Gender and Women Studies 102 – Flashcards

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Adrienne Rich: Claiming an Education (1977)
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In an address to students at a women's college, Rich stresses the importance of being active and taking responsibility for your own education. "The difference is that between being acting and begin acted-upon, and for women it can literally mean the difference between life and death" "you are haring what men, above all white men, in their male subjectivity, have decided is important" "Responsibility to yourself means refusing to let others do your thinking, talking, and naming for you; it means learning to respect and use your own brain and instinct; hence, grappling with hard work."
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Hogue et al: Talking the Talk and Walking the Walk: Ethical Pedagogy in the Multicultural Classroom (1998)
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A professor and two students discuss a conflict around race in the classroom. They discuss the problem of hierarchy, the power difference between teacher and student, amplified by other power differences (race/sex etc.) In the incident described, a white student, attempting to show her understanding for black students, says something racist. There are advantages and disadvantages to the teacher intervening to stop the discussion, or allowing the students to work out the implications. They agree a list of ground rules can be helpful. They conclude that it is essential for the teacher to be willing to confront their own positions of power. "in-class conflict does not have to destructive, it cn also be productive" "the unequal power relationship that exists between teacher and student cannot be denied"
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Emily Martin: "The Egg and the Sperm" (2006)
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Emily Martin argues that metaphors we use in science, especially those with the sperm and egg, reiterate cultural ideas about passive females and heroic males. She urges people to stray away from these gender biases when describing scientific knowledge and adopt a cybernetic model. "How scientific knowledge, believed to be factual and objective, reflects biases against women that are shared by the societies in which this knowledge is produced." "none of these texts express such intense enthusiasm for any female process" "to avoid the negative connotations that some people associate with the female reproductive system, scientists could begin to describe male and female processes as homologous" "cybernotic model- shift our imagery from the negative, in which the female reproductive system is castigated both for not producing eggs after birth and for producing (and not wasting) too many eggs overall, to something more positive" "feminist challenge is to wake up sleeping metaphors in science, particularly those involved in descriptions of the egg and the sperm"
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Stephen Jay Gould: "Women's Brains" (1980)
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Stephen Jay Gould evaluates Broca's claims from the 1800's that women have smaller brains than men and therefore are less intelligent. The article shows the prejudices in research and how interpretation of results can be biases and ill-founded.
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Lesbians, Men-Women, and Two-Spirits: Homosexuality and Gender in Native American Cultures
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Overall Concept: "to present the Native American view of homosexual behavior in past and present terms. In the past, two-spirit people were spiritually guided to become women-men and sleeping with the same sex wasn't out of the ordinary. In the present, two-spirit people are shaped by a variety of factors including tribal traditions and western culture which has developed some homophobia in Indian cultures."
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The Social Construction of Race: Some Observations on Illusion, Fabrication, and Choice by Ian Lopez (1994)
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This articles tells us about the meaning of race according to Hudgins and how to case of Hudgins v Wright provides examples for many different racial inequalities. It highlights the power of race in our society, the role of law in defining identities, and what race truly means. "The characteristics of our hair, complexion, and facial features still influence whether or not we are figuratively free or enslaved." "Hudgins demonstrates that law serves not only to reflect but to solidify social prejudice, making law a prime instrument in the construction and reinforcement of racial subordination" "Race must be viewed as a social construction"
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The Ethics of Genetic Research on Sexual Orientation by Udo Shuklenk and Edward Stein (1997)
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Authors of this article discuss the dangers of researching sexual orientation and the ethical issues that come along with it. Although research on this topic has been ongoing for more than a hundred years, there seems to be no clear linkage between sexual orientation and how its effected by genetics and environmental influences. "In the US, several scholars and lesbian and gay activists have argued that establishing a genetic basis for sexual orientation will help make the case for lesbian and gay rights"
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Gerda Lerner: The Creation of Patriarchy (1986)
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This article explores the relentless control and abuse of women throughout history and how that has shaped our cultures, religions, work, education, and overall lives. The author then goes on to explain that all revolutions started with the raising of the oppressed to a higher life status; to do this for women, we need to abandon patriarchal thought. "Women themselves became a resource; acquired by men much as the land was acquired by men" "in exchange for your sexual, economic, political, and intellectual subordination to men you share the power of men in your class to exploit men and women of the lower class" "as long as both men and women regard the subordination of half the human race to the other as 'natural', it is impossible to envision a society in which differences do not connote either dominance or subordination"
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Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: The Reply to Sor Philotea
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This article was written to explain how the bible actually supports women teaching and learning. She also explains how and in what ways the men in power have used their own sexism to create situations in which most women have proven to be undeserving of the knowledge that men have. She says that men must find a way to educate their daughters so that they ma achieve the same as their sons and why this is important.
