Gender Theory in Troubled Times

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Rachel Alsop. Gender Theory in Troubled Times

Contents

Guide

Pages

Dedication

Gender Theory in Troubled Times

Copyright page

Preface

Introduction. What is gender?

Doing gender theory

Theoretical shifts

Gender essentialism

The rise of right-wing populism

Gender theory under attack

The boundaries of the category ‘woman’

The structure of this book

Notes

1 The Data of Biology

Sexed/gendered difference

Sexed categories as natural kinds

Psychological and behavioural sex differences and their biological anchorage

Evolutionary psychology

Male and female brains

The sex/gender distinction

How many sexes are there?

The case of sport

Trans bodies and biology

Nature/culture and the new materialism6

Entanglements

Notes

2 Gendered Psyches: Psychoanalysis and Sexual Difference

Psychoanalysis

Why Freud?

The bodily ego

Freud and sexual difference

The boy

The girl

Sexual difference: in summary

Reflections

Lacan’s three orders

Lacan and sexual difference

Symbolic essentialism

The importance of the Imaginary

Luce Irigaray and the feminist imaginary

The inevitability of sexual difference?

Colonizing gestures

Psychoanalysis: race and disability

Conclusions

Notes

3 Historical Materialism

Gendered societies

Box 3.1

From Marxism to Marxist feminism

Second-wave Marxist feminism

Patriarchy

Historical materialism and patriarchy

Dual-systems theories and their critique

From patriarchy to gender regimes: Walby and Connell. Walby on gender

Connell on gender

Historical materialism and globally connected inequalities

Conclusions

Notes

4 Simone de Beauvoir: Becoming Woman

Phenomenology

‘Woman’ as situation

The One and the Other

Volume 1: The objective conditions. The data of biology

Economic and social structure

Myths

Volume II: Lived experience

Objectification

Living bodily difference

Bodily habits

Life paths

Complicity

Dimensions of otherness

Conclusions

Notes

5 Intersectionality

Intersectional analysis and material positionality

Intersectionality and lived experience

Intersectionality: the origins of the concept and the coining of the term

Intersectionality in practice

Which inequalities does intersectionality cover? The ‘etc. problem’

Who is intersectional?

The metaphor of the intersection

Decolonial feminism

Decolonial feminism and intersectionality

Intersectionality and subjectivity

Conclusions

Notes

6 Judith Butler: Performativity, Precariousness and Queering

Performance and performativity

Gendered scripts

Subjectivity and subjectification

Real genders

Precariousness

Queering

The performativity of race

The critique of identity

What about the body, Judy?

The expressive body and queer phenomenology

Other materialities

Conclusion

Notes

7 Making Sense of our (Gendered) Selves

The ‘trans’ umbrella

Gendered categories

Local readings

Confronting nature

Trans narratives and gendered homes

The dangers of spatial metaphors

Belongings

The wrong body

The expressive body

Transformative possibilities

Conclusion

Notes

Conclusion: The ‘Truth about Gender’

Sites of agency

Gender-based violence

Toxic masculinity

Coalition politics

Notes

Questions for Further Reflection. 1 What role does the body play in constituting gendered identities? Relevant book chapters/sections:

Further reading:

2 How should sport deal with gender fluidity? Relevant book chapters/sections:

Further reading:

3 Why is body image a key issue for gender studies? Relevant book chapters/sections:

Further reading:

4 What is the imaginary? What role does it play in gender theory? How can it be transformed? Relevant book chapters/sections:

Further reading:

5 Why have historical materialist frameworks been central to black feminist and decolonial perspectives? Relevant book chapters/sections:

Further reading:

6 Can gender equality be achieved within capitalism? Relevant book chapters/sections:

Further reading:

7 Is there a better term than ‘intersectionality’ to capture the complex relations between different elements of oppression and different elements of identity? Relevant book chapters/sections:

Further reading:

8 What role do bodily practices play in the production and reproduction of gender differences? Relevant book chapters/sections:

Further reading:

9 What role does the response of others play in the formation of our sense of (gendered) self? Relevant book chapters/sections:

Further reading:

10 Are gender and sexuality distinct? Relevant book chapters/sections:

Further reading:

11 How useful is the concept of toxic masculinity in explaining gendered violence? Relevant book chapters/sections:

Further reading:

Final points for discussion

References

Index

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In memory of Annette Fitzsimons

Much has happened to all the terms since then.

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The role of the Catholic Church is important here. From as far back as the 1990s, when the United Nations introduced the term ‘gender’ in its documents, its use was attacked by some Catholic groups. However, in the last few years that attack has intensified. Pope Francis complains that ‘indoctrination in gender theory’ is going around the world, undermining the natural and God-given division between the sexes and suggesting that sexual behaviour is not governed by objective moral norms (Glatz 2015).

What is clear in all these attacks is that gender theory is opposed because it is viewed as denying gender essentialism, suggesting instead that the divisions between the sexes, and the distinct characteristics and social positions assigned to each, are socially malleable. Gender theory, it is claimed, involves rejecting the naturalness of heterosexuality, the primacy of the heterosexual family and the fixity of gendered identity. In fact, gender theory is a broad area of study which includes many theorists who would endorse some versions of gender essentialism. In this book, however, while discussing alternative strands of theory, we proudly hold up our hands to opposing just the kind of gender essentialism that such populist movements seek to enforce. Their engagement makes clear that these apparently theoretical debates have highly political consequences.

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