WMS050: Midterm, Key Concepts: Weeks 1-5

Distinguish between nationality and nationalism Nationalism

"Gendered Identities in Nations and States", Grewal and Kaplan: "A nation implies a community of people who are believed to be or believe themselves to be similar or connected by a common identity" "a national identity is created through actions and statements that reflect beliefs about 'American' character or nature as Christian, white, propertied, heterosexual and masculine. Many scholars of nationalism argue that such beliefs about national character become powerful because they offer an identity and a sense of belonging to a chosen group by excluding many others. Nationalism is both a promise and a threat, since it offers an identity only through exclusion." "Nationalism made possible both colonial conquest and independence" EX: colonialism: gave citizens of a nation-state a feeling of unified purpose and belonging, merged with sense of superiority over people being colonized -"Others are believed to be opposite in behavior, characteristics and moral worth" nation-ness/nationality: belongingness; diff than nationalism (emerges in war-time, produces solidarity against outside enemy) -the nation: psychological/emotional reality: feels and imagines itself to be similar or connected by common identity; sense of belonging

Distinguish between the "official" gay rights agenda and the "radical" justice politics (See Bassichis, Lee, Spade)

"Official" Gay Rights Agenda: -pro-police, pro-prison, pro-war -most visible and well-funded arm of LGBT movement, looks more like corporate strategizing session than grassroots social movement -their priorities are similar to those of prosecutors (who lock up family, friends, lovers); want sentence and police-enhancing legislation -these leaders are focusing on marriage rights rather than the increasing rate of of poor and colored trans people lose jobs, housing, no access to health care "Radical" justice policies: EX: Big Problem:-queer and trans people experience regular violence 'Official Solution': pass hate crime legislation to increase prison sentences Transformative Approach:-build community relationships and infrastructure to support healing and transformation of people who have been impacted by violence; join with movements addressing root causes of queer and trans premature death

Life-style feminism [the commodification of feminism] versus social movement feminism as a transformative politics and practice (bell hooks)

"We know that many individuals in the US have used feminist thinking to educate themselves in ways that allow them to transform their lives. I am often critical of lifestyle based feminism, because I fear that any feminist transformational process that seeks to change society is easily co-opted if it is not rooted in commitment to mass-based feminist movement. Within white supremacist capitalist culture, we have already witnessed the commodification of feminist thinking...in ways that one can partake of the "good" that these movements produce without any commitment to transformative politics and practice. In this capitalist culture, feminism and feminist theory are fast becoming a commodity that only the privilege can afford" "lifestyle feminism": popularized, commodified, psuedofeminist discourse that dominates mainstream media culture; any woman could be a feminist no matter her political beliefs "This process of commodification is disrupted when as feminist activists we affirm our commitment to a politicized revolutionary feminist movement that has at its central agenda the transformation of society. From such a starting point, we automatically think of creating theory that speaks to the widest audience of people" "If we create feminist theory, feminist movements that address this pain, we will have no difficulty building a mass-based feminist resistance struggle. There will be no gap between feminist theory and practice"

The Prison Industrial Complex: explain the term, and be ready to indicate that you understand the multi-dimensional aspects of this system

-"Complex"--not just cause and effect, many different causes; industrializing prison, making a market out of it, criminalizing -turning incarceration into a profit-making business (EX: enforces severe sentences for minor infractions -social problems, respond by penalizing; (poverty turned into perception of criminality) -incarceration: money-making business, effective economic concern -"industrial complex"--overdetermined, many different factors that determine end result -overdetermination: many factors determine or shape resulting phenomena; economic, ideological, etc. all contribute to multi-dimensional system, lead to punitive sanction of social issues EX: elevated phone charges imposed on prison in-mates, racking up huge bills--breaking up families (contributing to social alienation)

The intersections between nationhood and gender: at a symbolic, or representational, level, and also at a material level of the impact on women's lives "Gendered Identities in Nations and States", Grewal and Kaplan:

-"If motherhood is the highest sign of female participation in the nation, then the violation of that role will be the most symbolic conquest of that nation" (rape) -"Another role available to women in nationalist struggles is the traitor, the one who has sexual relations with the 'enemy', whether involuntary or voluntary" -women exist only as symbols and possessions of the nations rather than as persons with complex and contradicotry perceptions and actions

Identify and differentiate between the perspectives of liberal feminists, socialist feminists and radical feminists vis a vis the State and (See Pettman)

-"Liberal or equality feminists seek to end state-directed or sanctioned discrimination against women and urge state action for women's equal rights. The state is dominated by men, but increasing women's access and power can alleviate gender inequalities" -"Social feminists see the state as propagating dominant class as well as gender interests, and often race and ethnic interests as well. They are therefore more ambivalent toward the state and the possibilities of using the state for feminist goals" -"Radical feminists who prioritise women's oppression and see the male state as part of that oppression are often hostile to any further intrusion of the state into women's lives; yet many also urge state action in defence of women's rights" (177)

Bodily integrity

-"Under colonialism, Native women and women of color have not had any guarantees to bodily integrity; it seems that any form of dangerous contraception is appropriate, so long as it stops them from reproducing"

Prison abolition as a social justice objective

-"While prison abolitionists have correctly pointed out that rapists and serial murderers comprise a small number of the prison population, we have not answered the question of how these cases should be addressed. The inability to answer the question is interpreted by many anti-violence activists as a lack of concern for the safety of women" -"the various alternatives to incarceration that have been developed by anti-prison activists have generally failed to provide sufficient mechanism for safety and accountability of sexual and domestic violence" We call on social justice movements concerned with ending violence in all its forms to: -"Develop community based responses to violence that do not rely on the criminal justice system and which have mechanisms that ensure safety and accountability for survivors of sexual and domestic violence"

The criminalization of social identities

-"the criminalization approach has brought many marginalized women into conflict with the law (colored, poor, lesbians, sex workers, immigrant, women with disabilities); EX: police have arrested the battered women; many undocumented women have reported cases of sexual and domestic violence, only to find themselves deported"

An explanation in your own words of bell hooks' title "Theory as a Liberatory Practice"

--encourages you to look at yourself "where is your responsibility in this?", come up with narrative, how to avoid pain --theory is a location for healing; explain hurt and make it go away; allows you to challenge the status quo and regain personal power and independence; allows you to imagine possible futures --theorizing leads to self-recovery, leads to collective liberation --sees explanation as a way of intervening, challenge status quo in family; her voice wasn't being heard --her understanding of learning led to teaching of transgression (inevitable that you are going against the grain, will cause an interruption) *Feelings and Emotions act as a catalyst for analysis of causes (societal) of negative feelings-->action towards societal change? -Theorize: --explain WHY it is --foundation of critical consciousness --helps make sense of environment

Eugenecist Practices: in relation to people of color, in relation to the feeble-minded: Reproductive Rights, Angela Davis

-1933, 7,686 sterilizations were carried out; the operations were justified as measures to prevent the reproduction of 'mentally deficient persons', but 5,000 had been Black -

Abusive sterilization: define this, and be able to explain how, why and when this has taken place Davis, "Contested Terrain"

-1973, issue of sterilization abuse received attention when it was reported that federal funds had been used to sterilize two Black teens without their knowledge or consent; CESA (Committee to End Sterilization Abuse) was formed -CESA found out that this racist population control policy begun in 1940s led to sterilization of over a third of all women of child-bearing age in Puerto Rico; a highly successful campaign of propaganda and withholding of other fertility control had been conducted by a coalition of government, big business, medical force -disproportionately high numbers of Black and Native American women in the US were also being sterilized

Distinguish between the 19th century medical profession's identification of some women as "sick" and in need of medical intervention, and others as "sickening" and contagious.