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Mary Astell: A Serious Proposal to the Ladies (1694)
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This article addresses how women should be entitled to an education as much as a man is. Astell makes the argument that women are just as intelligent as men and therefore can mentally comprehend the literature involved in studying Religion. Astell proposes that in order to be a better person and a more devout Christian we should study the bible directly. She also states that women will not try to be better Christians than men and that they only want to be better people.
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Li Ju-Chen: Flowers in the Mirror (1800)
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In this satirical reenactment of Qing dynasty China, the setting of the novel switches the gender roles of males and females, with the female "men" being superior and the male "women" being inferior. Merchant Lin, a man unfamiliar with the social construction journeys from afar and incorporates himself unintentionally into life in the palace. The "king" orders him to have his feet bound and for him to be washed and perfumed daily. This story unhinges the absurd social construction of traditional Qing dynasty in a comedic way.
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Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti: "We Had Equality until Britain Came" (1947)
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"Before the British advent in Nigeria...there was division of labour between men and women...Women owned property, traded and exercised considerable political and social influence in society..." "With the advent of British rule...instead of the women being educated and assisted to live like human beings, their condition has deteriorated"
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Allen Johnson: The Gender Knot: Unravelling our Patriarchal Legacy. "Why Patriarchy?" (1997)
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"What kind of social engine could create and sustain such an oppressive system in the face of all the good reasons against it?" "Essentialism doesn't hold up as a way to understand patriarchy" Patriarchy is about what goes on between men primarily Men are afraid of being controlled by other men
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Mary Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of Women
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In this article, Wollstonecraft explains that some bare rendered weak and inferior by society partly because of a false system of education. She also stresses that some some bare "only anxious to inspire love, when they ought to cherish a nobler ambition...and exact respect". She explains that men and women are guilty of lowering women to "insignificant objects of desire" rather than human beings worthy of friendship or respect. Wollstonecraft also argues that women have faults directly because of the poor education and station in society that they are given- and when women are free in a physical, moral, a civil sense, they will "correct their vices and follies"
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Anna Julia Cooper: "A Voice From the South" (1892)
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Cooper talks about the issues of both racial and gender based discrimination, and how both are limiting society, and by limiting society through racial and gender discrimination, humanity is losing valuable resources. Cooper emphasizes how the WOmen's Movement is especially limited and needs to include and support women of all races, because a women's voice deserves to be heard regardless of the color of her skin. "It is not the intelligent woman vs. the ignorant women; nor the white woman vs the black, the brown, and the red- it is not even the cause of woman vs man. Nay, tis woman's strongest vindication for speaking that the world needs to hear her voice. It would be subversive of every human interest that the cry of one-half of the human family be stifled."
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Flora Tristan: "The Emancipation of Working Class Women" (1843)
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Tristan writes about how although men have been guaranteed many rights, women still are excluded from all sectors, including the Church, the law, and society. She is writing this to convince the proletariat men of France to stand up and fight for the rights of women. She believes that women deserve an education to better the future generations, to better society, and to better conditions for the working class as a whole. Tristan's main points of her "Declaration of the Rights of Woman" are that women and men equally should be guaranteed the rights of working class men, equality for admission into the Worker's Union, equal right to an education, and equal treatment for the injured and elderly men and women.
