Multiple gender identity symbols stylized as the Olympic rings
Gender studies is a field for interdisciplinary study devoted to gender identity and gendered representation as central categories of analysis. This field includes women's studies (concerning women, feminism, gender, and politics), men's studies and queer studies. Sometimes, gender studies is offered together with study of sexuality.
These disciplines study gender and sexuality in the fields of literature, language, geography, history, political science, sociology, anthropology, cinema, media studies, human development, law, public health and medicine. It also analyzes how race, ethnicity, location, class, nationality, and disability intersect with the categories of gender and sexuality.
Regarding gender, Simone de Beauvoir said: "One is not born a woman, one becomes one." This view proposes that in gender studies, the term "gender" should be used to refer to the social and cultural constructions of masculinities and femininities and not to the state of being male or female in its entirety. However, this view is not held by all gender theorists. Beauvoir's is a view that many sociologists support,
though there are many other contributors to the field of gender studies
with different backgrounds and opposing views, such as psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan and feminists such as Judith Butler.
Gender is pertinent to many disciplines, such as literary theory, drama studies, film theory, performance theory, contemporary art history, anthropology, sociology, sociolinguistics and psychology.
However, these disciplines sometimes differ in their approaches to how
and why gender is studied. 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. In politics,
gender can be viewed as a foundational discourse that political actors
employ in order to position themselves on a variety of issues. Gender studies is also a discipline in itself, incorporating methods and approaches from a wide range of disciplines.
Each field came to regard "gender" as a practice, sometimes referred to as something that is performative. Feminist theory of psychoanalysis, articulated mainly by Julia Kristeva (the "semiotic" and "abjection") and Bracha L. Ettinger (the feminine-prematernal-maternal matrixial Eros of borderlinking and com-passion, "matrixial trans-subjectivity" and the "primal mother-phantasies"), and informed both by Freud, Lacan and the object relations theory, is very influential in gender studies.
According to Sam Killermann, Gender can also be broken into three
categories, gender identity, gender expression, and biological sex.
These three categories are another way of breaking down gender into the
different social, biological, and cultural constructions. These
constructions focus on how femininity and masculinity are fluid entities
and how their meaning is able to fluctuate depending on the various
constraints surrounding them.
Influences
Psychoanalytic theory
A
number of theorists have influenced the field of gender studies
significantly, specifically in terms of psychoanalytic theory. Among
these are Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, Julia Kristeva, Bracha L. Ettinger, and Mark Blechner.
Gender studied under the lens of each of these theorists looks
somewhat different. In a Freudian system, women are "mutilated and must
learn to accept their lack of a penis" (in Freud's terms a "deformity").
Lacan, however, organizes femininity and masculinity according to
different unconscious structures. Both male and female subjects
participate in the "phallic" organization, and the feminine side of
sexuation is "supplementary" and not opposite or complementary.
The concept of sexuation (sexual situation), which posits the
development of gender-roles and role-play in childhood, is useful in
countering the idea that gender identity is innate or biologically
determined. In other words, the sexuality of an individual has as much,
if not more, to do with their development of a gender identity as being
genetically sexed male or female.
Julia Kristeva has significantly developed the field of semiotics.
She contends that patriarchal cultures, like individuals, have to
exclude the maternal and the feminine so that they can come into being. Mark Blechner expanded psychoanalytic views of sex and gender.
He has argued that there is a "gender fetish" in western society, in
which the gender of sexual partners is given enormously disproportionate
attention over other factors involved in sexual attraction, such as age
and social class.
Bracha L. Ettinger transformed subjectivity in contemporary psychoanalysis since the early 1990s with the Matrixial feminine-maternal and prematernal Eros
of borderlinking (bordureliance), borderspacing (bordurespacement) and
co-emergence. The matrixial feminine difference defines a particular
gaze and it is a source for trans-subjectivity and transjectivity
in both males and females. Ettinger rethinks the human subject as
informed by the archaic connectivity to the maternal and proposes the
idea of a Demeter-Persephone Complexity.
Cultures can have very different norms of maleness and masculinity.
Blechner identifies the terror, in Western males, of penetration. Yet
in many societies, being gay is defined only by being a male who lets
himself be penetrated. Males who penetrate other males are considered
masculine and not gay and are not the targets of prejudice. In one particular culture in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea for example, receptive fellatio is the norm for early adolescence and seen as a requirement for developing normal manliness.
Feminist psychoanalytic theory
Feminist theorists such as Juliet Mitchell, Nancy Chodorow, Jessica Benjamin, Jane Gallop, Bracha L. Ettinger, Shoshana Felman, Griselda Pollock, Luce Irigaray
and Jane Flax have developed a Feminist psychoanalysis and argued that
psychoanalytic theory is vital to the feminist project and must, like
other theoretical traditions, be criticized by women as well as
transformed to free it from vestiges of sexism (i.e. being censored). Shulamith Firestone, in "The Dialectic of Sex" calls Freudianism the misguided feminism and discusses how Freudianism is almost
completely accurate, with the exception of one crucial detail:
everywhere that Freud writes "penis", the word should be replaced with
"power".
