Gender and Identity Issues in English Studies: A Historical Analysis, Apuntes de Literatura inglesa

¡Descarga Gender and Identity Issues in English Studies: A Historical Analysis y más Apuntes en PDF de Literatura inglesa solo en Docsity! Gender and identity issues in English Studies Introduction 29th of September 2021 Main issues The distinction between three terms: “Female”, “feminine” and “feminist”. Female refers to gender. • The concept of gender. Judith Butler: Gender Trouble (1990). • Gender studies. Women 's studies. Feminist studies. • Sex/gender. • Intersex/transgender • Biology/culture. • Essentialism/Social constructionism. Why is feminist theory important? “Built-in commitment to political progress and social justice, feminist theory envisions scholarship as an activity necessarily implicated in politics, economics, and culture, rather than as neutral or objective practice that can be separated from these other spheres of human activity “. (193) Goals of feminism/feminist theory: “[To] elucidate and reform relations of domination and exploitation”. (Simeón 194). To assert and strengthen women's capacities and possibilities. To reduce and eventually eliminate inequality between the sexes. Why is feminist theory necessary? To understand how the patriarchal sister came about and construct ways to counterbalance it to achieve a more just social organization. Explanations for the emergence of patriarchy. There is no evidence of a matriarchal society to have ever existed. Patrilocality. When parents are separated, kids live with their father or a relative of his, like his parents (the kid’s grandparents). Matrilocality. When parents are separated, kids live with their mother or a relative of hers, like her parents (the kid’s grandparents). 90% of countries have patrilocality. MISOGYNY IN THE WESTERN PHILOSOPHICAL TRADITION OR THE IDEOLOGICAL CONSTRUCTION OF GENDER DIFFERENCE (read for next day): ARISTOTLE: “The female is, as it were, a mutilated male”. (Generation of animals) Importance of the penis. Man would not let another male with a penis smaller than theirs rule them. “Females are weaker and colder in nature, and we must look upon the female character as being a sort of natural deficiency”. Things also said: Woman is more compassionate than a man, more easily moved to tears, at the same time is more jealous, more querulous, more apt to scold and to strike. She is, furthermore, more prone to despondency (despair) and less hopeful than the man, more void of shame or self-respect, etc. The Church Fathers Augustine (354-430): “Women should not be enlightened or educated in any way. They should be segregated as they are the cause of hideous and involuntary erections in holy man”. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) 13th Century: “Only as regard either of the nature in the individual is the female something defective and manqué. For the active power in the seed of the male tends to produce something like itself, perfect in masculinity; but the procreation of a female is the result either of the ability of the active power, of some instability of the material, or some change affected by external influences, like the south wind, for example, which is damp, as we are told by Aristotle”. (Summa Theologiae). “Subjection is of two kinds: one is that of slavery, in which the ruler manages the subject for his advantage (...). And the other kind of subjection is domestic or civil, in which the ruler manages his subjects for their advantage and benefit (...). Such is the subjection in which women are by nature subordinate to man because the power of rational discernment is by nature stronger than man. (Summa Theologiae). • It is a cynical thing to say. It refers to a man having a stronger, more rational mind. It contributes to the infantilization of women. Heinrich Krammer and James Sprenger (Dominican fathers) (15th century): Witchcraft = women (sexual urges with demons) = worship of Satan. (...pp) Contemporary perspective on the Malleus Maleficarum: 1928 Montage Summers (Anglican English priest) does an edition of the book, 5 centuries later, where he points out: “Possibly what will seem even more amazing to modern readers is the misogynic trend of various passages(…). However, exaggerated as these may be, I am not altogether certain that they will not prove a wholesome and needful antidote(…pp). The chimpanzee pattern of male alliances: the male who wins and maintains alpha status does it with the aid of alliances of other males inside his community, against males from other communities. Examples: the abduction and rape of women from other groups during tribal raids, wife-beating in response to female adultery, today’s gang rapes, etc. 3. Over the course of human evolution, and particularly since the advent of agriculture and animal husbandry, males gained control over resources that females needed to survive and reproduce. This increased male ability to control and coerce females. They needed. The resources to survive, and to look after their children as well, as it was considered a women’s task to do so. 4. Over the course of evolution, male socio-political arrangements increased the variety in male wealth and power. Slavery, colonialism, etc. This in turn perpetuated family differences across generations and triggered unequal relationships among men. As a consequence, women became vulnerable to the will and whims of the few most powerful men, and women’ s control over their own sexuality was greatly reduced. Prostitution. 