Quiz 1 Prep.docx

Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses by Chandra Talpade Mohanty\ Question 1: According to Mohanty, what is the primary concern with Western feminist scholarship on women in the \"Third World\"?\ a) It focuses too heavily on the experiences of white women and ignores the e...

Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses by Chandra Talpade Mohanty\ Question 1: According to Mohanty, what is the primary concern with Western feminist scholarship on women in the \"Third World\"?\ a) It focuses too heavily on the experiences of white women and ignores the experiences of women of color.\ **b) It often homogenizes the experiences of diverse women in the \"Third World\" into a singular, monolithic category.**\ c) It fails to recognize the complex interplay between colonialism and gender oppression.\ d) It attempts to impose Western values and norms on other cultures.\ \ Question 2: What does Mohanty argue is a significant effect of Western feminist \"representations\" on women in the \"Third World\"?\ a) They are empowered to challenge traditional patriarchal structures.\ b) They are encouraged to embrace Western feminist ideals and practices.\ **c) They are often viewed as victims who need to be rescued by Western feminists.**\ d) They are inspired to form global coalitions with other feminists.\ \ Question 3: What does Mohanty criticize as the first analytical presupposition present in Western feminist discourse on women in the \"Third World\"?\ **a) The assumption that women are a monolithic group with identical interests and desires, regardless of class, race, or ethnicity.**\ b) The use of qualitative methods that fail to adequately capture the lived experiences of women.\ c) The tendency to prioritize individual experiences over collective narratives.\ d) The lack of critical engagement with the role of colonialism in shaping gender relations.\ \ Question 4: According to Mohanty, what is the effect of assuming women as a homogeneous category in Western feminist analyses of \"Third World\" women?\ a) It highlights the universal struggles of women against male domination.\ **b) It facilitates the construction of a singular, \"average third-world woman\" who embodies specific stereotypes.**\ c) It emphasizes the differences between Western and \"Third World\" cultures.\ d) It provides a more nuanced understanding of the complexities of gender oppression.\ \ [Question 5: What does Mohanty argue about the implications of assuming a \"juridico-discursive\" model of power in feminist scholarship on women in the \"Third World\"?]\ a) It accurately reflects the realities of power structures in the \"Third World\".\ *b) It undermines the potential for meaningful cross-cultural collaboration and understanding.\ *c) It promotes a more equitable distribution of power between women and men.\ d) **It recognizes the diverse forms of oppression faced by women globally.**\ \ ANSWER KEY\ \ Question 1: b) It often homogenizes the experiences of diverse women in the \"Third World\" into a singular, monolithic category.\ Explanation: The article focuses on the danger of \"Western feminist\" scholarship creating a singular, homogenous image of \"Third World Women\" rather than acknowledging the vast diversity in experiences and realities among women across different classes, ethnicities, and socio-economic positions.\ \ Question 2: c) They are often viewed as victims who need to be rescued by Western feminists.\ Explanation: Mohanty argues that Western feminist scholarship often frames \"Third World Women\" as victims of oppression, reinforcing a colonialist power dynamic where Western feminists are positioned as saviors or authorities.\ \ Question 3: a) The assumption that women are a monolithic group with identical interests and desires, regardless of class, race, or ethnicity.\ Explanation: Mohanty points out that this initial assumption creates a false unity among women, overlooking the diverse experiences and contexts that shape their lives. The second analytical presupposition is evident on the methodological level, in the uncritical way \'proof of universality and cross-cultural validity are provided. The third is a more specifically political presuppo- sition, underlying the methodologies and the analytic strategies, i.the model of power and struggle they imply a\ \ Question 4: b) It facilitates the construction of a singular, \"average third-world woman\" who embodies specific stereotypes.\ Explanation: The \"average Third World Woman\" constructed through this lens becomes a stereotype, embodying assumptions about women as ignorant, poor, uneducated, and oppressed, overlooking the complexities of their realities.\ \ Question 5: b) It undermines the potential for meaningful cross-cultural collaboration and understanding.\ Explanation: Mohanty critiques this model for creating binary structures of power and oppression, which limit the possibility for nuanced analysis and collaboration across different cultures and experiences. Assuming Women are powerless, unified groups. If the struggle for a just society is seen in terms of the move from powerless to powerful for women as agroup, and this is the implication in feminist discourse which structures sexual difference in terms of the division between the sexes, then the new society would be structurally identical to the existing organization of power relations, constituting itself as a simple inversion of what exists. If relations of domination and exploitation are defined in terms of binary divisions - groups which dominate and groups which are dominated - surely the implication is that the accession to power of women as a group is sufficient to dismantle the existing organization of relations? But women as a group are not in some sense essentially superior or infallible. The crux of the