Women’s Studies 101 Exam 1
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\"If Men Could Menstruate\"
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Gloria Steinem's essay points out that Gender inequality is not biological, its about what social group has the collective power to define which biologies are superior and which ones are inferior
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The Birdcage
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The image of the birdcage represents oppression of women specifically cited by Marilyn Frye in her essay \"Oppression\".
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Oppression Definition
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Oppression is the 1. Unearned 2. constraints and restrictions of choices 3. that trap and confine 4. Members of groups historically and systematically denied power 5. In a hierarchical society
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Oppression is unearned
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1. Based on an individuals membership in a social group often falsely defined as 'natural group' ex. Blacks, women etc. 2. Not based on individual's lack of 'merit' or hard work or abilities, but often justified as if it were
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Oppression Traps and Confines
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1.Opposes limits on what members of a group can do through stigma and/or informal punishments 2. Restricts the mobility (physical and social) of members 3. Set of interconnected barriers (bird cage)
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Oppression is Historical, Systematic, Group-based and a consequence of social Hierarchies
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1. Not a one time event that causes suffering 2. One way, not 'reverse oppression'
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Oppression reading
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\"Oppression\" by Marilyn Frye
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Feminism Definition
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1. The set of movements or collective struggles 2. Aimed at ending all oppressions experienced by women 3. As well as perspectives, analyses, and theories 4. that have come out of and inform these struggles.
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Feminism Reading
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\"A Day Without Feminism\" by Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards
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Lady
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The word lady represents the ultimate in implied femininity, what every woman should be according to patriarchal rules.
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Lady Readings
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\"Why I am Not a Lady, (and No Woman Is)\" by Sherryl Kleinman
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Double Binds
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A double bind is a situation in which there are very few options but they all expose you to censure
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\"That's So Gay\"
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This is an example of heterosexist (homophobic) language, which is also sexist. The use of \"gay\" is to refer to something bad, out of the norm, or feminine.
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Ideals of Beauty
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1. Associated with being a REAL (feminine) woman and attracting a REAL (masculine) man 2. Very narrowly defined in the dominant culture (ability, race and gender) 3. Unattainable, but what real (feminine) women should always try/buy to attain.
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Ideals of Beauty Reading
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\"Black Women, Beauty and Hair\"
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\"You Whiteys\"
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This term comes from \"a person paper on purity in language\", by Douglas R. Hofstadter, a satire on the common argument that language is not sexist. In it Hofstadter underlines that it IS by replacing men and women as oppressors and oppressed with blacks and whites. In this case 'you whitey's' represents 'you guys'. The switch-up helps point out how wrong it is to have so much gendered language commonly used.
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Cis-Gender and Cis-Gender Privilage
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A cis-gendered person is defined as someone who's gender matches their physical sex (they are biologically and psychologically a woman/man)
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Cis-Gender Reading
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\"Privileges Held By Non-Trans People\" by Avy Skolnik and Anonymous
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Gender as a Social Construction
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Commonly held dominant belief: gender is a biologically determined (fixed) binary.
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Feminist Gender Construction
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1. Gender is a biologically unjustifiable social hierarchy 2. The dominant construction (biological binary) is a means of justifying and policing this hierarchy 3. Actual bodies (biologies) vary, there are not just two kinds
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Intersex
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An Intersex person is someone who was born with 'ambiguous' genitalia.
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Stereotypes about Feminists/Feminism
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Because Feminism is counter to patriarchal culture and society, it does have a stigma and certain stereotypes associated with it.
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Sexist Language
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Everyday sexist language can normalize sexism in our culture 1. Violent language about sex - screw, hump, 2. 'Gender neutral' language that isn't - mankind, chairman 3. Heterosexist language - dude, that's so gay
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Gender Neutral Language
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Gender neutral language isn't neutral because ] 1. It makes women and their experiences and contributions invisible, thus irrelevant and unimportant 2. It helps create and reinforce as normal and natural assumptions that to be a boy/man is • Better then being a girl/woman, • To be (a real) human • And that to be a girl/woman is about the worst thing a guy could be called
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Consequences of Sexist Language
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Sexist language has consequences because: • It can dehumanize • It can make oppression seem natural, normal and right • It defines and limits what/how we think and what alternatives we can and cannot imagine
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Sexist Language Reading
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\"A Person Paper on Purity in Language\" by Douglas Hofstadter
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Transgender
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Transgender people are those whose gender differs from their physical genitals/biologies. They often face stigma, poverty, discrimination and violence.
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Gender as a binary
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This is the common sense, dominant, non-feminist belief system 1. Biologically rooted and always matching: woman=female=feminine, man=male=masculine 2. Opposites - feminine is the opposite of masculine 3. Mutually exclusive - every human is one or the other (never both) 4. Exhaustive - applies to everyone.
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Feminist Views on Gender Binary
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1. They are human inventions that change and vary independently of biology 2. Biology and gender do not always 'match' 3. They are (almost always) unequally valued 4. The dominant view is an effort to justify and protect this inequality on behalf of masculine or 'real' men.
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A Feminist Facebook
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How Facebook 'social network platform' would be different if DESIGNED by feminists 1. Would be a service instead of a product 2. Would aim to facilitate equal and inclusive relationships (change power relationships) 3. Advance social change, bring about social, economic and ecological justice 4. Honor self-definition
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A Feminist Facebook Reading
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\"Facebook For Women vs. Facebook Designed by Feminists: Different vs. Revolutionary\" by C.V Harquail
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Biological Determinism
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Biological Determinism is the interpretation of humans and human life from a strictly biological point of view.
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Advertising's Objectification of Women
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1. Advertising sells us a narrow and unequal set of expectations for both men and women 2. Women are treated as objects, not people, in ads (Objectification). This incites violence against women. 4. Provides women with an impossible ideal
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Women in Advertising
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• Flawlessness that is impossible to achieve (photoshopped) • Dismembered body parts in ads (only breasts, shoes etc.) • Obsession with thinness • Models appear passive, vulnerable, submissive, like a little girl • Eroticizing violence
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Advertising's objectification of men
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Comparing the objectification of men to that of women in advertising a false parallel. The media's objectification of women's bodies has more severe negative consequences because men as a group have the systematic power to control and hurt women and women as a group don't have that same power.
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Advertising's Objectification of Women Reading
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\"Killing Us Softly 4\" by Jean Kilbourne
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Patriarchy Definition
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Patriarchy is a system of oppression based on Gender in which all women are oppressed regardless of race, class or sexuality, and all men benefit from patriarchy regardless of race, class or sexuality.
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The Patriarchal System
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1. Masculine (male) dominated - men hold positions of authority and wealth 2. Masculine (male) identified - masculinity is culturally valued, normal, superior to femininity 3. Masculne (male) centered - what men do is more important, gets more attention than what women do 4. Backed up by violence and the threat of violence
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Patriarchy Reading
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\"Patriarchy\" by Allan Johnson
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Don't Get Raped vs. Don't Rape
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society puts the responsibility on women (the victim) to protect themselves and the blame if they can't do that and must deal with the results.