-Affluent women were seen as inherently sick, too weak and delicate for anything but mildest pasttimes -working class women seen as harboring disease, STD; also, as a breeder, she was seen as a public health threat, undermining race with her inferior offspring -two strands of sexist ideology: contempt for women as weak and defective and fear of women as dangerous and polluting

Biopower: what does it mean? How does it work? Be ready to give examples of ways it has been exercised?

-Biopower/bio-politics: identifies a process through which state shapes entire population (pro-natalist policies, benign form of bio-power; use language/rhetoric to romanticize being a Mom, tax breaks, more maternity leaves; with third child, 30% decrease on public transporation) EX: abuse of sterilization to eliminate certain populations; eugenecist perspective is an example of biopower

The production of sickness through the medical system and the pharmaceutical industry: what does this mean, and be able to provide examples from the 19th and the 20th centuries.

-EX: fat=unhealthy while wellness/health=leanness; in other cultures, excess weight=affluence (you've got money, wealth, status); pharmaceutical industry: pills claim that they have 91% success rate, when in reality that wasn't the case at all, women then resent themselves and their bodies for not responding to the medication, so they resort to extremes (surgery)

Structural or systemic gender violence and everyday gender violence

-Everyday gender violence: sexual violation, street harassment, harassment at work, intimate partner abuse; Structural violence: systematic ways in which social structures harm or disadvantage individuals; EX: police, military

Hegemonic Feminist Theory

-Feminism needs to be defined in a way that it calls attention to the diversity of women's social and political reality, centralizes experience of all women; lack of adequate definition made it easy for bourgeois women to maintain dominance over leadership of movement and its direction -Exploited and oppressed groups of women are usually encouraged by those in power to feel that their situation is hopeless, that they can do nothing to break the pattern of domination -Given such socialization, these women have often felt that our only response to white, bourgeois, hegemonic dominance of feminist movement is to trash, reject, dismiss feminism

To theorize and theory (be able to explain in your own words, and also to demonstrate understanding of Charlotte Bunch's and bell hooks' definitions of theory): Charlotte Bunch

-Feminist theorizing and feminist pedagogy: it's a PROCESS rather than a product -Charlotte Bunch: "Feminist theory is to be understood not as academic, but as a process based on understanding and advancing the activist movement" -"Not By Degrees: Feminist Theory and Education"--not just people with degrees should share their perspective -Feminist Theory for Bunch: --Feminist theory "involves explanations and hypotheses that are based on available knowledge and experience" --"No theory is totally 'objective,' since it reflects the interests, values and assumptions of those who created it." --Feminist theory is "a way of viewing the world;" it "provides a basis for understanding every area of our lives"

Social Darwinism and biological class warfare in the 19th century (Ehrenreich and English)

-Social darwinism was comfortable ideology for those in the upper class but the poor might win out in biological class warfare 1)Danger of contagion from the poor: disease was seen as foreign in origin, imported on migrant ships, the reason people gave for avoiding the ghetto was to avoid infection; middle and upper class people frequently EXPRESSED their fear of the poor as a fear of germs 2)Genes: higher birthrate among immigrants and Blacks; Darwin had suggested that the "better" class of people would soon outnumber, as well as dominate the less fit *more!

Abusive sterilization: define this, and be able to explain how, why and when this has taken place Better Dead than Pregnant, Andrea Smith

-Global south countries resisted neocolonial economic policies imposed by World Bank and IMF; US gov and business interests blamed the unrest on an "overpopulation problem" -during 1970s, the population growth of non-whites in Global South and US was viewed be elites as "national security risk"; claimed that overpopulation of non-whites leads to breakdown in social structures, underemployment, poverty, lowered opportunities for education, etc. -In US, HEW accelerated programs in 1970 that paid for majority of costs to sterilize Medicaid recipients -in 1979, most hospitals had disregarded informed consent procedures -1970, IHS initiated a fully federally funded sterilization campaign; some sterilized under duress; doctors advised sterilization for other medical issues--one doctor advised sterilization because a woman had a headache; two 15 year olds were sterilized during their supposed tonsillectomy operations; -Informed consent didn't require signature of patient; sheet was highly technical and would not be understandable to someone who wasn't fluent in English *why take place? Demonization of poverty, population scare -majority of energy resources in this country are on Indian lands, so continued existence of Indian people is a threat to American capitalism; ability of Native women to reproduce next generations of Native people continues to stand in way of government and corporate takeovers of Indian land -state's interest in limiting Black pop. growth coincided with expansion of post WWII welfare provisions that allowed many AA to leave exploitative jobs; as a result, the growing numbers of unemployed were no longer simply a resource of cheap and convenient labor for white america; now these people are considered "surplus" populations

The colonization of native women's reproductive health: historical and contemporary colonialism

-In particular, Native women, whose ability to reproduce continues to stand in the way of the continuing conquest of Native lands, endanger the continued success of colonization -control over women's reproductive abilities and destruction of women and children is necessary to destroy a people

19th century scientific racism: its foundations or rationale, its objects of study/scrutiny and examples of a methodology Class Notes:

-Industrial revolution -medical science: professionalized, male-dominated -establishment of bio-medical science -Thomas Malthus ideas emerge from England -Imperialism of Britain, spreading -1822: independence of US colonies from Spain -1885: British and French empire expanded "Scientific" Notions of Race of 19th Century: -emerges in context of French and British colonial expansion, biomedicine, evolutionary biology (Social Darwinism), at heels of Newtonian physics (empirical body is where disease and deviance is at) --biological determinism, central to scientific racism --female body becomes central site of comparable anatomy -sexual difference is central to ways differences between Black and White were constructed --determines racial differences --differentiating sexes: breasts/penis/vagina --the fact that you have a penis doesn't make you man or male --undeveloped races: lower distinction between man and woman; can't separate race from gender, happening at same time -Race and gender are co-constituted in scientific notions of race; when you construct race, also constructing gender

The distinction between mainstream anti-violence movements and activism addressing state violence (anti-prison, anti-police brutality): explain the situation of women of color here, and explain the role of the criminal justice system in mainstream anti-violence movements Where does the LGBT movement fall down?

-LGBT movement--a lot of important rights gained; where does it fall down when addressing state violence? --not very intersectional; cis-gendered; white cis-gendered; lack of representation of colored trans-gendered Sylvia Rivera LP: --focuses on those arrested at Stonewall (not affluent, white) --"urgent work", not work that LGBT has addressed (well resourced, supported); achieved marriage equality, leaves things out, LGBT concerns exclude those who don't want to get married (one limited focus); Spade and Stanley: urgent issues of violence against LGBT--prison-rape (LP we need to focus on those not in homonormative) --Spade and Stanley argue that we need to broaden range of types of state violence --by focusing on legal reform, we are creating a system that can punish again (Hate-crime legislation); hate-crime legislation is creating more future targets of state violence; easy to change laws, hard to change minds --society would rather just throw individuals in jail, rather than take the time to re-educate; no practical change made --rather than adopting social solution to social problem, resorts to criminalization and then feeds state violence

An explanation in your own words of Audre Lorde's words, "The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House"

-Master's house=social structures that build the patriarchal system; she writes out of rage and indignation, she was the only Black feminist invited last minute, realized that she is just the token Black feminist; she was purely invited for her identity as a Black feminist--not invited to talk about other issues such as "the erotic, women's culture and silence, power, etc"; attacked underlying racism within feminism, describing it as unrecognized dependence on the patriarchy. She argued that by denying difference in the category of women, white feminists were continually supporting the patriarchy; they were preventing any real, lasting change because of this

The medical system as an instrument of social control: be able to explain this, and give examples

-Medical science has justified sexual discrimination in jobs, in education, in public life; theories of male superiority rest on biology EX: Medicine makes public interpretations of biological theory--biology discovers hormones, doctors make public judgments on whether "hormonal imbalances" make women unfit for public office -biology traces the origins of disease, doctors pass judgment on who is sick and who is well -Medicine's prime contribution to sexist ideology has been to describe women as sick and as potentially sickening to men

