Gender studies is a field of interdisciplinary study which analyzes the phenomenon of gender. An academic discipline or field of study is a branch of Knowledge which is taught or Researched at the college or university level In Academia, Pedagogy, Physical sciences, Earth sciences, Human sciences and Social sciences Gender comprises a range of differences between men and women extending from the biological to the social Gender Studies is sometimes related to studies of class, race, ethnicity, sexuality and location. Social class refers to the hierarchical distinctions (or stratification) between individuals or groups in Societies or Cultures. The term race or racial group usually refers to the concept of categorizing Humans into Populations or groups on the basis of various sets In Geography, location is a position or point in Physical space that something occupies on Earths' surface ^[1]

The philosopher Simone de Beauvoir said: “One is not born a woman, one becomes one. "La Beauvoir" redirects here also see Beauvoir (disambiguation ”^[2] In Gender Studies the term "gender" is used to refer to the social and cultural constructions of masculinities and femininities. A social construction or social construct is any phenomenon "invented" or "constructed" by participants in a particular Culture or Society It does not refer to biological difference, but rather cultural difference. ^[3] The field emerged from a number of different areas: the sociology of the 1950s and later (see Sociology of gender); the theories of the psychoanalyst Jaques Lacan; and the work of feminists such as Judith Butler. The 1950s Decade refers to the years of 1950 to 1959 inclusive Sociology of gender is a prominent subfield of Sociology. Since 1950 an increasing part of the academic literature and of the public discourse uses gender Jacques-Marie-Émile Lacan (French ʒak lakɑ̃ ( April 13, 1901 &ndash September 9, 1981) was a French Psychoanalyst Judith Butler (born February 24, 1956) is an American Post-structuralist philosopher who has contributed to the fields of Feminism Each field came to regard "gender" as a practice, sometimes referred to as something that is performative. The notion of performative utterances was introduced by J L Austin. ^[4] Feminist theory of psychoanalysis, articulated mainly by Julia Kristeva^[5] (the "semiotic" and "abjection") and Bracha Ettinger^[6] (the "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. Feminist theory is the extension of Feminism into theoretical or philosophical, ground Psychoanalysis is a body of ideas developed by Austrian physician Sigmund Freud and his followers which is devoted to the study of human psychological functioning and behavior Julia Kristeva (Юлия Кръстева (born 24 June 1941) is a Bulgarian - French Philosopher, Literary critic, Bracha L Ettinger (born 1951 also known as Bracha Ettinger, Bracha Lichtenberg Ettinger, Hebrew ברכה אטינגר, ברכה ליכטנברג-אטינגר Sigmund Freud (ˈziːkmʊnt ˈfʁɔʏt born Sigismund Shlomo Freud (May 6 1856 &ndash September 23 1939 was an Austrian Psychiatrist who founded Object relations theory is a psychodynamic theory within Psychoanalytic psychology.

Contents 1 Studying gender 2 Influences of gender studies 2.1 Gender studies and psychoanalytic theory 2.1.1 Sigmund Freud 2.1.2 Jacques Lacan 2.1.3 Julia Kristeva 2.1.4 Bracha Ettinger 2.2 Literary Theory 2.3 Post-modern influence 2.4 Visual Theory 3 The development of gender theory 3.1 History of gender studies 3.2 Women's studies 3.3 Men's studies 3.4 Judith Butler 4 Criticism 5 Theorists associated with gender studies 6 See also 7 References 8 Bibliography 9 External links