5. In pursuing their material and reproductive interests, women often engaged in behaviors that promoted male resource control and male control over female sexuality. Thus, women as well as men have contributed to the perpetuation of patriarchy. They have also contributed in an ideological way. Often, females do better by competing with other females and/or allying with males. 6. The evolution of the capacity for LANGUAGE allowed males to consolidate and increase their control over females because it enabled the creation and propagation of IDEOLOGIES of male dominance vs. female subordination and male supremacy vs. female inferiority. It was like this up until the 20th century. Nowadays, it has changed. We can not point to a day in history when language was created. Before there was a language, communication was different: they used signs, weird sounds (grunts). As there was no ability to communicate in a deep way, there was no reason. The use of physical force made the difference, and men were usually bigger. SUMMARY: 1. Reduction of female alliances. 2. Elaboration of male-male alliances. 3. Increased male control over resources. 4. Increased hierarchy formation among men. 5. Female strategies that reinforce male control over females. 6. The evolution of language and its capacity to create ideology. (Look for this topic and remark them in the text we have to read). 6th of October 2021 Read text: “The origins and future of patriarchy: the biological background of gender politics, Malcom Potts, Martha Campbell”. Research about the authors mentioned in it. 13th of October 2021 Antecedents and early - “theorists”. Proto-feminist voices (17th and 18th centuries). Anne Hutchinson (15921 - 1643): She is famous for the so called “Antinomian Controversy” (1636-38), which consisted in group meetings of women in which Hutchinson encouraged other women to talk freely about the Bible. This called for freedom of speech and freedom of interpretation. Gender, power relations and theocracy (the form of government in the colonies). This was very relevant, and it’s the reason why it was so controversial. Antinomian: 1. The one who holds that under the gospel dispensation of grace: salvation… 2. One… Governor John Winthrop: “Mrs. Hutchinson, you are called here as one of those that have troubled the peace… you have spoken of diverse things… very prejudicial to the honor of the churches and ministers thereof, and you have maintained a meeting… that hath been condemned…”. Charges: “Traducing the ministers and heresty”. Verdict: Guilty. Defense lawyer: none. Sentence: Banishment from the colony and excommunication from the Church of Boston.´ American women writers in the 17th century: Native American women “writers”. The role of women who wrote in the Native American communities was much more active. “I tribal culture, anyone could make songs, women as well as men. Although in some societies women sang primarily to win power or protection for their man, song-naming was also a way for a woman to achieve status in the tribe. A sort of unofficial copyright system prevailed in many areas, making the song the property of the person who composed and sang it”. Jane B. Katz (1977): I am the Fire of Time: The Voices of Native American Women, XV- XVI. Mary Astell. (1666-1731): She is considered the first English feminist. She wrote: Some reflections Upon Marriage (1700). – “If all Men are born free, how is it that all Women are born slaves”. A huge proposal to the ladies. To publish this book she used a pseudonym. – “Where in a method is offered for the improvement of their minds”. This quote is important, because she considered education as an option for women, other than marriage. Margaret Cavendish (1623-1673): “Mad Madge”. She was considered to have an outstanding dress since. She was a scientist, philosopher, playwright, and poet. She was also an actress, and she participated in The Atomic Circle (Paris). She is considered as one of the first writers to write a science fiction book. She was allowed to visit The Royal Society (1660-1667). “If I am condemned, I shall be annihilated to nothing: but my ambition is such , as I would either be a world, or nothing”. These lines suggest that she was an ambitious woman. She was resolved to be something, to make a difference and to make her name through in history. She published under her own name. At the time, she was challenging the social order in maintaining that she wanted to be someone in the public world. She was very criticized by both man and women writers. Poems (1653), dedication “To Natural Philosophers”. Main works: “The Blazing World (science fiction), “Atomic poems”, “Prayers and Orations of Diverse Persons (Female Orations). Preface to Poem and Fancies (1653): “True it is, Spinning with the Fingers is more proper to our Sexe, then studying or writing Poetry, which is the Spinning with the braine: but I having no skill in the Art of the first (and if I had, I had no hopes of. Gaining so much as to make me a Garment to keep me from the cold) made me delight