Gender Studies MA

Brah, Avtar and Ann Phoenix (2004) ‘Ain't I A Woman? Revisiting Intersectionality.’ Journal of International Women's Studies 5.3: 75-86. "What... are the implications of an event which occludes the black female subject from the political imaginary of a feminism designed to campaign for the abolition of slavery?" p.76 "Sojourner Truth's 1851 speech... demonstrates the historical power of a political subject who challenges imperatives of subordination and thereby creates new visions." p.76 Truth's speech draws attention "to the simultaneous importance of subjectivity - of subjective pain and violence that the inflictors do not often wish to hear about or acknowledge." p.77 "Sojourner Truth's identity claims are thus relational, constructed in relation to white women and all men and clearly demonstrate that what we call 'identities' are not objects but processes constituted in and through power relations." p.77 ...

Brah, Avtar (1999) ‘The Scent of Memory: Strangers, Our Own, and Others.’ Feminist Review 61: 4-26. Triggers "Knowing is not so much about the assemblage of existing knowledge as it is about recognizing our constitution as 'ourselves' within the fragments that we process as knowledge" p.5 "The boundaries between cosmology, history, religion and science are far from clear cut as they are no more, and no less, than different ways of trying to know that which defies transparency." p.6 This could be connected to feminist empiricism - by engaging with feminist epistemology and moving away from the historical methods of knowledge production, inclusion of what are seen as traditional methods produced by women or marginalised people.  "what is humanity if not an intricate mosaic of non-identical kinship?" p.6 "Is my interest in her driven by a sense of affinity with her or by a sense of difference? Indeed, do these have to be bi-polar altern...

Lorde, Audre ([1984] 2007) ‘Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference.’ Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Berkeley, CA: Crossing Press, 114-123. Audre Lorde begins by noting the western categories of dualisms: good/bad, superior/inferior. She says that the group of people who feel surplus in a capitalist society are "Black and Third World people, working-class people, older people, and women." p.854 She positions herself as a "forty-nine year old Black lesbian feminist socialist mother of two, including one boy, and a member of an interracial couple" p.854 She says the oppressed are expected to "bridge the gap" between them and the oppressor, perhaps referring to the epistemic advantage of standpoint theory. Possible reference to W.E.B Dubois 'Double Consciousness' theory when saying that the oppressed have to "become familiar with the language and manners of the oppressor" p.854 in order to survive Link to Trin...

Braidotti, Rosi ([1994] 2011) ‘Sexual difference theory.’ In: Nomadic Subjects: Embodiment and Sexual Difference in Contemporary Feminist Theory. 2nd Ed. New York, Columbia University Press, 91-115. Luce Irigaray's first phase "focuses on the potential for transformation contained by the feminine as the sociosymbolic location of privileged otherness." p.91 Sexual difference as the principle of not-one: "feminine is a complex and multilayered location and not an immutable and given essence." p.91 Luce Irigaray's second phase: "focuses on the productive potential for renewal triggered by a radical version of heterosexual love that would be based on respect for the culture of difference." p.91 This heterosexual love is "capable of structuring and transforming not only the relationship between the sexes but also the social field, the public sphere, legal theory and practice, and political life." p.91 Luce Irigary's third phase: ...

Sexual difference: The feminine "Feminine"/feminine "The Other of the same"/'The other of the other" "Feminine" is man made - Feminine is a female made representation "tension between images and man-made representations "Woman" and the experiences of real-life women in their great diversity" p.3 Braidotti - women need to reclaim their own identity "Radical heterosexuality" - to see heterosexuality that deeply effects all categories How can we break the binarism from within? Female at birth - woman - feminine Sex assigned at birth Gender - social construction often following SAB Femininity and Masculinity - behaviour attached to gender If we detach gender from sex, and behaviour from gender, then we break the necessity and everything becomes a choice, there are no normative expectations. Sexual difference - this is how western philosophy has been organising people across a binary Radical heterosex...

