Understanding Feminism: Exploring Power, Privilege, and Gender

1. September 9th • Attendance & participation cards • Lead class discussion sign up • Homework Discussion: What is feminism? • Lecture One: The Gendered Society • Homework: • “White Privilege and Male Privilege” by Peggy McIntosh (CR)

2. What is feminism?

3. "The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians" - Pat Robertson at the GOP Convention (1992)

4. Feminism is… • The belief that we are individuals before we are men and women. • That there are differences among males and females. • That these differences should not be the foundation for inequality in society.

5. September 14th • Attendance & participation cards • Lead class discussion sign up • Research project #1 • Review last activity • Lecture One: The Gendered Society • Homework: • Chapter Two, Ordained by Nature (GS) • The Medical Construction of Gender by Suzanne Kessler (CR)

6. Lecture One Gendered Society: The Intersection of Power and Difference

7. Understanding Gender • Gender: social differences assigned to people of different sexes • Idealized Gender: the physical, emotional, and behavioral traits assigned to gender categories • Masculinity and Femininity

8. Looking at Sex • Sex: biological differences between people • Chromosomes (XX vs. XY) • Sex glands • Hormones • Reproductive capacity • Secondary physical characteristics • But is sex that clear cut? • 2% of babies are born intersexed • Transgender individuals do not feel that their sex and gender match

9. Sexual Dichotomy • We have a belief in the essential reality of sexual dichotomy • Division of gender and sex into two categories: M/F • Biologically determined • Permanent • Universal • Exhaustive • Mutually exclusive

10. Women “defend” Men “protect” Commercialization of Sex Dichotomy

11. Gender Polarization • Gender Polarization: organization of social life around male/female distinctions • Social roles • Sexual decisions and partners • Emotional expression • Gender-schematic: decisions are based upon a society’s polarized definitions of masculinity and femininity

12. The Gendered Individual • Gender as a social position – a place in society • Constrains what we think our choices are and how others think about who we are and how we should act • Social positions come with an inherent set of advantages and disadvantages • What are they for men? For women?

13. Power and Privilege • Gender, as well as race, class, and sexuality are one of the primary ways that power and privilege are exercised in American society • Privilege: one’s social position in society is seen as “normal” and objective • Privilege emerges from the social positions we occupy and not from innate qualities of individuals

14. Structures of privilege are often invisible and unearned What does Kimmel mean when he says: “I enjoyed the privilege of invisibility? (pg 7)? • Male Dominance is: • An unrecognized set of privileges • A set of unnamed practices – the cultural norm • A standpoint from which all people are judged

15. Invisible Privileges • “As a white person, I realized I had been taught about racism as something that puts others at a disadvantage, but had been taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, white privilege, which puts me at an advantage.” • Types of Privileges according to McIntosh: • positive advantage: one that all individuals in society should have • negative advantage: one that can only be gained at the expense of others

16. Individual exercise: List at least 5 privileges that you think you carry around in an invisible knapsack. These privileges can be based on the following structures of privilege: • White privilege • Male privilege • Physical Ability Privilege • Heterosexual Privilege • Religious Privilege • Other? • For each privilege explain if this privilege is a positive advantage (one that all individuals in society should have) or a negative advantage (one that can only be gained at the expense of others)? Explain.

17. In pairs: • Look over your list of privileges. • Do you enjoy all the privileges that your partner does? Why or why not? • How are your privileges similar and different from your partners? What accounts for those differences? • What institutions are these privileges realized in? • Family, economy, religion, politics?

18. Understanding Privilege • Individuals with privilege are not responsible for the circumstances that brought them privilege, but they are responsible in how they respond to it. • What does Kimmel mean when he says: We have to make men visible when we talk about gender (pg 5)?

19. A Gendered Society • Gender is about difference and it is about power • In a patriarchal society gender is about the power men as a group have over women as a group • Power: ability to influence important decisions and exert one’s will • Not the possession of individuals, but property of group life

20. But, what if I don’t feel powerful? • Power is exercised through: • Institutions – what resources are available to us • Ideology – what we think should be • Culture – what we value • Heteronormativity: culture where heterosexuality is accepted as the “normal” mode of sexual expression

21. Intersectionality • We need to understand the experience of individualsat the intersection of: • Gender: social differences to people of different sexes • Sexuality: sexual identity and sexual orientation • Race: classification of individuals based on their physical characteristics • Class: social and economic standing in society

22. Macroscopic Perspective • Audre Lorde – appreciate the differences among women as well as the their common position in society • Birdcage Metaphor