Studying gender

Studies of gender have been undertaken in many academic areas, such as literary theory, drama studies, film theory, performance theory, contemporary art history, anthropology, sociology, psychology and psychoanalysis. Literary theory in a strict sense is the systematic study of the nature of Literature and of the methods for analyzing literature Film theory debates the essence of the cinema and provides conceptual frameworks for understanding film's relationship to Reality, the other Arts individual Art history is the Academic study of objects of Art in their Historical development and stylistic contexts i Anthropology (/ˌænθɹəˈpɒlədʒi/ from Greek grc ἄνθρωπος anthrōpos, "human" -λογία -logia) is the study of Sociology (from Latin: socius "companion" and the suffix -ology "the study of" from Greek λόγος lógos "knowledge" Psychology (from Greek grc ψῡχή psȳkhē, "breath life soul" and grc -λογία -logia) is an Academic and Psychoanalysis is a body of ideas developed by Austrian physician Sigmund Freud and his followers which is devoted to the study of human psychological functioning and behavior These disciplines sometimes differ in their approaches to how and why they study gender. 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. Gender Studies is also a discipline in itself: an interdisciplinary area of study that incorporates methods and approaches from a wide range of disciplines. In Academia, Pedagogy, Physical sciences, Earth sciences, Human sciences and Social sciences

Influences of gender studies

Gender studies and psychoanalytic theory

Sigmund Freud

Some feminist critics have dismissed the work of Sigmund Freud as sexist, because of his view that women are 'mutilated and must learn to accept their lack of a penis' (in Freud's terms a "deformity"). Sigmund Freud (ˈziːkmʊnt ˈfʁɔʏt born Sigismund Shlomo Freud (May 6 1856 &ndash September 23 1939 was an Austrian Psychiatrist who founded ^[7] On the other hand, feminist theorists such as Juliet Mitchell, Nancy Chodorow, Jessica Benjamin, Jane Gallop, Bracha Ettinger, Shoshana Felman, Griselda Pollock^[8] and Jane Flax have argued that psychoanalytic theory is vital to the feminist project and must, like other theoretical traditions, be adapted by women to free it from vestiges of sexism. Juliet Mitchell (born 1940 in New Zealand) is a British socialist feminist, who is currently a fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge University Nancy Julia Chodorow is a feminist sociologist and psychoanalyst born 20 January 1944 in New York City. Jane (Anne Gallop (born 1952 is a Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Bracha L Ettinger (born 1951 also known as Bracha Ettinger, Bracha Lichtenberg Ettinger, Hebrew ברכה אטינגר, ברכה ליכטנברג-אטינגר Shoshana Felman is Woodruff Professor of Comparative Literature and French at Emory University. Griselda Pollock (born 1949) is a prominent art historian and cultural analyst and a world-renowned scholar of international post-colonial feminist studies in the Shulamith Firestone, in "Freudianism: The Misguided Feminism", 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". Shulamith Firestone (born 1945 (also called Shulie Firestone) is a Jewish Canadian -born feminist.

Jacques Lacan

Lacan's theory of sexuation 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. ^[9] Sexuation (sexual situation) — the development of gender-roles and role-play in childhood — breaks down concepts of gender identity as innate or biologically determined. ^[10] Critics like Elizabeth Grosz accuse Jacques Lacan of maintaining a sexist tradition in psychoanalysis. Jacques-Marie-Émile Lacan (French ʒak lakɑ̃ ( April 13, 1901 &ndash September 9, 1981) was a French Psychoanalyst ^[11] Others, such as Judith Butler and Jane Gallop have used Lacanian work to develop gender theory. ^[12][13]

Julia Kristeva

Main article: Julia Kristeva

Julia Kristeva has significantly developed the field of Semiotics. Julia Kristeva (Юлия Кръстева (born 24 June 1941) is a Bulgarian - French Philosopher, Literary critic, In her work on abjection, she structures subjectivity upon the abjection of the mother and argues that the way in which an individual excludes (or abjects) their mother as means of forming an identity is similar to the way in which societies are constructed. The term Abjection literally means "the state of being cast off She contends that patriarchal cultures, like individuals, have had to exclude the maternal and the feminine so that they can come into being. ^[14][15]