Critics such as Elizabeth Grosz accuse Jacques Lacan of maintaining a sexist tradition in psychoanalysis. Others, such as Judith Butler, Bracha L. Ettinger and Jane Gallop have used Lacanian work, though in a critical way, to develop gender theory.
According to J. B. Marchand, "The gender studies and queer theory
are rather reluctant, hostile to see the psychoanalytic approach."
For Jean-Claude Guillebaud,
gender studies (and activists of sexual minorities) "besieged" and
consider psychoanalysis and psychoanalysts as "the new priests, the last
defenders of the genital normality, morality, moralism or even
obscurantism".
Judith Butler's
worries about the psychoanalytic outlook under which sexual difference
is "undeniable" and pathologizing any effort to suggest that it is not
so paramount and unambiguous ...".
According to Daniel Beaune and Caterina Rea, the gender-studies "often
criticized psychoanalysis to perpetuate a family and social model of
patriarchal, based on a rigid and timeless version of the parental
order".
Literary theory
Psychoanalytically oriented French feminism focused on visual and literary theory all along. Virginia Woolf's legacy as well as "Adrienne Rich's
call for women's revisions of literary texts, and history as well, has
galvanized a generation of feminist authors to reply with texts of their
own". Griselda Pollock and other feminists have articulated Myth and poetry and literature, from the point of view of gender.
Post-modern influence
The emergence of post-modernism theories affected gender studies, causing a movement in identity theories away from the concept of fixed or essentialist gender identity, to post-modern fluid or multiple identities.
The impact of post-structuralism, and its literary theory aspect
post-modernism, on gender studies was most prominent in its challenging
of grand narratives. Post-structuralism paved the way for the emergence
of queer theory in gender studies, which necessitated the field expanding its purview to sexuality.
In addition to the expansion to include sexuality studies, under
the influence of post-modernism gender studies has also turned its lens
toward masculinity studies, due to the work of sociologists and theorists such as R. W. Connell, Michael Kimmel, and E. Anthony Rotundo.
These changes and expansions have led to some contentions within
the field, such as the one between second wave feminists and queer
theorists.
The line drawn between these two camps lies in the problem as feminists
see it of queer theorists arguing that everything is fragmented and
there are not only no grand narratives but also no trends or categories.
Feminists argue that this erases the categories of gender altogether
but does nothing to antagonize the power dynamics reified by gender. In
other words, the fact that gender is socially constructed does not undo the fact that there are strata of oppression between genders.
Development of theory
History
The
history of gender studies looks at the different perspectives of
gender. This discipline examines the ways in which historical, cultural,
and social events shape the role of gender in different societies. The
field of gender studies, while focusing on the differences between men
and women, also looks at sexual differences and less binary definitions
of gender categorization.
After the universal suffrage revolution of the twentieth century, the women's liberation movement
of the 1960 and 1970s promoted a revision from the feminists to
"actively interrogate" the usual and accepted versions of history as it
was known at the time. It was the goal of many feminist scholars to
question original assumptions regarding women's and men's attributes, to
actually measure them, and to report observed differences between women
and men.
Initially, these programs were essentially feminist, designed to
recognize contributions made by women as well as by men. Soon, men began
to look at masculinity the same way that women were looking at
femininity, and developed an area of study called "men's studies".
It was not until the late 1980s and 1990s that scholars recognized a
need for study in the field of sexuality. This was due to the increasing
interest in lesbian and gay rights, and scholars found that most
individuals will associate sexuality and gender together, rather than as
separate entities.
Although doctoral programs for women's studies have existed since
1990, the first doctoral program for a potential PhD in gender studies
in the United States was approved in November 2005.
In 2015, Kabul University became the first university in Afghanistan to offer a master's degree course in gender and women's studies.
Women's studies
Women's studies 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 studies-influenced practice of most of the humanities and social sciences.
Men's studies
Men's studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to topics concerning men, masculism, gender, and politics. It often includes feminist theory, men's history and social history, men's fiction, men's health, feminist psychoanalysis and the feminist and gender studies-influenced practice of most of the humanities and social sciences.
Timothy Laurie and Anna Hickey-Moody suggest that there 'have always
been dangers present in the institutionalization of "masculinity
studies" as a semi-gated community', and note that 'a certain
triumphalism vis-à-vis feminist philosophy haunts much masculinities
research'.
Gender in Asia
Certain issues associated with gender in Eastern Asia and the Pacific Region are more complex and depend on location and context. For example, in China, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia,
a heavy importance of what defines a woman comes from the workforce. In
these countries, "gender related challenges tend to be related to
economic empowerment, employment, and workplace issues, for example
related to informal sector workers, feminization of migration flows,
work place conditions, and long term social security". However, in countries who are less economically stable, such as Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste, Laos, Cambodia,
and some provinces in more remote locations, "women tend to bear the
cost of social and domestic conflicts and natural disasters".