problem lies in that initial assumption of women as a homogeneous group or category (\'the oppressed\'), a familiar assumption in western radical and liberal feminisms Le Guin: Matter of Seggri -- Shows how gender is constructed. Flips traditional gender norms to show their absurdity, E.g. men objectified for sex work, men not supposed to go college. Le Guin creates a world in which gender roles are switched. Males are trophies and have absolutely no significance in society other than for reproductive purposes, and women have all the power. Only women may have an education, only women may choose their sexual partners, and only women may work and function as a productive cog in the machine of society. The reason that it is unnoticed in present society is because it is a cultural norm for men to be in power in our patriarchal society. When presented with the reverse of what is currently accepted in present society, it should become more evident that work needs to be done to eradicate culturally normalized sexism.  two of the protagonists are somewhat of anthropologists themselves. Captain Aolao-Olao and Merriment both go to Seggri to report back to their own worlds about the state of Seggri. They go to the experimental society and explore the culture, the society itself, and learn how everything within it functions. \"In so much of Le Guin\'s work, the protagonists are anthropologists by another name. These characters inevitably face the question of how to conceptualize and react to cultural difference and, in the process, exemplify some of the field experiences and model some of the ways anthropologists tend to look at cultural others. Each generation is taught by the previous one that women have specific roles in society and men have others, and they are taught that these roles do not intertwine. Bartky describes femininity as a prison because each generation upholds the oppressive and unfair standards that patriarchal society created. Femininity is in her view a self-imprisoning identity because most women are forced to conform to it due to patriarchal pressure. Seggri\'s reversed gender roles are Le Guin\'s commentary on the self-imprisoning nature of femininity and the gender roles in modern society. As Hollinger states, \"In our struggle against a monolithic patriarchy---which is, after all, a kind of theoretical fiction produced, in part, by the very feminism aligned against it---we risk reinscribing, however inadvertently, to the terms of compulsory heterosexuality within our own constrictions.\"[^\[8\]^](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matter_of_Seggri#cite_note-Hollinger1999-8) Hollinger also explains how Le Guin uses compulsory homosexuality and a monolithic matriarchy to contrast Seggri with present cultural norms and further emphasize the importance of the gender roles in Seggri. 1. Anthropology: The study of the full scope of human diversity, past and present Four sub-fields: oBiological/Physical anthropology (human biology and evolution); Archaeology (past societies); Linguistic anthropology (languages); Cultural anthropology (The study of human cultural variation in the present and recent past; How this variation manifests itself in all aspects of life; Connects the lives of individuals to larger social structures (political and economic organization, gender, race/ethnicity, class, etc.) Ethnography: A qualitative research strategy based on fieldwork (i.e. research out in the "real world," not in a lab c.f. statistics) - Usually involves: Living in a place (a field site) for at least a year, Learning the local language, Interacting with people (interlocutors), Paying attention to the details of everyday life. Methods: Participant observation: participating in the daily lives of your interlocutors, while also being an observer -- someone who can describe and analyze events; Interviews: unstructured, semi-structured, or structured Focus on people's lived experiences of gender and sexuality; Analyze how gender and sexuality shape and are shaped by other social structures (e.g. race, class, economics, etc.); Explore processes of contestation and change; gender and sexuality are not stagnant Sex: our bodies. anatomy, especially external sex organs, sex chromosomes, and internal reproductive structures; Often incorrectly presented as a female/male binary e.g. Intersex: a variety of conditions in which an individual is born with reproductive anatomy that doesn't fit the typical understanding of female or male bodies Gender: how we and our culture interpret our bodies. Social constructions (something that is created as a result of human interaction; it exists because people agree that it exists). Expectations about thought and behavior that cultures assign to people of different sexes; Gender identity: a person\'s internal sense of their gender; Gender expression: the way a person externally expresses gender (e.g. through speech, movement, dress, etc.); We can't assume someone's gender identity based on their gender expression. Not binary. People's gender identity and expression align with dominant notions of femininity and masculinity to varying degrees, or they may align with both, or neither. E.g. Cisgender: a gender identity that conforms to cultural norms related to one's assigned sex at birth; Transgender: a gender identity that does not conform to cultural norms related to one's assigned sex at birth; Nonbinary: term used by some people who's gender identity falls outside the categories of woman and man; Gender can be fluid -- it can change over time. Sexuality: which bodies we desire. Social constructs. The range of desires, beliefs, and behaviors that are related to erotic physical contact, intimacy, pleasure, and romance; Sexual orientation: a person's physical, emotional and/or romantic attraction to others. Not a gay-straight