Feminism Midterm

Defining Feminism

"Feminism is a movement to END SEXISM, SEXIST EXPLOITATION, and OPPRESSION" (Bell Hooks)

--> movement for gender justice and equal rights

--> end all forms of oppression

--> SEXISM and PATRIARCHY are the PROBLEMS

Is feminism really for everybody?

- the meaning of feminism is STILL CONTESTED

--> NOT about hating men or inserting women into the established hierarchies

--> RATHER it's a movement to end oppression in ALL FORMS

What is feminism really about?

- seeks EQUAL RIGHTS, AGENCY, and JUSTICE, REGARDLESS of gender and other intersectional identity markers

Is feminism only for women?

- NO! --> Feminism CANNOT be only about women, it must be INTERSECTIONAL (race, class, religion, gender identity, sexuality, ability, ect.)

Women and Gender Studies - what is it?

- concerned with issues of GENDER and how they INTERACT with OTHER identity categories

--> Placing those who identify as WOMEN and other MARGINALIZED PEOPLE as the SUBJECT of the study

What happened for WGS in the 19060s-80s?

- an INCREASE in women and gender studies departments, but ALSO various racial and ethnic studies departments, and queer studies

What were the two approaches to these new departments?

1. Add women and stir --> courses about women

EX. Women and philosophy

2. Transforming knowledge --> EX. Thinking about philosophy from a female perspective

Why was there the change from "women" to "gender" studies?

- move aways from FIXED categories and binaries

- move away from ESSENTIALISM

- gender as a PERFORMANCE --> femininity and masculinity

- FLUIDITY of gender

- maintain a focus on women and those who identify as women/femme since they still face more oppression in a patriarchal society

- MOVE AWAY from a focus on the essential of women (ie. women have a fixed essence from their biology and all characteristics have that)

Feminism is:

- political theory

- social movement

- personal perspective

- academic approach

First Wave of Feminism

- 1848 - 1920

- connection to the ABOLITIONIST movement --> Quakers were influential as they viewed women as equal

- voting, access to education, marriage, property rights

- right to be seen as a FULL and EQUAL person in the eyes of the government

--> SENECA FALLS CONVENTION 1848

- mostly wealthy, educated white women

--> women of color were often still subordinated

1920: Women get the right to vote

First wave summary

- voting --> starting off as basic things and as humans, and having these fundamental rights

- starts off with women who have a lot of privilege (rich white women_

Seneca Falls Convention

- 1848

- the first WOMEN'S RIGHTS CONVENTION in the US

- organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and other Quaker women

--> Frederick Douglass was also there and spoke in support of women's rights(= African American abolitionist and civil rights leader)

- Drafted the Declaration of Sentiments --> criticized inequality and outlined the rights to which women should be entitled

--> Convention helped shape the American women's rights and suffrage movement and served as a framework for the women's rights movement in decades to come

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

- 1815-1902

- Born into a WEALTH family in NY state - received a good education for a girl at the time

- Married Henry Stanton, an abolitionist, in 1840

- Had 7 children, lived for several years in Seneca Falls, NY

- Primary author of Declaration of Rights and Sentiments

- Wrote a feminist critique of the Bible

- Abolition movement

- Temperance movement

- Women’s right to vote

- Close working relationship with Susan B. Anthony

Address on Women's Rights

- Elizabeth Cady Stanton

- 1848

- spoken at the Seneca Falls convention

- women must advocate for themselves bc men are unable to fully represent women's experiences

- the history of women is sad, drear, and dark

- In the US woman has no right to either hold office, woman are unrepresented in this gov, women's rights are overlooked

- Man's claims to SUPERIORITY as a MORAL BEING

- Man's claims to PHYSICAL SUPERIORITY

--> declare the right to vote --> would allow women to influence laws affecting their lives

- women should NOT sacrifice their own needs for men's success and calls for women to prioritize their education and well-being

- Call for women to take up the AMOR and RESULENCE against opposition --> vision for a future where women break from from their constatics

