femininity and masculinity

1. femininity and masculinity an overview

2. how different are women and men? • males and females - ‘opposite sex’/similarities/ and variation amongst men and women? • biology – ‘raw material’ – ‘real differences’ – e.g. reproduction - set limits? • historical critique of ‘natural’ status of ‘sex’ and sexual dimorphism (two sexes) e.g. sex hormones/essence of f/m (Oudshoorn) one/two sex model (Laqueur) medical anatomy texts (Petersen)

3. is ‘sex’ a natural fact? - is sex the biological and genetic foundation from which gender distinctions arise? - or do gender distinctions lead us to perceive two sexes? • sexual ambiguity: ‘five sexes’ and intersexuality? • is ‘sex’ socially constructed? e.g. medical scientists - discover or construct reality ? interpret data – cultural vacuum? impose ‘normality’ – biological variation? (e.g. Fausto-Sterling; Kessler) egg and sperm – scientific language - gendered? (Martin) • why focus on differences?

4. Is gender socially constructed is it something we ‘do’? • 1970s - sex/gender distinction – social construction of gender – challenge biological determinism (Oakley) • constructing masculinities (Connell) • ‘gender display’ (Goffman) • ‘doing gender’ (West & Zimmerman) • distinguish between: sex, sex category and gender • ‘natural attitude’ and ‘gender attribution’ (Kessler & McKenna) • gender as ‘performative’ (Butler)

5. gendered bodies? • ‘somatophobia’ and ‘Cartesian dualism’ • is there a natural body - essentialism/social constructionism? • men’s bodies – less embodied? • woman as body – e.g. reproduction? • do all bodies matter? (Butler) • lived body (embodiment) – e.g. Young? • doing and disciplining bodies? • resist – e.g. female body building?

6. sex/gender distinction: problems? (see e.g. Gatens 1991; Webster 2002; Stanley in Jackson & Scott 2002) • assume ‘sex’ is biological, fixed, stable and ahistorical? • gender ‘mapped’ onto ‘natural’ and neutral bodies? • does female = feminine/male = masculine? • ‘feminine male’ – described as feminine – ‘qualitatively different from the female experience of the feminine’- is sex and gender interdependent? (Gatens 1991: 146) • embody - materially and sexually different bodies and gendered experiences – ‘sex’ matters for Gatens (Webster 2002: 201) • role of the body in the social construction of gender – disrupt and /or maintain boundaries between femininity and masculinity? • is there a distinction between ‘sex’ and gender? (Butler)

7. feminist theories/perspectives(e.g. Tong; Jackson; Evans) • different feminist perspectives – liberal, Marxist/socialist, radical and dual systems • 1970s social science perspectives dominated feminist theory – materialist emphasis – e.g. inequalities in power, wealth, education and work (paid and unpaid) … • major concern: how to explain women’s subordination

8. shift from ‘things’ to ‘words’(e.g. Barrett; Weedon; Zalewski) • early 1980s – cultural / linguistic turn • greater influence from literary and cultural theories and less social science • material > symbolic (or cultural) • explore the importance of language, discourse and representation ‘gender is understood to be shaped not just by social structures buy by dominant discourses – forms of language that construct what it means to be a man or a women’ (Abbott et al 2005: 358)

9. mapping gender theories Material‘cultural turn’Symbolic MODERNSIM→POSTMODERNISM STRUCTURALISM → POSTSTRUCTURALISM CRITICAL THEORY→DECONSTRUCTION EQUALITY→DIFFERENCE

10. generated much debate: impact? e.g. Barrett in Kemp and Squires; Zalewski; Jackson • critique of universalism – e.g. not all women the same – no ‘we’ • and universalistic theoretical perspectives/meta-narratives - e.g. Marxism, Feminism? • critique of rationalism and subject – e.g. assume the subject was European and male? Marginalise other subjects? Claims to objectivity problematic? • gendering of modernity – masculine? – e.g. liberal feminism closely affiliated to the ideas of the liberal project (humanism, emancipation, just society) – equality but is it gender-neutral? • critique of materialist assumptions i.e. are we determined by social structure or are meanings/experiences important too?

11. generated much debate: impact? e.g. Roseneil; Jackson; Zalewski; Barrett • importance of discourse & culture in the production of gender • limitations of the ‘cultural turn’ • ‘reinvents’ & mystifies ideas already existing within feminism – e.g. ‘woman’ as historical and shifting construction (not just Riley’s idea) • overemphasises fragmentation & ignores structural power • lose touch with the material – gendered experience

12. some final thoughts … • turn to agency – importance of resistance • response to structural determinism - tends to portray women as victims • have the emphasis on ‘words’ and agency enriched feminist social theory or weakened it? • new areas of interest – bodies, emotions • best done both by engaging with sociology and with interdisciplinary feminism? • feminist theory arose out of ‘personal politics’ (praxis) – uncoupled from women’s experiences? Elitist?