binary. E.g. Bisexual: attracted to women and men; Pansexual: attracted to people regardless of gender; Asexual: experiencing no sexual attraction (but may or may not experience romantic attraction) LGBTQ+: an acronym meant to represent marginalized sexual and gender identities Queer: an umbrella term for identities that are not straight or cisgender (Once derogatory, now reclaimed (by some)). Terminology: Language is political, Language is always changing, Language is culturally specific. Honor people's names, identity terms, and pronouns. Ursula Le Guin explores how gender is constructed: ANS: Option 2. Others not the focus of ethnographic methods, too quantitative, and not about lived experiences. Feminism Merriam-Webster dictionary definition: the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes bell hooks' definition: a movement to end sexist oppression. Equality is too simplistic overlooks other social structures -- race, class, etc. -- that produce domination and oppression. Negative perceptions of feminism; "Anything goes" understanding of feminism -- hook's argues this can dilute its meaning; can be used to describe stances that in fact reinforce forms of oppression. Reforming -- rather than fundamentally changing -- a society with multiple forms of domination will only help a privileged few; A political commitment to end forms of domination can positively transform people's lives across various social groups. Given the class nature of feminist movement so far, as well as racial hierarchies, developing theory (the guiding set of beliefs and principles that becomes the basis for action) has been a task particularly subject to the hegemonic dominance of white academic women. Meanwhile, black women were only to provide the colorful life stories to document and validate the prevailing set of theoretical assumptions. The foundation of future feminist struggle must be solidly based on a recognition of the need to eradicate the underlying cultural basis and causes of sexism and other forms of group oppression. Without challenging and changing these philosophical structures, no feminist reforms will have a long-range impact. Consequently, it is now necessary for advocates of feminism to collectively acknowledge that our struggle cannot be defined as a movement to gain social equality with men, that terms like \"liberal feminist\" and \"bourgeois feminist\" represent contradictions that must be resolved so that feminism will not be continually co-opted to serve the opportunistic ends of special-interest groups. Since men are not equals in white supremacist, capitalist, patriarchal class structure, which men do women want to be equal to? Do women share a common vision of what equality means? Implicit in this simplistic definition of women\'s liberation is a dismissal of race and class as factors that, in conjunction with sexism, determine the extent to which an individual will be discriminated against, exploited, or oppressed. Bourgeois white women interested in women\'s rights issues have been satisfied with simple definitions for obvious reasons. Rhetorically placing themselves in the same social category as oppressed women, they are not anxious to call attention to race and class privilege. Women in lower-class and poor groups, particularly those who are non-white, would not have defined women\'s liberation as women gaining social equality with men, since they are continually reminded in their everyday lives that all women do not share a common social status. Concurrently, they know that many males in their social groups are exploited and oppressed. Knowing that men in their groups do not have social, political, and economic power, they would not deem it liberatory to share their social status. While they are aware that sexism enables men in their respective groups to have privileges that are denied them, they are more likely to see exaggerated expressions of male chauvinism among their peers as stemming from the male\'s sense of himself as powerless and ineffectual in relation to ruling male groups, rather than an expression of an overall privileged social status. From the very onset of the women\'s liberation movement, these women were suspicious of feminism precisely because they recognized the limitations inherent in its definition. They recognized the possibility that feminism defined as social equality with men might easily become a movement that would primarily affect the social standing of white women in middle- and upper-class groups while affecting only in a very marginal way the social status of working-class and poor women. Patriarchy: Patriarchy is more than just "sexism. "A social formation of male-gendered power with a particular structure" (Ortner, p. 308); Male hierarchy, Male solidarity, Female exclusion, Disdain for women and the "wrong" men. Found in many arenas of social life (e.g. family, workplace, religion, etc.). Intersectional -- isn't separate from other structures of domination and oppression (e.g. class, race, sexuality, ableness). "Assume and produce a notion of manhood that is inseparable from racial superiority, heterosexuality, and able-bodiness... other major aspects of social superiority" (p. 310) Patriarchy is very widespread, but not universal: In gender egalitarian contexts, women and men have similar opportunities, and neither are assumed to have characteristics that are more highly valued; Correlates with broader egalitarianism, i.e. little to no hierarchy based on other factors. Ex: Vanatinai Island, Papua New Guinea - Qualities of strength, wisdom, and generosity valued and assumed to be possible in everyone, Men have no formal authority over women, Similar access to political and economic roles, the supernatural, sexual freedom, participation in reproductive labour. Social structures: long lasting social arrangements that