GNST Test 1

Sameness Taboo

Discomfort surrounding the idea of people not conforming to their specific gender
in a way that is socially acceptableS

Stratification System

The way in which society organizes people into hierarchical layers based on
things like gender, wealth, race, etc

Biological Sex

Biological/Anatomical categories assigned at birth.

Gender

The social, cultural, and psychological meaning attached to sex in our society.

Gender Identiy

One’s internal sense of one’s own gender. For example, pronouns are a
representation of this

Gender expression

How gender is outwardly presented.

Sexual Identity

Patterns of romantic and/or sexual attraction, behavior, and identity.

Intersectionality

How overlapping social identities (race, class, gender, etc.) combine to shape
distinct experiences of power and discrimination

Social Construction

Characteristics that we think of as immutable and solely biological - such as
gender, race, class, ability, and sexuality - are products of human definition and
interpretation shaped by cultural and historical contexts

One sex model

Male and female are different versions of the same sex. Views males as more
“complete” and therefore superior to females.

Two sex model

Females are distinctly different from males biologically. Males and females are
viewed as two separate entities

Patriarchy

A social system in which men hold disproportionate power and authority.

Privilege

Social advantages, benefits, or degrees of respect that an individual gains by
belonging to a certain social identity group or groups

Oppression

An unjust or cruel exercise of authority or power

Equality

Everyone receives the same treatment, resources, and opportunities regardless of
life circumstances. Assumes that everyone is operating on a similar playing field
and will face the same set of circumstances and challenges

Equity

Considers the needs/circumstances of a person and provides the resources needed
to be successful. Different levels of support must be provided to achieve true
fairness

Seneca Falls Convention

Credited as the start of outward feminist activism in the United States and the start
of first wave feminism

Declaration of Sentiments

Document written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Advocated for women’s education,
right to property, organizational leadership, and women’s suffrage

Femininity

The quality or nature of the female sex: the quality, state, or degree of being
feminine or womanly.

Compulsory Heterosexuality

The societal expectation that everyone should be heterosexual.

Sexualization of Culture

The idea that western culture has become increasingly saturated with
representations of sex. This sex-forward culture is unlike anything we have seen
in previous generations.

Homophobia

Discrimination against, aversion to, or fear of homosexuality or gay people.

Heterosexism

Discrimination or prejudice against nonheterosexual people based on the belief
that heterosexuality is the only normal and natural expression of sexuality

Lavender Scare

Moral panic about homosexuals in the United States government which led to
their mass dismissal from government service during the mid-20th century.
Paralleled anti-communist campaign (McCarthyism) as homosexuals were
thought to be “communist sympathizers”

Gay Liberation

Social and political movement in the 1960s-80s that urged the LGBTQ+
community to counter homophobia with gay pride. Placed an emphasis on coming
out and living life openly

Judith Butler

Coined the term, “gender performativity.” Argues that gender is not biological but
performative. Gender is maintained, created, and perpetuated by society and
social interaction rather than being innate

Margaret Sloan-Hunter

Writer, publisher, feminist, poet, civil rights activist. First chairwoman of the
National Black Feminist Organization

Henrietta Lacks

Woman who was the source of the immortal cell line (HeLa cells) that has been
critical to numerous medical advances.

Kimberle Crenshaw

Coined the term, “intersectionality.” “Intersectionality is a lens through which you
can see where power comes and collides, where it interlocks and intersects. It’s
not simply that there’s a race problem here, a gender problem here, and a class or
LBGTQ problem there.”

Maria Miller Stewart

First woman in America to address a mixed gender and race audience on abolition
and women’s rights. Spoke out about the importance of women’s rights far before
the Seneca Falls Convention.

Larry Kramer

Author of “1,112 and Counting”. American playwright, screenwriter, and gay
rights activist whose confrontational style of advocacy was credited by many with
catalyzing the response to the AIDS crisis in the United States.