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Rupp: Challenging Imperialism in International WOmen's Organizations
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Rupp discusses the interactions of major transnational groups in order to understand both the limitations and possibilities of internationalism in the first wave of the women's rights movement. Rupp examines tensions within contemporary national feminism, such as the major organization relying on Euro-American leadership. Discussions at some women's rights conferences tended to put "first world" women against "third world" women. But the imperialism within women's rights organizations was challenged by many, calling attention to the arrogance of western ways and the exclusion of the concerns of women beyond Europe.
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Elizabeth Cady Stanton: Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions (USA, 1848)
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Based of the Declaration of Independence. She presented the piece at the first women's convention in Seneca Falls, New York. 68 women and 32 men signed the actual document. The purpose of this piece was to get the ideas of women's rights out in the open. In the document she points out the "repeated injuries" men have made against women, as well as things she things need to be resolved. ""...that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"
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Sojourner Truth: Two Speeches (USA 1851, 1867)
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Truth was a slave for half of her life and free for the other half. She was known for her abolitionist and women's activist speeches. Her speeches were biblically influenced and very persuasive. In her first speech, her main focus is strength- how she is just as strong as any man. Her second speech deals with voting- she believes colored women should have the right to vote if colored men can.
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Francisca Dinz: Equality of Rights" (Brazil, 1890)
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Dinz argues in favor of the right for women to vote all over the world. She states that women everywhere should no longer be subjected to a "semislavery" ruled by men, the "stronger sex". As people with no voice, Dinz believes that the only way for women to receive emancipation is through education and moral advancement. This way, woman can realize their self-worth and reach their intellectual potential. Though women bring a different viewpoint to the political world, which can be seen as "utopian", they are in fact "great and noble". Therefore, women should be granted their innate right to vote.
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Shareefeh Hamid Ali: East and West Cooperation (India, 1935)
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Shareefeh Hamid Ali is speaking to western women at the IAW conference in Istanbul. She explains that the women of the east "wish to gain a position worthy of womanhood" and request assistance from western women; moreover, she states that if the western women help them, they will have eastern women as allies in the fight for women's rights. However, Ali has conditions that the west must comply with before they consider each other allies. First, the preservation of culture is very important, including ideologies, respect for mothers, importance of family, and dress. The east will not tolerate "any arrogant assumption of superiority or of patronage on the part of Europe or America". The east wishes to install a sense of peace all over the world and li believes that this can be achieved through this mutually beneficial partnership.
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Betty Friedan: The Feminine Mystique
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Friedan discusses the lives of women during the "second wave" of feminism in the US, which took place after WWII. The definition of feminism had changed drastically from the first wave; now feminism was about seeking roles of fulfillment as wives and mothers with no desire to greater destiny than a woman's femininity. By 1960, the average marriage age of a woman dropped to 20 with the birthrate overtaking India's. Consequently, the rate of women attending college in comparison to men was only 38% in 1958. The suburban housewife became the American dream for women. However, as women developed into their lives, they began to have a "problem". The problem was that they were not fulfilling their full potential.
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Pauli Murray: Testimony, House Committee on Education and Labor
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Murray is a negro woman who has felt discrimination through both race and gender. Although many people feel racism is the number one human relation issue, she feels that the battle against sexism is equally important. There are many different types of races in the world, but there are only 2 sexes in the world; to receive equal rights for everyone, Murray feels that women's rights must be given first. She also looks at men and the standard they have built for themselves stating "many men find themselves unable to live up to the expectations of masculinity which they have defined for themselves". Men must let a little masculinity go in order to let the roles of feminism broaden. "In my view it is only as we recognize and hold sacred the uniqueness of each individual that we come to see clearly the moral and social evil of locking this individual into a group stereotype, whether favorable or unfavorable."