The "one sex model" of male and female bodies as opposed to the difference based model Sex And The Body, Nelly Oudshoorn

-Medical texts from the Ancient Greeks until the late eighteenth century described male and female bodies as fundamentally similar; Women had the same genitals as men, just on the inside -"one-sex" model: not a different sex, lesser version of the male body, "male turned inside herself" -Laquer states that the stress on similarities was linked with patriarchal thinking, reflecting values of an overwhelmingly male public world in which "man is the measure of all things" -18th century, slowly, there was a shift: -criticism over the tradition of emphasizing body similarities over differences; mid-18th century, anatomists increasingly focused on sex differences -late 19th century: absolute difference between males and females -medical scientists sexualized every part of the body, starting with the skeleton, and then moving onto the bones, blood vessels, cells, hair, brains -logic of absolute difference between males and females; melodramatic "Nothing is shared" -female and male conceptualized in terms of opposite bodies with "incommensurably different organs, functions and feelings" -Following this shift, female body became medical object emphasizing women's unique sexual character (19th century anatomical venus)

Medical Sexism in the 19th century and the twentieth century and the difference between religious and biomedical rationales for sexism

-Medicine inherited from religion its role as a guardian of sexist ideology; Early Christian writings denounced women as inferior to men; In medieval Europe, Church banned women from sacrament during menstruation and weeks following delivery -American protestantism granted them equality if they stayed within God-appointed domestic-sphere -Protestantism was willing to join forces with science in discovering and upholding natural order of things -19th century religious leaders happily supplemented religious justifications of sexism with newly developed biomedical ones -Gradually women's supposed physical infirmities won out over her moral defects as the rationale for male supremacy -Abortion is no longer a moral outrage but a matter between a woman and her doctor

Abusive sterilization: define this, and be able to explain how, why and when this has taken place Reproductive Rights, Angela Davis

-Native American Indians are special targets of government propaganda of sterilization -EX: HEW pamphlets: sketch of a family with ten children and one horse and another sketch of a family with one child and ten horses; drawings are supposed to imply that more children means more poverty and fewer children means wealth How did this abusive sterilization take place? -1973, sterilization of Relf sisters; girl's mother had unknowingly consented (was deceived by social workers); Mrs. Relf was unable to read -1973, officials had threatened to discontinue Nial Ruth Cox's family welfare payments if she refused to submit to surgical sterilization -1970, Dr. Pierce, South Carolina--he consistently sterilized Medicaid recipients with two or more children; insisted that pregnant welfare women would have to submit to voluntary sterilization if they wanted him to deliver their babies; he claimed that he was tired of people having babies and him having to pay tax-payer money; he received 60,000 dollars in taxpayer money for sterilizations he performed Why did sterilization abuse take place? -one reason: Federal Government was complicit -1972, 100,000-200,000 sterilizations had been funded by the Federal gov. -sterilization is their only option, abortion is out of reach; sterilization continually to be federally funded and free to poor women on demand

Unearned Privilege:

-Privilege: special advantage or right that person is born into or acquires -not available to everyone in society -can be visible (access to resources: money,education, beauty); invisible: decision-making, geography (US could be more privileged than other countries) -invisible package of unearned assets; we do we do with them; how do we enact it; how do we embody it; how do we dismantle it -"Using our advantages or unearned privileges to empower processes that foster social change to challenge systems of inclusion and exclusion" -use privilege as platform vs. co-optation -educate yourself about oppressed group; "What do you need?", you are doing it for them, not you; working WITH someone, rather than ON someone How can you engage in self-work? Recognize your own privilege and resources you have access to that others might not have Leilani Kupo's terms: -Self-work is as important as self-reflexivity -We need to use our unearned privileges to enable change at a structural or organizational level, not just an individual level -We need to question the assumptions that generate systems of inclusion and exclusion

Coeval and non-coeval time shaping ways Western societies have perceived sexualities of non-Western societies: what does this mean?

-With nation-state came the push for individualism; centralize government, centralization of bureaucracy, takes place during imperialism (science exploration, commercial exploration, colonialism, territorializing)--ways nation-state believed fixing mishaps of other cultures and desire for economic wealth -colonialism: based on absolute differences between Western civilization and others -nation-state: beginning of West and its others -coeval time: all living in time that is shared -colonialism functions in non-coeval time (Non-west is seen as the West's past; ideal endpoint was to become the west); backwards, primitive, regressed, less-developed

An intersectional approach to reproductive injustices and reproductive rights (See Angela Davis)

-abortion right activists of 1970s should have examined their roots, they then would understand why so many A/A women were suspicious -the movement's predecessors had advocated birth control and compulsory sterilization a way of eliminating "unfit" sectors of population; young white feminists might have been more receptive to the suggestion that their campaign rights include vigorous condemnation of sterilization abuse -Over the last decade, the struggle against sterilization abuse has been waged primarily by Puerto Rican, Black, Chicana and Native American women; their cause has not been embraced by the women's movement as a whole -women of color are urged to become permanently infertile while women enjoying prosperous economic conditions are urged to reproduce themselves; it would be inconvenient for white, middle-class women to demand/have "informed consent" and a "waiting period"

The distinction between mainstream anti-violence movements and activism addressing state violence (anti-prison, anti-police brutality): explain the situation of women of color here, and explain the role of the criminal justice system in mainstream anti-violence movements INCITE reading

-activists/movements that address state violence (anti-prison, anti-police brutality) often work in isolation from activists/movements that address domestic and sexual violence; the result is that women of color, who suffer disproportionately from both state and interpersonal violence, have become marginalized within these movements -mainstream anti-violence movement has increasingly relied on criminal justice system as frontline approach toward ending violence against women of color --EX: overall impact of mandatory arrest laws for domestic violence...have not led to a decrease in number of abusers who kill their partners --EX:Police arrest marginalized women who is being battered; a tough law and order agenda also leads to long punitive sentences for women convicted of killing their batterers; when public funding is channeled into policing and prisons, budget cuts for social programs are the side effect (women's shelters); women are then less able to escape violent relationships

Essentialism and essentialized understandings of gender Vance, "Social Construction Theory"

-argues that ideas about gender and sexuality must not be understood as natural or unchanging truths but as social constructions, that is, as ideas produced by societies in a particular time and place -Essentialism: a belief that human behavior is natural, predetermined by genetic, biological or physiological mechanisms and thus not subject to change; or the notion that human behaviors which show some similarity in form are the same, an expression of an underlying drive or human tendency; behaviors that share an outward similarity can be assumed to share an underlying essence and meaning -social constructivist theory: belief that the cultural context in which a person, act or behavior is situated determines the way gender will be perceived; in contrast, essentialists assert that bodies possess qualities that don't change over time and space

Fausto-Sterling, "The Biological Connection":

-argues that science is found on many sexist assumptions; this should not lead us to disregard scientific knowledge; we must understand that science reveals the personal beliefs and feelings of researchers, so we must take those ideologies and sentiments into account -Science is supposedly unsentimental, rational, exact yet there have been many published scientific articles/theories that have been problematic; most widespread methodological problem is pinning results of a study on gender when differences could be explained by other variables (EX: scientists said that boys are better at math than girls; girls were taking fewer math courses in high school; sex and course taking were confounded) -scientists hidden agendas, non conscious, unarticulated bear strong resemblance to social agendas

Sexuality Understood in terms of intersectionality Weeks, "Power and the State"

