Gender Knot: Final Exam

liberal feminism

Form of feminist theory that believes that gender inequality is produced by unequal access to civil rights and certain social resources, such as education and employment, based on sex. Liberal feminists tend to seek solutions through changes in legislation that ensure that the rights of individuals are protected.

male identified God

God for example is enormous importance in human life, and every monotheistic patriarchal religion worships a male-identified God gendered as masculine, and puts men highly favorable position of having God identified with them

radical feminism

Nothing will ever change unless we attack patriarchal system and change the way people think about things the form of feminist theory that posits that gender inequality is the result of male domination, male identified, male centered, control/obsessed patriarchal system that produces male privilege and the oppression of women

What is patriarchy?

a society is patriarchal to the degree that it promotes male privilege by being male dominated, male-identified, and male centered, it is also organized around an obsession with control and involves as one of its key aspects the oppression of women

misogyny shaped historical transformation of

ancient wise-women healers into modern day image of witches who roast children and is the basis for torture and murder of millions of women from the witch hunts of the middle ages to serb terrorism in Bosnia; -reflected in everyday reality of sexual cohesion, abuse, violence, and harassment in the mass medias display of women bodies as objects existing to please and satisfy male gaze, cultural ideals of slenderness that turn women against their own body and inspires self hatred, sexualized mass media "entertainment" in which men terrorize, torture, rape and murder women

patriarchy roots

are also roots of most human misery and injustice, including race, class, and ethnic oppression and the deconstruction of the natural environment

post-radical feminism

attacking the epistemology of patriarchy and attacking the ideology

industrial capitalism transformed patriarchy

before industrialization there wasn't much that women couldn't/didn't do and husband and wives depended on each other -industrial capitalism changed that individuals could survive on their own by earning wages breaking the bond of mutual dependence btw men and women and the work of women at home was devalued bc it didn't involve a exchange of money

competitive dynamic of patriarchal heterosexuality

brings men together and promotes feelings of solidarity by acting out the values of control and male domination

Patriarchal societies are MALE IDENTIFIED

core cultural ideas about what is considered good, desirable, or normal are ass w/ how we think about men and masculinity ex: widespread use of male pronouns/nouns to represent people in general we refer to human beings as "man" or doctors as "he" we construct a symbolic word in which men are in the foreground and woman are in the background

post-patriarchal meaning for crone, witch, bitch, virgin

crone=old woman whose life experience gave her insight, wisdom, respect, and power to enrich lives witch= wise-woman healer, knower of herbs, midwife, link to joining body, spirit, and Earth bitch= was Artemis-Diana goddess of the hunt, ass w/ dogs who accompanied her virgin= woman who was unattached, unclaimed, unowed by man, thus independent/autonomous

"issues feminism"

defines feminism as little more than positions on issues such as abortion or porno

why should men fear women?

every system of privilege depends on subordinate groups going along with their own subordination -the fear for men is that women will stop playing the complex role that allows patriarchy to continue, or may challenge male privilege directly

Public response to feminism

has been ferociously defensive bc feminism touches such a deep nerve of truth and denial that keeps us from it (even those who would never call themselves feminist often know there's something wrong w structures of privilege that are central to life in modern societies an w/o which we think we can't survive)

trashing feminism

is now so routinely that most women won't openly identify with it even when they support feminist goals and ideas -if feminism is distorted/discredited patriarchy is safe from scrutiny, for feminism is the only critical perspective on patriarchy that we've got -without feminism were left to understand gender inequality in patriarchal terms that ignore it or justify it by turning reality upside down and calling it something else

male experience

is what patriarchal culture uses to represent human experience even when its women who most often live it

fathers neglecting sons

it is bc fathers move in a world that makes pursuit of goals other than deeply committed fatherhood a path of least resistance -if heterosexual intimacy is prone to fail it is bc patriarchy is organized in ways that set women and men fundamentally at odds w one another in spite of all the good reasons they otherwise have to get along and thrive together

4 characteristics of patriarchy

male dominance, male-identification, male centeredness, obsession with control

individualistic models

offer little hope of changing patriarchy bc patriarchy is more than how people think, feel, and behave

obsession with control

patriarchy core value around which social life is organized, any system of privilege that elevates one group by oppressing another, control is an essential element of patriarchy: men maintain their privilege by controlling women and anyone else who might threaten it

publics resistance to mens violence against women

phenomenal amount of public resistance to the idea such patterns could involve anything more than individual misbehavior and psychopathology -BUT such patterns of behavior reflects the oppressive patriarchal relationship that exist btw men and women as dominant and subordinate groups in society as a whole and decades of research established a clear link btw pervasive sexual violence against women and a patriarchal environment in which control and dominance are highly valued in men

patriarchy in institutions

such as family, religion, and economy -people lives are shaped in relation to them

culture provides symbols and language

such ideas out of which to construct a sense of what is real; language mirrors social reality ex: crone, witch, bitch, virgin describe women as threatening, evil, or heterosexually inexperienced thus incomplete

male dominance promotes the idea

that men are superior to women this occurs: we don't distinguish btw the superiority of position in a hierarchy and the kinds of people who occupy them this means: if men occupy superior positions its a short leap to the idea men must be superior ex: if presidents, generals, legislators, priest/popes, corporate CEO's are all men , then men as a group become identified with superiority even though most men rant powerful in their individual lives in this sense: every mans standing in relation to women is enhanced by the male monopoly over authority in patriarchal societies

patriarchy grounded in "GREAT LIE"

that the answer to life needs is disconnection, competition, and control RATHER THAN connection, sharing, and cooperation THE GREAT LIE separates men from what they need most by encouraging them to be autonomous and disconnected when in fact human existence is fundamentally relational

powerful woman under patriarchy

the more powerful a woman is the more "unsexed" she becomes in the eyes of others as her female cultural identity recedes beneath the mantle of male-identified power and the masculine images ass w/ it in other words: power looks sexy on men but not on women

(another aspect of male identification) cultural descriptions of masculinity and the ideal man

this includes qualities such as control, strength, competitiveness, toughness, logic, forcefulness, rationality, autonomy, and control over any emotion that interferes w/ other core values -these qualities are ass w/ work valued most in patriarchal societies: business, politics, war, athletics, law, medicine bc they have been organized in ways that require such qualities for success

man-hating male bashers as most effective weapon against feminist

this works in part bc attacking men challenges the male-identified character of society itself -since men are assumed to be standard, to criticize men in general is to take on society as a whole, which both men and women have a stake in resisting

feminist regularly being trashed

through stereotypes portraying them as humorless, man-hating, angry, whining, antifamily, and lesbian

path of least resistance

using individual models to explain social life: personal experience and motivation are what we know best

in opposition with publicized progress of women

violence and sexual harassment are as pervasive as ever, inequality of income and wealth has not changed much more than the 1950's, and women are still heavily concentrated in a small number of low-level service and "PINK-COLLAR OCCUPATIONS"

post-neolithic path of least resistance for men

was for men to respond to their fear of other men by increasing their own ability to control and dominate, gradually making this a central focus of social life, revolving around affirming, protecting, and enhancing mens standing and security in relation to other men