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Domitila Barrios de Chungara: The Woman's Problem
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She argues that feminism should not be advocating an equality with men, but rather women should desire a liberation for themselves. She believes that there are 2 types of liberation: (1) those who view freedom when equal to "men and their vices"; (2) those who see equality to men as when an opinion is equal- those who associate equality "inside and outside the home". In regard to that, Chungara preaches for an imitation of men's good points rather than their "vices". She rhetorically questions, "...do we really want to smoke cigarettes? Do we real want to go out drinking and living it up like our husbands?" She generalizes in saying that women have become unintentionally complacent in their roles.
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bell hooks: Black Women Shaping Feminist Theory
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bell hooks argues that there is a discrepancy between feminist ideas/theories and actual experiences within class/race/sex. That is, she contends that elitist feminist theorists- "privileged, upper-class white women" provide an inaccurate representation of people in common society through a lack of urgency for an all-inclusive feminist outreach. She says, "white women who dominate feminist discourse, who for the most part make and articulate feminist theory have little or no understanding of white supremacy as a radical politic." For the first part of the excerpt, hooks critiques Friedan's "Mystique" and demonstrates how a work that seemed to "pave the way" for feminist theorists only highlights the "issues" of a very select group of individuals. This pushes the reader to question and consider one of the themes of the class- is there a way in which feminist discourse can be objective?
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Crenshaw: Mapping the Margins
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In this article, the author talks about structural intersectionality and how women of color can't seek help due to their rates in poverty. Generation after generation, they are constantly being weighed down by not having any education and money to support their children. Because of their disadvantages, they are often denied the opportunity to seek help against domestic violence within their homes. They are more concerned with try ping to protect their home/families against outside judgements. They're afraid that if they speak out and seek help that they will be letting the rest of the world know how bad colored people really are. Not only do colored women have difficulty seeking help, but so do women who are immigrants. Women who are immigrants don't seek help because they are afraid of being deported, so instead they often stay and deal with the abuse in their homes. Because of their language barriers, it is extremely difficult for them to find help. Many places that offer help to battered women don't take in some that can't speak or understand English because they claim that those women won't be able to participate. Both colored and immigrant women are socially and economically challenged.
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Peggy McIntosh: White Privilege- Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack
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As a white female who is well aware of male privilege, McIntosh looks at her own complicity in white supremacy. She looks at white privilege- the unearned and unasked for advantages that white people receive in our racist society. These privileges, McIntosh sees, are often invisible to the people who benefit from them. She creates a list of examples of white privilege. "26. I can chose blemish cover or bandages in flesh color that more or less matches my skin. "
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Anzaldua: La Conciencia de La Mestiza
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About the difficulty of being a part of 2 different cultures, world, and ideas. La Mestiza is trying to change the way she sees herself by including the 2 cultures together, instead of excluding them. By doing this, she adopts a new consciousness; a consciousness that gives us the opportunity to break down inequalities, oppression; creating a unifying self that focuses on giving the world a new meaning.
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Chan: You're Short Besides!
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This incident is worth recounting only because it illustrates a dilemma that handicapped persons face frequently: those who care about us sometimes get so protective that they unwittingly limit our growth." This quote shows that even people who are close to someone with disability, even those who have known them their whole life can fall into discriminatory thoughts and actions.
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Combahee River Collective: A Black Feminist Statement
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Author talks about women of color and their experiences in the feminist and black power movements. It talks about how those women felt like they were the only ones who cares about themselves because everyone else looked down on them when all they wanted was to be seen as humans. No one else ever took the time to look at the different perspectives of their lives, not even the black men. The black males were even strongly against their movement because women were always seen as less than men. These women of color felt that not once did someone come along and realize that they are not only fighting racism, but classism and sexism also. "If Black women were free, it would mean that everyone else would have to be free since our freedom would necessitate the destruction of all the systems of oppression."
