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Gender studies is a field of interdisciplinary study which analyzes the phenomenon of gender. It examines both cultural representations of gender and people's lived experience. Gender Studies is sometimes related to studies of class, race, ethnicity and location.

The philosopher Simone de Beauvoir said: “One is not born a woman, one becomes one.”

In Gender Studies the term "gender" is used to refer to the social and cultural constructions of masculinities and femininities. It does not refer to biological difference, but rather cultural difference. The field emerged from a number of different areas: the sociology of the 1950s and later (see Sociology of gender); the theories of the psychoanalyst Jaques Lacan; and the work of feminists such as Judith Butler. Each field came to regard "gender" as a practice, sometimes referred to as something that is performative.

See also: Gender § In_feminist_and_gender_theory

Studying gender

Studies of gender have been undertaken in many academic areas, such as literary theory, drama studies, film theory, performance theory, anthropology, sociology and psychology. These disciplines sometimes differ in their approaches to how and why they study gender. For instance in anthropology, sociology and psychology, gender is often studied as a practice, whereas in cultural studies representations of gender are more often examined. Gender Studies is also a discipline in itself: an interdisciplinary area of study that incorporates methods and approaches from a wide range of disciplines.

Influences of gender studies

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Gender studies and psychoanalytic theory

Sigmund Freud

Some feminist critics have dismissed the work of Sigmund Freud as sexist, because of his view that women are 'mutilated and must learn to accept their lack of a penis' (in Freud's terms a "deformity"). On the other hand, feminist theorists such as Juliet Mitchell, Nancy Chodorow, Jessica Benjamin, Jane Gallop, Shoshana Felman and Jane Flax have argued that psychoanalytic theory is vital to the feminist project and must, like other theoretical traditions, be be adapted by women to free it from vestiges of sexism. Shulamith Firestone, in "Freudianism: The Misguided Feminism", discusses how Freudianism is almost completely accurate, with the exception of one crucial detail: everywhere that Freud writes "penis", the word should be replaced with "power".

Jacques Lacan

Critics like Elizabeth Grosz accuse Jacques Lacan of maintaining a sexist tradition in psychoanalysis. Others, such as Judith Butler and Jane Gallop, have used Lacanian work to develop gender theory. His theory of sexuation (sexual situation) — the development of gender-roles and role-play in childhood — breaks down concepts of gender identity as innate or biologically determined.

Julia Kristeva

Main article: Julia Kristeva

Julia Kristeva, in her work on abjection, argues that the way in which an individual excludes (or abjects) their mother as means of forming an identity is similar to the way in which societies are constructed. She contends that patriarchal cultures, like individuals, have had to exclude the maternal and the feminine so that they can come into being.

Literary Theory

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Post-modern influence

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The emergence of post-feminism affected gender studies, causing a movement in theories identity away from the concept of fixed or essentialist gender identity, to post-modern fluid or multiple identities .Cite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page).

See Donna Haraway, The Cyborg Manifesto, as an example of post-identity feminism.

The development of gender theory

History of gender studies

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Women's studies

Main article: Women's Studies

Women's studies is an interdisciplinary academic field concerning women, feminism, gender, and politics. It can include feminist theory, women's history, women's fiction and women's health.

Men's studies

Main article: Men's studies

Men's Studies is an interdisciplinary academic field that includes discussions of men's rights, feminist theory, queer theory, patriarchy, as well, social, historical, and cultural representations of men and masculinity.

Judith Butler

Main article: Judith Butler

The concept of gender performativity is at the core of Butler's work, notably in Gender Trouble. In Butler’s terms the performance of gender, sex, and sexuality is about power in society. She locates the construction of the "gendered, sexed, desiring subject" in "regulative discourses." A part of Butler's argument concerns the role of sex in the construction of "natural" or coherent gender and sexuality. In her account, gender and heterosexuality are constructed as natural because the opposition of the male and female sexes is constructed as natural.

Criticism

Rosi Braidotti (1994), interviewed by Judith Butler, criticized gender studies as, "the take-over of the feminist agenda by studies on masculinity, which results in transferring funding from feminist faculty positions to other kinds of positions. There have been cases...of positions advertised as 'gender studies' being given away to the 'bright boys'. Some of the competitive take-over has to do with gay studies. Of special significance in this discussion is the role of the mainstream publisher Routledge who, in our opinion, is responsible for promoting gender as a way of deradicalizing the feminist agenda, re-marketing masculinity and gay male identity instead."

Calvin Thomas (2000) counters that, "as Joseph Allen Boone points out, 'many of the men in the academy who are feminism's most supportive 'allies' are gay,'" and that it is "disingenuous" to ignore the ways in which mainstream publishers such as Routledge have promoted feminist theorists.