- **rallying cry for women to persist in seeking justice and fulling their potential, even amidst resistance, promising triumph through perseverance and faith in their mission

"Address on Women's Rights" (2)

Advocates for:

- women's suffrage

- property rights

- education

--> want to be seen as FULL HUMANS, EQUAL TO MEN

--> working against this idea that women are inherently INFERIOR

Current status of women:

- enslaved --> don't have the freedom to do things on their own

- men are positioned in society as SUPERIOR

- religious language enforces the natural INFERIORITY of women

Argument:

- women should be EQUAL to men

--> Uses religious language as God has given the same responsibilities to both

- appeals to historical women to show how they've been good leaders

- not all men are good, moral, intellectual people --> doesn't make sense that just bc they are men, they should have the right to vote

- men may be physically stronger, but what do you to determine strength?

--> speaking to men in power and women as ammunition to stand up for their rights

Susan B Anthony

- Quaker woman --> belief in equality inspired and guided her throughout her life's works

- fought for the ABOLITION of slavery

- served as an American Anti-Slavery Society agency --> making speeches, organizing meetings, and distributing pamphlets

Stanton and Anthony

- the two suffragists worked to gain independence and equality for women for the rest of their lives

--> travel around the country advocating for women's rigths and lobbied Congress

**Dedicated their lives to the women's rights movements (women's suffrage) --> founded organizations, newpapers, and advocating for equal rights through speaking, lobbying, and protesting

Sojourner Truth

- Born into slavery in NY, but escaped in 1826

- spoke Dutch as a child and then learned English later on

- married an older enslave man, Thomas and had 5 children

- took the name Sojourner Truth in 1843

- traveled around NE and gave speakers

- highlighted the intersectionality between Black women --> black and woman

"Ain't I a Woman" Speech

- given at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention

- version written 12 years later incorporated more STEREOTYPICAL southern dialect and added the known phrase , "Ain't I a Woman"

--> white abolitionist changed the speech bc it's paternalistics, child-like, make people want to help her

--> Appeal to Northern abolitionist about the stereotypes of what they're like, appealing to SYMPATHY

Argument of "Ain't I a Woman"

- can do the same work as men --> there isn't much of a difference between men and women

- just bc women gain rights, DOESN'T take away the rights of men

- questions if men are really the most powerful? the most superior?

- INTERSECTIONAL ARGUMENT --> this (being a woman) is just ONE PART of WHO she is

Second Wave

- 1960s - 1970s

- PERSONAL is POLITICAL

--> How can personal issues be addressed on a larger political, social scale?

- Birth Control --> a thing in the bedroom, becomes a larger social issue/political - women can now work

- Sexual harassment --> Women would deal with this harrasment everyday, this is a larger problem, need to tackle on a larger level, have laws/policies in place so there are ways to stop it

What were the results of the second wave of feminism (1970s woman movement)?

- Birth control

- Abortion, reproductive health

- Title IX, policies on campus, equality in sports

- Women could have credit cards

- Illegal for a marital rape

- Financial independence

- Sexual harassment, general discrimination, women could become fired if they were pregnant

- Equal pay

- Work outside the home

- Higher education, co-ed

- More women in political powers

- More protection for violence and sexual assault

- Equal Rights Amendment

Connection to INTERSECTIONALITY

- pushing feminism and gender studies BEYOND WOMEN's ISSUES

--> addressing RACE and SEXUALITY

- But also people who don't identify with the binaries of gender (masculinity/feminity) or of sexuality (homosexual/heterosexual)

--> those who are marginalized bc of class, immigration status, disabilities, ect.

--> "intersectional analyses have shown how systems of power maintain patters of privelege and discrimination"

Third Wave

- 1990s - 2010s

- postmodernism, queer theory, and intersectionality

--> What is the experience when you add race, class, ect.?

