HISTORY OF GENDER
The Development of Gender Theory
(Classical, Modern and Post Modern)
Outline of Lecture
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Studying gender
Influences of gender studies
Development of gender theory
Criticism on gender studies and theory
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“One is not born a woman, one
becomes one.”
-Simone
de Beauvoir
French Philosopher and Literary Writer
(1908-1986)
(1949, 1989) "The Second Sex"
In gender studies…
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In Gender Studies the term "gender" is used to
refer to the social and cultural constructions of
masculinities and femininities. It does not refer
to biological difference, but rather cultural
difference.
Studies of gender have been undertaken in many
academic areas, such as literary theory, drama
studies, film theory, performance theory,
contemporary art history, anthropology,
sociology, psychology and psychoanalysis.
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In gender studies…
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These disciplines sometimes
differ in their approaches to how
and why they study gender.
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For instance in anthropology,
sociology and psychology, gender is
often studied as a practice, whereas
in cultural studies representations of
gender are more often examined.
Gender Studies is also a discipline
in itself: an interdisciplinary area of
study that incorporates methods and
approaches from a wide range of
disciplines.
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Influences of gender studies
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SIGMUND FREUD
(1856-1939)
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Freud hoped to prove that his
model was universally valid and
thus turned to ancient mythology
and contemporary ethnography for
comparative material. Freud named
his new theory the Oedipus
complex after the famous Greek
tragedy Oedipus Rex by Sophocles.
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Influences of gender studies
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"I found in myself a constant love for my
mother, and jealousy of my father. I now
consider this to be a universal event in
childhood," Freud said.
Freud sought to anchor this pattern of
development in the dynamics of the
mind. Each stage is a progression into
adult sexual maturity, characterized by a
strong ego and the ability to delay
gratification (cf. Three Essays on the
Theory of Sexuality).
He used the Oedipus conflict to point
out how much he believed that people
desire incest and must repress that
desire. The Oedipus conflict was
described as a state of psychosexual
development and awareness.
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Influences of gender studies
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Freud also believed that
the libido developed in
individuals by changing
its object, a process
codified by the concept of
sublimation.
He argued that humans are
born "polymorphously
perverse", meaning that
any number of objects
could be a source of
pleasure.
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Influences of gender studies
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Freud further argued that, as humans develop, they become
fixated on different and specific objects through their stages of
development
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ORAL stage (exemplified by an infant's pleasure in nursing)
– ANAL stage (exemplified by a toddler's pleasure in evacuating his
or her bowels)
– PHALLIC stage (exemplified by the symbols of penis)
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Freud argued that children then passed through a stage in which
they fixated on the mother as a sexual object (known as the
Oedipus Complex) but that the child eventually overcame and
repressed this desire because of its taboo nature. (The lesser
known Electra complex refers to such a fixation on the father.)
The repressive or dormant latency stage of psychosexual
development preceded the sexually mature genital stage of
psychosexual development.
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Influences of gender studies
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Freud's way of interpretation has
been called phallocentric by
many contemporary thinkers.
This is because of, for Freud, the
unconscious desires for the
phallus (penis).
Males are afraid of losing their
masculinity, symbolized by the
phallus, to another male.
Females always desire to have a
phallus - an unfulfillable desire.
Thus boys resent their fathers
(fear of castration) and girls
desire theirs.
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Influences of gender studies
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Critical reactions to Freud …
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Freud's theories are not real
science
– Freud's psychoanalytical
theory was a byproduct of his
cocaine use
– some feminists have argued
that his views of women's
sexual development supported
the ideology of female
inferiority. Believing that
women are like mutilated men,
who must learn to accept their
lack of a penis and submit to
some imagined biological
imperative
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Freud contributed to the
vocabulary of misogyny
(hatred to men). Terms such
as "penis envy" and
"castration anxiety"
contributed to discouraging
women from entering any
field dominated by men,
until the 1970s
– Anti-women in Freud’s
psychoanalytical theory
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Influences of gender studies
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JULIET MITCHELL (British Feminist)
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“A fixed image of the future is in the worst sense a
historical”.
• A substantial part of the thesis of her book
Psychoanalysis and Feminism. Freud, Reich, Laing and
Women (1974) is that Marxism may provide a model
within which non-Patriarchal structures for rearing
children could occur.
• The lack of the 'family romance' would remove the
Oedipus Complex from a child's development, thus
liberating women from the consequences of Penis Envy
and the feeling of being castrated which Mitchell
contends is the root cause of women's acceptance that
they are inferior.
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Influences of gender studies
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JACQUES LACAN (French
psychoanalyst, psychiatrist,
and doctor – 1901-1981)
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Lacan writes, "The mirror
stage is a phenomenon to
which I assign a twofold
value. In the first place, it has
historical value as it marks a
decisive turning-point in the
mental development of the
child. In the second place, it
typifies an essential libidinal
relationship with the bodyimage"
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Influences of gender studies
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The 3 Orders
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IMAGERY
• Social conditioning of people
(from childhood to adulthood)
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SYMBOLIC
• Social influencing of people
(what the person wanted to
project to the world)
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REAL
• Self-identification of gender
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Influences of gender studies
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JULIA KRISTEVA (b.1941 Bulgarian-French philosopher,
literary critic, psychoanalyst,
and a feminist)
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Known for her studies on
gender and the influence of
SEMIOTICS (study of sign
processes (semiosis), or
signification and
communication, signs and
symbols, both individually and
grouped into sign systems. It
includes the study of how
meaning is constructed and
understood.)