influence and limit what people do oPolitics, economics, kinship, race, class, gender (patriarchy), etc. Social structures are thus not "neutral" -- they're structures of power. Socially constructed systems of classification (e.g. ways of categorizing things in the world, race, etc.) undergird social structures: Certain categories are treated as more highly valued or more "normal" than others; Varies based on cultural and historical context. Institutions (the state, law, media, medicine, schools, etc.) distribute resources to groups based on these systems of classification e.g.Material resources: money or goods, Symbolic resources: nonmaterial rewards. Social structures thus produce forms of privilege and oppression: E.g. being able to hold hands with your partner in public. Even if people don't consciously leverage their privilege, they indirectly benefit from it. Hegemony: People are often unconsciously complicit in maintaining forms of privilege/oppression (even those in oppressed groups); The ability of a dominant group to make its own interests/values seem like "common sense". Hegemonic ideas benefit those in power Ex: CEOs should earn many times more than other workers. Intersectionality: An analytic framework for thinking about how structures of power cannot be separated from one another, but operate in tandem to shape people's lives in various way: Term coined by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw. Many people are in positions of privilege in some ways, and oppression in others. Can be both oppressed and oppressor simultaneously. Must examine our own positionality to enact change. Agency: Oppression doesn't equate with passivity and The potential of individuals to shape the direction of their lives. People can contest structures through overt actions (e.g. protests) or more subtle ones (e.g. not completely conforming to norms. Structure and agency are in constant tension. Ans: All. Feminist anthropology: A broad term that encompasses work on gender, attentiveness to intersecting forms of power and oppression, and awareness of the way knowledge is produced. In the US, emerges in the early 1970s alongside work in other disciplines and the women's liberation movement; Marginalized within the academy. Androcentrism: Anthropology (like other fields) was largely produced by men, about men. Ethnographies rarely included information about women's activities, Their perspectives were missing, Portrayed as if they passively cooperated with men's desires e.g. Bronislaw Malinowski with his (male) interlocutors, Papua New Guinea, 1918. E.g. the Bechdel test. The test asks whether a work features at least two female characters who have a conversation about something other than a man. Some versions of the test also require that those two female characters have names. A few prominent women in the discipline's early history -- exceptions that proved the rule: Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict, Zora Neale Hurston. The "discovery" of women: Feminist anthropologists focused on women's lives and perspectives. Ethnographies revealed different insights than those produced by/about men would have.Ex: Margery Wolf's Women and the Family in Rural Taiwan. Returned to sites of previous research to explore what male ethnographers had missed Ex: Jane Goodale's Tiwi Wives; Annette Weiner's Women of Value, Men of Renown: New Perspectives in Trobriand Exchange. Analyzed women's experiences of oppression in many contexts, societies with greater gender egalitarianism. Saw their work as both an intellectual and political project, Commitment to social justice. Heterogeneity (Mohanty): Analyzes how "western" feminist scholarship often colonized the lives of women in the Global South by creating an image of a singular "third world woman"; Sexually constrained, ignorant, poor, uneducated, tradition-bound, religious, domesticated, family-oriented, victimized, powerless, etc. (p. 65); In contrast to the (implicit) self-representation of the writers Frames women in the Global South as "Others" and as "objects" without agency -- perpetuates "the hegemony of the idea of the superiority of the west" (p. 81) By the 1980s, heightened awareness that "women" could not be treated as a homogenous category. Women of color drew attention to the intersection of gender with race and other aspects of people's identities. Pointed to dynamics of colonization: "a relation of domination, and a discursive or political suppression of the heterogeneity of the subject(s) in question" (p. 61). Only reforming not fundamentally changing e.g. Hooks' feminism. Just inverting power structures based on hegemonous groupings. From women to gender: By the 1990s, gender becomes the focus of analysis, rather than women per se; Work illustrates how the category of "woman" is a cultural construct that varies significantly; Shifts attention to heterogeneity; Makes rooms for the study of men and other genders. Queer anthropology: Little research on sexuality during the 1970s; In the 1980s, a somewhat autonomous field of lesbian and gay anthropology emerges Ex: Ellen Lewin's book Lesbian Mothers: Accounts of Gender in American Culture. In the 1990s, shift to the term queer; Signals "that which is non-normative (identities or practices that challenge normative gender roles) and transgressive (those that challenge heteronormative sexuality)" -- Margot Weiss; Also used to flag "an insistence on potentiality or concrete possibility for another world" -- Jafari Allen. Production of Knowledges: Situated knowledges (Haraway) - Part of a larger conversation by feminists across disciplines about how knowledge is produced. People create knowledge -- they ask questions and interpret data; Thus knowledge will be shaped by the perspective of the individual. Individuals' perspectives shaped by gender, race, class, etc. Ex: