Section: Topic 1 - Introduction: What is Gender? | POL361 - Gender and Politics - 2023/24

Section outline

- Select activity TOPIC 1 - Overview LECTURE: 26 JANUARY (WEEK 1) SE...
  
  TOPIC 1 - Overview
  Lecture: 26 January (week 1)
  Seminar: 1-2 February (week 2)
  
  Tracey Emin, Trying to Find You 1 (2007). Acrylic on canvas. You can read more about Emin's work here.
  The lecture starts with an overview of the course and then focuses on the first topic, What is Gender? We explore the question of gender and consider what role it plays in our own understanding and experience of the world. You will also be introduced to critiques of 'gender' as a Western category of analysis, which leads us to ask how useful can gender still be as a concept and as site of resistance. By the end of this topic, you should be able to:
  Define the terms ‘politics’ and ‘gender’
  Understand how ‘gender studies’ and ‘feminist theory’ have emerged as fields of enquiry
  Identify key preoccupations and conversations in these fields
  Appreciate the close relationship that exists between theory and practice/production of knowledge and activism
  Important information about seminars held in Week 1
  In week 1 (on 25-26 January) the seminar group will consist of an introduction to the course, information about how the course is organised, and an opportunity for all members of the seminar to introduce themselves.
  There is no core reading for this week, but you are recommended to think of a song, video, film, book, work of art or event (personal or public) that speaks to you about gender and politics. These will be shared in class, and you will be encouraged to consider what understanding of gender underlies these examples.
- Select activity Lecture Slides Topic 1
  
  Lecture Slides Topic 1 File
  
  These are the powerpoint slides for the lecture on topic 1 - What is Gender?
  
  23.2 MB
- Select activity Week 1 Seminar / Student Handout
  
  Week 1 Seminar / Student Handout File
  
  17.5 KB
- Select activity TOPIC 1 - Seminar Preparation PREPARATION FOR THE ...
  
  TOPIC 1 - Seminar Preparation
  
  Preparation for the seminar
  1) Attend and take notes on the lecture.
  2) Read and take notes on the following core reading:
  R.W. Connell (2009) “The question of gender,” in Short Introductions: Gender in World Perspective. Cambridge, Polity Press, pp. 1-12.
  Please choose ONE of following two articles. These are important interventions, questioning gender as a category of analysis.
  Afsaneh Najmabadi (2006) Beyond the Americas: Are Gender and Sexuality Useful Categories of Historical Analysis?, Journal of Women's History 18(1), pp. 11-21.
  Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí (2002) Conceptualizing Gender: Eurocentric Foundations of Feminist Concepts and the Challenge of African Epistemologies. Jenda: A Journal of Culture and African Women 2(1), pp. 1-9.
  
  3) Watch a few short videos of gender reveal parties available on YouTube and read some of the comments users make. You may also want to have a look at “The Ultimate Planning Guide for Planning a Gender Reveal Party” compiled by Pampers, a well-known brand of nappies.
  What do you think is taking place? Make a few notes and set these aside, ready to share with your seminar group.
  4) Go to the topic "The Cult of Beauty" at the top of your module page. Here you will find an array of resources that explore this topic. Aside from the first chapter of Naomi Wolff's seminal book, The Beauty Myth, which I encourage you ALL to read, you can watch/read/listen to whatever inspires you the most.
  
  Seminar discussion (Alaya's groups) / See Student Handout document
- Select activity Topic 1 Seminar / Student Handout
  
  Topic 1 Seminar / Student Handout File
  
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- Select activity TOPIC 1 - Supplementary Reading To explore in more...
  
  TOPIC 1 - Supplementary Reading
  
  To explore in more detail Najmabadi’s and Oyěwùmí’s work, see the following books:
  
  Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí (1997) The invention of women: Making an African sense of western gender discourses. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
  
  Afsaneh Najmabadi (2005) Women with mustaches and men without beards: Gender and sexual anxieties of Iranian modernity. Berkeley & Los Angeles and London: University of California Press.
  
  This is a list of other sources you may wish to read.
  