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Influences of gender studies
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Lacanian Theme
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0-6 months of age
• Kristeva refers to this stage as
the chora. In the earliest stage
of development, you were
dominated by a chaotic mix
of perceptions, feelings, and
needs. You did not distinguish
your own self from that of
your mother or even the world
around you. Rather, you spent
your time taking into yourself
everything that you
experienced as pleasurable
without any acknowledgment
of boundaries.
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4-8 months of age
• Kristeva posits that
During this time in your
development, you began
to establish a separation
between yourself and the
maternal, thus creating
those boundaries between
self and other that must be
in place before the
entrance into language
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Influences of gender studies
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6-18 months of age
• This recognition of the
self's image precedes
the entrance into
language, after which
the subject (person) can
understand the place of
that image of the self
within a larger social
order, in which the
subject must negotiate
his or her relationship
with others
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18 months to 4 years
of age
• Once you entered
into the differential
system of language,
it forever afterwards
determined your
perception of the
world around you,
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Development of gender theory
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Women’s (Feminist) Theory
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is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to
topics concerning women, feminism, gender, and
politics.
It often includes feminist theory, women's history
(e.g. a history of women's suffrage) and social
history, women's fiction, women's health, feminist
psychoanalysis and the feminist and gender studiesinfluenced practice of most of the humanities and
social sciences.
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Development of gender theory
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Feminist theory is the
extension of feminism into
theoretical, or philosophical,
ground. It encompasses work
done in a broad variety of
disciplines, prominently
including the approaches to
women's roles and lives and
feminist politics in
anthropology and sociology,
psychoanalysis, economics,
women's and gender studies,
feminist literary criticism,
and philosophy especially
Continental philosophy.
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Feminist theory aims to
understand the nature of
inequality and focuses on
gender politics, power relations
and sexuality. While generally
providing a critique of social
relations, much of feminist
theory also focuses on
analyzing gender inequality and
the promotion of women's
rights, interests, and issues such
as social inequity and
oppression done on women.
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Development of gender theory
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Psychoanalytical feminists believe
that gender inequality comes from
early childhood experiences,
which lead men to believe
themselves to be masculine, and
women to believe themselves
feminine. It is further maintained
that gender leads to a social
system that is dominated by
males, which in turn influences
the individual psycho-sexual
development.
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Development of gender theory
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Men’s (Masculinity) Studies
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is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to
topics concerning men, masculinity, gender, and
politics. As a relatively new field of study, men's
studies was formed largely in response to, and as
a critique of, an emerging men's rights movement
- itself a response to both the real and perceived
advantages brought to women by feminism
political action - and as such, has been taught in
academic settings only since the 1970s.
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Development of gender theory
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Men’s Studies
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QUEER THEORY
• Queer theory is a field of
Gender Studies that emerged
in the early 1990s out of the
fields of gay and lesbian
studies and feminist studies.
• Heavily influenced by the
work of Michel Foucault, as
well as by Jacques Derrida
and other deconstructionists,
queer theory builds both upon
feminist challenges to the idea
that gender is part of the
essential self and upon
gay/lesbian studies' close
examination of the socially
constructed nature of sexual
acts and identities.
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Development of gender theory
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Queer theory, unlike some feminist
theories and studies, includes a wide
array of previously considered nonnormative sexualities and sexual
practices in its list of identities.
Because queer theory is grounded in
gender and sexuality, there is debate
as to whether sexual orientation is
natural or essential, or if it is merely
a construction and subject to change.
The focus of theorists is the problem
of classifying every individual by
gender; therefore queer is less an
identity than a critique of identity.
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Development of gender theory
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Masculinity Theory
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Janet Saltzman Chafetz (1974) describes
seven areas of masculinity.
• Physical — virile, athletic, strong, brave.
Unconcerned about appearance and aging;
• Functional — breadwinner, provider for
family as much as mate
• Sexual — sexually aggressive, experienced.
Single status acceptable; (do not mind to
walk around naked, especially around other
guys)
• Emotional — unemotional, stoic, the proverb
says boys don't cry;
• Intellectual — logical, intellectual, rational,
objective, practical,
• Interpersonal — leader, dominating;
disciplinarian; independent, free,
individualistic; demanding;
• Other Personal Characteristics — successoriented, ambitious, aggressive, proud,
egotistical; moral, trustworthy; decisive,
competitive, uninhibited, adventurous.
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Development of gender theory
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Masculinity looks different
in different cultures, there
are common aspects to its
definition across cultures.
Sometimes gender scholars
will use the phrase
"hegemonic masculinity"
to distinguish the most
dominant form of
masculinity from other
variants.
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Development of gender theory
Hegemonic Masculinity
The following roles are frequently associated with
masculinity in terms of roles and genitalia:
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Military/fighter/warrior:soldier, warrior,
airman, knight, Marine, mercenary,
samurai, seaman, sailor, viking
Other uniformed professions: firefighter,
fireman, park ranger, pilot, police officer,
SWAT, coastguard, doctor, engineer
Criminals: assassin, duellist, gun runner,
mercenary, mobster, pirate
Superhero or supervillain
Manual laborers: construction worker,
dock worker, foreman, lumberjack,
mechanic, truck driver, Fisherman
Cowboy
Athlete: basketball, boxing, rugby,
rowing, athletics, bodybuilding,
weightlifting, football, martial arts,
baseball, hockey, wrestling and lacrosse
Male nobility: emperor, king, prince,
duke, count, earl, baron, lord, shogun
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Criticism on Gender Theory
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Propagating the “great divide” men
vs. women
Offshoot of feminist activism in the
study of gender differentiation
Gender studies/theory is synonymous
to women’s studies
Gearing away from the construct of
personhood
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