GSWS 096 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Cisgender, Nuclear Family, Wage Labour
3 Jul 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Ave Maria
● Let your children be wild and live their life
○ Otherwise they will just resent you and be messed up/boring
Michael Warner, “Public and Private”
●Private: Hidden, closed, domestic. Usually dominated by femininity and/or
homosexuality
● Public: Open, impersonal. Usually dominated by masculinity and/or
heterosexuality.
● Binary system: Does not apply to public and private. The relationship between
the two is so complex and it cannot be understood so simply.
○ Ex: Private things like sex and gender are also used in public arguments,
like in politics
Michel Foucault, “History of Sexuality”
● Repressive hypothesis: the history of sexuality over the past 300 years has been
a history of repression. Sex (other than for reproduction) is taboo. The only way
to liberate ourselves is to enjoy sex and be open about our sexuality
●Main argument: challenging this theory!
○ Thinks that people talk about sex all the time - in fact, too much!
○ We should disregard all of it and stop labeling ourselves, because this is
what gives society power over us.
■ The more you identify with a category, the more it defines you
Gayle Rubin, “The Traffic in Women”
● Sex/Gender System: the societal expectation for people to conform to gender
roles based on their sex
○ Ex: Men being the breadwinner, while the woman relies on him and takes
care of the house/kids
● Claude Levi-Strauss Theory: The “kinship system” (marriage) is both sexist and
hetero-centric, because it is based on the “exchange of women” (like when
fathers literally sold the brides). This expects every couple to be
heterosexual/cisgender, and allows men to have rights over women that they
don’t have over men.
● Freud’s Oedipus Complex: The theory that children have a subconscious desire
to kill their parent of the same sex, due to their sexual/attention desire for their
parent of the same sex.
Document Summary
Let your children be wild and live their life. Otherwise they will just resent you and be messed up/boring. Binary system: does not apply to public and private. The relationship between the two is so complex and it cannot be understood so simply. Ex: private things like sex and gender are also used in public arguments, like in politics. Repressive hypothesis: the history of sexuality over the past 300 years has been a history of repression. The only way to liberate ourselves is to enjoy sex and be open about our sexuality. Thinks that people talk about sex all the time - in fact, too much! We should disregard all of it and stop labeling ourselves, because this is what gives society power over us. The more you identify with a category, the more it defines you. Sex/gender system: the societal expectation for people to conform to gender roles based on their sex.
