Transcript Un-doing gender: the queer category

M.Bonfili-Philosophy of Law, 2015
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The gender category undergoes a deep
transformation of meaning in the context of the
post-modern deconstructionist perspective
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De-constructionism,
leads
to
consequences of anti-essentialism.
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It is not easy to give a definition of
deconstruction as the authors of this line of
thought intentionally avoid defining the concept
extreme
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distruction of the possibility of
systematisation and unification
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its the revindication of the “other” as
something which is unthought of and
excluded from any categorization
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denies possibility of elaboration of unique
and absolute concepts and meanings
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is close to deconstructionism:
it goes against every structure as an organic
whole decomposable into elements,
whose functional value is determined by the
totality of relationships betweeen each
separate level and all the others
intends
to
de-strucuture
shake
foundations of each structure/exalt disorder
as liberation from repressions imposed by the
structured system
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This line of thought radicalizes the premises
of social constructionism:
Post-structuralist deconstructonism marks
a radical change in the way of
understanding the gender category,
bringing it toward the extinction of the same
meaning
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Social cosntructionism believed that gender
was the product of socialization, that is the
construction of meaning in a given society, in
a historical era, within a certain culture.
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Deconstructionism goes further
By interpreting this outcome of social
constructionism as a structure produced and
organized by power, which should therefore
be de-constructed and de-structured
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Gender=
as a social construction is a “compulsory mask”
imposed from the above and power hides
behind it
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depends on the creation of social hierarchy
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it is a fictional construction, no basis or
foundation
 nature is only presumed since it is constructed
by power just as society
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In order to allow the contingent/multiple
individual to express freely, it is necessary to:
dismantle structures (cancelling each
organization and hierarchy)
expose power
Social construction of gender is de-constructed
to give space to individual construction.
• Social constructionism does not deny natural sex
• it separates it from culturally elaborated gender
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Post-structural deconstructioism abandons
socio-cultural gender moving as far away as
denying natural sex, exalts“individual gender”.
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Social constructionism:
Gender might not concide with natural sex
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Post-structural deconstructionism
“Individual gender” might not match with “social
gender”
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The anti-essentilaism already thematized by
social constructionism in relation to nature, is
further expressed in realtion to society and
culture.
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The starting point and the root of gender, in
the postmodern perspective , is the individual
not society nor nature.
It is the individual that decides the gender
personally desired and wanted , regardless of
nature and society.
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In this context it is argued that gender “can”,
indeed “should, be regardless of sex.
The term gender is used as prescriptive
that is as what must be the expression of
individual desire and no longer as descriptive
of
a
socio-cultural
process
(social
constructionism)
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Although author has not directly engaged
study of gender
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The post-modern theories of gender refer
explicitly to the concept developed by him
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The author denies natural sexuality
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theorizes sexuality as a result of a complex
process of social construction(“socialization
of sexuality”)
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Foucault: Sexuality is not a permanent
essence of human beings , but it’s the product
of:
history
society
context
discourse and power “biopower”
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In the Foucauldian perspective
“Biopower” has developed discourses on sex
to control the human body with birth and
population control
Sexuality is a discoursive creation and an
artificial invention of power used as an
instrument of domination or control
mechanism
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It is power through speech, language and
society, which gives meaning to bodies,
practices and desires.
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Each social group is a regulatory srtucture,
which:
defines bodies
disciplines behaviours
excludes other bodies acts and desires
Determines what is to be considered
normal/natural vs abnormal/unatural
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Foulcault’s idea that both body and sexuality are cultural
cosntructs rather than natural phenomena contributed to
the feminist and post-feminist critique of essentialism.
In this sense gender theories, in the context of postfemminism and postmodernism, become the objects of
application of his method.
Many theories intend to deconstruct social sex and gender,
considering it the means to liberate the body, identity and
subjectivity of the individual from the claim of natural or
social essence, presumed as one,homogenous,static and
stable.
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This perspective breaks down identity into an
heterogenous identification process
With the consequent rejection of all
categories: even the sex gender category
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It is in the context of de-constructionism that
the gender category gives way to the queer
theory.
Queer means: strange,weird, oblique.
For some aspects the queer theory presents
lines of continuity with the gender theories;
for other aspects it introduces new elements
that break through the previous thought.
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Influenced by some currents of femminism
but does not focus on the issue of the
women’s subordination
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Generally speaking we can say that it rejects
the essentialist nature of theories of identity
based on binary oppositions like male/female,
gay/straight and argues there is another
space outside which is “queer”.