- moving beyond the focus on "women" as this universalizing approach

- focus more on SEXUALITY and DECONSTRUCTING BINARIES, identity categories

- Performance of gender and sexuality: Judith Butler

- POST-feminism: Feminism is NO longer needed, consumer choice is freedom

--> Women can work, vote, ect. now, so we DON'T really need it anymore

Are we now in the fourth wave?

- transgenderism

- digital activism

- digital media

Change through the waves

- moving from SMALL GROUP to become more INCLUSIVE throughout time

- bringing up more AWARENESS of things --> equal pay, sexual harrassment, ect.

--> this all sounds positive and great, but there are STILL CONFLICTS --> sometimes people begin to go AGAINST one another

EX. Feminists going against trans rights

Why are the waves important?

- Way to organize feminist history

Branches of Feminism - NEED TO KNOW THE KEY THINKERS OF EACH

- Liberal vs Radical

--> Liberal; institutions and everything is good, but just ADD WOMEN to these places

--> Radical: the WHOLE system needs to be completely REMADE

- EX. Lesbian feminism: true liberation requires rejecting male-dominated relationships, ecofeminism: connects the oppression of women with the exploitation of nature - patriarchal systems dominate both)

- Marxist/socialist feminism --> the way women are exploited through CAPITALISM and the ownership of PRIVATE PROPERTY -- how feminism relates to CLASS - how women do a lot of labor in the home but aren't be paid for that --> Angela Davis

EX. Women in poverty can't pay for abortions

- Womanism - focusing on the experience of BLACK WOMEN

- Latina/Chicana feminism

--> sense that women who fall outside of whiteness, DON'T have a home --> want a SPACE that RELATES to their issues

- Postmodern feminism: gender as PERFORMATIVE< no fixed identity, moves BEYOND labels

--> Deconstruction

Liberal Feminist Ex

Betty Friedan --> pushes women to have COMPLETE LIVES, and have EQUAL ACCESS, interested in fundamental rights

Radical Feminist EX

Shulamith Firestone

What are the COMPLEXITIES of feminism?

"Because feminism is a politics of equality and a social movemeterm-35nt for social justice justice, it anticipates a future that guarantees HUMAN DIGNITY and EQUALITY for all" (SHAW AND LEE)

--> Feminism is NOT rooted in the US society or Western cultures

--> WESTERN feminists often assume that their version of feminism is SUPERIOR and UNVIERSAL

--> western feminists ideas have been used to support IMPERIALISM, COLONIALISM, and RACISM

Simon de Beavuvior

- 1908 - 1986

- French writer, political activist, socialist, and feminist who influenced existentionalist philosophy and feminist theory

- had lifelong, open relationship with Jean-Paul Sarte

- went to prestigous school, and post grad degree in philosophy

- raised catholic, but was athiest

The Second Sex

- Simone de Beauvior

- "One is not born but becomes a woman."

--> gender as performative

--> being a woman comes from SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONALISM

--> gender is just not this biological thing, but created through the culture

- gender is socially constructed --> NOT connected to one's bio SEX

- there is NO essential biology of women

- predates Judith Butler's idea of the performance of gender

Second Sex: What is a woman? How is feminine constructed?

- what it means to be a woman is INFERIOR

--> WOMAN = "THE OTHER" --> Greek philosophy is defective men, bio characteristics are distinguishing, **THE MALE BECOMES THE "NORM"

--> Women are seen as the derivative of the norm

- Women are INFERIOR: not the norm, the derivative

- biology of women are seen as weaker than men

Difference between sex and gender

SEX = What are you DEFINED as BIRTH

GENDER = How it's performed

--> Being a woman happens through CULTURE, rather than SOMETHING BIOLOGICAL

Why are women the "second sex"?

