O A S I S M E N T A L H E A L T H A P P L IC A T IO N S , 2 0 2 0 ) You will have noticed that gender identity refers to each person’s individual experience of gender. In other words, it pertains to your internal sense of being a woman, a man, neither or both. Your gender identity does not necessarily have to be the same as the sex that was assigned to you at birth. You may, therefore, identify as cisgender, trans or transgender, gender nonconforming, genderfluid or any other gender identity of your choice. Now watch the following video on gender expression: WHAT IS GENDER EXPRESSION? (THE ADVOCATE, 2018) After watching this video, you should understand gender expression as the way in which a person chooses to publicly present (or express) their gender. This can include the way your dress, speak, behave and so on. COP YR IGH T © 2 022 E DIT ION WVCS223 – THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF RACE - WEEK 2 C REATED BY: PRO F. C H AN TELLE GR AY A N D D R AÏD A TER BLAN CH É-G R EEFF During the first week of this study unit, we looked at the creation of the gender binary and the inclusionary-exclusionary mechanisms it uses to reinforce certain gendered norms. These inclusionary- exclusionary mechanisms include heteronormativity, compulsory heterosexuality and hegemonic masculinity. We say that they are inclusionary-exclusionary mechanisms because the norms that they are grounded in and founded upon exclude those who do not conform to these arbitrary and made-up standards. The good news about social constructs is that when they no longer serve a useful purpose or become outdated – because we know more due to science and technology, for example – we can change them. Becoming aware of one’s own biases is the first step toward unlearning harmful practices and ideas. The National Museum of African American History & Culture describes bias as “a preference in favor of, or against a person, group of people, or thing” which is oftentimes unconscious and “rooted in inaccurate information or reason” (Smithsonian, n.d.). But biases are also part of being human. In the same way that we are all ideological (as you will learn in Study Unit 3), we all have biases, some of which are conscious or explicit, and some of which are subconscious or implicit, meaning you are not aware of these or how you express them. Implicit biases can manifest in a myriad of ways, for example how we think of and treat other genders, races and religions. The point is that implicit biases are grounded in stereotypes and their associations. In many ways, implicit biases are more difficult to identify than explicit biases. Think, for example, of how implicit biases might function vs explicit racial biases. The “latter typically manifests as overt racism or discrimination” whereas implicit biases transpire “unconsciously, typically without discriminatory intent” by well-meaning people (Maryfield, 2018). In this section, we will examine both implicit racial bias and explicit forms of prejudice such as racism and discrimination. Our aim is thus twofold. First, we will trace the history of race, racism and racial ideology in order to understand how and why it was constructed. Second, we will think about how implicit racial biases “can cause individuals to unknowingly act in discriminatory ways”, even when they are “not overtly racist” but have, nonetheless, had “their perceptions” moulded by harmful experiences that “result in biased thoughts or actions” (Maryfield, 2018). But before we continue, do you know what is meant by the terms race, racism and racial ideology? And do you know where the construction of race and racism stem from? To learn more about these terms, watch the following YouTube clip:  THE ORIGIN OF RACE (ORIGIN OF EVERYTHING, 2019) One of the most important ideas put forward by this video is that the construction of race was born from a combination of factors: the rise of global capitalism + colonialism + slavery + the Enlightenment So, to understand the construction of race we need to think about these four aspects. Let’s start with colonialism, “the practice of one country taking full or partial political control of another country and occupying it with settlers for purposes of profiting from its resources and economy” (Longley, 2021). This definition, as you may have noticed, is quite close to that of imperialism, because both practices encompass the hostile takeover of territory through political and economic means. To be brief, we can say that imperialism led to colonialism. “In most cases, the goal of the colonizing countries is to profit by exploiting the human and economic resources of the countries they colonized. In the process, the colonizers – sometimes forcibly – attempt to impose their religion, language, cultural, and political practices on the indigenous population” (Longley, 2021). This is where we get to slavery. Although slavery can mean a number of things – including human trafficking, forced labour, and forced and early marriage – the way we use slavery in this study unit refers specifically to what is known as the Middle Passage or the transatlantic slave trade when roughly 12 million enslaved Africans were passaged across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas to work on sugar and tobacco plantations. Before working through the rest of this study section, watch the following YouTube clip: THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE (HAZARD, 2015) In order to justify slavery, the concept of race had to be invented. In other words, the idea of race was created to impose a ‘natural order’ between races in order to make economic exploitation viable. But why were most slaves African? To find an answer to this question, watch the following video: W H Y D I D E U R O P E A N S E N S L A V E A F R IC A N S ( O R I G I N OF EVERYTHING, 2021) You may have noticed that