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Two elements that carachterize “queerness” or
“queering”:
Polymorphism:
Expressed in problematization and denial of sexual
binarism:
Queer indicates a way of thinking and living
sexuality in contrast to the rigid binary male or
female classification
Rejects any oppositional binary code
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Queer expands gender category including
not only sex but even sexuality as sexual
orientation:
“Set of behaviours, attitudes and acts and
desires aimed at the bond with the other , the
attraction towards the other”
Attractionerotic/romantic sense
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Other element that characterizes queer
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Problematizes and denies heterosexuality as privileged in
society
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Queer considers every sexual orientation equivalent
whether it is expressed towards the opposite sex or the
same sex or both sexes
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It is the exaltation of omnisexuality/multisexuality where
every sexual preference is justified by the simple fact it is
expressed towards someone regardless of whom they are
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Exaltation of every sexual preference
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“queer” is therefore an amorphous and open
term: a flexible, fluid, variable, permeable
category against closed impermeable, fixed
dichotomies
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The frequent expressions:
“Neither” female “nor”male
“Either” female “or” male
Show the ambivalence and ambiguity that
breaks down the opposite dichotimies of
female and male duality
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Queer “umbrella term” which refers to
many theories that have in common the
liberalisation of sexuality making “normal”
what was considered “abnormal”
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Institutionally, queer has been associated
with LGBTI
Widely used acronym
Indicates lesbian,gay,bisexual,
transexual/transgender/transevestites and
intersex.
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individual that lives the non-correspondance
between biological sex and psycho-social
gender and intervenes to permanently
modify their body for a complete sex
riassignment
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male-to-female, who passes from male to
female or the femminization of the male,
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female-to-male; who passes from female to
male or masculinization of the female
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Individual that expresses, transitory or steadily, a
gender identity that is not in line with the sex
at birth and combines both male and female
features and behaviour, wavering from one
gender to the other with a partial modification
of the body if needs be
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Trans-woman: individual born male and lives like
a woman
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Trans-man: individual born female and lives like
a man
Transvestitism (or cross-dressing)
 Phenomenon referred to individuals that have
the habit of intentionally wearing publically or
privately , clothes that are usualyy and
traditionally associated with the opposite sex
Intersexual
 Condition
of
sexual
ambiguities
(genetic,gonadic,hormonal,morphological) due
to contemporary presence of features of both
sexes
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Within different communities expresses kind
of solidarity amongst different individuals
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joined by the will to provoke the traditional
paradigm and transgress and destabilize the
usual social rules
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share common feature of constructing their
gender identities in opposition to biological
determinism and essentialism
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Their intention is to problematize on
theoreticla level and withstand on practical
level rigid sexual dimorphism and
heterocentricism
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Rejects any hierarchy in relation to sexual
identity and sexual orientation: diffrerence is
considered to be cause of hierarchy that
consequently widens the distance between
normal considered superior and abnormal
considered inferior.
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One can be either a woman in a female body,
both by transforming the body (like transexuals)
and also by accepting the ambiguity, hybridity,
and male/female coexistence
(intersex,transgender).
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Intersexuality is exalted as an intermediate sexual
condition “between” and “beyond” the condition of
female and male
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Masculinity or femininty becomes a matter of
degree, varying in percentage and intensity from
individual to individual, based on the presence or
ansence of certain characterisitcs.
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Queer theory considers a duty to choose to assign the
subjects with severe genital ambiguity to a third
gender, neither male or female therefore male and
female.
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In this perspective each individual should
have the possibility to make a personal choice
regarding sexual re-assignment or even
acceptance of one’s condition, be it even
“intersex” without forced normalization, that
is the feminization of the male or the
masculinisation of the female.
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Hormonal treatments or irreversible surgery
on children are therefore deemed illicit, in
order that the individual can grow in the
intersex state and as adults can choose (or
even not choose) on the basis of individual
will.
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Criticizes transexualism which forces the
transformation of the body’s sex according to gender,
returnong to the conformity of sexual binarism
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Prefers sexual indetermination to determination
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Transgender condition is preferred to transexualism
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Transgender is someone that expresses in the body
and behaviour a gender identity that is disjointed and
not aligned to sex
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Is any multiple, plural or variable identity
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Any behaviour generally and traditionally
considered deviant and transgressive
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It questions stable fixed idenities
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It deconstructs social representations
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Idenity does not exist/only identification exists