Malinowski versus Weiner on Trobriander exchanges. Shaped by the particular historical circumstances under which it was made. Consider the broader political economic situation e.g. What kinds of research receives funding? What kinds of questions are considered valuable? Who's concerns are treated as important? Ex: research on men's health versus women's health in the UK. God trick: Knowledge often appears as if it wasn't made by particular people under particular historical circumstances. The "conquering gaze from nowhere. This is the gaze that mythically inscribes all the marked bodies, that makes the unmarked category claim the power to see and not be seen, to represent while escaping representation. This gaze signifies the unmarked positions of White and Man..." (p. 581). Knowledge presented from a disembodied perspective. Knowledge treated as "objective" or "neutral" mostly produced by white men. Knowledge produced by women and people of color seen as "niche" and less valued (or simply ignored). Matters because knowledge is power -- shapes practices and polices which benefit some over others. Haraway suggests: Alternative Very strong social constructivist stance: there is no "reality" out there to be discovered, in the sense that all knowledge is produced. Calls for "simultaneously an account of radical historical contingency for all knowledge claims... and a no-nonsense commitment to faithful accounts of a 'real' world" (p. 579) Beyond cultural relativism which still deems/claims/believes in certain innate/immutable things. Situated knowledges: Recognize that all knowledge is situated (i.e. coming from a distinct perspective) -- and that this isn't a bad thing that should be hidden - "Objectivity turns out to be about particular and specific embodiment and definitely not about the false vision promising transcendence of all limits and responsibility. The moral is simple: only partial perspective promises objective vision." (p. 582). Make connections between the partial perspectives. "Many currents in feminism attempt to theorize grounds for trusting especially the vantage points of the subjugated; there is good reason to believe vision is better from below the brilliant space platforms of the powerful." (p. 583). Those with less power have knowledge of their own experiences as well as some sense of those of people in power -- the reverse is rare. They know what it's like to erase and wont want to do that to others? Vision from below. - However: serious danger of romanticizing/appropriating the less powerful while from below is neither \"we\" \"naturally\" inhabit jugated knowledges. The subjugated are not exempt from critical reexamination, interpretation; that is, modes of critical inquiry. not \"innocent\" positions. Just preferred because in principle are less likely to deny subjectivity, due to their exepreicne of being ignore, denied, repressed and forgotten. The very actr of trying to view or produce knowledge or change one's vantage point has blood on their hands, must be accountable for our movement. Vision is always a question of the power to see-and perhaps of the violence implicit in our visualizing practices. With whose blood were my eyes crafted Reflexivity: Acknowledging how your positionality influences all aspects of the research process - Questions you ask, Interactions with other people, Interpretation of data. Developed by feminists, Becomes standard anthropological convention (to varying degrees), Texts will include some discussion of who the researcher is, Researcher's voice incorporated throughout (written in first-person) Positionality: your social position with a particular context based on aspects of your identity (i.e. how much power you have based on your gender, age, nationality, etc.). 41. ANS: All 1931-1933 Mead conducted fieldwork in northern Papua New Guinea, Worked with three different ethnic groups, Interested in the attributes associated with women and men - Arapesh -- similar characteristics for women and men, Unaggressive, Cooperative, Responsive to the needs of others, Nurturing. Mundugumor (Biwat) -- similar characteristics for women and men; Aggressive and violent, Domineering, Focused on status. Tchambuli (Chambri) -- marked gender differences - Women: Impersonal, Managerial, Dominant partner; Men: Irresponsible Emotionally dependent. Constructions of gender are culturally specific: People learn and do gender. "Human nature is almost unbelievably malleable, responding accurately and contrastingly to different cultural conditions... many, if not all, of the personality traits which we have called masculine or feminine are as lightly linked to sex as are the clothing, the manners, and the form of head-dress that a society at a given period assigns to either sex." - Margaret Mead. differences between the sexes must therefore be learned, Throughout life, but especially in childhood, people are "conditioned" to behave in ways that conform to cultural norms. E.g. gender colours/toys, blue vs pink, princesses vs robots. Children are disciplined into appropriate forms of gendered behavior by family, institutions, most notably schools, teach "gender lessons", Peers reinforce gender norms. Adely's and Schynder's: Jordanian girls' school on marriage and rls and attaining education and being a good woman -- changing perceptions e.g. love marriages, no early marriages unless educational prospects no good, school policing girls private/social life for their reputation, paradox of marriage as important and yet girls policed and segregated from boys in terms of rls, girls have their own desires/agency still, based on religion or their own views of kin/family, ask why the world bank thinks fertility is bad; black high school students pigeonholed to being aggressive in sports. Homophobia, sexual harassment etc. Jelani ostracised for