although there is no generally agreed-upon definition for race, it has, historically, been used to divide people into groups, often with the aim of enslaving supposedly ‘inferior’ races. Thus, race affects how the world is structured and how we perceive ourselves and other people. Racism and racial ideology are what emerge from this arbitrary hierarchical structuring. Racism is the belief that the observable physical features of people, such as their skin colour or hair, are indicators of innate qualities that render them inferior to others. These ‘innate qualities’ include aspects like moral character and intellectual ability. To put it differently, racism “is a system of advantage based on race that involves systems and institutions, not just individual mindsets and actions. The critical variable in racism is the impact (outcomes) not the intent and operates at multiple levels including individual racism, interpersonal racism, institutional racism, and structural racism” (Smithsonian, n.d.). So racism does not merely denote individual biases or even group biases, but biases that have become institutionalised throughout society in implicit and explicit ways. Thus, as the National Museum of African American History & Culture (Smithsonian, n.d.) argue: “Racism = Racial Prejudice (Unfounded Beliefs + Irrational Fear) + Institutional Power.” When it is explicit, we can think of it in terms of racial ideology, or the belief that certain groups of people are superior to others and that this ‘natural order’ should be maintained through specific institutions, such as laws and employment prospects, that uphold the economic and political privileges of the perceived superior race. Many of these ideas were spread during the Enlightenment which, positively, promoted ideals of freedom and the equality of all human beings but, more negatively, thought that only certain populations were capable of progress. So the Enlightenment ideals carried within it a contradiction and a deep prejudice, especially against non-European peoples. Kenan Malik argues, however, that the idea of race was not so much a product of the Enlightenment itself, but rather because of a complex overlap between different processes, such as colonialism and slavery, as we have seen. As he says: ENLIGHTENMENT THINKERS CERTAINLY OFTEN HELD DEEPLY PREJUDICED VIEWS OF NON-EUROPEANS; IT WOULD BE ASTONISHING IF THEY HAD NOT. BUT THEY WERE LARGELY HOSTILE TO THE IDEA OF RACIAL CATEGORISATION. IT WAS IN THE NINETEENTH, NOT EIGHTEENTH, CENTURY THAT A RACIAL VIEW OF THE WORLD TOOK HOLD IN EUROPE, AND IT DID SO LARGELY BECAUSE OF THE ‘COUNTER-ENLIGHTENMENT’ VIEWS THAT SMITH LAUDS. (MALIK, 2013) What Malik is suggesting here is that in spite of their beliefs in freedom and equality, the idea of progress and capitalist expansion had ‘hijacked’ these ideas and ideals so that the 18th century fascination with human variety became transformed into an obsession with racial difference in the 19th century. This idea became further entrenched because Charles Darwin’s ideas of competition between species was misapplied to justify slavery and other forms of oppression. It is true that slavery was abolished between 1838 and 1888, but European powers continued to exploit Africa for its labour and natural resources long after – in fact this continues in more subtle ways to this day. The creation of race and the emergence of racism and racial ideology also manifested in other ways, for example in the eugenics movement which began in the late 19th century and continued well into the 20th century. In the U.S. eugenics “took a dark turn in the early 20th century” when “around 20,000 sterilizations occurred in California state mental institutions under the guise of protecting society from the offspring of people with mental illness” (History.com Editors, 2017). Many of these sterilisations were done forcibly on minorities. And did you know that similar experiments took place in apartheid South Africa vis-à-vis the country’s covert chemical and biological warfare program, particularly through “the production of narcotics and poisons for use against anti-apartheid activists” and the development of “a bacterial agent that would selectively kill Black people” (Singh, 2008:1,6). Thankfully, many of these projects failed. But similar projects were more successful in other parts of the world. You might even be familiar with perhaps the most ‘successful’ eugenic experiment which was carried out by Adolf Hitler. Drawing on American eugenics, Hitler declared in his book, Mein Kampf, that non-Aryan races, such as Jews and gypsies, are inferior to Aryan races and that “Germans should do everything possible, including genocide, to make sure their gene pool stayed pure” (History.com Editors, 2017). But Hitler’s biases soon turned even against the Germans. In 1933, “the Nazis created the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring”, and by 1940 Hitler had euthanised “hundreds of thousands of Germans with mental or physical disabilities” (History.com Editors, 2017). As if this was not enough, about 11 million people died during the Holocaust, largely because they failed to conform in some or other way to Hitler’s idea of a superior race. This is why it is so important to decode our social constructs, to understand where they come from and to think about our explicit and implicit biases. The most important thing about social constructs is that they can be changed. COPYRIGHT © 2022 EDITION REFERENCES Bell, D. 2009. Heteronormativity. In Kobayashi, A. (ed.) International Encyclopedia of Human Geography 2nd Edition. Amsterdam: Elsevier. Childline. 2016. What Is Heteronormativity? ft. Beckii Cruel & Calum McSwiggan. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmO0krrsOmI&ab_channel=Childline Date of access: 12 Mar. 2022. 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