-argues that the study of sexuality in relation to gender, race, ethnicity and class aids our understanding of domination and subordination by the modern state; just as the modern nation-state produces tensions between public and private that influence ideas of gender difference, the same dynamics affect the way that sexual difference is produced -the state shapes the climate of sexual opinion -Sexuality is fundamentally gendered (critical moment in reshaping of gender relations: switch from one-model (could feel sexual pleasure) to difference model (lack of sexual feeling)) -the complex sexual and moral patterns that exist in the 20th century are the product of social struggles in which class played an important part -Class does not determine sexual behavior, but it provides one of the major lenses through which sexuality is organized and regulated; EX: 1860s, 1870s Contagious Disease Act: directed against prostitutes, perceived to be aimed at working-class women in general -Categorizations by class intersect with those of ethnicity and race; Eurocentric concepts of correct sexual behavior have helped to shape centuries of response to non-European world; early 20th century, black person was classed as lower down the evolutionary scale; abiding myth=insatiability of sexual needs of non-European people and the threat they pose to purity of white races; fear of black male sexuality was integral to US South -essential point: sexuality is constructed and reconstructed through complex series of interlocking parties; state plays a crucial part

The regulation of sexuality by State discourses

-argues that the study of sexuality in relation to gender, race, ethnicity and class aids our understanding of domination and subordination by the modern state; just as the modern nation-state produces tensions between public and private that influence ideas of gender difference, the same dynamics affect the way that sexual difference is produced -the state shapes the climate of sexual opinion -Sexuality is fundamentally gendered (critical moment in reshaping of gender relations: switch from one-model (could feel sexual pleasure) to difference model (lack of sexual feeling)) -the complex sexual and moral patterns that exist in the 20th century are the product of social struggles in which class played an important part -Class does not determine sexual behavior, but it provides one of the major lenses through which sexuality is organized and regulated; EX: 1860s, 1870s Contagious Disease Act: directed against prostitutes, perceived to be aimed at working-class women in general -Categorizations by class intersect with those of ethnicity and race; Eurocentric concepts of correct sexual behavior have helped to shape centuries of response to non-European world; early 20th century, black person was classed as lower down the evolutionary scale; abiding myth=insatiability of sexual needs of non-European people and the threat they pose to purity of white races; fear of black male sexuality was integral to US South -essential point: sexuality is constructed and reconstructed through complex series of interlocking parties; state plays a crucial part

The psychology of the ovary and hysteria

-basic idea was that female psychology functioned merely as an extension of female reproductivity, and that woman's nature was determined solely by her reproductive functions -all woman's "natural" characteristics were directed from the ovaries and any abnormalities from irritability to insanity could be attributed to ovarian disease -drew a rigid distinction between reproductivity and sexuality; they were told to devote themselves to redproductive powers, maternal instincts, yet they had no "natural" sexual feelings whatsoever

Lopez, "The Social Construction of Race" Racial formation as a process: be ready to provide examples from course materials

-biological arguments about race continue to be used in the legal system even though scientific research has concluded that there is no biological basis for race; concept of race remains powerful and becomes perpetuated through legal, scientific and political institutions Biological Race: -one's race is not determined by a gene or gene cluster -the idea that there exists three races "Caucasoid", "Negroid", "Mongoloid" is rooted in European imagination of middle Ages Racial Formation: -race must be viewed as a social construction--human interaction rather than natural differentiation must be seen as the source and continued basis for racial categorization Racial formation: process by which racial meanings arise 4 Facets of Social Construction of Race: 1)humans rather than social abstract forces produces races 2)as human constructs, races constitute an integral part of a whole social fabric that includes gender and class relations 3)the meaning systems surrounding race change quickly rather than slowly 4)races are constructed relationally, against one another, rather than in isolation

The Victorian cult of invalidism (or frailty)

-boredom and confinement of affluent women fostered "female invalidism"; pervaded upper and middle class female culture -1850-1910 -medical's view of women's health identified specific risks associated with reproductivity and it identified all female functions as inherently sick; Puberty was seen as a "crisis", Menstruation regarded as pathological -the most important legitimization of this fashion came from the medical profession; myth of female frailty served two purposes: 1)disqualified women as healers and 2)made women highly qualified as patients -literature/magazines romanticized it; it was fashionable to retire to bed with sick headaches and nerves -"Not only were women seen as sickly--sickness was seen as feminine" -cult of invalidism made her seem dependent for her very physical survival on both her doctor and her husband

Abusive sterilization: define this, and be able to explain how, why and when this has taken place:

-class discrimination, used so that state doesn't have to try to distribute supplies -harmful myth: cultural fiction--contaminating; Native communities pollute body, politic continues to inform population control movement

Eugenicist practices: meaning of the term "eugenics"; in relation to motherhood and reproduction; in relation to the "feebleminded"; in relation to people of color Dikotter, "Race and Culture" 'In relation to people of color'

-concept of race gained power through the scientific theory of eugenics; argues that population control in the poorer parts of the world today is still based on social eugenics -widely seen to be a morally acceptable and scientifically viable way of improving human heredity -Eugenics gave scientific authority to social fears and moral panics, lent respectability to racial doctrines and provided legitimacy to sterilization acts and immigration laws -reproductive rights of individuals were subordinated to the rights of an abstract organic collectivity -EX: Eugenic arguments continue to surface regularly in the US; 1991, David Duke, former member of KKK, proposed a law offering A/A female welfare recipients in Louisiana cash payments for the use of the contraceptive device Norplant -After WWI, eugenic ideas were systematically developed by specific societies and organizations, in particular in Brazil, seen as a racially diverse and economically underdeveloped country by a small European intelligentsia who believed that eugenic policies were a key to a national revival -overwhelming majority of people alleged to be mentally retarded and forced to undergo sterilization were women

The "one sex model" of male and female bodies as opposed to the difference based model Class Notes

-one-sex model: female body is seen as a variant of the male body -wasn't a continuum, makes one gender seem inferior to another -ANDROCENTRIC model: --characterizes one-sex model --family of man; one paradigm --most medical research done on male subjects, even though the medications might be for both genders

Eugenicist practices: meaning of the term "eugenics"; in relation to motherhood and reproduction; in relation to the "feebleminded"; in relation to people of color Imperialism and Motherhood, Anna Davin

-eugenics: the science of eugenics was based on Darwinian ideas of selecting the most "superior" races to reproduce while discouraging or eliminating those races believe to be inferior; late 1900s Imperialism and Motherhood, Anna Davin -details use of Malthusianism and eugenics by the British government to encourage population growth among the British with the goal of producing more soldiers -policies focused on teaching women to be better mothers in order to increase the population of whites as a race able to colonize the world -eugenics wanted selective limitation of population growth, to prevent the "deterioration of the race" and decline as an imperial nation of those they regarded as unfit to breed -1858, Charles Kingsley proposed that overpopulation was impossible and it was one of the noblest duties to increase the English population as much as possible -British population felt the need to increase before other rival master races did -birth rate was a matter of national importance: population=power -infant mortality rate was high -mother was responsible for survival of infants and health of children; parents were bringing up next generation of citizens, state had an interest in how they did it "But just as it was the individual mother's duty and reward to rear healthy members of an imperial race, so it was her individual ignorance and neglect which must account for infant deaths or sick children"

The psychology of the ovary and hysteria Hysteria

-even doctors sometimes interpreted it as a power grab rather than a genuine illness -only affected upper and middle class women; no discernible organic basis; resistant to medical treatment -fits of contortions, fainting, screaming -Society had assigned affluent women to a life of confinement and inactivity and medicine had justified this by describing women as innately sick -in the epidemic of "hysteria", women were both accepting their inherent sickness and finding a way to protest against an intolerable social role

In what ways is Ehrenreich's and English's study an intersectional approach to medical science?