Anita Bryant

Singer and activist that led the “Save Our Children” campaign, which sought to
repeal a recent ordinance in Miami-Dade county, Florida, that outlawed
discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

opposes homosexuality

First Wave Feminism

Focused on achieving equal rights for women, primarily the fight for women’s
right to vote.

Second Wave Feminism

Focused on women’s rights issues like domestic violence, reproductive rights,
equal pay, etc…

Third Wave Feminism

Began in the early 1990s to challenge, reclaim, and redefine ideas of the self, the
fluidity of gender, sexual identity, and what it means to be a woman in a more
inclusive and racially diverse way. Whatever a woman chooses to do, it is
feminist as long as she made that choice.

Fourth Wave Feminism

Began in 2007 with a focus on justice for women, especially those who have
experienced sexual violence. Focus on calling out social injustices and those
responsible for them, as well as educating others on feminist issues and remaining
inclusive to all groups of women. Digital feminism.

Post Feminism

Believes that many or all of the goals of feminism have already been achieved,
thereby making further iterations and expansions of the movement obsolete. Term
frequently used by feminists to negatively describe the renewed embrace of
activities and positions that current and previous generations of feminists have
deemed sexist or oppressive.

In The Social Construction of Gender, Judith Lorber says that, “talking about
gender for most people is the equivalent of fish talking about water.”

• illustrates how gender operates as an invisible, taken-for-granted social structure. Just as fish inhabit water without noticing it

• gender norms and categories are so deeply ingrained that they often fail to see gender as a social construction at all.

• everyday social norms and expectations

First wave and second wave feminism failed to include women of color in
their conversation.

• first

  • white/middle class privilege, strategic alliances, segregation

  • 1913 woman suffrage procession: black women marched in the back

  • black women not allowed to sign at seneca falls

• second

  • margaret-sloan hunter

  • black women starting own feminist movements due to exclusion

Who were the Mothers of Gynecology?

• enslaved women subjected to intense surgical experiments in 1845

• effective long-term treatment as a result of their sacrifice

• created disparities in healthcare that remain today

Describe the cycle of oppression.

• internal bias and prejudice

• unfair action and discrimination

• unfair system of oppression

• normalized internal bias

What are unique challenges presented by women’s incarceration? Discuss
why jails are especially dangerous for women, mental physical health
challenges, etc

• prisons ill-equipped to handle women's healthcare needs

• history of abuse

• invasive searches

• shame of failing as a mother

• women and petty crime (in jail longer awaiting trial)

Describe what the 19th amendment is.

• prohibited any US citizen from being denied the right to vote based on sex

• black women in south remained disenfranchised due to jim crow laws (legal hurdles)

• indigenous women were not granted citizenship

• WOC (immigrants) excluded from the suffrage movement

Contradiction of postfeminism

• Celebrates female sexuality and bodily autonomy, arguing that women can own their sexuality. Yet, it often promotes beauty standards and sexual objectification that have historically been used to subordinate women.

• focuses on individual women’s success (e.g., “leaning in,” breaking the glass ceiling) as proof that feminism has succeeded. However, this ignores the fact that only a small minority of women (usually white, wealthy, and educated) benefit from these individual successes.

In the 1990s-2000s, female celebrities sought to separate themselves from
feminism. What are some possible reasons for this?

• stigma of angry woman: feminist = unhappy/hostile toward men

• postfeminism

• humanist: not same weight

Compare and contrast the terms “homophobia” and “heterosexism”.

• “ism” - highlight oppression, avoid pathologizing prejudice, more comprehensive

Why was the disco club scene so significant to LGBTQ+ culture in the
1960s-70s?

• breaking gender norms

• disco and androgyny

• inclusivity (weren’t allowed in other clubs)

• roots in marginalized communities

• themes of escape and liberation resonated with the community

• mainstream: whitewashing, disco sucks

Why would the media have portrayed AIDS as “gay cancer” when it wasn’t
just gay men getting the disease? How did preconceived notions about the
LGBTQ+ community aid in this portrayal?

• moral panic and homophobia

• promiscuity and “dirty”

• lack of sympathy

• government ignoring crisis

• increased stigma