trying to focus on grades and quitting the team. Masculinity as "an identity expressed through sexual discourses and practices that indicated dominance and control". Boys claimed masculine identities via homophobic comments and by asserting control over girls' bodies. (Cisgender) girls sometimes described as masculine if they seemed "dominant"...Stereotypes regarding gender and sexuality based on people's racial identities; Members of marginalized racial (and other) groups can be punished for enacting dominant constructions of gender. hegemonic constructions are a vicious, self-fulfilling cycle by how oppression causes racialised masculinity, leading to stereotypes of them as troublemakers, furthers tension. the moment Black men invest within White patriarchal norms, they have sealed their fate to become mired in a cycle of gendered and sexual oppression that will leave them powerless (Collins 2004; Hooks 1990, 2004). Neither possessing the capacity to be White nor men, Black men will be striving for an untouchable reality, while young White youth are provided with the space to search out their identity and provided the excuse of being "boys," the actions of Black male youth are associated with adult criminal deviance (Ferguson 2000). As argued by Bell Hooks, "the violent acting out of white boys tends to be viewed as a psychological disorder that can be corrected, while Black boys who act out tend to viewed as criminals and punished accordingly" (Hooks 2004:89). Although the coach rewarded Rashad for displaying acts of violence and aggression on the field, those same actions off the field reinforced his own oppression School dress/discipline code; as not a reflection of an internalized deviance, rather it was a learned masculine construction based upon violent, heterosexual, White normative understandings of Black masculine performance. Immediate response to a guy being scared to ask a girl out was to label one as gay or themselves as not homosexual in an effort to assert a particular type of masculinity and thus have the knowledge and/or power to navigate as a proper man (Pascoe 2007). 7 Importantly, just as normalized violent masculine performance is deemed as proper behavior, the violent response against Black youth is in articulation with the con-structed Black male archetype (Meiners 2007). masculine socialization process through educational institutions/structures is laden with overtones of war and violence. The focus becomes removing the function of thought and emphasizing unmediated action as directed by a White male authoritarian figure. ueled stereotypical notions of vio- lent, savage Black and Brown youth who needed to the assistance of White benefactors to solve their problems. utilization of violent, sexist rhetoric encourages Black males to participate within a masculine performance that serves to reinforce their oppression. In some contexts, permissible (or even celebrated) for girls to "act like boys" in some ways -- "tomboys". Rare for boys to be given space to "act like girls". Reflects the fact that "male" characteristics are more highly valued. No longer as permissible once girls enter adolescence. Performativity: Butler - There is no gender identity behind the expressions of gender; that identity is performatively constituted by the very 'expressions' that are said to be its results. It's not something we are, it's something we do. Gender cannot be understood as a role which either expresses or distinguishes an interior 'self'... gender is an 'act,' broadly construed, which constructs the social fiction of its own psychological interiority". People (unconsciously) behave in ways associated with femininity or masculinity, based on existing norms. The repetition of these acts makes it seem as if gender is a natural expression of who we are "Perhaps we should think of gender as something that is imposed at birth, through sex assignment and all the cultural assumptions that usually go along with that. Yet gender is also what is made along the way -- we can take over the power of assignment, make it into self-assignment", "Gender then becomes a negotiation, a struggle, a way of dealing with historical constraints and making new realities". For something to be "performative" means it produces effects. Gender is also "constituted through the force of exclusion and abjection, one which produces a constitutive outside to the subject, an abjected outside"; People (unconsciously) affirm their identities as "normal" and culturally intelligible by repudiating unacceptably gendered selves; "Normal" gender identities often assumed to be heterosexual. Heteronormativity: heterosexuality is taken for granted as the only "normal" or "natural" form of sexuality, and how this idea is reinforced through everyday practices; Disparages and/or erases other forms of sexuality; Privileges particular kinds of heterosexual relationships; Part of patriarchy, in that it makes women dependent on men. Masculinity: In the 1990s, increasing scholarly interest in men and masculinity. Part of the shift initiated by feminists from treating "people" as synonymous with "men". Masculinity sometimes thought of as anything men think or do. Or anything men think or do to be men. Variety of types of masculinities across and within particular cultural contexts (Connell): Hegemonic masculinity -- a type of gender practice that supports gender inequality and marginalizes other ways of being a man; Toxic masculinity. recent scholarship sees it as a configuration of practices and discourses; Different people can embody masculinity in different ways, to different degrees; Not linked to bodies assigned male at birth; The same could be said of femininity. Ans: Option 2 Gender and sexual non-conformity - Across time and space, there are: Gender identities and expressions that transgresses dominant