in the latter; since all braines work naturally, and incessantly, in some kinde or other; which made me endeavour to spin a Garment of Memory, to lapp up my Name, that it might grow to after Ages”. Dorothy Osborne: Her criticism and thoughts about Margaret Cavendish: “[…] and first let me ask you if you have seen a book of poems newly come out, made by my Lady Newcastle? For God’s sake if you meet with it send it me; they say ‘tis ten times more extravagant than her dress. Sure, the poor woman is a little distracted, she could never be so ridiculous else as to venture at writing books, and in verse too. If I shroud not sleep this fortnight I shroud not come to that”. Suicide in a women is considered in patriarchal history the true achievement of a women. Their suicide is given more importance then their life work. Wollstonecraft’s transcendental approach, work, and life is often lay overlooked. History focused on her suicide attempt rather than her achievement of survival. She was called a “hyena in petticoats” Early years characterized by poverty. Violent and tyrannical father. Meager education. Self-taught. Left her parent’s household at 19 years old. Became her family’s support. Main concerns of women’s literature in the 18th century were: 1.Women’s position. Feminist and anti-feminist arguments (in the context of opposition between absolutist theories of government and liberal political theory). 2. Women’s rights and women’s education. 3. Intellectual equality between the sexes (John Locke). 4. The Examples: The “Bluestockings society” (1750-1790) (middle class): It was a group mostly formed by women, although men were accepted as well. “Bluestocking” originally referred to men. Elizabeth Montagu first used it to refer to Benjamin Stillingfleetm, a scholar who woes blue stockings and not white. Blue hose was associated with the working class. Elizabeth Montagu, Elizabeth Vesey and Elizabeth Carter, among others. Eventually, the term acquired a derogatory connotation. Women’s groups that also welcomed men. Education, literature, etc. Resistance from women. Ana L. Barbauld. “The best way for a woman to acquire knowledge os from conversation with a father, or brother, or friend”. 18th of October 2021 (Apuntes seminario insertar) It is a historical text, but it is very modern and it hasn’t lost currency. Ancestors: puritans. “All men would be tyrants if they could”. The brute within. 20th of October 2021 …. Y Kate Chopin The awakening characters, etc. 3rd of November 2021 HISTORY OF FEMINIST THEORY / FEMINIST MOVEMENT IN THE 20th CENTURY: Both the first and the second waves are a product and a critique of Elightment thought. First wave: The Modernist Revolution (artistic -isms) and the Sufragist Movement. 1900 – 1920s. Rejection of cult of domesticity / cult of true womanhood / the “separate spheres” theory… Greenwich Village in the United States and Bloomsbury in London were the heart of intellectual, artistic, and radical life movements. Gertrude Stein, Mina Loy, Susan Glaspell, Mabel Dodge, Emma Goldman, Edna st. Vincent Millay, Virginia Woolf. All the women in this list are American except for Virginia Woolf. This was a time of artistic revolt, sexual liberation, radical politics, in short, questioning of the status quo from all points of view. SUFRAGIST MOVEMENT (more prominent in Britain than in the US): 1903. Women’s Social and Political Union (Manchester): Deeds not Words. Emeline Pankhurst. “Give us deeds, not words”. They were tired, they wanted action. 1908: Women’s Sunday’ demonstration is organized by the WSPU at Hyde Park, London. Atended by 250,000 people from around Britain: the largest-ever political rally in London. Hunger-strikes while imprisoned and forced feeding. Distinction between “Sufragists” (more radical ones, women who resorted to violence) and “suffragettes”. The former kept within the law, the latter broke the law (window smashing, letter bombs, etc.). 1910: Black Friday in November: 300 suffragettes march on Parliament in retaliation, in protest, for the Conciliation Bill failing to become a law (would grant suffrage for 1 million women who had property over the value of 10 pounds). They were met with police brutality, arrests and sexual assault. 1919: The right to vote is finally approved in Great Britain. May 1929: Women over the age of 21 vote in their first general election. Women’s suffrage timeline in the US: 1848: Seneca Falls Convention. 1869: the State of Wyoming passes women’s Suffrage Law. 1878: California Senate drafts amendment for women’s suffrage. 1890: State-by-state fight for voting rights with the foundation of the National American Woman Sufrage Association. 