One issue that remains consistent throughout all provinces in
different stages of development is women having a weak voice when it
comes to decision-making. One of the reasons for this is the "growing
trend to decentralization [which] has moved decision-making down to
levels at which women's voice is often weakest and where even the
women's civil society movement, which has been a powerful advocate at
national level, struggles to organize and be heard".
East Asia Pacific's approach to help mainstream these issues of gender relies on a three-pillar method.
Pillar one is partnering with middle-income countries and emerging
middle-income countries to sustain and share gains in growth and
prosperity. Pillar two supports the developmental underpinnings for
peace, renewed growth and poverty reduction in the poorest and most
fragile areas. The final pillar provides a stage for knowledge
management, exchange and dissemination on gender responsive development
within the region to begin. These programs have already been
established, and successful in, Vietnam, Thailand, China, as well as the Philippines, and efforts are starting to be made in Laos, Papua New Guinea, and Timor Leste as well. These pillars speak to the importance of showcasing gender studies.
Judith Butler
The concept of gender performativity is at the core of philosopher and gender theorist Judith Butler's work Gender Trouble. In Butler's terms the performance of gender, sex, and sexuality is about power in society. She locates the construction
of the "gendered, sexed, desiring subject" in "regulative discourses". A
part of Butler's argument concerns the role of sex in the construction
of "natural" or coherent gender and sexuality.
In her account, gender and heterosexuality are constructed as natural
because the opposition of the male and female sexes is perceived as
natural in the social imaginary.
Criticisms
Historian and theorist Bryan Palmer argues that gender studies' current reliance on post-structuralism
– with its reification of discourse and avoidance of the structures of
oppression and struggles of resistance – obscures the origins, meanings,
and consequences of historical events and processes, and he seeks to
counter current trends in gender studies with an argument for the
necessity to analyze lived experiences and the structures of
subordination and power.
Authors Daphne Patai and Noretta Koertge propose in the book Professing Feminism: Education and Indoctrination in Women's Studies
that the attempt to make women's studies serve a political agenda has
led to problematic results such as dubious scholarship and pedagogical
practices that resemble indoctrination more than education.
Rosi Braidotti
(1994) has criticized gender studies as "the take-over of the feminist
agenda by studies on masculinity, which results in transferring funding
from feminist faculty positions to other kinds of positions. There have
been cases... of positions advertised as 'gender studies' being given
away to the 'bright boys'. Some of the competitive take-over has to do
with gay studies. Of special significance in this discussion is the role
of the mainstream publisher Routledge who, in our opinion, is
responsible for promoting gender as a way of deradicalizing the feminist
agenda, re-marketing masculinity and gay male identity instead."
Calvin Thomas countered that, "as Joseph Allen Boone points out, 'many
of the men in the academy who are feminism's most supportive 'allies' are
gay,'" and that it is "disingenuous" to ignore the ways in which
mainstream publishers such as Routledge have promoted feminist
theorists.
Gender studies, and more particularly queer studies within gender
studies, were repeatedly criticized by the Vatican. Pope Francis spoke
about "ideological colonization",
by which he meant that "gender ideology" threatens traditional family
and fertile heterosexuality. France was one of the first countries where
this claim became widespread when Catholic movements marched in the
streets of Paris against the bill on gay marriage and adoption. Bruno Perreau has shown that this fear has deep historical roots.
He argues that the rejection of gender studies and queer theory
expresses anxieties about national identity and minority politics.
Jayson Harsin studied the French anti-gender theory movement's social
media aspects, finding that they demonstrate qualities of global
right-wing populist post-truth politics.
Teaching certain aspects of gender theory was banned in public schools New South Wales
after an independent review into how the state teaches sex and health
education and the controversial material included in the teaching
materials.
State and governmental attitudes to gender studies
In Central and Eastern Europe ‘anti-gender’ movements are on the rise, especially, in Hungary, Poland, and Russia.
Russia
In Russia
gender studies are at the moment tolerated, however state support
practices that pushes gender agenda related to perspectives on gender of
those in power – e.g. law solving in detail specifics of domestic
violence was abolished in 2017. Since 2010 the Russia has also been leading a campaign at the UNHRC to recognise so-called ‘traditional values’ as a legitimate consideration in human rights protection and promotion.
Hungary
Gender
studies programs were banned in Hungary in October 2018. In a statement
released by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's office, a
spokesperson stated that "The government's standpoint is that people are
born either male or female, and we do not consider it acceptable for us
to talk about socially constructed genders rather than biological
sexes." The ban has attracted criticism from several European
universities which offer the program, among them the Budapest-based Central European University,
whose charter was revoked by the government, and is widely seen as part
of the Hungarian ruling party's move towards totalitarianism.
China
The Central People's Government supports studies of gender and social development of gender in history and practices that lead to gender equality. Citing Mao Zedong's
philosophy, "Women hold up half the sky", this may be seen as
continuation of equality of men and women introduced as part of Cultural Revolution.