feminine/masculine norms; Sexual relationships that transgress dominant heterosexual norms e.g. Nonnormative, transgressive, gender-variant, gender/sexual minorities, queer? Anthropologists have pointed out how complicated terms are. "Third gender": First used (primarily in US and European scholarship) in the 1970s. Applied to "institutionalized" gender categories and practices in some societies that aren't normatively male or female. Allowed scholars and activists to think beyond the gender binary Ex: hijras in South Asia; bissu in Indonesia (people who embody both male and female characteristics, Embody both human and spirit characteristics, Part of creation stories, Ritual role in bestowing blessings, Historical role as court advisors). among Bugis (who actl have 5 gender categories). However, Subsumes all non-Western non-conforming identities, practices, terminologies, and histories as "third," which can gloss over differences, Can imply that in the contexts its applied to there's only one alternative to binary gender categories, Can imply that "first" and "second" categories are inviolable and stable. Transgender: In recent years, sometimes used to replace "third gender". Has a specific history in the US, in part as a response to gay and lesbian rights advocates working to separate sexual orientation from gender identity. Some suggest its cultural specificity means if its applied too generally, it can gloss over differences. Linguistically and culturally specific terms are perhaps better at capturing diversity. But any term is complicated - Who gets to define it? What other aspects of identity are downplayed? What variations does it erase? What are the political implications of its use? Ex: hijras (Reddy): People in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh who are assigned male at birth but engage in (some) practices normatively associated with women. Differing claims to a more narrow definition: Removal of penis and testicles, or not, Asexual, or the receptive sexual partner of a panti, Ritual role conferring fertility, or sex work. Often reduced to their gender identity, Generally lower class, Complex lived experiences in terms of religion, kinship, and other factors. Some self-identified hijras who also identify as transgender, some who identify as transgender, and explicitly not hijra. In Bangladesh, legal recognition as a gender category in 2013 -- but only extended to people with "missing" or ambiguous genitals. Bodily practice: Mainstream global LBGTQ+ discourses (often rooted in American and European understandings) generally center on the assigned sex of who someone has sex with. But in some contexts, a person's role during sex is key to (self-) identity regarding sexuality and gender e.g. kotis and pantis (dominant?), Reddy Lesbian: Generally used to describe women who have sexual relationships with other women. Starts being used in European medical texts in the late 19th century. Takes on different meanings in various contexts. E.g. Toms in Thailand. Tom, dees, les, one-way, two-way. Connotations of the term lesbian are negative (or indicating both feminine and masculine), so rather be called Tom (expressing masculinity). Wekker: "The relationship between sexual acts and sexual identities is not a fixed one, and it is projected from the observer's time and place to others at great peril" Carole Vance; Idea of a unitary, core, true character that's often implicit in "identity" is rooted in particular Euro-American notions of the immutable self/character. Can't always think about sexuality in terms of identity. E.g. Mati work: when women have sexual relationships with women (often have sexual relationships with men as well). Self as multiplicitious and dynamic/malleable, rather than unitary; linked to Afro-Surinamese Winti religion. Male and female gods as components of the self who have different desires.Sex as behavior/verb not an identification: "I mati" versus "I am a mati". Yeye (soul comprising male and female spirits accompanying one through life e.g. Apuku, a male god jealous if a woman gets with another man or Aisa: a spirit that makes one like jewelry, clothes, is caring/nurturing). Behaviour does not equal identification e.g. homosexual. Also can be transactional, for money. Emic perspective: understanding the group being studied on their own terms Etic perspective: understanding the group being studied from the anthropologist's perspective. Laws: Globally, an array of legal rulings regarding sexuality and gender in terms of sex, marriage, employment, documentation, etc. Public sentiment varies widely, Experiences of discrimination and violence. Inclusivity: In many places, laws and sentiments are becoming more inclusive Ex: non-binary gender recognition and legal documents in Iceland. Activists across the globe advocating for change. Not just victims; vibrant communities. Agency ANS: Option 1 Biomedicine: Also referred to as "Western" medicine or "mainstream" medicine. Seeks to apply the principles of biology and the natural sciences (such as physics and chemistry) to the practice of diagnosing diseases and promoting healing. Often contrasted with ethnomedicine - localized systems of health and healing rooted in culturally specific norms and values. However, False dichotomy: Biomedicine is a form of ethnomedicine, Draws on European enlightenment values of rationality and individualism, The individual body is the focus of treatment. Knowledge is not neutral, link to Haraway. Davis, Dewey, Murphy: Sex, gender, and sexuality are often thought of as biological "facts". Often thought of as binary categories. Biomedicine plays a central role in producing these understandings. Also produces understandings of what's "healthy" and "normal" versus "morbid" and "pathological". Practitioners have an outsized role in shaping ideas about gender and