- derivative of men --> men are the NORM, women are IMPERFECT to men

- biology of women is WEAKER to men

- women are the "other" men as NORMAL and SUPERIOR

Second Sex Summary

- Performance of gender and the way women are seen as the "other" or "inferior" to men

Betty Friedan

- 1921 - 2006

- Attended all-female Smith College, and did some graduate work in psychology at Cal

- Married Carl Friedan in 1947, had 3 children, they divorced in 1969

- One of the founders of the National Organization for Women → rights to equal employment, equal pay, financial independence

- Supporter of the Equal Rights Amendments to the US Constitution → Amendment that says you can’t be discriminated based on the basis of sex

→ we have these laws, but still there should be an overall Amendment that would guarantee it for everyone

What does Beauvior think women should seek?

- freedom to transcend

- LIBERTY not happiness

The Feminine Mystique

- 1963

- influences the start of the SECOND WAVE FEMINIST MOVEMENT in the US

- she conducted a survey in 1957 of female college students

What was life like for women at this time of the Feminine Mystique?

- 1957

- socio-economic factors:

--> prior, during WWII, women worked bc they had to make money (farm, factories)

--> POST WAR: Men get the jobs, women need to stay home

--> coming out of the war, push to INCREASE the BIRTHRATE, focus on domestic space to bolster the white, American population

--> women were now ONLY supposed to find fulfillment as a WIFE and a MOTHER --> if you don't find fulfillment through this, you're doing something wrong

The problem that has no name

- women would self-medicate, and nobody in society to talk about it, came out in depression, anxiety ect.

**to be happy and successful, you have to have these things: husband, house, kids, ect.

--> if you have all of these things, you should be happy bc your life is "perfect"

ISSUE: these things were supposed to make women happy but they weren't --> suffering bc could not find fulfillment in what they were restricted to do

- women struggled in the workplace as they wouldn't be a great boss, mom, and wife --> men never had to do that

Shulamith Firestone

- 1945-2012

- Worked as an artist, writer, and activist in Chicago and NY

- Founding member of RADICAL feminist groups

- She started a periodical, Notes → introduced feminist concepts like “the personal is political” and “the myth of the vaginal orgasm”

- Struggled with mental health and schizophrenia

The Dialectic of the Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution

- 1970

- builds on the work of Marx and Engels --> need to examine the LONG HISTORY of SEX CLASS OPPRESSION

--> **she says that we need to get RID of the DISTINCTION BETWEEN SEX! --> very radical and revolutionary

- presents a "materialist view of history based on sex itself"

--> look at feminism and the oppression of women throughout HISTORY

--> focus on the history of the "dialectic of sex: the division of society into two distinct biological classes of procreation, and the struggles of these classes with one another"

Biology and Sex

- women are dependent on men bc their biology makes them WEAKER --> "mother/child interdependency"

- the first division of labor into classes happens when women are discriminated for their biological difference

--> Firestone argues that biology is only PART of the problem --> Economic and political systems justify sex class system

need to know about the materialist view?

What are Firestone's revolutionary solutions to overcome the sex class system?

- give women FULL CONTROL of their bodies

- ELIMINATE the sex distinction

- human reproduction, child-bearing, and child-raring should NOT be women's responsibilities --> the WHOLE SOCIETY will be responsible

What are some of her proposals?

- women must be free from the constraints of their biology

- 24 hour child-care centers

- men and women contribute equally

- artifical reproduction

- elmination of the nuclear family --> children raised by a group of adults

- integration of women and children into all aspects of society

- sexual freedom

Systems of Oppression

No universal woman

- NO universal experience of being a WOMAN

Why?

- cultural, historical context MATTERS

- INTERSECTIONS with other modes of privelge and oppression

--> EX. Experience of white women vs black women vs latina women is ALL different

--> focuses on the DIFFERENCES among women and "the ways systems of privilege and inequality are create out of these differences"

Imperialism

- white western feminism gets put into different context and brings it into different contexts

- IMPERIALISM = "The economic, political, and cultural domination over nations or communities"

--> generally, has been Western Europe, US over other contexts

--> colonization

--> military contexts

-CULTURAL IMPERIALISM: EX. Go all over the world, and every kid knows different

- SETTLER COLONIALISM: the people are settling there and pushing the other people OUT → EX. Brits coming in and creating violence with the indigenous people

Imperialism's connection to Feminism

- how feminism can play a role in imperialism

- how feminism can be used as a way to cause imperialism

- how feminism can be used to reinforce dominant powers

- women's rights, gay rights, transcanders

EX. Afganistan --> women are being oppressed so we have to be in there --> other motives as well

Systematic Oppression

1. Differences are DEFINED and granted MEANING

EX. Skin color → at some point was determined to be a difference that had meaning, we don’t do that with eye color, or height, ect.