Bracha Ettinger

Main article: Bracha L. Ettinger

Bracha Ettinger worked from the late Lacanian theory to expose Freudian and Lacanian blind spots concerning the feminine, the maternal, and the female specisicities in the bodily Real, and developed their potential for thinking subjectivity and transforming the Symbolic. Bracha L Ettinger (born 1951 also known as Bracha Ettinger, Bracha Lichtenberg Ettinger, Hebrew ברכה אטינגר, ברכה ליכטנברג-אטינגר Bracha L Ettinger (born 1951 also known as Bracha Ettinger, Bracha Lichtenberg Ettinger, Hebrew ברכה אטינגר, ברכה ליכטנברג-אטינגר She articulated a feminine, pre-maternal and maternal "matrixial" sexual difference. ^[16] Ettinger articulated the matrixial borderspace unconscious sphere of "subjectivity as encounter" where "I" and "non-I" emerge in jointmess without rejection and without symbiosis, starting from the infant's primordial contact (transconnectivity) with female body, phantasy and trauma (before birth). The matrixial is a feminine difference that informs gender^[17] and has particular relevance to mother-daughter relations. ^[18] Ettinger structures subjectivity with a "trans-subjective" dimension and reattunement of jointness-in-differentiation, and suggests that primary access to the maternal and the other occurs via aesthetic proto-ethical affects of "fascinance" and "primary compassion", which arise before and also beside "abjection". She argues that blindness to these processes, as well as the therapist's production of "ready-made mother-monster" harm women by destroying or harming the transformational potentiality of mother/daughter relations, the mother-daughter transmission and the potential of creativity.

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". (Adeline Virginia Woolf (née Stephen; 25 January 1882 – 28 March 1941 was an English Novelist and Essayist, regarded as one of the foremost Adrienne Cecile Rich (born May 16 1929 in Baltimore, Maryland) is an American poet essayist and Feminist. ^[19] Griselda Pollock and other femininsts have articulated Myth and Poetry^[20] and literature^[21],^[22],^[23] from the point of view of gender. Griselda Pollock (born 1949) is a prominent art historian and cultural analyst and a world-renowned scholar of international post-colonial feminist studies in the

Post-modern influence

The emergence of post-feminism affected gender studies,^[10] causing a movement in theories identity away from the concept of fixed or essentialist gender identity, to post-modern^[24] fluid or multiple identities . Third-wave feminism is a term identified with several diverse strains of feminist activity and study beginning in the early 1990s In Philosophy, essentialism is the view that for any specific kind of Entity, there is a set of Characteristics or Properties all of which Postmodernity (also spelled post-modernity or the pejorative postmodern condition) is generally used to describe the economic and/or cultural state or condition ^[25]

See Donna Haraway, The Cyborg Manifesto, as an example of post-identity feminism. Donna Haraway (born September 6, 1944 in Denver Colorado) is currently a professor and chair of the History of Consciousness Program at the

Visual Theory

The development of gender theory

History of gender studies

Women's studies

Main article: Women's Studies

Women's studies is an interdisciplinary academic field concerning women, feminism, gender, and politics. Feminism is a discourse that involves various movements theories, and Philosophies which are concerned with the issue of Gender difference, advocate Gender identity (or core gender identity) is a person's own sense of Identification as Male or Female. Politics Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions It can include feminist theory, women's history, women's fiction and women's health. Feminist theory is the extension of Feminism into theoretical or philosophical, ground

Men's studies

Main article: Men's studies

Men's Studies is an interdisciplinary academic field that includes discussions of men's rights,Men's health, feminist theory, queer theory, patriarchy, as well, social, historical, and cultural representations of men and masculinity. Men's studies - sometimes called masculinity studies - is an Interdisciplinary Academic field devoted to topics concerning Men, Masculinity Men’s rights are the freedoms inherently possessed by men and boys of all ages which may be institutionalized ignored or suppressed by law custom and behavior in a particular See also Andrology Men's health emerged as a discrete academic and political concern in the 1990s largely due to the wide success of Men's Health magazine Queer theory is a field of Gender Studies that emerged in the early 1990s out of the fields of gay and Lesbian studies and feminist studies Patriarchy is the structuring of Society on the basis of Family units where fathers have primary responsibility for the welfare of hence authority over