sexuality. Expert knowledge; society awards them authority. Patients own perceptions matter less. Practitioners may or may not be aware of their role. E.g. International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Eleventh Edition (ICD-11), by the World Health Organization (used by more than 150 countries, translated into over 40 languages), The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), by the American Psychiatric Association. Tracing the history shows us that classifications are social constructions, rather than biological "truths", creation of "normalcy" and "pathology". Practitioners try to overcome the "categorical crises" created by intersex and trans bodies (p. 494), "Healthy" bodies fit into binary categories, See "successful" intersex and trans interventions as those that result stereotypical displays of gender that align with the patient's assigned sex and heterosexuality. "Sexed embodiments, especially intersex and trans, can challenge the gender structure by disrupting ideas about sex and gender correlation, but only if non-normative sexed embodiments are allowed rather than pathologized." (p. 495). Doctors give gender and give sex. Medical practitioners could broaden understandings of healthy bodies and identities to include non-binary variations e.g. Olympic gold-winning South African runner Caster Semenya; intersex woman with naturally elevated testosterone levels, International Association of Athletics Federation subjected her to "gender tests"; ruled in 2019 to prevent women with elevated testosterone participating in 400m-1500m events unless they take medication to lower their testosterone. Her case challenges binary thinking, Grew up and lived as a woman, shows the distinction between identity/expression (woman) and her sex (intersex). Doctors rushed to "fix" intersex cases and assign intersex people to one sex, whilst very apprehensive about conducting trans operations. Passing on responsibility to parents or objective criteria. Homosexuality: Term first used in Europe and North America in mid-1800s; specific to this context; German psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing's 1886 Psychopathia Sexualis, Darwinian lens: non-procreative behaviors pathological; Homosexuality as a psychiatric disorder. Linked to ideas about binary gender categories, Attraction to women treated as a masculine trait, attraction to men as a feminine trait, Gay individuals presumed to have brains that resembled those of the opposite sex. In the 1940s, Hungarian psychoanalyst Sandor Rado claims homosexuality is a "phobic" avoidance of opposite sex resulting from bad parenting. Practitioners offer "cures" for homosexuality. In 1952, listed in DSM-1 as a "sociopathic personality disturbance"; later as a "sexual deviation". Different treatment based on class and gender: In the mid-20th century UK, male homosexuality was criminalized; Working class men went to prison whist Middle and upper class men often offered "aversion therapy" instead. Female sexuality not criminalized (though still seen as a disorder). No consensus about whether women could or should be "treated". Mid-20th century sex researchers challenge these ideas: Alfred Kinsey finds that homosexuality is far more common than previously believed, Evelyn Hooker debunks myths that homosexuals are less mentally stable than heterosexuals. Findings largely ignored by American Psychiatric Association. Gay activists argue psychiatric theories contribute to social stigma: Protest at 1970 and 1971 APA annual meetings, Intense deliberations within the APA; Homosexuality removed from DSM in 1974; Removed from the ICD in 1990. Biomedicine shaped by cultural norms regarding gender (and sexuality, race, etc.); "Sleeping metaphors", Martin's article - Despite contrary evidence, tendency to portray egg and sperm in stereotypical American gender roles; Egg as "dormant bride awaiting her mate's magic kiss, which instills the spirit that brings her to life" (p. 490, quoting from Medical World News). negative implications of letting normative ideas about gender be imposed on the egg and the sperm? Ideas of male dominance etc. female reproductive processes are depicted as less worthy, dangerous ("trapping"), wasteful ("debris"), and passive ("receptor"), whilst male processes are exalted as active/autonomous ("produces/propel"). Notably, despite findings that the egg and sperm are equally interdependent/engaged, language indicating an equal, mutually connected, interactive partnership like "bridge/fusion" is neglected, instead using terms like "harpoon/penetration". This perpetuates hierarchical sociocultural tropes of gender roles/relations like Sleeping Beauty, where females are innately weak, submissive and dormant, needing males as dominant, conquering saviours/initiators. Martin also raises how economic ideas contributed to Darwin's Natural Selection theory, which was then adapted into Social Darwinism, illustrating how social and biological sciences reciprocally/cyclically reproduce preconceived notions/orders. Ultimately, Martin emphasises that language/knowledge is inherently partial and a possible control mechanism, like how personifying reproductive cells could be used to curtail abortion rights. These examples expose the power of subconscious connotations in "sleeping metaphors", subtly confining/framing discourse and research to justify/entrench hegemonic representations and interpretations of what is "natural". Implanting social imagery to as scientific observation of the natural, reimported as an explanation for the social phenomenon. Making women less worthy than men. Even when exploring new roles for the egg, reproducing harmful stereotype of the femme fatale. Alternative cybernetic model that shows responsiveness of diff parts. Need to be aware of them so they cant have power over us.