As you know from our conversation on the first day of class, "Sex, Gender & the Body" will use feminist and queer theories to explore a bunch of stuff, including:
- The relationship between sex, gender, and the body – it’s not as obvious or as simple as it might seem. Remember SEX does not necessarily equal GENDER.
- How bodies, inherently influenced by race/skin color, economic and class issues, religious affiliation, and sexual orientation, are made into “masculine” and “feminine” bodies, and the consequences of those processes à What happens when bodies are considered “deviant.”
- The ways in which gendered body practices perpetuate and reinforce extant social hierarchies of power and privilege.
- How, why, and for whose benefit gendered bodies tend to be shaped, used, and abused.
- How SEX and GENDER, as SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONS, are produced and maintained.
But before I get into how we’ll start to talk about some of this next
week, let me remind you of a few administrative details:
- Bookmark this blog so that you can find it easily and stay in the loop about what’s going on in between classes. Although it is not explicitly listed as such in the syllabus, our blog is required reading each week.
- Don’t forget that my weekly blog posts are one of three things that will help you to prepare for class each day and, in the long run, study for your exams. The other two are the Weekly Reading Worksheets and the handout entitled “Preparing for Class and Creating Study Notes.”
- Be sure to get your hands on the required books. They can all be purchased from the MRU bookstore, but you should feel free to get them cheaper elsewhere. But if you're going to do that, make sure to order the correct editions and to get them as soon as possible. Some of the books (but not all) are available at the Reserve desk in the MRU library.
- If you missed the first day of class, be sure to check out the What If You Miss Class? link on the left. Also, please complete the Questionnaire and Worksheet from last week (on Blackboard/Additional Required Materials/Week 1) and submit them to me when you come to class on Thursday.
- Lastly, as you know from the syllabus, you’ll need to complete three Weekly Reading Worksheets this semester, one for each of the three remaining sections of the course after this week. Please remember to take a look at the syllabus and compare it with your other responsibilities on and off campus. The point of staggering your assignment due dates is to give you an opportunity not only to work on topics that you think might interest you, but also to balance when you’ll be required to submit them with your other commitments and responsibilities.
Course Prerequisite
As is clear on the syllabus, please be aware that WMST 3345 is a complex course in feminist and queer theories intended for upper-level students (i.e., those in their third and fourth years). It is an advanced, student-driven seminar that builds upon the issues and concepts learned in prior Women’s Studies classes. It is therefore strongly recommended, although not required, that you take at least one other Women’s Studies course before taking this one.
Second, the heavy reading load in WMST 3345 also requires an intense time commitment as well as sophisticated critical thinking and analytical abilities. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that students in their second year of study—even those who have taken Women’s Studies before—wait until they have completed another full year of course work before taking this course, as it is designed for third- and fourth-year students.
This information is not meant to intimidate you or scare you away. On the contrary, I want you to succeed, and staying in the course if you don't meet the recommended prerequisites may adversely affect your situation. Please think carefully about whether you're prepared to take this course, both in terms of foundational skills and knowledge in Women's Studies, as well as in terms of willingness and ability to make the time commitment that will be required
As is clear on the syllabus, please be aware that WMST 3345 is a complex course in feminist and queer theories intended for upper-level students (i.e., those in their third and fourth years). It is an advanced, student-driven seminar that builds upon the issues and concepts learned in prior Women’s Studies classes. It is therefore strongly recommended, although not required, that you take at least one other Women’s Studies course before taking this one.
Second, the heavy reading load in WMST 3345 also requires an intense time commitment as well as sophisticated critical thinking and analytical abilities. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that students in their second year of study—even those who have taken Women’s Studies before—wait until they have completed another full year of course work before taking this course, as it is designed for third- and fourth-year students.
This information is not meant to intimidate you or scare you away. On the contrary, I want you to succeed, and staying in the course if you don't meet the recommended prerequisites may adversely affect your situation. Please think carefully about whether you're prepared to take this course, both in terms of foundational skills and knowledge in Women's Studies, as well as in terms of willingness and ability to make the time commitment that will be required
If you have any questions about this, or about anything else, please feel free to send me an e-mail at kawilliams(at)mtroyal.ca.
What’s at stake; or, why should we care?
For
lots of reasons, both historical and contemporary, our society is GENDERED. Our
daily lives are organized by dividing people into two categories: “men” and
“women,” “male” and “female.” This division is done at birth by doctors and is
based most obviously on biological SEX, on visible genitalia. It is also based
on the existence of DNA, chromosomes, and non-visible genitalia such as
presence (or lack) of ovaries and a uterus.