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Federation of South African Women: "Women's Charter and Aims"
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In the 1940's, a women's league in South Africa called the African National Congress formed to discuss the inequalities of apartheid from a feminist's perspective. At that time, women were required to carry passes to move about in the public, and many women couldn't go places. The ANC rebelled this by gathering 10,000 women at a 1965 march. In 1996 they successfully ensured women's full citizenship in the democratic constitution. This excerpt goes over their proposal for women's rights, outlines women's unequal obligation to the family, and the dichotomy between rich and poor. Their main points included women and men becoming equals in a single society, women gaining right to own property, becoming individuals under the law, the unnecessary fabrication of rich and poor, equal employment and pay for women, free education for all, and permanent peace throughout the world.
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Maoism, Feminision, and the UN Coference on WOmen: Women's Studies Research in Contemporary China- Wang Zheng
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Women's studies in China began in the 1980s under the Chinese Communist Party. Under this government, the WOmen's Federation was formed. This organization focused on Maoist Theory of Women, which focused on women's equality in employment, society, and opportunity because it fell under the rules of communism. This group was the first to study women themselves. Shortly after its founding, the WOmen's Federation was joined by another independent group of women scholars in academia who were not funded by the government because they believed women had the power to form their own activist group without government assistance and oversight. In the early 1990s, the shift away from the CCP and to a more capitalist China changed the course of the women's rights groups. One of the most notable new ideas was GENDER DIFFERENTIATION, which emphasized femininity and women's differences from men. This instigated a raise in women's studies as well. In the early 1990's, the Chinese Society for WOmen's Studies in the US was formed. It promoted western women's studies in CHina. Finally, in 1994, China was slated to host the 4th World Conference on Women. However, during that time, government openness to women's studies and rights ended and China attempted to keep their country as removed as possible from the conference they hosted. In more recent years, China has taken a more liberal stnce and two government documents: Platform for Action and The Beijing Document, signified China's switch to global feminism.
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Lamas: Building Bridges: The Growth of Popular Feminism in Mexico
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INSTITUTIONAL REVOLUTIONARY PARTY: (PRI- 1929) Politicians received positions through favors, which they must later return; made reform very hard when the government was itself corrupted MACHISMO: Idea of male dominance, indigenous women were especially marginalized, concept reinforced by the Catholic Church. WOMEN'S MOVEMENT: Refers to not only feminist movement but also that gender is an issue of political and social concern. Four organized sectors (Middle-class feminist, industrial workers and other employees, peasant women, and women from poor urban sectors) 1970's: Women's Movement in Mexico largely expressed in consciousness raising groups constituted mainly of middle-class women; mostly related to sexuality. 1980's: Popular Feminism, which addressed both class and gender inequality. Economic recession which took jobs held by women and gave them to men. 1990's: Government quickly implemented programs to defer Mexico's rage over the PRI candidate winning the election. There was organizational progress and unity among many diverse groups relating to sex crimes.
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Winifred Woodhall: Global Feminisms, TRansnational Politcal Economies, Third World Cultural Production
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Woodhall argues that feminists in the third wave need to recognize that the world is very interconnected and feminism needs to be seem in global terms. Feminism shouldn't just be about western wealthy countries. Key mandate of third wave feminism was to prove that feminism was alive and well. Riot Grrrls activism: "the most comprehensive reflections on third wave feminism that appeared in the US attest to feminism's capacity to adapt to historical change and to confront the issues currently affecting women and others subject to sexual domination and harassment." Woodhall's thoughts on global citizenship: "To adopt a global frame surely means taking into account, as all Third World feminists are obliged to do, the neo-liberal economic forces driving globalisation, a process characterised by cross-border flows of finance capital and commodities, as well as by unprecedented migrations of cultures, ide!ls, and people, the majority of them poor labourers or refugees."