-examining classes, lower class vs. upper class, different cultural narratives -upper-class women=invalid, prone to being sick--Doctor comes up with an expensive treatment, they can afford paying that treatment -lower class constructed as hearty, robust -constructed as "sickening"-carry disease; unclean, dirty, carry STD; to contain the bodies means that they are subject to policing, criminal justice system, arrest of prostitutes -not about women's health; the true motivation is profit-making/socio-economic EX: 1864 Britain's Contagious Diseases Act; allowed police to arrest prostitutes and bring them into have compulsory checks for VD (containment through police and Doctor)

Feminist science: what differentiates feminist science research from other approaches to research in the sciences?

-give priority to qualitative methodologies--look at experiences, how change medical paradigm; feelings taken into account in qualitative methodology Qualitative: "You're depressed. What's going on at school?" (examines environment, situation) Medical: "You're depressed. Take a pill" (looks at you as an isolated individual, doesn't look at larger causes) -in medical science and political systems: --geneology of structural inequality --how inequality incorporates gendered pattern of inequality

Malthusianism and neo-Malthusianism: the economic model underlying these social theories, and specific examples of their effects past and present EXAMPLES

-harmful myth, cultural fiction of contamination -Andrea Smith's, 'Better Dead than Pregnant': "the notion that communities of color, including Native communities, POLLUTE the body politic continues to inform the contemporary population control movement" -language of contamination trickles into policy-making around access to health-care (migrant community, communities of color) -"anchor babies":myth that mothers from south of the border come to US to give birth -in newspapers, articles talk about white birthrate decreasing and colored birthrate increasing; statistics fuel anxiety about migrants, produces dangerous policies -International AID projects originating in the UK (Christian Aid) are associated with forced sterilization of Dalit women in India -WHY? Worries about population growth. -the misappropriation of sterilization results from NEO-MALTHUSIAN policies

The distinction between a uni-dimensional and an intersectional understanding of identity

-intersectionality: study of forms or systems of oppression; forms of oppression (sexism, homophobia, etc) do not act independently of one another; impossible to tease apart oppressions that people are experiencing; EX: a Trans person with a disability can't choose which part of their identity is most in need of liberation A uni dimensional form of understanding states that women are oppressed similarly everywhere

To theorize and theory (be able to explain in your own words, and also to demonstrate understanding of Charlotte Bunch's and bell hooks' definitions of theory): Charlotte Bunch, Feminist Theory for Bunch Class Notes: Knowledge, Knowlege Production, Epistemology:

-knowledge is situated: what methodology? what material? Need to analyze CONTEXTS of knowledge produced

Martin, "The Egg and the Sperm"

-language and rhetoric in medical textbooks --metaphor=insidious role of sustaining stereotypes about gender --medical student not thinking about it, implicit, under the surface (we take on some cultural stereotypes) -women's reproductive system is seen as wasteful/old/scarred/battered; sperm production=glorified -eggs: stagnant, waiting for sperm -menstruation=wasteful, uneconomic loss -symbolic aspect (female=passive; male=active); Disney stereotypes -Martin recommends to describe them in similar terms; don't give personalities to objects; eggs don't "wait" -menstruation has been and still is associated with impurity; bypass it; see it as a sickness in South Asia; seen as a failure, we didn't get pregnant) -use of language in commercials: erection vs. vagina

The medical naturalization of femininity: Sex and the Body, Nelly Oudshorn

-late 19th century: absolute difference between males and females -medical scientists sexualized every part of the body, starting with the skeleton, and then moving onto the bones, blood vessels, cells, hair, brains -logic of absolute difference between males and females; melodramatic "Nothing is shared" -female and male conceptualized in terms of opposite bodies with "incommensurably different organs, functions and feelings" -Following this shift, female body became medical object emphasizing women's unique sexual character -The medical literature of this period shows a radical naturalization of femininity in which scientists reduced women to one specific organ; 18th and 19th centuries, scientists set out to localize "essence" of femininity -Until 1850, scientists considered uterus the controlling center; after 1850, shifted to the ovaries -place in the body where the "essence" of femininity is located became object of surgical interventions -shifted from uterus to ovaries to hormones -many types of behavior, roles, functions and characteristics considered typically male or female have been ascribed to hormones; female body portrayed as completely controlled by hormones; hormones estrogen and progesterone are the most widely used drugs in medicine

"Safety Orange" Rockefeller Drug Laws:

-life sentence for illegal trafficking of drugs -allowing tougher action from police to protect public -forbid probation, parole, suspension of sentence, lesser sentence -provide 1000$ to people who help them find drug pusher Prisons: --placed in Black/Hispanic, poor/working, rural communities --1 in 100 US citizens incarcerated --25,000 to 80,000$ cost per person *rights movement support prison complex, push laws that support funding Detention Centers: -34,000 bed quota has to fill per night -159$ per day -5.5 million/day

Haraway, on Feminist objectivity:

-limited location -situated knowledge -we can't see everything -research subjects are not objects; no splitting of subject and object -Mobile Positioning: we are complex beings; look from different perspectives; occupy different parts of subject position

The intersections between nationhood and gender: at a symbolic, or representational, level, and also at a material level of the impact on women's lives

-nation is gendered as female, impact of idealization -End of WWII, French women who slept with Nazis were publicly shaved and humiliated; real women punished when perceived to dishonor nation -women: huge public and bodily shaming; men not punished that way -"nation": represented as female; nation: conventional association with femaleness, imagining the nation as female -need to be protected, men sacrificing their lives for her -women raped and tortured during wartime -idea of possessing/invading nation: lived out through rape -if rape women of other territory, you are polluting their ethnicity -taking women of other nation, has symbolic value -women=community's valued possessions; susceptible to violation, co-option

The distinction between mainstream anti-violence movements and activism addressing state violence (anti-prison, anti-police brutality): explain the situation of women of color here, and explain the role of the criminal justice system in mainstream anti-violence movements

-mainstream anti-violence movement excludes certain types of violence (take single definition, exclude other issues; use domestic violence as the primary example, other types remain invisible and excluded) -mainstream anti-violence: all focus on domestic violence, excludes systematic oppression such as: --street harassment is normalized, not even acknowledged --internalized misogyny (employment discrimination); EX: in the 60s and 70s, job applications asked for full-breasted women, normalized --violence against homeless in institutional settings --There needs to be a broader focus than just domestic violence --if crime justice is failing, how address these invisible, structural violences? Undocumented women can't go to the state, they must go to grass root activism, way of offering resistance, put pressure on law --identities where intersections meet, where structural violence hits hardest; addressed in impoverished ways -Anti-violence movement that works WITH crime justice system: results in containment, doesn't deal with social issues; EX: transgender fired, can't pay his rent, homeless (social concern), crime system criminalizes homeless --don't just reform prisons, work towards abolition because particular population (A/A) are the ones being contained, don't just incarcerate, address social concerns

Masculinity in relation to Western Imperialism: as explained by Bederman

-maintains that manhood is created by changing ideologies rather than universal biological ideas -late 19th and early 20th centuries, American middle class fashioned masculinity along racial and gender lines in order to establish the white middle class male as the exemplary citizen of the American nation -"Anglo-Saxonist imperialists insisted that civilized white men had a racial genius for self-government which necessitated the conquest of more primitive, darker races" -"Civilization denoted a precise stage in human racial evolution--the one following the more primitive stages of "savagery" and "barbarism". Only whites had reached the most evolved stage." -one could identify advanced civilizations by degree of sexual differentiation; civilized white men were the most manly ever evolved--firm of character, self-controlled, protectors of women and children -"By harnessing male supremacy to white supremacy and celebrating both as essential to human perfection, hegemonic versions of civilization maintained the power of Victorian gender ideologies by presenting male power as natural and inevitable"

The "perpetrator perspective" approach to addressing racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and ableism: describe what this entails, and its effects