But
this division of society, called the SEX/GENDER SYSTEM, or what Kate Bornstein
refers to as the TWO-GENDERED SYSTEM (30), is SOCIALLY CONSTRUCTED by
scientists, by our families, by organized religion, by schools, by popular
culture, by everything around us.
One
thing that you’ll notice this week, though, is a clear distinction (one might
even call it a disagreement) between feminist theories of sex and gender and
those of queer theorists like Bornstein. As you all pointed out last time we
met, the easy way to think about the feminist approach is to remember that SEX is
the biological/physiological characteristics of a body (i.e., male and female),
while GENDER is that which is socially constructed (i.e., masculinity and
femininity). Of course, most contemporary feminist theorists *do* acknowledge
that their definition of SEX is too simplistic; however, for quite valid and
strategic political reasons, such as the alarmingly high rates of violence
against women and the continued low social, economic and political status of
women around the world, they remain committed to maintaining the salience of the
identity category “women.” For Bornstein, however, SEX is the act of doing it,
and how; it has nothing to do with the designation of an identity category
(26-27). This is the first point of contention between feminist and queer
theorists.
Regardless
of this theoretical disagreement, the division of society based on gender is so
“normal” and “natural” to most of us, that we don’t even both to ask question
about how such a system came to exist in the first place. Nor do we ask
ourselves what the consequences of this system are. These are the two
overarching questions we’ll be exploring this semester.
Consequences
As
we’ll discuss in class, the SEX/GENDER SYSTEM relies not only on binary
categories, but also on power hierarchies that lead to inequalities and social
injustice. In Western societies, most people accept biological/scientific
explanations for gender inequalities. According to these explanations,
differences between men and women are “natural,” they are BIOLOGICALLY
DETERMINED and thus justify and legitimate conventional/stereotypical gender
roles.
But
in this class, we’re going to explore how these differences are actually
SOCIALLY CONTRUCTED. Male and female bodies are made different from each by
social and cultural expectations about how men and women, and boys and girls,
should look and act.
This is important, because as is evident every day on the
news, from stories of gay bashing to the continued use of men’s violent sexual
assault of women as weapons of war to the masculinist “bigger, better, faster,
longer, harder” mentality of economic globalization and the global arms race,
the consequences of this rigid sex/gender system are overwhelmingly negative,
most obviously for those bodies that, for whatever reason, do not conform to
it. “Deviant” bodies pay a great, sometimes fatal, price for their
noncompliance.
Where does GENDER come from?
When next we meet, we’ll start getting into all this by
reading and talking about two related topics: The means by which GENDERED BODIES are constructed and how GENDER is performed.
So, as you’re reading and preparing for class this week, think about the
following questions:
- What is your gender?
- From where/whom/what did you learn your gender?
- And how, specifically, do you do, or perform, your gender on a daily basis?
ACTIVITY DUE ON THURSDAY:
To help you sort out the answers to these questions, please complete in advance
of class on Thursday the two exercises on p. 142-143 in Bornstein. I’ll be
collecting these to consider as part of your participation mark (see the
syllabus for more info), so please type/write them out on a separate sheet of
paper so that you can hand them in at the start of class.
We’ll also discuss feminist and queer critiques of
BIOLOGICAL DETERMINISM. As Bornstein makes clear in hir chapter “Just Say No,”
there are many GENDER POLICE, and one of the most foundational is science,
itself. BIOLOGICAL DETERMINISM, or the notion that the differences between men
and women and masculinity and femininity, are based on “natural”
biological/physiological factors, is widely accepted as Truth-with-a-capital-T;
biological determinism is what children are taught at school, and biological
determinism pervades popular and academic scientific discourses. But, as you’ll
see in Lorber and Connell, science is just one more ideological system, and
scientists are people, too.
As
you’re reading Lorber and Connell, be sure to pay close attention to the
following issues:
- The ways that scientific research is used to justify the “normal” SEX/GENDER SYSTEM.
- How, why and by whom knowledge about gender gets produced, and who benefits from that mode of production.
- Critical theoretical and political interventions into “conventional” scientific knowledge about sex and gender by the feminist and LGBTQ communities.
- Why feminist and queer theorists argue that neither sex nor gender can be understood through a biological/physiological framework.
Remember: Be sure to use Worksheet #1 (on Blackboard) as well as the
handout entitled “Preparing
for Class and Creating Study Notes” to guide you as you read and prepare
for class.
Happy reading, and don't forget to come by during my office hours if you have any questions or just want to chat!
