Gender 's

Studies
Overview

Prof BOUYA
Gender ‘s Studies
An interdisciplinary academic field that
explores ideology, 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

SEXISM IS NOT THE NORM

From the day we are born, we begin to see the world
around us. We are taught what the norm is for each of us.
Depending on various factors such as race, gender, or
physical ability, we all have different norms that we see.
However, there are a lot of these norms that people grow
up with that are not healthy for anyone. There are norms
that are creating a divide between men and women in this
country. It is allowing a patriarchal society where men are
believing they need to fit into a box and are more
powerful than the women around them. Most
importantly, people around the globe are believing that
sexism is the norm which should not be the case.
WHAT IS FEMINISM?
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 females. 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

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 socio-cultural 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?
Gender
Lorber's Thesis: “Most
people find it hard to believe
that gender is constantly
created and re-created 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
“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).
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.
Reflection

Based on the readings, what are some

examples of sexism and/or patriarchy in
your own life (i.e., home, family, etc.)?
Gender and language

Language and gender is an area of study within

sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, and related fields
that investigates varieties of speech associated with
a particular gender, or social norms for such
gendered language use.

A variety of speech (or sociolect) associated with a

particular gender is sometimes called a genderlect.
Jennifer Coates outlines the historical range of approaches to
gendered speech in her book Women, Men and Language.

She contrasts the four approaches known the deficit,

dominance, difference, and dynamic approaches.
⚫ Dominance is an approach whereby the female sex
is seen as the subordinate group whose difference
in style of speech results from male supremacy and
also possibly an effect of patriarchy.

⚫ This results in a primarily male-centered language.

Scholars such as Dale Spender and Don
Zimmerman and Candace Westascribe to this view.
⚫ The "dynamic" or "social constructionist" approach is, as Coates
describes, the most current approach to language and gender.
Instead of speech falling into a natural gendered category, the
dynamic nature and multiple factors of an interaction help a
socially appropriate gendered construct.

⚫ As such, West and Zimmerman (1987)describe these constructs as

"doing gender" instead of the speech itself necessarily being
classified in a particular category. This is to say that these social
constructs, while affiliated with particular genders, can be utilized
by speakers as they see fit.
 ⚫ Minimal responses
⚫ One of the ways in which the communicative behavior of
men and women differ is in their use of minimal
responses, i.e., paralinguistic features such as ‘mhm’ and
‘yeah’, which is behaviour associated with collaborative
language use.

⚫ Men, on the other hand, generally use them less

frequently and where they do, it is usually to show
agreement.
⚫ While the above can be true in some contexts and situations, studies that
dichotomize the communicative behavior of men and women may run the
risk of over-generalization.

⚫ For example, "minimal responses appearing "throughout streams of talk",

such as "mm" or "yeah", not only function to display active listening and
interest and are not always signs of "support work", as Fishman (1978)
claims.

⚫ They can - as more detailed analysis of minimal responses show -- signal

understanding, demonstrate agreement, indicate scepticism or a critical
attitude, demand clarification or show surprise".

⚫ In other words, both male and female participants in a conversation can

employ these minimal responses for interactive functions, rather than
gender-specific functions.
According to Bruce Dorval in his study of same-sex friend interaction, males tend to
change subject more frequently than females. This difference may well be at the root of
the conception that women chatter and talk too much, and may still trigger the same
thinking in some males. In this way lowered estimation of women may arise.

Incidentally, this androcentric attitude towards women as chatterers arguably arose from
the idea that any female conversation was too much talking according to the patriarchal
consideration of silence as a womanly virtue common to many cultures. Goodwin (1990)
observes that girls and women link their utterances to previous speakers and develop each
other topics, rather than introducing new topics.

However, a study of young American couples and their interactions reveal that while
women raise twice as many topics as men but it is the men's topics that are usually taken
up and subsequently elaborated in the conversation.
⚫ Female tendencies toward self-disclosure, i.e.,
sharing their problems and experiences with others,
often to offer sympathy, contrasts with male
tendencies to non-self disclosure and professing
advice or offering a solution when confronted with
another’s problems.
⚫ Men tend to be more verbally aggressive in conversing,
frequently using threats, profanities, yelling and name-
calling.Women, on the whole, deem this to disrupt the
flow of conversation and not as a means of upholding
one’s hierarchical status in the conversation. Where
women swear, it is usually to demonstrate to others what
is normal behaviour for them.
⚫ However, the correlation between males and verbal aggression
may not apply across different societies and cultures. For
examples, Kulick (1992) shows how this stereotype regarding
verbal aggression is subverted in his study of two different
speech genres in Gapun, Papua New Guinea.

⚫ Women engage in kros, or "angry talk", which is typically

characterized by vituperative and brazen displays of insults and
shouting. Conversely, the men partake in men's house talk,
which is focused on the downplay of conflict in order to
maintain - or at least give - the illusion of harmony.
⚫ Politeness in speech is described in terms of positive and negative face.Positive face
refers to one's desire to be liked and admired, while negative face refers to one's wish
to remain autonomous and not to suffer imposition.

⚫ Both forms, according to Penelope Brown’s study of the Tzeltal language, are used
more frequently by women whether in mixed or single-sex pairs, suggesting for Brown
a greater sensitivity in women than have men to face the needs of others.

⚫ In short, women are to all intents and purposes largely more polite than men.
However, negative face politeness can be potentially viewed as weak language because
of its associated hedges and tag questions, a view propounded by O’Barr and Atkins
(1980) in their work on courtroom interaction.
Some natural languages have intricate systems of gender-specific
vocabulary
⚫ Sumerian women had a special language called Emesal, distinct
from the main language, Emegir, which was spoken by both
genders. The women's language had a distinct vocabulary, found in
the records of religious rituals to be performed by women, also in
the speech of goddesses in mythological texts.

⚫ For a significant period of time in the history of the ancient

languages of India, after the formal language Sanskrit diverged
from the popular Prakrit languages, some Sanskrit plays recorded
the speech of women in Prakrit, distinct from the Sanskrit of male
speakers. This convention was also used for illiterate and low-caste
male speakers.
REFLECT ON THIS QUOTE:

In language gender is particularly confusing. Why, please,

should a table be male in German, female in French, and
castrated in English?

Marlene Dietrich