-makes people think about racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia and albeism in terms of individual behaviors and bad intentions rather than wide-scale structural oppression that often operates without some obvious individual actor aimed at denying an individual person an opportunity -EX: violence of imprisoning millions of poor and colored can't be adequately explained by finding one nasty, racist individual but requires looking at whole web of institutions, policies and practices that make it "normal" and "necessary" warehouse, displace, discard and annihilate poor and colored -thinking about violence and oppression as a "few bad apples" undermines our ability to analyze our conditions systemically and intergenerationally and to therefore organize for systemic change EX: Megan's Laws: statutes that require people convicted of sexual offenses to register and that require this information be made available to the public; these laws ensure that people convicted of a range of sexual offenses face violence, unemployment, lack of housing; no resourcing of comprehensive programs to support the healing of survivors and transformation of people who have been sexually abusive or interrupt family norms that contribute to widespread abuse of children

To medicalize something: be able to define this, and identify examples, past and present

-medicalize: treat women's health/bodies through medicaments; view in medical terms; treat as a medical problem -EX: from Orgasm Inc, prescribed viagra "off-label" to help women who were struggling sexually -EX: psychotropic drugs being prescribed to foster kids off-label; "off-label" medication is making the children sick; side effects include possible dependency, inadequate testing of medication on developing brain -physiological problems--obesity and diabetes are increasing in foster care homes Qualitative: "You're depressed. What's going on at school?" (examines environment, situation) Medical: "You're depressed. Take a pill" (looks at you as an isolated individual, doesn't look at larger causes)

Define State violence EX:

-oppresses certain bodies (especially women) through prison/financial/legislation (state mechanisms) EX:state legislatures considered bills that would give women on public assistance bonuses if they used Norplant; in CA, a Black single mother convicted of child abuse was given the "choice" of using Norplant or being sentenced to four years in prison (Better Dead than Pregnant)

Eugenicist practices: meaning of the term "eugenics"; in relation to motherhood and reproduction; in relation to the "feebleminded"; in relation to people of color Dikotter, "Race and Culture" 'in relation to the "feebleminded"

-overwhelming majority of people alleged to be mentally retarded and forced to undergo sterilization were women -Gansu Province, 1988, law proscribes marriage for mentally retarded people until they have undergone sterilization surgery; thousands have been sterilized since the law was implemented

The Prison Industrial Complex: explain the term, and be ready to indicate that you understand the multi-dimensional aspects of this system:

-prison system, all different forces meet and create a logic that is OK and justified, practice is considered normal -White Supremacy, Hetero-patriarchy, Gender normativity, Capitalism and Globalization all meet in the prison complex -space where violence against certain bodies is accepted -Prison Industrial "Complex": creating marketable industry under justice system (creating hospitals; schools funneling young people into prison)

Emily Martin's analysis of the inter-relationship of social discourses and scientific knowledge production

-scientific knowledge, believed to be factual and objective, reflects biases against women that are shared by societies in which this knowledge is produced -importation of cultural ideas about passive females and heroic males into "personalities" of gametes; this implanting of social imagery allows for reimporting exactly that same imagery as natural explanations of social phenomena (female=passive; male=active)

The abusive use of long-acting hormonal contraceptives in the control of women's reproductive health

-sterilization abuse in the US has ebbed since the 1970s, state control over reproductive freedom continues through the promotion of unsafe, long-acting Depo-Provera and Norplant for women of color, women on federal assistance, and women with disabilities -Side effects that have been linked to Depo Provera include irregular bleeding, depression, weight gain, osteoperosis, loss of sex drive, breast cancer, sterility, cervical cancer, headaches; many had uterine, cervical or breast cancer, or had undergone hysterectomies as a result of hemmorhaging -Before Depo was approved in 1992, it was routinely used on Native women by IHS, particularly on Native women with disabilities; substituted Depo for sterilization on patients with mental disabilities -Norplant was approved for distribution in the US in 1990; no studies which demonstrate Norplant's long term safety; constant bleeding is a common side effect and blindness, hair loss, dizziness, nausea, headaches; extreme side effects made women want it removed within a year

The rest cure

-treatment aimed at altering female behavior -isolation, uninterrupted rest -used to treat a host of problems diagnosed as "nervous disorders" -passivity, no mental excitement, no visitors -Charlotte Perkins Gilman, author of Yellow Wallpaper, talked about negative impact of rest cures, sent to bed for months, closed environment (nothing stimulating), not moving, makes you crazy; isolation increases depression; can't move, muscles atrophy, become weaker, get bedsores

19th Century Professionalization of Medical Science and its Impact on Women:

-women had own scientific knowledge -women who healed were often persecuted, seen as baby killers -women had knowledge about plants that could induce abortion, had the science -scientific knowledge that women held was not given the same authority as male science at the time

The feminist understanding of the theory-practice (OR theory-activism OR scholarship-activism relationship): how does it function? Nancy Harsock, 1979

1) "The focus on everyday life and experience makes action a necessity, not a moral choice or an option. We are not fighting other people's battles, but our own." 2)"The nature of our understanding of theory is altered and theory is brought into an integral and everyday relation with practice" 3) "Theory leads directly to a transformation of social relations both in consciousness and in reality because of its close connection to real needs"

Links and tensions between pro-choice perspectives and disability rights (See Andrea Smith and Alison Kafer)

1)"I want to highlight that both reproductive justice activists and disability activists interrogate the rhetoric of choice found in reproductive rights movements...the language of choice fails to account for the ableist context in which women make decisions about pregnancy, abortion and reproduction in general. Only certain choices are recognized as valid choices and only certain choices are socially supported: 'Our society profoundly limits the 'choice' to love and care for a baby with a disability'" -"continued commodification of pregnancy, a process enabled and perpetuated by framework of choice...positions women as consumers and babies as products makes possible conversations about and practices toward 'selecting' the baby one wants"; a critique of choice then bridges both movements 2)"Reproductive justice insists upon a cross-movement approach to reproductive issues...questions of reproduction can't be disentangled from race, class, sexuality,etc....disability is an essential piece" "Thinking about disability and reproduction requires the kind of cross-movement analysis promised by reproductive justice" 3) "Thinking about reproductive politics only in terms of abortion and the pro-choice/pro-life binary make coalition building among disability and reproductive rights and justice activists more difficult" -pro/anti binary fosters simplistic analyses of who friends and enemies are -anyone who expresses concern about abortion practices can too easily appear as enemy of feminism; reproductive right activists are then wary of engaging with disability critiques and prenatal testing of selective abortion; disability right activists are wary of engaging with reproductive right groups who continue to use disability as a justification for abortion -both reproductive group and disability group are wary of engaging with each other

Sandra Harding highlights three ways gender/race/social class and scientific knowledge production are inter-related:

1).Gender Symbolism (the appeal to dualistic gender metaphors to describe all kinds of dichotomies that have nothing to do with gender differences: EMILY MARTIN); EX: hurricanes are always female 2)Gender Structure: the division of labor by gender (discrimination, inequities in the fields of knowledge production in the sciences) 3)The uses and abuses of scientific knowledge in the service of sexist, homophobic, racist and classist social projects.

To theorize and theory (be able to explain in your own words, and also to demonstrate understanding of Charlotte Bunch's and bell hooks' definitions of theory): Charlotte Bunch Bunch's Model for Feminist Theory:

1)Description: Describing what exists 2)Analysis: Analyzing why that reality exists (What's in it for certain groups or institutions to exercise power over, and oppress others?) 3)Vision: Determining what should exist 4)Strategy: hypothesizing how to change what is to what should be

Gender Asymmetry and its Relation to other structures of Domination: 1) 2)

1)The objectives of feminist work (theories and practices, scholarship and activism) are first to examine the causes and conditions of gender asymmetry in different societies 2)For most feminist theorists, this means examining and explaining all structures of domination whether based on gender, sexuality, race, class, age, nation, religion or any other difference that existing power structures position as different and inferior simply on the grounds of difference

Cynthia Enloe Reading

1)ethnicity becomes 2)nationalist consciousness, how consciousness becomes organized and how organized nationalism becomes militarized

What do we learn from examining the work of the 'Father of Gynecology?'

