Our Social Context for Theories of Gender and Sexuality: The 3 Waves of Feminism in U.S.

1. Our Social Context for Theories of Gender and Sexuality: The 3 Waves of Feminism in U.S. G205 Borders of Desire: Sex and the Nation State

2. United States Feminist Waves • 1st Wave of Feminism: 1848-1920 • 2nd Wave of Feminism: 1962-1980s • 3rd Wave of Feminism: 1990s to ? What are the aims/goals are of each wave of feminism?

3. 1st Wave of Feminism in the U.S., 1848-1920 • Suffragists (or suffragettes) not feminists. • That particular word for this political ideology not yet available. • Politics focused on enfranchisement(voting rights and access to full citizenship). • Core Theoretical Insights: • sex=biological, gender=cultural • Critique of universal male subject • difference and sameness are universal, however, the value attached to each category varies, are often oppositional, and hierarchical. • Structuralism explains language, the human body as biological, law, & economics (Freud, Lacan, Marx, Weber)

4. 2ndWave of Feminism: 1962-1980s • Women’s Rights and the Women’s Liberation Movement • Often broken in the subcategories, including liberal, cultural, radical, socialist, lesbian, Black, and Chicana. • Core theoretical insights: • interlocking systems of oppression or intersectionality: socially constructed categories of discrimination interact on multiple simultaneous levels, rather than independently, contributing to systematic social inequality. Instead, these forms of oppression are interrelated and create a system of oppression that reflects the "intersection" of multiple forms of discrimination. (Patricia Hill Collins/ Kimberly Crenshaw critiquing middle class white feminisms) • Compulsory Heterosexuality: Heterosexuality is not a natural inclination, but a violent political institution that secures the "male right of physical, economical, and emotional access" to women. (Black Lesbian Feminist, Adrienne Riche critiquing Freud) • Identity Politics: The most profound and potentially most radical politics come directly out of our own identity as opposed to working to end someone else’s oppression. Stresses strong collective group identities as the basis of political analysis and action. (ex. Civil rights groups, Black Panthers, Women’s Lib. consciousness raising, protests and civil disobedience.)

5. 2nd Wave of Feminism • Critique of structuralism (S. de Beauvoir, G. Rubin, M. Foucault) • “One is born, but rather becomes a woman.” (S. de Beauvoir, located in the in-between years) • Sex has its own history (linked to pleasure/desire), just as gender does (G. Rubin). • Sexuality as identity misconstrues the importance of sexual object choice as a path toward pleasure and self care (Foucault). • Destruction of binaries in philosophy, rise of post-structuralist theory.

6. 3rd Wave Feminism, 1990-? • Post-modern theory (complete destruction of meta-narratives or grand theories) • Judith Butler, queer theorist and philosopher, in Gender Trouble introduces the theory of gender performativity. Would NOT identify as a “3rd waver.” • Performativity/performative:Gender is conceptualized not something we securely “possess” after a certain amount of socialization, but instead is a stylized repetition of acts that continuously brings gender into being.  We can say that gender is not stable, it is performative. Thus, gender is a process which may be both conscious and unconscious.

7. 3rd Wave Feminism, 1990-? • Different Cultural Contexts = Different Feminisms • Gains of feminism into popular discourses of post-feminism • Place of feminism in the academy/post-structuralism/Queer Theory • Political conservatism • Technological Changes • Downward Mobility/ Economic instability • Globalization and Environmental concerns • Ineffectiveness of political strategies such as protests (just how do we measure a movement?) • An awareness of diversity- Attempting to include concerns of women of color, lesbians, transgendered women, women of lower class statuses, and women in developing nations. • Embracing notions of contradiction. Example: Instead of completely shunning beauty ideals, critiquing ideals but playing with personal aesthetics and the politics of beauty.

8. Does the 3rd Wave exist? McRobbie • Postfeminism: Suggests that women have already achieved equality (that feminism has “done its job”) and women need to move on from proclaiming a “victim status.” • Only consumerist appropriation of feminist rhetoric

9. Critical Terms in Angiers piece Binary oppositions Biological essentialism/determinism • Sex • Gender • Desire (arousal) • Sexuality

10. Why Gender Studies? • Gender effects everyone. In other words, gender as a study is not a discipline that only benefits women. • Heterosexuality is not inherently problematic, but heteronormativityis. • Heteronormativity, which places value on certain acts and restricts others. • Men are not inherently problematic, patriarchy is. • Heteronormativityplaces value on certain acts and restricts others, which in turn creates hierarchy based upon acts that become identity through socialization.

11. Postmodernity according to Stuart Hall • It is ambiguous depending on where you are in the world; the meanings change, but in terms of pop culture, there is “always an ambivalent relationship to European high culture.” (This would include the art and literature of the so called “dead white men.”) This means that meanings are “historically contingent.” • A global phenomenon that has “shifted the terrain of culture toward the popular” or culturally dominant which tends to “decenter or displace” grand narratives and old hierarchies. • Difference is fetishized. Multiculturalism….. • Example: Cosmo in developing countries…….Vogue India • Matched by backlash, “the aggressive resistance to difference . . .” • Example: Obama as “race” and Clinton as “gender” and John McCain as the “age” candidate.