Amelie entered Het Utrechts Archief with trepidation; this was the first archive she had been to. The instruction to search for a “proper research project” in an archive had an air of mystery, discovery to it. Immediately upon entering, the receptionist informed her that this was in fact more of a museum than an archive. Archival documents were kept in another building. Mindful of the time frame in which to complete the task, she decided on the spot that anything could be an archival object. Everything has a story to be told, albeit some more interesting than others. So she headed downstairs to an exhibition showing archival films. In the underbelly of the museum, it was dark and no one else cared much about the old canals of Utrecht it seemed. Snooping around made her feel a bit on edge, years of being told to stand behind lines and ‘Don’t Touch’, museums felt like the domain of a superior caretaker of history, speaking the historical world into an existence. The story of history was ...

Amelie: Dr Allen, thank you so much for joining us today to talk about your piece Queer(y)ing the Straight Researcher: The Relationship(?) between Researcher Identity and Anti-Normative Knowledge. Louisa: Thank you, great to be here. And you can call me Louisa. Amelie: So let’s dive straight in, can you please expand on the idea of anti-normative knowledge? Louisa: Heternormative knowledge is the knowledge produced as a result of living in a heternormative society ergo the normative knowledge. Anti-normative knowledge is a notion proposed as the knowledge produced by queer researchers.  Amelie: In the introduction to your essay you talk about why you choose to eschew the ethical and political assumptions of having a straight researcher in the queer research field. Louisa: Yes, because has been researched before, by Calvin Thomas in his book “Straight with a Twist”. Amelie: I personally don’t like that term. I think it coopts the queer identity. I...

Lloyd, Genevieve ([1984] 1993) ‘Preface to second edition,’ ‘Introduction,’ ‘Concluding Remarks.’ In: The Man of Reason: ‘Male’ and ‘Female’ in Western Philosophy. New York, Routledge. Preface Since the book has been published, lots of feminist theory has materialised that deals with 'maleness', sexual difference and philosophy's relation to feminist theory. "The metaphor of maleness is deeply embedded in philosophical articulations of ideas and ideals of reason." p.x "the maleness of reason belongs properly neither with sex nor with gender... This is a maleness which belongs with the operation of symbols" p.x The book seeks to "contribute to the understanding of how the male-female distinction operates as a symbol in traditional philosophical texts, and of its interactions with explicit philosophical views of reason." p.x Some approaches to feminist deconstruction move to readily "from the insight that woman symbolically repre...

Writing and Researcher's Positionality How style matters - it is a practice of knowledge production Embodiment and knowledge production Embodiment in knowledge production - the body (emotion/affect in daily life and knowledge production), taking a standing point from our body (standpoint knowledge, strategic essentialism - in order to push agenda forward) how lived experiences of different forms of power relations are enacted on and through the body (Butler - norm with difference) Cartesian split of body and mind - body is a container of the mind (Dualistic thinking challenged by feminist thinking) (Body is just a vessel, a tool we operate with) Hierarchisation of gender = man/woman Body and mind as mechanistic - Hierarchical dichotomy of body and mind, nature and culture, human and nonhuman Consequences for what we understand as knowledge Situated knowledges - against the god trick and argue for the need to develop new approaches to and forms of science. Harding: f...

Sexual Difference on Self and Other Subjectivity - Braidotti says that Irigarary is one of the most influential theorists on subjectivity. Braidotti - nomadically crossing disciplines, politics of location connected with the philosophy she produces, this is the body from where this thought comes. Sexual difference as an ontological difference between men/women. "Subjectivity is conceptualized, instead, as a process  (HARAWAY CONNECTION) ... that simultaneously encompasses the material ("reality") and the symbolic ("language") instances by which it is structured.  (SUBJECTIVITY IS CONCEPTUALISED BY REALITY AND LANGUAGE TOGETHER)  The female feminist subject starts, therefore, with the reevaluation of the bodily roots of subjectivity, rejecting any universal, neutral, and consequently gender/free understanding of human embodiment. Sexual difference theory covers both differences within each subject (between conscious and unconscious processes), and differ...