Chapter 2

Gendered Lenses on
World Politics
Geonyzl Alviola
• “More than any other kind of human activity, politics has
historically borne an explicitly masculine identity. It has
been more exclusively limited to men than any other
realm of endeavor and has been more intensely, self-
consciously masculine than most other social practices
Gender lens
• This examines how the identities of gender influences the
creation of the story.
• This will help us figure out any character (male or female),
are breaking the barriers of stereotypical genders
LENSES
• Focus our attention selectively 
• simplify our thinking by focusing our attention on what seems most relevant
• lenses are like maps: they frame our choices, expectations, and explorations,
enabling us to take advantage of knowledge already gained and, presumably, to
move more effectively toward our objectives
• We acquire our lenses, or learn our conceptual ordering systems, in a variety of
contexts, but early childhood is especially consequential
 LENSES

• What we learn at an early age is psychosocially

formative: the conceptual ordering system (language,
cultural rules) we uncritically absorb in childhood is
especially resistant to transformation. 
• We are intensely invested in identities and cultural codes
learned in early childhood, and challenges to the meaning
and order they afford are experienced as particularly
threatening.
STEREOTYPES

• problematic lenses about particular aspects or characteristics of groups of people

• present in all cultures and communication systems, function on one level as simple
lenses: they filter our seeing, thinking, and responding
• produce and sustain social divisions and hierarchical social orders
• we tend to see what we expect to see, and stereotypes frame how we see individuals
and groups in particular ways, even—especially— when we actually know little
about those groups or people
• oversimplify and overgeneralize, promote inaccurate images, and are resistant to change,
stereotypes significantly affect how we see ourselves, others, and social ordering
generally
 STEREOTYPES PLAY A KEY ROLE IN LEGITIMATING
DISCRIMINATION AND REPRODUCING HIERARCHICAL
RELATIONS OF POWER.
Stereotype reproduce inequalities by being taken
for granted and self-fulfilling. If we expect certain
behaviors, we may act in ways that in fact create
and reinforce such behaviors.
Expecting girls to dislike mechanics and hate math
affects how much encouragement we give them;
without expectations of success or encouragement,
girls may avoid or do poorly in these activities.
 DICHOTOMIES

• lenses divide concepts (terms, ideas, characteristics) into two, mutually exclusive, ontologically
separate poles: paired opposites that share nothing in common because whatever qualities each
depicts must belong only to one but not the other
• Binary logic that results in either-or thinking
• the structure of dichotomies severely compromises our thoughts and therefore our actions. The image
of only two mutually exclusive choices keeps us locked into those—and only those—choices
• Dichotomies thus exclude any middle, “maybe,” mixing of terms, or alternative constructions.
    
 

 
IDEOLOGIES

• REFERS TO SYSTEMS OF BELIEF—INCLUDING NOTIONS OF HUMAN

NATURE AND SOCIAL LIFE—THAT OPERATE TO JUSTIFY STATUS QUO
SOCIOCULTURAL, ECONOMIC, AND POLITICAL ARRANGEMENTS
• POLITICAL: THEY ORDER WAYS OF THINKING ABOUT SOCIAL
RELATIONS AND OPERATE TO LEGITIMATE RELATIONS OF POWER
• NATURALIZE SOCIAL HIERARCHIES
• IDEOLOGIES SERVE THE INTERESTS OF THE POWERFUL, THEY PROMOTE
POLITICAL AGENDAS THAT SUSTAIN THE AUTHORITY AND POWER OF ELITES AND
OBSCURE THE INTERESTS OF OTHERS;
POLITICAL THEORISTS HAVE ARGUED FOR MILLENNIA THAT IDEOLOGIES ARE
MOST STABLE AND EFFECTIVE WHEN MOST TAKEN FOR GRANTED AND
THEREFORE NOT QUESTIONED.
Comment on this ……

• IT IS IMPORTANT ALSO TO CONSIDER HOW IN THE

ABSENCE OF CRITIQUE AND REFLECTION, MUCH OF OUR
BEHAVIOR UNINTENTIONALLY REPRODUCES STATUS QUO
INEQUALITIES AND OPPRESSIVE IDEOLOGIES
 THE INVISIBLE PRIVILEGES (MALES)
• I can go walking, drinking, working, and playing wherever I want to without fear of violence
based on my sex. I can dress as I like without being held responsible if I am harassed or attacked.
If I behave assertively, aggressively, dogmatically, and/or unsympathetically, I will usually be
applauded for “taking control.”
• I can attend religious services and count on celebrating the experiences, authority, power, and
spiritual teachings of men. I can readily access visual and written materials that objectify women
and cultivate male dominance.
• I can choose not to participate in parenting without being branded unnatural or immoral.
• If I am successful and single, it is assumed to be my choice rather than my inability to attract
women.
 THE INVISIBLE PRIVILEGES (HETEROSEXUAL)

• I can enjoy virtually all popular cultural media as a celebration of desires, humor, stories, relationships, intimacy, romance, and
family life that I participate in and identify with. My children are exposed to cultural and educational materials that support our
kind of family unit and do not turn them against my choice of domestic partnership. I can enjoy the taxation, legal, health
insurance, adoption, and immigration benefits of being able to marry.
• I have no difficulty finding neighborhoods, schools, jobs, recreational activities, or travel arrangements where people approve
of our family unit. I can express feelings of affection for my partner in public, without fear of censure or physical attack.
• If in my work or play I spend time with children of my sex, my motives and actions are not treated with suspicion. If I am
critical of heterosexism, I am not dismissed as self-interested.
• I, and my children, can talk about our home life or the social events of the weekend without fearing most listeners’ reactions. I
am not asked to deny or hide who I am, in the important sense of my sexual identity, desires, and loving relationships.
• If the person I love does not share my citizenship, we have the option of marriage, which permits us to live together and have a
family.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5x5Fo7rMvY
 GENDER AS THE ORDERING POWER

• Procreation is a starting point for thinking about gender, but the reproductive choices, practices, and
strategies in which procreation occurs are already embedded in social formations with their particular
gender codes and patterned expectations. In this sense, socialization precedes and shapes the birth of
individuals and how their arrival will be experienced. 
• Patriarchal belief systems (which essentialize heterosexual families) and institutionalization of patriarchal
ordering (positioning males as heads of households, as citizens, and as religious, military, and political
authorities) have over millennia become normalized in virtually all social formations. 
• HETEROSEXISM (belief in heterosexuality as the only “normal” mode of sexual orientation, family life,
and social relations) is currently the hegemonic model worldwide. Heteronormative ideology assumes a
binary construction of (hetero)sexual difference, some form of heterosexual union, and heterosexual
patriarchal families as “givens.” 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEurlKy2bN0
GENDER AS POWERING DEVALORIZATIONS
OF FEMINIZED “OTHERS”
•Thank you for listening