→ Different meaning between lighter and darker complexioned skin

2. Hierarchies are created, and identities are RANKED

EX. Lighter skin is seen as being more valuable

EX. Being masculine and male and better than being feminine

3. Certain identities are normative/positive and other identities are other/negative

EX. Male - norm/positive, female - other/negative

4. These differences get “INSTITUTIONALIZED” and “officially placed into a structured system of set of practices” (56)

EX. Jim Crow laws and segregation → institution determines this is the way it will operate

→ The rankings of difference grant certain groups privileges and others discrimination, inequality

→ **privileges are unearned advantages in society, often taken for granted

→ EX. Ability - it is not normally a huge task to come up a flight of stairs → don’t think about it until you don’t have it

Systems of Oppression =

“Systems of oppression can be understood as systems that discriminate and privilege based on perceived or real differences among people.” (57)

Examples of Systems of Oppression

1. SEXISM - based on gender

→ Against those who identify as women or are more feminine (can go against men but not as typical)

2. CISGENDER PRIVILEGE - someone who is born into the gender that they identify with

→ people who are cisgender are never questioned, as everyone can know their gender

→ just live in the world and take it for granted that people can recognize our gender

3. RACISM (includes anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim)

4. CLASSISM → discrimination of people based on their class structure/income

5. Aeism, lookism, sizeism , ableism → discriminated based on how someone looks

6. HETEROSEXISM - discrimination based on someone being straight → if in non-heterosexism relationship, discrimination you may face

7. “-phobia” → these terms often focus on individual FEAR, NOT systematic OPPRESSION

EX. Transphobia → people are “allowed” to discriminate against them bc they see it as a fear, rather than that they are discriminating against them through oppression

Intersectionality

- we DON'T experience identity as stacked on top of each other and separate units

--> “We experience ourselves as ordinary people who struggle daily with the inequalities in our lives and who usually take the privileges for granted” (59)

- Intersectionality = we experience oppression and privilege based on the intersections of our identity and social positions

How does power produce knowledge and truth through discourse?

--> How does language shape our reality?

- Michel Foucault: Power is NOT just TOP-DOWN and REPRESSIVE

EX. King demanding people of his society, forces people to do what he wants

1. Power is dispersed throughout society is productive

→ often we obey in advanced bc we know this is what you need to do in society for it to function

→ throughout our day we follow the rules, nobody has to force us to do it, we just do it, we function well through our own initiative

2. power produces discourse (words, language, visuals)

EX. There is no law that says a male can’t wear a dress to class → we have these expectations that people who are more feminine should appear a certain way, and same for men

3. discourse produces KNOWLEDGE, how we make SENSE of the world

EX. Someone who acts outside of their gender (drag) call into question what we think about as truth or knowledge of what it means to be feminine or masculine

4. this creates "regimes of truth"

--> What is feminine vs masculine is created by ourselves and societal rules

5. discourse also produces "subjectivity" = our sense of who WE ARE within these systems of knowledge

→ terms like “slut” that denigrate women for their sexuality; no equivalent terms for men

Institutions

- EX. Family, marriage, the economy, gov, criminal justice systems, religion, education, science, health, medicine, mass media, the military, and sports

--> Institutions function to SUPPORT system of INEQUALITY and POWER

How do institutions support inequality and power?