1919: passing of the Nineteenth Amendment (the Susan B. Anthony Amendment). The state of Georgia won’t formally ratify the 19th amendment until 1970. August 1920: the 19th amendment is finally ratified by a majority of the states. HETERODOXY CLUB (New York, 1912-40s): A club for unorthodox women. Group of women who meet in Greenwich Village to discuss women’s issues. Came from all walks of life and professions. “Heterodites”. Founded by Marie Jenney Howe. First use of the word “feminist”. Called into question all orthodoxies. Radical stance. Challenged the mainstream. Pledge of silence: all conversations they had were to remain off the record, cause they were afraid what they said would be misrepresented or misconstrued by the press. Birth-control campaign. Margaret Sanger. Background talks: predecessor of consciousness-raising groups of the 1970s. Diverse political and sexual-orientation constituency: socialists, anarquists, marxists, republicans, conservative, democrats, lesbians, heterosexuals, etc. Famous members: Susan Glaspell, Charlotte Perkins Gilman (“The Yellow Wallpaper”, 1892), among others. Marie Jenney Howe’s definition of feminism: “[Feminism means] women’s struggle for freedom. It’s political phase is women’s will to vote. It’s economic phase is. Women;s effort to pay. Her own way. It’s social phase is women’s revaluation of outgrown customs and standards… Feminism means more than a changed world. It means a changed psychology, the creation of a new consciousness in women”. She intended to challenge the social discourse that had been present in the time (alienation). It is a text from the time which can still be used today. Susan Glaspell Play, “Trifles” Landmark of feminist literature for a number of reasons. Without doing any preaching or political speech, the text makes clear how much women have been under man’s rules, and that is the reason why the text is named “trifles”, because that represents how men have seen women for a long time. Motive. All killers have a motive, and unless they have a reasonable one they cannot prosecute. It is the women who find the motive by precisely focusing on the “trifles”. The women payed attention to every single detail that the men overlooked. They disregarded and criticized everything in the house associated with femininity. Vicarial violence (bird). He kills the brid in order to make her suffer. Concept of sisterhood. These women were clearly showing their feelings of. Sisterhood with this woman. They really understood her. “Trifles” summarizes the history of patriarchy up to the 20th century in different ways. Mina Loy “Feminist Manifesto”. 22nd of November 2021 FEMINIST LITERARY CRITICISM: French feminism or Escriture Femenine Feminist literary criticism: THE 1905: A change of paradigm brought about by the influence of postmodernism and postructuralism. Reason as a relative concept. The holocaust. Fragmentation of identity. Identity as a progressive phenomenon. Developed through life. No final point. It is also fragmented, there is no need to be totally coherent. There can be contradictions. No one is totally coherent. Principles ca change, and we can do actions that are not totally true or coherent to our principles. As a consequence of all this, this literary text (although we can apply this to most texts) is now seen as hybrid and multidimensional, open, comprising multiple levels, interdisciplinary and unstable. INTERSECTIONALITY: the crossing of various effects other than gender: class, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, family background, education… All these elements help to articulate the identity of a human being. Intersectionality as a method is helpful in detecting the overlapping and co-construction of visible and, at first sight, invisible strands of inequality on account of gender, race, sexual orientation, economic status, professional status, and so forth… Deconstruction: literary method used from the 1900s onwards for text to be deconstructed. The analysis consisted in making visible those levels of inequality which were hidden. During this time, everything became much more complex. Adrienne Rich (1929-2012): One of the most important literary critiques. She was also a poet, essayist, radical lesbian-feminist thinker, political activist, political thinker, political dissenter. Her integrity was remarkable. She stayed true to her beliefs. In 1997 she was granted the National Medal for the Arts. The president of the time was Bill Clinton. He had an affair with Monica Lewinsky at the time, when the Gulf War was also taking place. Rich rejected the prize and the money to protest the American intervention in the Gulf War. Also, to protest the government’s plan to end funding for the National Endowment for the art. “I don’t think we can separate art from overall human dignity and hope”. – Adrienne Rich. She believed artists could not be indifferent to injustice, oppression… Betty Friedan (1921-2006): The Feminine Mystique (1963). Enforced domesticity and limited career prospects. Word “Mystique”. It refers to the way in which ideas are presented and imposed, but in a very subtle way, so that people don’t realize they are being “brain-washed”. This has to do with the situation of the middle-class women during the 50s. When the men returned from the war, they claimed back their jobs. The women who were taking care of these jobs while they were away were forced back home. Many of these women even had a college degree, but not because they had to find a job, but because it was easier for them to find a husband. The Feminine Mystique. Groundbreaking book for the Women’s Liberation Movement. Combination of psychology and sociology. “The Problem that has no Name”. Middle-class married women. Despite having many advantages that other women didn’t have, these women were unhappy. They had a problem, and this problem had no name. This book meant