1. Subject-Object (White Medical Doctor/Black Female Slaves) Split predicated on slaves as objects to be experimented on; "the experimenting white physician-turned-master-showman" (32) 2. Use of the speculum was founded on the probing, penetration and scrutiny of black female slaves' bodies 3. Sim's practices set a precedent for the medical institution's involvement in racist, eugenicist practices concerning the reproductive capacities of women of color

To theorize and theory (be able to explain in your own words, and also to demonstrate understanding of Charlotte Bunch's and bell hooks' definitions of theory): Charlotte Bunch, Feminist Theory for Bunch Class Notes:

2)"No theory is totally 'objective,' since it reflects the interests, values and assumptions of those who created it." --knowledge isn't objective, comes from somewhere, generated by specific context, makes us analyze how knowledge was obtained, who was looking at what --knowledge=experientially based; experience is evidence --feminist knowledge is grounded in people's experience, validates it --locations of knowledge production leads to hierarchies -How could knowledge be objective? (thrive in every context/absolute/right) --the "God trick", humanly impossible --You need to look at WHO is producing this knowledge-->corporate interests; who is doing the research, for what reason, how big is the sample?

Lopez, "The Social Construction of Race" Racial formation as a process: be ready to provide examples from course materials 4 Facets of Social Construction of Race: and example

4 Facets of Social Construction of Race: 1)humans rather than social abstract forces produces races 2)as human constructs, races constitute an integral part of a whole social fabric that includes gender and class relations 3)the meaning systems surrounding race change quickly rather than slowly 4)races are constructed relationally, against one another, rather than in isolation -early 1800s, people gave Latin Americans nationalities, and then gave them races -1840s, 1850s: Anglo-Mexican conflict in Southwest -US annexed Mexican territory in 1848; social prejudices became legal ones, targeting Mexicans 1)Transformation of Mexican from a nationality to a race came about through dynamic interplay of myriad of social forces; Farnham's racialization occurs in context of dominant ideology, perceived economic interests, psychological necessity 2)Native men of southwest depicted as indolent, slothful Mexicans; Spanish women depicted as fair, virtuous maidens 3)change in conception of Mexican from indolent to industrious, reflects emergence of Anglo economic elite in Southwest, illustrates class relations between class relations and ideas about race 3)meaning systems changes rapidly: rapid emergence of Mexicans as a race, quick transformation in perceived racial character

Biological versus socio-political conceptions of race:

Biological conception of race is the idea that the biology of the body determines race. Different races don't have different genes, there are more gene variations within a race than between races. Social conceptions of a race are always changing the "plasticity of race" is often changing from political factors (Lopez, 56). Society applies stereotypes to race.

Biological determinism and its impact on understandings of sex and gender:

Biological determinism: -belief that biology determines fundamentally all behavior and actions -genitalia defines your sex and your gender -you are the way your body looks -"belief that biology determines fundamentally all behaviors" (Kaplan) -EX: motherhood, attached to biology; EX: Fausto-Sterling, Dueling Dualisms: 1988 Olympics, Maria Patino failed the sex test; her cells had a Y chromosome and her labia hid testes within, she didn't have ovaries or a uterus; According to IOC, she wasn't a woman (Fausto-Sterling argues that labeling someone a man or a woman is a social decision)

Define Oppression:

Bunch's Model for Feminist Theory: 1)Description: Describing what exists 2)Analysis: Analyzing why that reality exists (What's in it for certain groups or institutions to exercise power over, and oppress others?) Oppressive practices: any way you prohibit a person from achieving a goal; EX: stereotypes are insidious and immediate; one characteristic applied to an entire group

Discourse and discursive authority (as defined by intellectual historian, Michel Foucault): you should be ready to provide examples of discourses we have studied in our course materials and discussions

Define discourse:a concept drawn from the work of Michel Foucault; refers to a dominant or powerful way of thinking -he is known for bringing the term "discourse" into common, scholarly usage to mean the dominant and powerful ways of thinking that are assumed to be common knowledge rather than historical constructions discursive: regular communications, written and spoken, that produces discourses Different power relationships influence the language which creates social constructions. An example is the sovereignty in a specific discourse which influences the way people perceive the topic, more specifically the male dominance in science which influences the way science is taught which teaches women that they are an inferior anatomical being. Like how in 18th century medical journals taught medical students that women were an inferior anatomical being that could be reduced to the uterus.

Feminist situated knowledges, their relationship to objectivity and 'the God trick'

Donna Haraway: 'God-trick': -claim that science is done in neutral way, completely objective 2)"No theory is totally 'objective,' since it reflects the interests, values and assumptions of those who created it." (Charlotte Bunch) --knowledge isn't objective, comes from somewhere, generated by specific context, makes us analyze how knowledge was obtained, who was looking at what --knowledge=experientially based; experience is evidence --feminist knowledge is grounded in people's experience, validates it --locations of knowledge production leads to hierarchies -How could knowledge be objective? (thrive in every context/absolute/right) --the "God trick", humanly impossible --You need to look at WHO is producing this knowledge-->corporate interests; who is doing the research, for what reason, how big is the sample? -Knowledge, Knowledge Production, Epistemology: --knowledge is situated: what methodology? what material? Need to analyze CONTEXTS of knowledge produced

Epistemology and feminist epistemologies:

Epistemology: the theory of knowledge or how we know what we know -Feminist-epistemology=inter-disciplinary Feminist epistemology comes from personal experience and speaking from your place in society as a woman. It embraces the bias of objective science and attempts to speak from a more "truthful" place by admitting faults and speaking as an individual that represents a group of experience. (qualitative) - Feminist epistemology and philosophy of science studies the ways in which gender does and ought to influence our conceptions of knowledge, the knowing subject, and practices of inquiry and justification. - Denaturalizes assumptions about what we know, reminds us that theories have power because they aren't objective (contextual and situated)

Eugenicist Practices:

Eugenics: -huge at the beginning of the 20th century -master race; improving race/human heredity, selecting good genes -only want good ones, get rid of bad ones -selective reproduction of "superior" population necessary for spread of empire in terms of soldiers and settler (to rule is to populate) -forced sterilization of specific populations around the world under "poverty reduction" and "fitter families" projects; to reduce poverty, need to have less babies (nothing discussed about the spread of resources) Goals of Early 20th Century Eugenicists: -produce better race -prevent inferior/poor from reproducing -more children from fit; less from unfit (goal of birth control)

Malthusianism and neo-Malthusianism: the economic model underlying these social theories, and specific examples of their effects past and present EXAMPLES Andrea Smith

Forced Sterilization of Native Americans in the 1970s, Forced sterilizations of women in the 'Global south' and abuse of long-acting hormonal contraceptives: -Indian Health Services in the US: abuses of power 1)informed consent? 2)use of threat of withdrawal of federal aid 3)forced sterilizations in 1970s; more recently, promotion of Norplant and Depo-Provera to women of color, women with disabilities and women on Federal Assistance

Disciplinary power contrasted with biopower (Michel Foucault)

Foucault argues that biopower is a technology which appeared in the late eighteenth century for managing populations. It incorporates certain aspects of disciplinary power. If disciplinary power is about training the actions of bodies, biopower is about managing the births, deaths, reproduction and illnesses of a population.

Malthusianism and neo-Malthusianism: the economic model underlying these social theories, and specific examples of their effects past and present Imperialism and Motherhood, Anna Davin

Imperialism and Motherhood, Anna Davin: -Malthusianism: ideas proposed by Thomas Malthus in the late 18th century in England, in which the central belief was that population increases, caused by individual inability to exercise sexual restraint, lead to poverty -during 19th century, most political economists had tended to believe with Malthus that excessive population was dangerous, leading to exhaustion of resources, and consequently to war, epidemic disease an other natural checks on growth -radical neo-Malthusians recommended contraceptions as an artificial check on population and therefore a preventitive of poverty (which they attributed to overpopulation, arguing for instance that wages were kept down for the competition of employment)

Haraway, "the God trick"

Pretending that one can see everything from nowhere, and that one's viewpoint emerges from a DISEMBODIED perspective.

