Women's Studies
Overview
Intercultural Literature
C. Valverde
Culver City High School
Women's Studies
An interdisciplinary academic field that
explores politics, society, media, and
history, from women's and/or feminist
perspectives.
Aims to understand the nature of gender
inequality by examining women's social
roles and lived experiences.
Methodologies: stand-point theory,
intersectionality, multiculturalism,
transnational feminism, autoethnography,
critical theory, queer theory, etc.
Hackman, Heather. Sexism:
Introduction
What is feminism?
Feminism is...
A collection of movements and ideologies aimed at
defining, establishing, and defending equal
political, economic, and social rights for women.
Sexism

The systematic oppression of women on
institutional, cultural, and individual
levels.
Patriarchy
The ideology of male supremacy that justifies male
dominance and the subordination of women in all
aspects of society.
The Binary
The Binary: masculine and feminine roles are
diametrically opposed, as opposites in a
binary, and also hierarchically positioned, as
superior or inferior.
misogyny
Misogyny is a cultural attitude of hatred for
females simply because they are female. It is
manifested in many different ways, from jokes
to pornography to violence to the self-contempt
women may be taught to feel towards their
own bodies.
misandry
The hatred or dislike of men or boys. Misandry can be
manifested in numerous ways, including sexual
discrimination, denigration of men, violence against
men, or sexual objectification of men.
Misandry can take the form of the marginalisation of
men, in which they perform the most dangerous
occupations and are regarded as being disposable,
men having lower life expectancy and higher suicide
rates than women. It has been described as
damaging to both men and women, preventing
mutual respect between the sexes.
Self-objectification
Ariel Levy contends that Western women who exploit
their sexuality by, for example, wearing revealing
clothing and engaging in lewd behavior, engage in
female self-objectification, meaning they objectify
themselves. While some women see such behaviour
as a form of empowerment, Levy contends that it has
led to greater emphasis on a physical criterion or
sexualization for women's perceived self-worth, which
Levy calls "raunch culture."
According to Hackman...
When students say, “there is nothing you can do
about it,” ...
it highlights “the often complete lack of historical
knowledge about the history of individual
women's resistance to these constraints and
the women's social change movements in this
country” (Hackman 318).
According to Hackman...
The struggle to dismantle sexism involves...
* The need to educate men about the ways that sexism and
patriarchy ravage their humanity as well as the lives of the
women they care about and engage them, as men, in the
struggle for change.
* Women must take responsibility for the internalization of
negative messages and transform these debilitating ideas
into sources of power.
* An effective movement to end sexist oppression of women
cannot be done without examining intersecting issues of
racism, classism, heterosexism, and transgender
oppression, to name a few (Hackman 319).
Intersectionality
The theory suggests that—and seeks to examine how—
various biological, social and cultural categories such
as gender, race, class, ability, sexual orientation,
religion, caste, and other axes of identity interact on
multiple and often simultaneous levels, contributing to
systematic injustice and social inequality.
Intersectionality holds that the classical
conceptualizations of oppression within society, such
as racism, sexism, biphobia, homophobia, transphobia,
and belief-based bigotry, do not act independently of
one another. Instead, these forms of oppression
interrelate, creating a system of oppression that
reflects the "intersection" of multiple forms of
discrimination.
Gender Studies
Gender Studies investigates the actual (physical
and biological) gender differences between
women and men, but thinks especially critical
about what these differences mean in a sociocultural context. Gender is a classifying
principle in society and culture.
Gender Roles
Rigid categories (and there are only two) that
characterize what it means to be “feminine”and
“masculine” in this society (Johnson 316).
What does it mean to be a man?
What does it mean to be a woman?
Gender socialization
The messages of what it means to be a
man or woman are conveyed to us by
every possible socializing structure in
society.
Ex: how to behave, what can be
accomplished, what to look like, etc.
Who said men don't
cry?
Who said women are
weak?
BTW, are you a guy or a
girl?
Why is this
an
important
question?
Social constructions
A social mechanism, phenomenon, or
category created and developed by a
society. An idea that is 'constructed'
through cultural and social practice.
Readings cont.

Lorber, Judith (1994). “Night to His Day”:
The Social Construction of Gender.
Gender

Lorber's Thesis: “Most people find it hard to
believe that gender is constantly created and recreated out of human interaction, out of social life,
and is the texture and order of that social life. Yet
gender, like culture, is a human production that
depends on everyone 'doing gender.'”
Gender Construction




Begins with sex category assignment at birth based
on genitalia.
Sex category becomes a gender status: naming,
dress, and other gender markers.
Other: parenting, division of labor, social
expectations, etc.
“These experiences produce different feelings,
consciousness, relationships, skills – ways of being
that we call feminine and masculine” (Lorber 321).
Gender Construction cont.



“Gender is one of the major ways that human beings
organize their lives” (Lorber 322).
“Western society's values legitimate gendering by
claiming that it all comes from physiology – female and
male procreative differences. But gender and sex are not
equivalent, and gender as a social construction does not
flow automatically from genitalia and reproductive
organs...” (Lorber 322).
“Whatever genes, hormones, and biological evolution
contribute to human social institutions is materially as well
as qualitatively transformed by social practices.... Thus, …
gender cannot be equated with biological and
physiological differences between human females and
males. The building blocks of gender are socially
constructed statuses...” (Lorber 322).
Gender Construction cont.



Individuals are born sexed but not
gendered.
Individuals are taught to be masculine or
feminine.
“One is not born, but rather becomes, a
woman...; it is civilization as a whole that
produces this creature... which is described
as feminine” (Simone de Beauvoir)
Gender Construction cont.




“For human beings there is no essential femaleness or
maleness, femininity or masculinity, womanhood or
manhood, but once gender is ascribed, the social order
constructs and holds individuals to strongly gendered
norms and expectations” (Lorber 323).
Often justified by religion and cultural productions and
backed by law.
The most powerful means of sustaining the gender
order is that the “process is made invisible; any
alternatives are virtually unthinkable” (Lorber 323).
Lorber's conclusion: the continuing purpose of
gender as a modern social institution is to construct
women as a groups to be subordinates of men as a
group.
Doing gender...
Gender Identity
A person's private sense, and subjective
experience, of their own gender. It's what
you identify with in your mind, heart and
soul.
Gender?
How do you respond?
4.
Hackman believes that the study of sexism
and patriarchy is as much for men as it is
for women. Do you agree with her
assertion? Explain.
Reflection
Based on the readings, what are some
examples of sexism and/or patriarchy in
your own life (i.e., home, family, etc.)?
End
7.
According to Johnson, what must we all
recognize about patriarchy?
3.
Hackman asks, “So, if gender roles are based on
social constructions and not on nature, why
does society create this dichotomy and respond
so violently to those who do not adhere to it”
(317)? How does she go on to answer this
question?
6.
According to Johnson, patriarchal culture is
a “complex web of ideas...” (334). What
are the various elements of patriarchy.
Heteronormativity
The normalizing of heterosexuality and the
pathologizing (unhealthy or abnormal) of
being lesbian, gay, or bisexual.