ANT207H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Judith Butler, Pierre Bourdieu, Michel Foucault
Professor Tanya Li Nov. 17, 2016
ANT207 LECTURE 10
UNDERSTANDING GENDER
***EXAM***
- Short answer and essay
- Will be given essay questions
- Cheat-sheet allowed
- No kinship
GENDER → the socially constructed roles and attributes a given society considers appropriate
for men and women
GENDER AS EMBODIMENT
• Culturally appropriate behaviour, disposition
• Absorbed through socialization, everyday practice
- You don’t think about your actions, you just know it
• “Habitus” (Pierre Bourdieu) → intuitive knowledge of how things are done; taken for
granted; seems natural, normal
• We do not have gender, we do gender –embody and perform it (Cf. Judith Butler, Gender
Troubles)
- It is not given innately but something you perform/embody
GENDER AS THE EFFECT OF POWER
• Kind of power Michel Foucault exposed
• May be overt power of force, punishment
Ex. criminalization of gays, ridicule of boy who likes girl toys
• Mostly soft power that directs and disciplines our thought and behaviour—produces as
gendered subjects
• We police, discipline, manage ourselves
• Power works in and through us—unnoticed
FEMINIST THEORY
• Sees all social relations as gendered
• Gender (and class, race, age) are fundamental social categories
• Highlights patriarchy/power of men over women
- Not just that we are gendered but that they are hierarchically organized
• Challenges social/scientific knowledge produced from male perspective
• Seeks to foreground marginalized perspectives of women and men
QUEER THEORY
• Highlights instability of m/f, straight/gay, masculine/feminine
• Note continuum, tensions, contradictions, experimentation, variety, fluidity,
situationality, dynamism
• Track how “exceptions” overlooked, marginalized
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Gender the socially constructed roles and attributes a given society considers appropriate for men and women. Gender as embodiment: culturally appropriate behaviour, disposition, absorbed through socialization, everyday practice. It is not given innately but something you perform/embody. Gender as the effect of power: kind of power michel foucault exposed, may be overt power of force, punishment. Ex. criminalization of gays, ridicule of boy who likes girl toys: mostly soft power that directs and disciplines our thought and behaviour produces as gendered subjects, we police, discipline, manage ourselves, power works in and through us unnoticed. Feminist theory: sees all social relations as gendered, gender (and class, race, age) are fundamental social categories, highlights patriarchy/power of men over women. Not just that we are gendered but that they are hierarchically organized: challenges social/scientific knowledge produced from male perspective, seeks to foreground marginalized perspectives of women and men.
