Gender Trouble

1
Gender Trouble

• Pol 222

2
Race, Sexuality, Disability

• What are some privileges you enjoy because of
  group membership?
• Unpacking knapsack
• Heterosexual questionnaire
• How do social norms/stereotypes/common
  assumptions advantage you because of your group
  membership?

3
Race Sexuality Disability

• Flight from the Rejected Body
• What is a normal body?
• We idealize certain bodies
• We objectify and reject our own bodies
• Myths of control over our bodies
• leads to blame the victim attitudes
• Femininity and Masculinity

4
Race and Gender

• Unpacking the knapsack of race and gender
  privilege-
• Disadvantage has privilege as a counterpart
• Not about choice by individuals
• Role of Denial, Obliviousness
• Can we think of other ways we are priveleged and
  or oppressed? Things we take for granted or think
  are solely earned

5
Sexuality and Gender

• Heterosexual Questionnaire
• We never ask these questions of straight people
• What assumptions underlie these questions?
• What stereotypes about people of different sexual
  orientations?

6
Divisions Among Women

• Some women and men are privileged or
  disadvantaged by group membership other than
  gender
• How can we take this into account in studying
  gender?
• Does it even make sense to think about women or
  men as a group at all?

7
Responses to Diversity

• Lorde
• Anger v. Silence
• Racism within the womens movement- White Women
• What should we do about it? Use anger to move to
  action, not guilt
• Does such anger threaten solidarity?
• How can we respond to such anger constructively?