  He-Yin Zhen (1907; 2013) “On the Question of Women’s Liberation,” translated by Lydia H. Liu, in Lydia H. Liu, Rebecca E. Karl, and Dorothy Ko (Eds.) The Birth of Chinese Feminism: Essential Texts in Transnational Theory. New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 53-71.
  Simone de Beauvoir (1949; 2011) The Second Sex. Translated by Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier with an introduction by Sheila Rowbotham. London: Vintage.
  Sherry B. Ortner (1972) Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture?, Feminist studies 1(2), pp. 5-31.
  Gayle Rubin (1975) “The Traffic in Women: Notes on the Political Economy of Sex,” in Rayna Reiter (Ed.) Toward an Anthropology of Women. New York: Monthly Review, pp. 157-210.
  bell hooks (1981) Ain't I a Woman? Black Women and Feminism. Boston: South End Press.
  Audre Lorde (1984) Sister outsider: Essays and speeches. Berkeley: Crossing Press.
  Catharine A. MacKinnon (1984) “Difference and Dominance: On Sex Discrimination,” in Feminist Legal Theory. London: Routledge, pp. 81-94.
  Joan W. Scott (1986) Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis. The American Historical Review 91(5), pp. 1053-1075.
  Donna J. Haraway (1988) Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective. Feminist Studies 14(3), pp. 575-599.
  Deniz Kandiyoti (1988) Bargaining with Patriarchy. Gender and Society 2(3), pp. 274-290.
  Carole Pateman (1988) “Contracting In,” in The Sexual Contract. Cambridge: Polity Press, pp. 1-18.
  Judith Butler (1990) “Subjects of Sex/Gender/Desire,” in Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge, pp. 1-34.
  Iris Marion Young (1990) Justice and the Politics of Difference. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  Moira Gatens (1991) “A Critique of the Sex/Gender Distinction,” in Sneja Gunew, (Ed.) A Reader in Feminist Knowledge. London: Routledge. pp. 139-160. Print book available at QMUL Library.
  Anne Phillips (1992) Democracy and Difference: Some problems for feminist theory. The Political Quarterly 63(1), pp. 79-90.
  Nancy Fraser (1993) Beyond the master/subject model: Reflections on Carole Pateman's Sexual Contract. Social Text 37, pp. 173-181.
  Henrietta Moore (1994) 'Divided We Stand': Sex, Gender and Sexual Difference. Feminist Review 47, pp. 78-95.
  Carole Pateman (1999) “Beyond the sexual contract?,” in Dench Geoff (Ed.) Rewriting the sexual contract. New York: Routledge, pp. 1-9. Print book available at QMUL Library.
  Toril Moi (1999) “What Is a Woman? Sex, Gender, and the Body in Feminist Theory,” in What is a woman?: and other essays. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. Print book available at QMUL Library.
  Tracy E. Higgins (2000) Reviving the public/private distinction in feminist theorizing. Chicago-Kent Law Review75(2), pp. 847-867.
  Cynthia Enloe (2001) “Gender Makes the World Go Round,” in Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics. Berkley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1-18.
  Joan W. Scott (2001) Fantasy Echo. History and the Construction of Identity. Critical Inquiry 27(2), pp. 284-304.
  Eileen Boris (2002) “Gender After Africa!,” in Catherine Cole, Takyiwaa Manuh and Stephan F. Miescher (Eds.) Africa After Gender? Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp: 191-204.
  Rosi Braidotti (2002) “The Use and Abuses of the Sex/Gender Distinction,” in Gabrielle Griffin and Rosi Braidotti (Eds.) Thinking Differently: A Reader in European Women’s Studies. London: Zed Books, pp. 285-307.
  Ella Shohat (2002) Area Studies, Gender Studies, and the Cartographies of Knowledge. Social Text 72, 20(3), pp. 67–78.
  Bibi Bakare-Yusuf (2003) ‘Yorubas’ Don’t Do Gender’: A Critical Review of Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí’s The Invention of Women: Making An African Sense of Western Gender Discourses. African Identities 1(1): 119-140.
  Wendy Brown (2003) Gender in counterpoint. Feminist Theory 4(3), pp. 365–368.
  Valerie Bryson (2003) Feminist Political Theory (Second Edition). Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
  David Valentine (2004) The Categories Themselves. GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 10(2), pp. 215-220.
  R.W. Connell (2005) Masculinities (Second Edition). Abingdon: Routledge.
  R. W. Connell and James W. Messerschmidt (2005) Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the Concept. Gender & Society 19(6), pp. 829-859.
  Margaret Walters (2005) Feminism: A very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  Clare Hemmings (2005) Telling feminist stories. Feminist theory 6(2), pp. 115-139.
  Linda M. G. Zerilli (2008) “Feminist Theory and the Canon of Political Thought,” in Anne Phillips, Bonnie Honig and John S. Dryzek (Eds.) Oxford Handbook of Political Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 106–24.
  R.W. Connell (2009) “Gender theory and theorists: a short global history,” in Short Introductions: Gender in World Perspective. Cambridge, Polity Press.
  Nadine Changfoot (2009) The Second Sex’s Continued Relevance for Equality and Difference Feminisms. European Journal of Women’s Studies 16(1), pp. 11-31.
  Clare Hemmings (2011) Why Stories Matter: The Political Grammar of Feminist Theory. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
  Sara Ahmed (2017) "Introduction. Bringing Feminist Theory Home," in Living a Feminist Life, Durham and London: Duke University Press, pp. 1-18. You can also find a PDF copy of the Introduction at the bottom of this section.
  Kimberley Hutchings and Patricia Owens (2021) Women Thinkers and the Canon of International Thought: Recovery, Rejection, and Reconstitution. American Political Science Review 115(2), pp. 347–359.
  For Feminist Pedagogies, see these two excellent sources:
  bell hooks (1994) Teaching to Transgress. Education as the Practice of Freedom. New York and London: Routledge. Print book available at QMUL Library.
  Akanksha Mehta (2019) Teaching gender, race, sexuality: Reflections on feminist pedagogy. Kohl: A journal for body and gender research 5(1), pp. 23-30.
  Finally, I would strongly recommend these edited collections for authoritative perspective on a number of issues in gender and politics:
  Seyla Benhabib (Ed.) (1996) Democracy and Difference: contesting the boundaries of the political. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Print book available at QMUL Library.
  Heidi Safia Mirza (Ed.) (1997) Black British Feminism: A Reader. London: Routledge. Print book available at QMUL Library.
  Anne Phillips (1998) Feminism and Politics. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
  Mary Evans, Clare Hemmings, Marsha Henry, Hazel Johnstone, Sumi Madhok, Ania Plomien and Sadie Wearing (2014) The SAGE Handbook of Feminist Theory. London: Sage.
- Select activity bell hooks and Laverne Cox Discuss "What is Feminism?"
  
  bell hooks and Laverne Cox Discuss "What is Feminism?" URL
- Select activity Sara Ahmed, Introduction to Living a Feminist Life
  
  Sara Ahmed, Introduction to Living a Feminist Life File
  
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Topic 1 - Introduction: What is Gender?

Section outline