“Gender is a performance.” –Judith Butler
2nd Wave – Classist, Racist, White Majority
3rd Wave – Complicates issues of sexuality, gender, identity/performance, race, culture
Feminist Theories
-Liberal Feminist Theory – same political liberty across genders
-Marxist Feminist Theory – same economic liberty across genders
-Radical Feminist Theory – sex/reproduction/care are simultaneously empowering/oppressing for women
-Socialist Feminist Theory – joins Marxist and Radical theories
Utopia
Upper-class, inside – exploring fantasy worlds
Treating other races as “children” or “inferior”
Separates good and bad
“perfect society” includes slavery
feudalism is ending – ability to change profession
What is the critique?
-private property, feudalism, poverty
-slavery is good… immoral? Likens slavery to punishment
Three Guineas
What is the critique?
-lack of power/agency
-women in the workforce
-current education system
ellipsis (. . .) creates space, implies something is missing, unspoken, or unspeakable
Gender Stories
3 conceptualizations of Gender
-gender equals sex (feminine/masculine)
-gender does not equal sex (develops through social interaction)
-gender is the assignment of meaning to bodies
Expression of Sexuality – gay, straight, lesbian, bisexual, asexual, queer
“gender” – masculine, feminine, androgynous, genderqueer
gender – socially constructed, includes “sex”, not stable; dimensions become more/less significant
Ideas-
-Identities can have gender implications
-Social Construction and Agency
-Religion/History
-Institutions created by humanity
-Preparation (tells children how to act as adults), prescription, and Reinscription
Herland
Expectations and Realities
E: “feminine vanity” – “frills and furbelows”
R: evolved costume, more perfect than Chinese dress; beautiful, useful, dignified, tasteful
E: dull, submissive monotony
R daring, social inventiveness; mechanical scientific development
E: pettieness
R: social consciousness
E: jealousy
R: broad, sisterly affection; fair-minded intelligence
E: hysteria
R: standard of health, vigor; calmness of temper
Ideas
Are these women or are they a 3rd gender?
Male Narrator provides for Point of View, Reaches broader audiences at the time
Children are like trees, growing together, part of society, natural growth/education
Eugenics- breeding humans to be better, avoid sex drive/aggression
Sexuality is shameful, removal prevents sexual violence
Judith Butler
Ideas
Do women exist?
What is it that allows us to become a “woman”?
What is not “womanly”?
No “we,” but “I” and the “other”
See the reality, manipulate rules of social gender construction, make fun of it
Queer (readings of Duggan and Warner)
Definition – not traditionally heterosexual, meaning origin: “strange”, “unnatural”
Defying standards of a heterosexual world
Heterosexuality makes sense of homosexuality by making it another form of heterosexuality
But there is no “normal”
Performance of gender/sexuality has an effect on all facets of life
Binary of right (natural) or wrong (unnatural)
The Straight Mind by Monique Witting
Ideas
Experience/desire must be filtered through categories and statistics
“Thus, when thought by the straight mind, homosexuality is nothing but heterosexuality” (28)
Wants to rid of gender difference/binary
Angels in America
Characters:
Prior – flamboyant and feminine
Belize- flamboyant and feminine, takes control later
Louis- pokes fun at/acknowledges homosexuality, goofy, chariming (w/Joe), unlikable (w/ Prior), selfish
Joe- performs heterosexuality, “weak”, married/church/right-wing, self-loathing
Roy- negative attitude, thinks homosexuality=powerlessness, wont admit to it
Performances in Angels
Homosexual perspectives, conflict, doubt, guilt, abandonment, humanity, loss, messiness, faith/religion/divinity, fantastical/magical, delusion, theatricality/imagination, race
Ideas
Prior as Jonah – prophet that doesn’t want to be a prophet
Judaism & Mormanism – Their journeys; being marginalized
Freedom & Other ideas are so distand & high that they’re unattainable
Hannah/Joe Phone Call – homosexuality is a joke, ridiculous
Homosexual–gay–sodomite(strong moral connotation; religious history)-inversion
Utopia – Harper & Mr Lies (Harpers reality is very dystopic)
Dystopia – dying characters; self-loathing; failing religions; corrupt lawyers
Blood Child
Ideas
Gender duty, sibling relations, male pregnancy, complexity of relationships, consent/agency, coming of age/growing up, parasitism, symbiotic, family structure, childbearing, C-sections (exploitative, violent, sex, rape, loss of virginity)
Evening, Morning, Night
Ideas
Discrimination, healthcare system, prison, what constitutes humanity, touch/love, children’s responsibility to care for parents, reproductive right, entrapment, free will, doubt/hesitation
Speech Sounds
Ideas
Intuition, communication, companionship/trust, violence, education/power, loss/greed, jealousy, access to resources
Black Feminist Thought & Afrofuturism
Ideas
Education, Housing, Healthcare Access for Black Women
There is a time for separation – balance coming together and separation
Afrofuturism critiques historica/modern-day oppression for people of color
Afrofuturism imagines a utopic future of liberation and progress
Analogue – A Hate Story
Characters
*Hyun-ae – submissive, feminine AI
*Mute – patriarchal AI
V for Vendetta
As a graphic novel…
Dialogue – image/text interplay
Panels – size, placement
Bubble Shapes – who, where, why
The Character “V”
Different speech
Androgynous
Used to believe in justice, now anarchy
No facial expression, grin
Imprisoned
Clever
Long hair – does this mean anything?
Sexuality – asexualish; respectful
Non-identitarian politics
Anarchy-rights for ALL
The Hunger Games
Ideas
Bow & Arrow
Revenge/Mercy Killings – Katniss
Love Story
Gendering Death
Test Question
Katniss Inadvertently starts a riot in district 11 by giving Rue a funeral.
Class Themes
Surveillance
Cocnetrated Power
Families Separated
Lack of Agency
Control of Information
Segregation
Little Value for Human Life
Violence
Controlled Resources
No Room for Growth