- institutions distribute RESOURCES and extend PRIVILEGES DIFFERENTLY to DIFFERENT groups

EX. Major institutions in society are interconnected and work to support and maintain one another

EX. Unequal enforcement of laws

--> Black Americans more likely to be arrested and receive harsher sentencing

Foucault Intersectionality review

- How we all POLICE our own behavior is through CULTURE and LANGUAGE

EX. How you dress --> Gendered expectations around dress --> If a man wore a skirt, there are NO LAWS against that, but we'd all be POLICING them on the the NORMS

**We are all constantly producing MEANING around GENDER, SEXUALITY, and RACE --> gets REPRODUCED through our OWN ACTIONS

What need to know for institutional, symbolic, and indiudal dimensions of oppression?

--> transcending oppression?

--> class privilege, cisgender privilege?

What are the 3 dimensions of oppression? - EXPLAIN!

Sandra Harding

1. Institutional

2. Symbolic

3. Individual

1. Institutional

- How is BC a social institution that is controlled by elite white men?

2. Symbolic

- idealogies, stereotypes, dominant images, and myths

- Hoe do images and stereotypes work to support systems of domination and subordination?

3. Individual

- we all live our lives influences by our categories of race, gender, class, ect.

- but this DOES NOT mean that we can't resist these systems of oppression

Gender and the Body

Intersectionality and Black Women

- addresses race, class, sexuality, and other identities

- comes out of this certain FEELING that certain WOMEN feel for being CAUGHT IN BETWEEN

--> **a lot of women weren't welcome in the white feminist movements as it was too white, but weren't in the Civil Rights movement as it was centered around men --> there wasn't really a SPACE for them

Third World Women's Alliance

- came out of the Black Women's Liberation Committee

--> **You had white feminism happening, you had civil rights happening, but you DIDN'T have the space for BLACK WOMEN, so they CREATED THAT --> COMBAHEE RIVER COLLECTIVE

Frances Beal

- Mother was Jewish, father was African American and Native American

- Founding member of the SNCC Black Women's Liberation Committee

→ Later transitioned into the Third World Women's Alliance

Context of Double Jeopardy and relation to other texts

- Frances Beal

- 1969

- Friedan: talking to very privleged women --> white women GOT to stay home, but for some black women, that WAS NOT even a choice

--> Black women HAD to work --> issues they were dealing with were VERY different --> HAD to work, but still had the expectation they'd take care of the human, kids, ect.

Double Jeopardy

- there is NOT just ONE PROBLEM --> rather see how all of these terms interact

--> NOT just racisms fault, not just sexism fault, but RATHER these LARGER SYSTEMS OF OPPRESSION

- NOT be progress if you blame one another, rather look at the LARGER SYSTEM that is creating these problems

Double Jeopardy Summary

- It is IDLE DREAMING to think of black women simply caring for their homes and children like the middle-class white model → most black women have to work to help house, feed, and clothe their families

→ black women were never afforded any such phony luxuries

- Black women are being used at the scapegoat for the evils the system has perpetrated on black men

- Economic Exploitation of Black Women → women are exploited by the system as they are paid less for the same work that men do

Paradox of Black Women

- the capitalist, misogynistic system is convincing Black MEN that they are the VICTIM and WOMEN are the PROBLEM

--> ignores the problems/issues that women face

--> not trying to ignore black men's prosecution, but rather there are these LARGER forces at play and that we must NOT look at these things as SEPARATE things but rather see the INTEGRATION

→ black men have faced persecution, but women are not the caused, but rather the larger capitalistic systems of oppression are the caused

Summary of Beal's argument

→ Black men have faced great persecution, but Beal wants to argue that Black women are not the cause of oppression

→ the cause is the larger capitalistic system of oppression

→ Move away from either/or thinking: "It is fallacious reasoning that in order for the black man to be strong, the black woman has to be weak" (169)

→ EX. In today's world: Non-white men voting for Kamala

Feminist movement must be

anti-racist, anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist

Combahee River Collective

- 1972-1980

- separated from other feminist movements bc they wanted to emphasize BLACK women's experiences but also LESBIAN FEMINISM and SOCIALISM

How does the CRC discuss the struggles that Black women face?

