Women Gender and Society Midterm

Respectability Politics

in order to counter the negative views of the dominant group, members of the oppressed minority must aggressively adopt the manners and morality that has been deemed virtuous by that group. rather than challenging the mainstream for what they see as its failure to accept difference.

Horizontal Hostility

individuals direct the resentment and anger they have about their situation onto those who are of equal or lesser status

Asexual

having no sexual attraction to others

Kendall on why Alice Walker developed womanism

"Alice Walker, spoke about womanism as a direct response to the ways mainstream feminism ignored race and racism within her movement. When the movement excluded the concerns of women like her, she challenged it to expand or be left behind in favor of the next step for black women on their road to equality. Feminism isn't a glass slipper that fits only one perfect woman; it is an umbrella that has to become big enough to protect us all, even from one another

Opinion of Rafe Posey on transwomen

"The best kind of feminist- the best kind of human- embraces every woman, because if you narrow the perspective of what kind of women can be feminists, or what kind of feminists should help, you're standing in the path of substantive change. Feminism is about advocating for equality for all women, not just people youre comfortable with."

Mary Wollstonecraft's cage anology

"taught from their infancy that beauty is woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and, roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison",implying that without this damaging ideology, which encourages young women to focus their attention on beauty and outward accomplishments, they could achieve much more. In other words: women are limited

Nepantla

-Nahuatl term meaning "to be in the middle" -"their colonizers' use of force wounded the ethical and spiritual foundations of their world." -Combining two or more cultures to create a result that isn't one or the other, and uncomfortably in the middle.

Third Wave Feminism

-expanding feminism -Widen conversation to black, latina and third world feminists- intersectionality -Society needs to change not just for women but for everybody

Philosophical Principles of WGS

1. Gender as a social construction 2. Identifying and combatting all power/privilege 3.Actively engaging systems of power from personal & social perspectives

Either/or thinking

Asking members to choose between only two options, as if no other choices existed. Eurocentrist white masculinist way of thinking. You are either with us or against us.

Cultural Disclosure

approach to the study of communication which explores culturally distinctive communication practices in our world. The theory is based upon the premise that communication consists of culturally situated means and meanings active in various local contexts.

heteronormativity

A type of prejudice that claims that being heterosexual is the only normal option for an individual's sexual orientation.

Social Construction of Gender

According to this view, society and culture create gender roles, and these roles are prescribed as ideal or appropriate behavior for a person of that specific sex.

2 universities in the US to establish the first departments of women's studies.

San Diego State? and Cornell University in NY?

Bystander Intervention

Bystander Intervention is recognizing a potentially harmful situation or interaction and choosing to respond in a way that could positively influence the outcome.

Differential Consciousness

Chela Sandoval: "as the clutch of a car provides the driver the ability to shift gears, differential consciousness permits the practitioner to choose tactical positions."

Radical Feminism

Form of feminist theory that believes that gender inequality is the result of male domination in all aspects of social and economic life. Oppose existing systems like politics because they are male-centered at their root.

Gender Unicorn Differences between: Sex, Attraction, Identity, Expression

Gender Identity: One's internal sense of being male, female, boy, girl or other. Gender Expression: physical manifestation of one's gender through clothing, voice, hairstyle. Sex assigned at birth: whether they were born male, female it is a combo of genes and hormones. Sexually/Physically attracted to: Emotionally attracted to:

Mestiza Consciousness

Gloria Anzaldua's term for embracing the contradictions and ambiguity of racial and cultural admixture; a celebration of the hybridity

Sojourner Truth and her response to the religious excuse for female subordination

Her response is that just because Christ himself was not a woman, he was the product of a woman and God, with no man in the equation.

Roxanne Gay's on what kind of science Todd Akin relies on

I'm the kind of feminist who is appalled by the phrase "legitimate rape" and politicians such as Missouri's Todd Akin, who reaffirmed his commitment to opposing abortion, drawing from pseudo-science and a lax cultural attitude toward rape: "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let's assume that maybe that didn't work or something. I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist, and not attacking the child."