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Michael Kimmel: Guyland- The Perilous World Where Guys Become Men (2008)
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Kimmel argues that in Guyland (America), we don't have any official initiation into manhood by elders, so men have "identity crises, wondering who they are, if they can measure up, if they are man enough". In America, peers initiate peers. "Initiations in Guyland are about the passage from boyhood to manhood. Boyhood is the world of women" "The rituals may be proving manhood, but it is the manhood of the members themselves rather than of the initiates that is on the line. Inflicting such punishment confirms the members' legitimacy."
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Kathleen Hanna: Riot Grrrl Manifesto
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Hanna protests the lack of radical female voices in popular culture. She identifies the punk rock attitude as essential to reclaiming a vibrant female sexuality, culture, and revolutionary politics. The manifesto captures some of the important theoretical features of third wave feminism such as embracing intersectionality and resisting all forms of oppression. It also expresses the "truepunkrocksoulcrusaders" spirit of the third wave.
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Rebecca Walker: Becoming the Third Wave
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Rebecca Walker was motivated by Anita Hill's case. Walker called for a third wave. She rejected post-feminism ideas and wanted to engage the youth in politics. Told women not to have sex with, break bread with, or nurture men until they prioritize our freedom.
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Lisa Duggan: Holy Matrimony!
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Duggan addresses one of the most often repeated criticisms of marriage equality- that if we allow gay couples to marry then "anything goes". She uses this to question the function of marriage and argues we would do well as a society to consider the possibility of alternative forms of mutually-spportive households. She quotes an opponent of marriage equality who lays out the following scenario: 2 single women; one with a child and no benefits, and one with no family and a job with benefits. The two women have an open marriage. She questions if this is actually a negative scenario, suggesting instead that this might be a functional and positive household which the government would do well to support. She concludes by talking about the way that the popular political fight between Left and Right over marriage has narrowed our vision, and suggests instead we should "expand and democratize" access to benefits so that our society recognizes people's material human rights regardless of their relationship status.
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Javier Corrales: LGBT Rights in the Americas 2012
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Corrales discusses how Latin America has emerged as a world leader in LGBT rights, with some of the most advanced legislation, but it has some of the worst forms of homophobia as well. "Latin American LGBT groups are finding that...gay rights in the books 'will mean nothing' as long as discrimination and violence remain rampant." Corrales developed a way to rate countries on their legal environment and number of LGBT-friendly organizations. Argentina had the highest scores; 6 reasons: (1) Argentine Catholics don't attend church as much and there are a smaller number of evangelicals (2) Separation of Church and Party (3) Transnational Legalism (4) Argentina's pro-LGBT groups drew from domestic sources as well as abroad (5) No referendum democracy (6) Argentina's president took a risk by backing the bill
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Mona Lena Krook: Gender Quotas, Norms, and Politics (2006)
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Krook discusses the issues of gender quotas in politics. Mainly why people oppose these quotas: "...they privilege groups over individuals, undermine equality of opportunities, and ignore other more pressing social cleavages". Krook goes on to talk about how gender quotas have grown globally: "political parties in more than 90 countries today impose some form of gender quotas for elections to the national parliament"
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Social Constructivism
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Gender imposes limits, but these limits can change
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Essentialism
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The idea that a naturally occurring trait or set of traits (usually biological, genetic, or physiological) defines a particular group of people and that is unchanging over time.
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Gender
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Social category imposed on sexual body
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Sex
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Biological differences between men and women
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Positivism
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Research that assumes a distance between the researcher and the object of study- absence of emotion
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Intersex
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both genitalia at birth
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transgender
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genitalia doesn't match the gender
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transexual
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alter body through surgery
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queer
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inclusive term for gays and lesbians
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two-spirit
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women-men, men-women; gender variance
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race
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perceptions made about a cultural group; categorizes humans into groups by phenotype, geographic ancestry, ethnicity, and social status
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Intersectionality
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People of the same social class are more different than people of the same race; makes up your identity; power relations of the oppressed and the oppressor, privileged and unprivileged
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Patriarchal Liberalism
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The creation of citizenship for men only, and women remain subordinate to male citizens.
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