- WOMANISM = they are building this statement around the lived experiences of Black women

- advocating for both politics, but also community and care

- building on struggles that are happening in other countries in othre context

- ***we have to address these problems on a SYSTEMATIC LEVEL --> if we address the experience of black, lower-class, LESBIAN women, we will address these OTHER SOCIAL ISSUES --> if we address these issues, it will INHERENTLY pull EVERYONE up

Kimberle Williams Crenshaw

- LAW PROFESSOR at UCLA

- Founding scholar of Critical Race Theory → looks at the way the courts have been used to promote racist ideas through laws (EX. Red lining)

- Very accomplished in the field

Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex

- Kimberle Williams Crenshaw

“In race discrimination cases, discrimination tends to be viewed in terms of sex-or class-privileged Blacks; in sex discrimination cases, the focus is on race - and class-privileged women.” (140)

→ when the cases focus on these SINGLE AXIS forms of analysis, it ignores the MULTIDIMENSIONALIY of all experiences, not only Black women

- we see where the discrimination laws are limited → Black women are theoretically erased and there is a SINGLE AXIS APPROACH → either discriminated bc of your sex or your sex

Traffic intersection analogy → have to think about the way that oppression affects people and its not separated, but rather integrated

→ EVERYONE is HARMED in this SINGLE AXIS APPROACH

- Concerns of Black women are often MINIMIZED in order to protect the Black community

EX. Anita Hill case → Experienced sexual harassment from Justice Clarence Thomas

→ bc she was a woman and black, it took things to a different level → faced mystogeny and racism

Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex

Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, 1989

Gloria Anzaldua

- Grew up in the Rio Grande Valley in south TX → grew up on the BORDERLINE

- 7th generation Tejana and has Indigenous ancestry

Borderlands/La Frontera

- Gloria Anzaldua

- 1987

- Have a collective statement that represents many different people and ideas → poetic, and flows between different languages

- BORDER is like an OPEN WOUND idea → violence and destruction in this place, and represents the division

- STRUGGLE of who she is → doesn’t have a home → no space where she belongs

- Arbitrariness of them border → somehow the border changes

- Can’t find the space to belong → no-man’s-land

- Always in between: queer identity (not feminine or masculine), American and Mexican

- Anyone who comes outside of normal are in the borderland → anyone who can’t easily be defined and falls outside of categories

EX. How you’re treated in Puerto Rico → citizen of the US but can’t vote

- Very ARBITRARY → Can kick a ball and be in the US, and and although the space hasn’t changed, so much of their identity has

- Taking on an INTERSECTIONAL APPROACH: colonialism, imperialism, heterosexism

→ the land gets taken away from the people

Oppression of Latina Women

- Because of identity and she doesn’t want to do any of those options (nun, wife, prostitute), she wants to do education → she is an outsider

- Men are the ones in charge, women are supposed to support the men → have babies, take care of husbands, ect.

- Supposed to be pias, modest, and all of these things, but if men slip up, it's the woman’s problem

- Pressure as women are damned if they do, damned if they don’t

- CHURCH is very prominent in promoting some of these ideas → promoting these virigin vs hore dualism

- Hyper-protectionism → machismo protecting the women, but still a lot of harm done to them women

How does her QUEER identity impact her?

- Deviant → being queer is being different, falling outside of these binaries

→ also calling out the fact that these binaries exist → desire to say you are one and you are another, but that’s not clear

- Feels left behind by her own people

- ***Feminist act of what she’s staying → dual in this inbetweenness in her sexuality and homosexuality → she has this POWER to speak from the BORDERLANDS and from in between

How does this concept of "mestiza" relate to intersectionality and push feminism in new directions?