Judith Butler

Main article: Judith Butler

The concept of gender performativity is at the core of Butler's work, notably in Gender Trouble. Judith Butler (born February 24, 1956) is an American Post-structuralist philosopher who has contributed to the fields of Feminism Gender Trouble ( 1990) by Judith Butler is a highly influential book in academic Feminism and Queer theory. In Butler’s terms the performance of gender, sex, and sexuality is about power in society. ^[4] 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 constructed as natural. ^[4]

Criticism

Rosi Braidotti 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. Rosi Braidotti (born September 28, 1954) is a contemporary philosopher and Feminist theoretician 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 counters 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 is criticized by Paul Nathanson and Katherine K. Young for being a discipline that "philosophizes, theorizes and politicizes on the nature of the female gender" as a social construct, to the point of excluding the male gender from analysis. Paul Nathanson and Katherine K Young are Religious studies academics and co-researchers for a project funded by the Canadian government A social construction or social construct is any phenomenon "invented" or "constructed" by participants in a particular Culture or Society They also assert that the 'gender' in gender studies is "routinely used as a synonym for 'women'. ^[26] Such criticism is irrelevant both to Butler who emphasizes performance and to contemporary psychoanalytically informed contemporary Gender studies since Kristeva and Ettinger contribute different insights concerning sexual difference and the maternal, Kristeva in terms of pre-Oedipal and "abjection", and Ettinger in terms of "trans-subjective coemergence", psychic "pregnance" and same-sex differentiation which are concepts and processes that inform gender and identity from beyond social constructs.

Historian and theorist Bryan Palmer argues that the current reliance on poststructuralism — 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 the current "gender studies" with an argument for the necessity to analyze lived experience and the structures of subordination and power. ^[27]

Theorists associated with gender studies

Julia Kristeva Charlotte Perkins Gilman Otto Weininger Judith Butler Simone de Beauvoir Bracha Ettinger Donna Haraway Karen Horney Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak Luce Irigaray Griselda Pollock Hélène Cixous Evelyn Fox Keller Gayle Rubin Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick Judith Halberstam

Michel Foucault bell hooks Audre Lorde Kate Bornstein Christine Delphy Marie-Helene Bourcier Gayle Rubin Jeff Hearn Anthony Giddens Chantal Nadeau Kaja Silverman Sylvia Walby Karin Hausen

See also

• Women's studies and Men's studies
• Femininity and Masculinity
• Feminism and Masculinism
• Gynocentrism and Androcentrism
• Misogyny and Misandry (Sexism)
• Feminine psychology and Masculine psychology
• French Feminism
• Feminist theory
• Sex/gender distinction
• Gender
• Gender Differences
• Gender and sexuality studies
• Gender Identity
• Gender role
• Homophobia and Heterophobia
• Transgender
• Genderqueer
• List of transgender-related topics
• postgenderism
• Queer Theory
• Intersexuality
• Women's movement
• Women's rights
• Feminist theory
• Post-feminism
• Men's movement
• Men's rights
• Men's liberation
• Men and feminism