Feminist Masculinity according to hooks

Men are not the problem, the problem is patriarchy, sexism and male domination. Cultures of domination attack self-esteem, replacing it with a notion that we derive our sense of being from dominion over another

male feminists

Men who believe that women and men are alike in important respects and that the sexes should enjoy the same privileges, rights, opportunities, and status in society. Male feminists join liberal women feminists in fighting for equitable treatment of women. In addition, many male feminists seek to rid themselves of what they regard as toxic masculinity promoted in men by socialization, and to develop sensitivities more typically inculcated in women.

discursive colonialism

Mohanty- views of western feminists, third world women are constructed as oppressed, passive, and more inherently religious, thus western are opposite. formation of stereotypes > conflict. deny TWW right to form own identity

Intersectionality

Overlapping of social categories such as race, class, gender as they apply to a given individual or group. Creates interdependent systems of discrimination/disadvantage

Roxanne Gay's favorite color

Pink. She talks about why she might be considered a "bad" feminist

Sexual Assault is about

Power and control

hegemonic masculinity

Proposes to explain how and why men maintain dominant social roles over women, and other gender identities, which are perceived as "feminine" in a given society.

Both/and thinking

Replacing with interlocking systems of oppression- both/and thinking allows for a shift in paradigms

Matt Walsh on Robin Thicke as a role model

Robin thicke is a 36 year old married man and father however miley cyrus is the one who got bashed for this performance We talk too much about what women do wrong and not enough about amoral adult men who graduated college and still carry on like frat boys well into their 60s.

Judith Butler

She is a philosopher and gender theorist, known for discussing, from 1988 onwards, how even commonplace communication and speech are performative acts. The concept of performativity refers to the way speech and behaviors shape one's identity. That is, she reverses the idea that identity is the source of more secondary actions (speech, gestures).

Deadname

The birth name of a trans person who has changed their name.

First wave feminism

The feminist movement during the nineteenth and early twentieth century focused on de jure (officially mandated) inequalities, primarily on gaining women's suffrage.

Complicating the wage gap beyond gender

There are other factors besides just gender that can negatively impact wages for people: race, being an immigrant, being a certain age

W.L. George's position on feminists vs. suffragettes

Therein lies the mental revolution: while the Suffragists are content to attain immediate ends, the Feminists are aiming at ultimate ends. They contend that it is unhealthy for the race that man should not recognize woman as his equal; that this makes him intolerant, brutal, selfish, and sentimentally insincere. They believe likewise that the race suffers because women do not look upon men as their peers

Jonathan Schroeder's clarification on male gaze

This is the idea that females are used in media for visual pleasure, presenting them as a 'sexual spectacle'. believes that 'it signifies a psychological relationship of power, in which the gazer is superior to the object of the gaze

Aaron Clutter's 3 aspects of male super heroes in comics

Three distinct aspects of the social construction of gendered bodies: 1. the bodies themselves 2. the clothing 3. bodily posture/presentation. The bodies themselves are still considered masculine, but the clothing and the poses are still feminine and sexualized

Role of WWII on Second Wave Feminism

When the war started, women were forced to leave their homes and work as nurses and in factories. But when the men returned home from war, women were encouraged to go back to being housewives and taking care of the children.

How is solidarity possible between feminists?

Women of every background, race, social status must recognize that every human is different and has different problems in society because of who they are classified as. When we realize and accept these differences, we can gain solidarity or unity.

Second Wave Feminism

Women's rights movement that revived in the 1960s with a different agenda than earlier women's suffrage movements; second-wave feminists demanded equal rights for women in employment and education, women's right to control their own bodies, and the end of patriarchal domination.

What was the creative partnership that Wendy Xu finally succeeded in?

Xu finally found a girlfriend/best friend that actually cared about her instead of a stupid boy with a fetish for asian girls. They created a webcomic and received incredible support.

false consciousness

a Marxist theory that people are unable to see things, especially exploitation, oppression, and social relations, as they really are; the hypothesized inability of the human mind to develop a sophisticated awareness of how it is developed and shaped by circumstances.

structural inequality

a condition where one category of people are attributed an unequal status in relation to other categories of people. This relationship is perpetuated and reinforced by a confluence of unequal relations in roles, functions, decisions, rights, and opportunities.