Pateman, "Feminist Critiques of the Public/Private Dichotomy" Class Notes:

Public/Private Dichotomy in Liberal Social Contract Theory (Patriarchal Liberalism): Social Contract theory: we are all free, self-determining individuals -Are we free and autnomous? --people's situations vary, not living in same freedom as person next to you --social constructions have control over us in a conditioned way --born into social conventions; never entirely separate; the more we theorize, the more we can de-naturalize --if you believe you are the origin of all your ideas, no worry about social change

To pathologize somebody and pathologize racial difference (provide examples from course materials)

Racial meanings come through racial formation. The meaning derived from race is pathologized to create a sense of inferior or superior depending on ones race's social class/position in society. "Mexicans were denigrated in explicitly racial terms as indolent cowards" as a result of their dominance by American groups. They were pathologized based upon a dominant groups perception of them.

The medical naturalization of femininity: Class Notes:

Searching for the Physiological Site of the essence of femininity: -scientists reduce women to one specific organ (following late 19th century shift to difference model) -uterus was viewed as the commanding organ; perceived as controlling organ of female (thought processes), more than her brain -lousy position socially because the uterus is commanding -"Hysterical"--moods=volatile, out of control, subject to something more powerful; classic, phony diagnosis of women=prone to hysteria, excessively emotional, being controlled by uterus

Define Patriarchy:

Shifting Definitions of Patriarchy: -the specific SOCIAL, ECONOMIC and POLITICAL arrangements that result in basic inequalities between men and women However, in deciding how to TRANSFORM this fundamental inequality, feminists have focused on different sources of male dominance: 1. Relations of production (exploitation of women's labor, women's work. Gendered divisions in the labor market) 2. Relations of Reproduction ( Women as mothers, reproducers, reproductive labor) 3. Sexuality (The heterosexual norm, and all of the social and economic advantages that come with heterosexuality) 4. Culture/Ideology (representations, images, media)

The politics of location

The opinions and viewpoints of people are influenced by their location in life such as race, gender, culture, age...etc. It is a concept similar to situated knowledge.

Motherhood in relation to Nationalism and Imperialism

The role of a woman in a nation was to be a mother. It became the mothers' job to raise children properly, because the children are the future generations. The goal was to produce more soldiers, and ultimately more whites--- the idea of eugenics and whites are "superior" and want to colonize the world.

To demystify something

To make it open to the public and able to be observed and conversed about

To pathologize

To pathologize something or someone is to falsely diagnose and treat something or someone for a psychological illness. For instance, physicians used to lived on the thought that the uterus was the controlling point in a female body, in which it controls her thoughts, actions, and her entire personality. Doctors started diagnosing women with hysteria, and termed it as the disease of the uterus and were often recommended to suffocate their hysterical women patients until their fits stopped, beating them across the face and body with wet towels and embarrassing them in front of friends and family. These actions lead male physicians into thinking that they have full control of the situation and women were meant to be submissive and that through these actions, women "will listen to the voice of authority." The more women were told they were sick, the more they started believing it.

Malthusianism and neo-Malthusianism: the economic model underlying these social theories, and specific examples of their effects past and present Gordon, Malthusianism:

Two assumptions are central to Malthusianism: 1)overpopulation causes poverty 2)individual failings in the form of the lack of restraint cause overpopulation -need to restrain themselves sexually so they will be better workers -Malthusianism: economic and philosophical basis for eugenics; Malthus's ideas about population and poverty came from his biases against the poor and reflected his own interest in the welfare of the capital class to which he belonged EX: overpopulation causes overcompetition for wages, wages drop -Malthus identified himself with the capitalist class and identified its welfare with the welfare of his nation -had the formula that population increases geometrically and subsistence arithmetically -kernel of Malthusianism=overpopulation is the cause of poverty --made natural disasters such as war and famine take on social meaning (pop. regulators) --justified employers interests in offering lowest possible wages --theory presented the capitalist system of forcing laborers into jobs at minimum wages as somehow inevitable --drew attention away from organization of labor and distribution of resources -neo-Malthusians believed that population could be controlled and provide a key to the creation of a perfect society; early advocates to contraception --enthusiastically recommended contraceptive cures to poor as a cure for their poverty

The feminist understanding of the theory-practice (OR theory-activism OR scholarship-activism relationship): how does it function?

Why is the work in the inter-discipline of feminist studies both scholarship and activism? Why does this matter? -not just academic study -feminists striving to make change, wanting to change WHY that happens -also imperative to take action so that inequality doesn't exist -feminist studies try to correct gender asymmetry; tries to erase females as second gender -gender asymmetry: starting point for feminism: males are above females -academic theorizing and experience (personal insights)->what is going on?; two are constantly intertwining and feeding each other -every-day contexts that catalyze need and action (trying to get birth control) EX of day-to-day concerns faced by females? -women's security at night -sexual drive=negative -"to-be-looked-at ness", more focus on appearance --the objectives of feminist work are first to examine causes and conditions of gender assymetry EX: Charlotte Bunch began as academic feminist, then became exasperated, then left because she felt the need to take action, then came back; she felt the need to draw out key issues, activism AND theories are both important

Heteronormativity

belief that people fall into distinct and complementary genders (man and woman) with natural roles in life. It asserts that heterosexuality is the only sexual orientation or only norm, and states that sexual and marital relations are most (or only) fitting between people

To denaturalize a social behavior or cultural representations

bell hooks: -Children DENATURALIZE norms: questions common sense (we take for granted) --How did things get to be this way? --Who is included and excluded when things are a certain way? -We take our "routine social practices as 'natural'" OR we can look at the world differently "using theory as intervention, a way to challenge the status quo" -Theorize: --explain WHY it is --foundation of critical consciousness --helps make sense of environment

Gender racialization: with examples from course materials and/or personal experience

refers to the critical analysis of the simultaneous effects of race and gender processes on individuals, families, and communities. This concept recognizes that women do not negotiate race and gender similarly. For instance, white women's oppression has been linked with their privilege as white people, but they have not escaped the bonds of sexism. Black women's and First Nation women's oppression has been linked to the struggle of self-definition, agency, and collective empowerment

Liberalism and the concept of the individual in relation to society

stresses individualism and egalitarianism, and may be opposed to patriarchalism which is founded upon hierarchical relations of subordination. In society, individuals are dependent on their place in society, some have privileges that allow them certain freedoms and opportunities.

Liberalism as a political structure and Enlightenment political subject: what are the gender consequences of Enlightenment social contracts?

the enlightenment social contract names that people give up freedoms to the state for some form of government/return. But because this was decided by men the freedoms that were given up were gendered. Resulting in women having no voice in what they gave up, making men in charge of what rights were and were not afforded to citizens male and female (self serving political structures for men.); EX: Women have never been completely excluded from public life but the way in which women are included is grounded, as firmly as their positions in the domestic sphere, in patriarchal beliefs and practices. (It's okay for women to be educated because its an extension of their domestic duties--can be more involved with philanthropy, can be better mothers) EX: today, women have token representation in authoritative public bodies

Feminist understanding of the body

the idea that the body is essentially neutral until popular discourse and performance build a person.

There is a moebius strip between...

theory (explaining) and practice (taking action)

To historicize versus ahistorical (or transhistorical) approaches to knowledge

transhistorical: existing in every time period -studying "myriad ways in which scientists have understood sex" -situating science and challenging biological determinism: limits understanding of different genders