References

Bibliography

• Armstrong, Carol and de Zegher, Catherine (eds) (2006). Women Artists as the Millennium. Cambridge Massachusetts: October Books, MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-01226-3
• Boone, Joseph Allen and Michael Cadden, eds. , 1990. Engendering Men, New York: Routledge. ISBN 04159-0255-X
• Butler, Judith, 1993. "Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of 'Sex", New York: Routledge. ISBN 0415-90366-1
• Butler, Judith, "Feminism by Any Other Name", in differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies June, 1994. ISSN: 1040-7391
• Butler, Judith, 1999. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge. ISBN 04159-2499-5
• Cante, Richard C. (March 2008). Gay Men and the Forms of Contemporary US Culture. London: Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 0 7546 7230 1.  
• Cranny-Francis, Anne, Joan Kirkby, Pam Stavropoulos, Wendy Waring, eds. , 2003. "Gender studies : terms and debates", Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0333-77612-7
• De Beauvoir, Simone, 1989. The Second Sex. New York: random House Inc. ISBN 06797-2451-6
• Ettinger, Bracha L. , 2001. "The Red Cow Effect. " Reprinted in: Mica Howe & Sarah A. Aguiar (eds. ), He Said, She Says. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2001. 57-88. ISBN 0-8386-3915-1
• Ettinger, Bracha L. , 2006 (Essays 1994-1999). The Matrixial Borderspace, University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 0-8166-3587-0
• Ettinger, Bracha L. , 2006. "From Proto-ethical Compassion to Responsibility: Besidedness, and the three Primal Mother-Phantasies of Not-enoughness, Devouring and Abandonment". Athena: Philosophical Studies. Vol. 2. ISSN 1822-5047.
• Foucault, Michel, 1988. "Care of the Self the History of Sexuality", Random House Inc. ISBN 0394-74155-2
• Foucault, Michel, 1990. "History of Sexuality: An Introduction", London: Random House Inc. ISBN 06797-2469-9
• Foucault, Michel, 1990. "Use of Pleasure: The History of Sexuality", London: Random House Inc. ISBN 0394-75122-1
• Foucault, Michel, 1995. "Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison", translated by Allen Sheridan, London: Random House Inc. ISBN 0679-75255-2
• Fraser, Nancy, Judith Butler, Seyla Benhabib and Drucilla Cornell, 1995. "Feminist Contentions: A Philosophical Exchange. " New Yotk: Routledge. ISBN 0415-91086-2
• Frug, Mary Joe. "A Postmodern Feminist Legal Manifesto (An Unfinished Draft)," in "Harvard Law Review", Vol. 105, No. 5, March, 1992, pp. 1045 - 1075. ISSN: 0017-811X
• Grebowicz, Margaret, (2007). Gender After Lyotard. NY: Suny Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-6956-9
• Healey, Joseph F. , 2003. Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Class : the Sociology of Group Conflict and Change. London: Pine Forge. ISBN 07619-8763-0
• Kristeva, Julia, 1982. "Powers of Horror. Trans. Leon Roudiez. " New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 02310-5347-9
• Palmer, Bryan D. , "Descent into Discourse: The Reification of Language and the Writing of Social History", Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1999, ISBN 08772-2720-9
• Pollock, Griselda, 2001. "Looking Back to the Future". G&B Arts. ISBN 90-5701-132-8
• Pollock, Griselda, 2007. Encounters in the Virtual Feminist Museum: Time, Space and the Archive. Routledge. ISBN 0415413745.
• Wright, Elizabeth, 2000. Lacan and Postfeminism. London: Icon Books Ltd. ISBN 18404-6182-9
• McElroy, Wendy, 2001. Sexual Correctness: The Gender-Feminist Attack on Women, Jefferson: McFarland & Company. ISBN 0786-41144-9
• Oyewumi, Oyeronke, ed. , 2005. African Gender Studies: A Reader, London: Palgrave MacMillan. ISBN 1403-96283-9
• Scott, Joan W. "Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis," in Gender and the Politics of History (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988).
• Spector, Judith A, ed. , 1986. Gender Studies: New Directions in Feminist Criticism, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0879-72351-3
• Thomas, Calvin, ed. , 2000. "Introduction: Identification, Appropriation, Proliferation", in Straight with a Twist: Queer Theory and the Subject of Heterosexuality. Champaign: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0252-06813-0
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• de Zegher, Catherine (ed. ) (1996). Inside the Visible. MIT Press, Boston.

External links

• Department of Gender Studies from Indiana University Bloomington
• xy: men, masculinities and gender politics
• WikEd - Gender Inequities in the Classroom
• Children’s Gender Beliefs
• Goddard College Individualized MA Program with specialties available in gender studies

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