Transgender

a gender identity or performance that does not fit with cultural norms related to one's assigned sex at birth

Heterosexual Male Gaze

a way of looking at society from the perspective of a hypothetical heterosexual man

men's rights movement

an offshoot of male liberationism whose members believe that feminism promotes discrimination against men

Impact of Masculine God Language

god always being referred to as a man gives men a false sense that they are better than females

Mansplaining

condescending patronizing nature in which some men talk down to women: assuming they are the authority, assuming they know more about a topic, assuming they have a right to speak more or be listened to more than women

Socialist Feminism

connecting all oppressions in society, not just gender. Saw men as potential allies. Socialist feminists wanted to work together with men.

Raunch Feminism

critiques the highly sexualized American culture in which women are objectified, objectify one another, and are encouraged to objectify themselves. Ex: Miley Cyrus, Nicki Minaj in Anaconda

Horizontal Segregation

describes the fact that at the same occupational level (that is within occupational classes or even occupations themselves) men and women have different job tasks.

Hegemony

domination over others

biological determinism

the belief that men and women behave differently due to inherent sex differences related to their biology. refers to the idea that all human behavior is innate, determined by genes, brain size, or other biological attributes. This theory stands in contrast to the notion that human behavior is determined by culture or other social forces.

Agency

the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices

Intersex

possessing biological sexual characteristics of both sexes

Sexism

prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination, typically against women, on the basis of sex. Belief that one sex is superior to the other.

cultural relativism

principle that behavior in one culture should NOT be judged by the standards of another culture. (food, dress, religion) however you can still disagree, but we can't judge based on our own culture because we don't live their life and understand what they have to go through.

Counter-hegemony

refers to attempts to critique or dismantle hegemonic power. In other words, it is a confrontation and/or opposition to existing status quo and its legitimacy in politics

Normativity

relating to an ideal standard or model, or being based on what is considered to be the normal or correct way of doing something

Defacto Segregation

segregation that exists by practice and custom. In practice, women are seen as passive individuals that need to be taken care of.

DeJure Segregation

segregation that is imposed by law. No vote, no property in their names. Could not testify in court, make legal contradictions, spend own wages, or retain guardianship of own children.

rape culture

social context where attitudes and norms perpetuate the treatment of women as sexual objects and instill in men a sense of sexual entitlement

Heteropatriarchy

social structures, including laws, religion, and justice systems, that reinforce heterosexuality and traditional gender roles and make living as a non heterosexual difficult

gender as performative

term coined by Judith Butler. Butler perceives gender as being constructed through a set of acts that are said to be in compliance with dominant societal norms. Butler is, however, not stating that gender is a sort of performance in which an individual can terminate the act; instead, what Butler is stating is that this performance is ongoing and out of an individual's control.

Cisgender

term used when gender identity and/or expression aligns with the sex assigned at birth

Slut Shaming

the act of making any person feel guilty or inferior for certain sexual behaviors or desires that deviate from traditional gender expectations

hegemonic masculinity

the condition in which men are dominant and privileged, and this dominance and privilege is invisible. Hegemonic because boys are coerced into consenting to this behavior Relies on notions of toughness, competitiveness, subordinization of women, and marginalization of gay men.

Matrix of Domination

the cumulative impact of oppression because of race and ethnicity, gender, and social class, as well as religion, sexual orientation, disability, age, and citizenship status

Gender Essentialism

the idea that men and women have inherent, unique, and natural attributes that qualify them as their separate genders

Bacha Posh

the literal term for a girl who is dressed up, and disguised as, a boy. These children are part of a hidden practice in which parents disguise daughters as sons. For Afghan girls, posing as a boy opens up a whole new world. It affords a girl freedom of movement; for some that means a chance to go to school, for others the ability to work and support their families.

Objectification

the seeing and/or treating a person, usually a woman, as an object; degradation.

vertical segregation of labor

the separation of men and women in workplace hierarchies; lower-ranking positions are dominated by women, while management ranks are dominated by men

Compulsory Heterosexuality

the system of sexuality that imposes negative sanctions on those who are homosexual or bisexual. Talked about by Adrienne Rich in her 1980 essay "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence."

3 major tenants of transnational feminism

transnational feminists concerned with: globalization, neoliberalism, and cultural imperialism. It is a feminism that recognizes individual diversity, freedom and equality

Liberal Feminism

women need to be able to do anything men can do. Assimilate to male centered spaces: education, work, career