Gender studies is criticized by Paul Nathanson and Katherine K. Young for being a discipline that "philosophizes, theorizes and politicizes on the nature of the female gender" as a social construct, to the point of excluding the male gender from analysis.. They also assert that the 'gender' in gender studies is "routinely used as a synomym for 'women', that men are studied as the sex that created the problem of 'gender' in the first place and that men are studied only as female victimizers. They see gender studies as a disipline where men are considered "society's official scapegoats", where women are considered "societies official victims" and where men must collectively compensate women for the collective guilt of men throughout history..

Theorists associated with gender studies

See also

References

  1. Healey, J. F. (2003). "Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Class : the Sociology of Group Conflict and Change".
  2. de Beauvoir, S. (1949, 1989). "The Second Sex".
  3. Garrett, S. (1992). "Gender", p. vii.
  4. ^ Butler, J. (1999). "Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity", 9. Cite error: The named reference "performativity of gender" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  5. Karen Horney was one of the first to question the theory of penis envy. She argues that it is "the actual social subordination of women" that shapes their development: not the lack of the organ, but of the privilege that goes with it. Karen Horney (1922). "On the Genesis of the Castration Complex in Women." Psychoanalysis and Women. Ed. J.B. Miller. New York: Bruner/Mazel, 1973.
  6. Grosz, E. (1990). "Jacques Lacan: A Feminist Introduction", London: Routledge
  7. Butler, J. (1999). "Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity".
  8. Gallop, J. (1993). "The Daughter's Seduction: Feminism and Psychoanalysi", Cornell University Press
  9. ^ Wright, E. (2003). "Lacan and Postfeminism (Postmodern Encounters)".
  10. Kristeva, J. (1982). "Powers of Horror."
  11. Nathanson, P. and K. K. Young (2006). "Legalizing Misandry: From Public Shame to Systemic Discrimination Against Men." Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press
  12. Nathanson, P. and K. K. Young (2006). "Spreading Misandry: The Teaching of Contempt for Men in Popular Culture." Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press

Bibliography

  • Boone, Jospeh Allen and Michael Cadden, eds., 1990. Engendering Men, New York: Routledge. ISBN 04159-0255-X
  • Butler, Judith, 1993. "Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of 'Sex", New York: Routledge. ISBN 0415-90366-1
  • Butler, Judith, "Feminism by Any Other Name", in differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies June, 1994. ISSN: 1040-7391
  • Butler, Judith, 1999. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge. ISBN 04159-2499-5
  • Cranny-Francis, Anne, Joan Kirkby, Pam Stavropoulos, Wendy Waring, eds., 2003. "Gender studies : terms and debates", Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0333-77612-7
  • De Beauvoir, Simone, 1989. The Second Sex. New York: random House Inc. ISBN 06797-2451-6
  • Foucault, Michel, 1988. "Care of the Self the History of Sexuality", Random House Inc. ISBN 0394-74155-2
  • Foucault, Michel, 1990. "History of Sexuality: An Introduction", London: Random House Inc. ISBN 06797-2469-9
  • Foucault, Michel, 1990. "Use of Pleasure: The History of Sexuality", London: Random House Inc. ISBN 0394-75122-1
  • Foucault, Michel, 1995. "Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison", translated by Allen Sheridan, London: Random House Inc. ISBN 0679-75255-2
  • Fraser, Nancy, Judith Butler, Seyla Benhabib and Drucilla Cornell, 1995. "Feminist Contentions: A Philosophical Exchange." New Yotk: Routledge. ISBN 0415-91086-2
  • Frug, Mary Joe. "A Postmodern Feminist Legal Manifesto (An Unfinished Draft)," in "Harvard Law Review", Vol. 105, No. 5, March, 1992, pp. 1045 - 1075. ISSN: 0017-811X
  • Healey, Joseph F., 2003. Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Class : the Sociology of Group Conflict and Change. London: Pine Forge. ISBN 07619-8763-0
  • Kristeva, Julia, 1982. "Powers of Horror. Trans. Leon Roudiez." New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 02310-5347-9
  • Wright, Elizabeth, 2000. Lacan and Postfeminism. London: Icon Books Ltd. ISBN 18404-6182-9
  • McElroy, Wendy, 2001. Sexual Correctness: The Gender-Feminist Attack on Women, Jefferson: McFarland & Company. ISBN 0786-41144-9
  • Oyewumi, Oyeronke, ed., 2005. African Gender Studies: A Reader, London: Palgrave MacMillan. ISBN 1403-96283-9
  • Scott, Joan W. "Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis," in Gender and the Politics of History (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988).
  • Spector, Judith A, ed., 1986. Gender Studies: New Directions in Feminist Criticism, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0879-72351-3
  • Thomas, Calvin, ed., 2000. "Introduction: Identification, Appropriation, Proliferation", in Straight with a Twist: Queer Theory and the Subject of Heterosexuality. Champaign: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0252-06813-0

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