the awakening of many middle-class American women. “Glamorous” oppression. The myth of women’s domestic fulfillment. “Masculine mystique”. She refers in this way to men who were beginning to let their hair grow and be long, for example. New type of masculinity. Rejection of conventional male “rules”. On young boy’s rejection of the codes of masculinity and how men can also benefit from women’s liberation (1964). Angela Davis (1944): She is a key figure in black or afro-American feminism, black education, political thinker, feminist, left-wing activist, scholar. She became famous for being a member of the Black Panther Party. Association of her mother with the NAACP. Civil rights movement activist. Member of the Che-Lubumbashi Club (all-black group for the Communist Party in LA). Placed on the list of FBI’s most-wanted fugitive list (early 1970s). Spent 3 years in prison due to her involvement with Jonathan P. Jackson (who had kidnapped 2 jurors and the judge in the trial of his brothers). Critical of the prison institution: more resources than education. Third wave or Postmodern feminism (1990s onwards): Challenge of white, middle-class, and heterosexual feminism. Lack of women diversity representation was remarked. Lesbian feminism. Chicana feminism. Asian-American feminism. African-American feminism. Ecofeminism. Queer theory/Intersex-transgender. LGBT. Third World feminism. Focused on differentiating between groups of women as respects social class, ethnicity, sexual orientation, socio-cultural background and the like. Questioning of the notion of identity-politics, considered essentialist and universalizing. Transgender Identities: Within…(book in the virtual classroom) summary: Two main categories: transexual and transgender: Historical overview: Prior to the 1950s, the categories of “homosexuality”, “transvestism” (cross-dressing) and “transsexualism” were all grouped together as sexual deviations. 1950s up to the 1970s: the emergence of a medical approach to treating transsexualism based on hormones and surgical treatment. 1970s and 1980s: the concept of gender dysphoria. 1990s: development of “transgender” as a concept. 21st century: recognition of the diversity within the category. By the 19th century: normative sex and gender distinctions were well in place and it is within this context that the multidisciplinary field of sexology developed. Homosexuality became the main object of study. The 1950s: The homosexual trajectory consists of a history of compulsory treatment to get rid of homosexual behaviour, whereas of transsexuals the hormone treatment was needed as part of the sex reassignment surgery (changing sex), Transsexuals and transvestites: “in travestís the sex organs are sources of pleasure: in transsexualism they are sources of disgust” (Harry Benjamin, 1954). 1979: Gender Dysphoria Association (HBIGDA): Standads of Care (SOC) were created by the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association in 1979 as a way of setting ethical boundaries in asserting who qualified for hormonal and surgical treatment. There has been much controversy regarding hormonal and surgical treatments and who decides the eligibility for treatment, but Benjamin’s contribution at least… Virginia Prince (1912-2009). Born Arnold Lowman. American transgender activist. Key figure in the transgender community from the 1950s onwards. 1960: publication of the first transvestie magazine. It is possible for a man to live as a women without having to remove his male organs. … In 1966 a gender programe was stablished at the John Hopkins University that helped transsexuals to go through “sex reasignment”. This transsexual model provided a medical framework and treatment that enabled transsexuals to live as the opposite sex. In the 1960s and 70s, the John Hopkins University’s programme continued to provoke professional opposition from psycho… The 1970s appearance of the “gender dysphoria” concept. Norman Fisk (1973) introduced the term “gender dysphoria” which was used instead of “transsexualism” and seen as a more general and widespread phenomenon. Fisk’s conception drew on the term “dysphoria” which is defined as a “state of unease or general dissatisfaction”. From “gender dysphoria” to “transgender”. 1990s: “transgender” as a concept appears to contest the binary system, calling for diversity rather than uniformity. It moves away from a physically based definition (sex of the body) and encompasses a more social definition whereby a transgendered identification may refer to people living as social men or social women who may, or may not, seek reasignment surgery (Cromwell, 1999). 2004: Gender Recognition Act (UK): allowed people who have gender dysphoria to change their legal gender. Transgender studies: 1. Describe anything that disrupts, denaturalizes and reaticulates the normative linkages between sex, gender and sexuality and, obviously enough, the binary system. 2. There are ongoing tensions within the transgender movement with one of the main arguments being that some transsexuals still rely on traditional conceptions of binary gender as a social an psychological fact, unlike transgender activists who are working towards dephatologising trans and moving to a position outside gender – in othe words, queering gender.