“Mestiza” = in-betweenness, borderlands

→ typically regarded as a derogatory word, but trying to take more and make a new meaning out of it

→ RECLAIMING the word

- Pushing past this BINARY → mixed from her gender performance, where she’s from, ect. → welcomes the people who are in-between the binaries

Creating a Discursive Space through a Rhetoric of Difference - background

- Lisa A. Flores

- In their culture, there is this machismo → but if they call that out, it is seen as disrespecting their culture and the men

→ they are in BETWEEN → can’t find a home within white feminism but within their own community, if they call out misogyny, they get in trouble

→ feel like they are caught between a rock and a hard-place

- Community is more worried about the image of it

→ women are told to not bring up the problems in the community bc it may make them look bad

Rhetoric of Difference

- Using rhetoric to create their own definition of how they want to be known

→ refuses the stereotypes and racism that exists in American white society about their culture, BUT will ALSO refuse the misogyny and learn how to EMBRACE their own selves

How to do that?

- creating space for people to talk

- working to change those connotations

EX. MeToo Movement

--> engage with discourse as a way of displaying qualities that are not normalized, and can be seen as an ACT OF POWER

How is this discursive work an act of power?

→ allows me the space to talk about their acts and lives

→ power in being able to control your own identity and how people see you → You can talk, as opposed as being talked about

EX. Transgender representation

→ Shift from OBJECT to IDENTITY

Today we are expanding to think of more intersections → considering that we have privileges and oppressions

- Empowers individuals to talk about their own experiences

**Feminist scholarship does build on our identities → it’s ok to build knowledge on our experience and life

Social construction of gender

- the ideas of femininity and masculinity are dependent on SOCIAL, CULTURAL, and HISTORICAL context

How do we see the notions of gender shifting across cultures and throughout history?

→ men used to wear heels, wigs, and makeup

→ women are not only supposed to be emotional and more sensitive, but also have to be successful in the workplace → SUPERWOMAN COMPLEX

→ in some cultures, it’s accepted for two male friends to hold hands

→ * Our understanding of gender in the US right now is based on time and culture → changing!

How do our bodies perform gender? - performance of gender

→ fashion

→ mannerisms

→ beauty standards around muscles

→ things you’re supposed to be interested in

→ the way we speak

→ the way we move our bodies, how much space we take up

“Gender is not only what we ‘do’; it’s a process by which we ‘are’ or ‘become’

How does the performance of gender relate to Foucault's idea of discourse and power?

→ the socialization process

→ * we don’t think of gender as set → through our ACTIONS (what we do and say), that’s how we create these ideas of what is masculine and feminine

→ we produce what it means to be masculine and feminine → a process we all participate in, rather than being set in stone

→ gender as a PERFORMANCE and PROCESS

Is sex also socially constructed?

YES!

- sex is constructed as a BINARY (male/female)

--> if born as INTERSEX, then you are NOT part of this binary

- CAN'T have a binary system bc people don't exist that way

**When you have this binary system, you are forcing people into one side or another of this --> that doesn't work bc people don't slot into just one or another

Gender assignment

= Usually the GIVEN at birth by the doctor

--> the DOCTOR says either "male" or "female", with intersex can get more confusing

Gender Identity

How one FEELS INTERNALLY about one's gender

Gender Expression

How we PERFORM and EXPRESS gender to those around us

Does gender assignment, identity, and expression all match up?

- does NOT always line-up the same

- gender is always experienced through INTERSECTIONS with OTHER IDENTITIES --> EX. A feminine lesbian is very different than a more masculine lesbian

Naturalizing of gender?

- the way we think about gender is natural/common sense is natural/common sense --> we often think of these things and accept them as common and normative

Why is the dominant culture so invested in maintain this illusion of two genders?

→ traditional values → ignorant of how the world is changing

→ closed mindedness

→ religion

→ capitalist society

→ want to procreate

→ when you start to poke at it, you can see some elements of it are ridiculous → So much of this stuff is arbitrary and there to hold up these systems of inequality

--> *Has become an attacking point, there are only two genders and anyone who falls out of that doesn’t exist (even though we know that’s not true)

How do people live outside of these gender binaries?

- genderqueer

- gender fluid

- non-binary

- transgender

- cross dressing

- drag performances

- androgyny