13. how equal are women and men now? • you gathered evidence – see web - information • considered e.g. Walby’s work – • six structures of patriarchy • shift from private to public patriarchy • polarisation and convergence • exclusion to segregation • improved by women’s political participation • patriarchy affects women differently? • ‘feminist degendering movement’ (Lorber) – question gender divisions? - long term process - applied globally?

14. gendered interests and politics • redefined what is political – personal? • identity politics – ‘feminist standpoint’ – ‘what we do shapes what we know’ – experience basis of knowledge • problems identity politics ? (e.g. Adams) • categories exclude • authenticity and hierarchy of oppression? • sisterhood? solidarity? build coalitions? • masculinity politics – therapeutic; defend hegemonic masculinity; gay; refusing to be a man? (Connell; Messner; hooks; Seidler) • when is the personal political?

15. gender and ‘other’ inequalities (1) • woman as other – monopoly on otherness? • othering of non-western women? • debates within feminism: primacy of gender over class? • critique class analysis – women excluded from figures/studies (Acker) • e.g. marriage not job – women as a class (Delphy)? • not just about labour market are discourses important too – e.g. ‘classlessness’ – blames working class for not doing well? • class inequalities lived in gendered ways (Reay) • inequalities between men too?

16. gender and ‘other’ inequalities (2) • Black feminists critical of feminism – ‘ain’t I a woman?’ (Truth) • slavery/colonisation • proper femininity – white middle class …? • not a homogenous group – ‘third world women’ (Mohanty) • appreciating difference – ‘decolonisation’ (hooks) • Intersecting oppressions – not additive but interlocking (Collins) • representations of black masculinity - Linford Christie and femininity - Hottentot Venus (Hall) • ‘Orientalism’ (Said) • exotic and primitive? • challenge both material and symbolic inequalities?

17. such a thing as a woman or a man? • gender and the linguistic turn • feminists influenced by postuctructuralism/postmodernism • language does not simply reflect but actively constructs reality • claim: language constructs what it means to be a man or a woman • misrecognise - take as ‘natural’ what is linguistically constructed?

18. signified • – idea of ‘woman’ • – no such thing as ‘woman’ • purely linguistic construct • varies between languages ‘woman’ signifier THE SIGN

19. such a thing as a woman or a man? • semiotics – (Saussure) • arbitrary nature of the sign • no fixed meaning – relational • postructuralists and meaning (Derrida) • meaning is never fixed but in flux • how become fixed – power? • deconstruction – meanings constantly moving e.g. category of ‘woman’ • discourse (Foucault) – professional groups; truth claims; categorise people; ‘panoptic effect’; produce the subject

20. gender as ‘performative’ (Butler) representation • ‘woman’ not biological category • ‘sex’- linguistic category • sexuality – cultural resource – resist? doing words • speech act theory (Austin) e.g. ‘It’s a girl’ everyday performances • labelled ‘man’/’woman’ – perform according to norms (heterosexual matrix)

21. gender as ‘performative’ • “gender is an act that brings into being what it names: a ‘masculine’ man or ‘feminine’ woman” (Salih, 2002:64) • language constitutes gendered identities • no doer or ‘I’ outside language – gendered subjects are the effects of language • ‘gender trouble’ – attempts to reveal or upset the fictional fixity of gender– e.g. Drag

22. media – shape our ideas about gender? • critically considered the notion of a ‘male gaze’ (Mulvey) and ‘female gaze’ (Gamman & Marshment) • Media all powerful – different roles, hypodermic model, not ’cultural dopes’ (e.g. Fiske), hyperreality (Baudrillard) • is ‘normality’ reinforced by representations of feminine and masculine bodies? • if so, how? • illusion of individual choice (Bordo)?

23. media – shape our ideas about gender? • discipline self/body according to the norms of appearance portrayed for success? e.g. woman = passive, man = active? • is resistance possible? – e.g. ‘techniques of the self’ (Foucault) • can this binary be avoided? • does the media present one (hegemonic) norm to follow? • are people slaves to what the media represents?

24. the future of gender and bodies? feminism(s) and technology: ambivalent relationship (e.g. Wajcman)? post-human bodies/gender: ‘cyborg’ metaphor (e.g. Haraway) cyberpunk (e.g. Pitts) remake and/or transcend gendered bodies? queer theory (e.g. Wilchins 2004)

25. additional source Webster, F (2002) ‘Do Bodies Matter? Sex, Gender and Politics’, Australian Feminist Studies, 17(38): 191-205