Queer theory and anthropology of gender and sexuality
Introduction
In the late 20 centuries, queer theory interrogated the reification of binary gender categories and the taken-for-granted ‘heterosexual matrix’. According to Queer theory, gender is socially and culturally constructed, and through repeated gendered performance that individual acquired gendered identity. Moreover, sexuality and gender has attracted anthropological concerns along the history of the disciplines. Though being influenced and shaped by the social climates, anthropologists have always been devoted to providing alternative perspectives on western sexual mores. Therefore, it is not surprising that some of the main themes and insights of feminist theory and queer theory
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It also established a discourse about women which was exclusively constructed in dialogue with Western cultural assumption. It challenged men’s right to speak for women, however, it found itself unintentionally speaking for other women, which is that feminism anthropologist trying to avoid. However, the anthropology of women is significant. According to Moore, anthropology of women is significant. It challenged the ‘male bias’ in the discipline, which is a ‘special’ case of the recognition of the ethnocentric assumptions underlying anthropological theory. It is this recognition that important, because it ultimately brought into question many of the ‘taken for granted theoretical frameworks within the ‘anthropology of women’ itself. This interrogate to the anthropological underlying theoretical framework also bring the ‘anthropology of women’ into question, which give rise to the anthropology of gender. Moreover, Abu-Lughod (1993), in her Writing Women’s Worlds: Bedouin Stories, draws on anthropological and feminist insights to construct a critical ethnography. She challenges the power of anthropological theory to render adequately the lives of others and the way feminist theory appropriates Third World women. Similar critique was made by …show more content…
Therefore, some of the work of feminist anthropology in the 1980s and beyond, resonates queer theory. For examples, cultural models of the person, such as those found in Melanesia, that emphasise the combination of gendered substances that make up each individual body make it difficult to attribute an essential gender to a person, and it becomes even more difficult to accommodate within dominant western. Its awkwardness, according to Graham (2014), in his newly published book anthropological Explorations in Queer Theory, lies in the anti-normative agenda, which is not always easy to reconcile with anthropology’s mission to make sense of other ‘societies’ in local terms. I appreciate the Graham’s work in comparing queer theory and anthropological concerns on sexuality. However, queer theory is not about the sexuality minorities. As Graham recognized in his book about queer theory is not about gay or lesbian studies, but he failed to look at the queer theory’s implication on the ‘subject’ and ‘power’. Graham also critiques queer theory by pointing out the political agenda behind it, he suggested that:” the removal of biology from feminist concerns was part of a necessary political project aimed at undermining the biological essentialisms that were deployed to justify women’s subordination as natural, grounded in indisputable and universal biological facts
We cannot deny the imperfection of the world today; poverty, violence, lack of education, and the general overwhelming deficiency of basic daily necessities are among some of the most troubling issues on the agenda. By carefully selecting our critical lens, we can gather that there are many aspects of today’s issues where we can focus our attention and begin the quest for solutions to these pervasive problems. Authors Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn (2009) utilize their book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide to emphasize the particular struggle of women in the world today and how by addressing three particular abuses of sex trafficking and forced prostitution, gender-based violence (including honor killings and mass rape), and maternal mortality, we may begin “unlocking an incipient women’s movement to emancipate women and fight global poverty” (p. xxii). However, we must first understand the difficulty of addressing such complex issues by a proposing a “one-size fits all” solution and take into consideration the varying feminist perspectives that currently contemplate the oppression of women in societies around the world. To be able to critically digest Kristof and WuDunn’s book we must explore the types of stories and evidence included and how they’re presented, and the generalized theories behind the insight and solutions regarding the women in need around the world. The authors alienate their audience by ignoring the complexity of building a singular feminist movement. Kristof and WuDunn’s book Half the Sky further contributes to the oppression of women because they objectify Third World women by portraying them as victims in need of outside rescue and suggest that an overarching solution...
In an effort to legitimize all subcategories of sexuality considered deviant of heterosexual normatively, queer theory acknowledges nontraditional sexual identities by rejecting the rigid notion of stabilized sexuality. It shares the ideals of gender theory, applying to sexuality the idea that gender is a performative adherence to capitalist structures that inform society of what it means to be male, female, gay, and straight. An individual’s conformity to sexual or gendered expectations indicates both perpetration and victimization of the systemic oppression laid down by patriarchal foundations in the interest of maintaining power within a small group of people. Seeking to deconstruct the absolute nature of binary opposition, queer theory highlights and celebrates literary examples of gray areas specifically regarding sexual orientation, and questions those which solidify heterosexuality as the “norm”, and anything outside of it as the “other”.
This paper attempts to link the facet of queer theory that explains gender and sexuality as culturally constructed identities, with the presence of the berdache in the New World at the time of the Spanish conquest. By analyzing the construction of gender and sexuality among the native peoples, in contrast to the ideologies of the Spanish, I found a clash arose which explained, in some sense, the incompatibility of the two cultures. The differences between the two cultures' gender construction established support for the very "un'natural'" or "in'essential'" nature of gender, sexuality, and the body as a means of self-identity. By realizing the issue of power and where it lies within individuals and societies, hierarchical social constructions are revealed to be connected with sexual roles. This dominant/subordinate relationship present in both cultures defines and substantiates the role that power plays in the cultural context. The use of queer theory to elucidate these complicated social and sexual relationships helps to explain the way this power structure maps onto the native people's relationship with the berdache.
Queer ecology (and queer theory) challenges what sexualities we deem as “natural” or “normal” and our biology diverting from social, physical, and conce...
The stark expectations surrounding gender and sex of today’s society stem largely from a need to seek use of exclusionary language. Jacques Derrida, one of the many source contributors from which Judith Butler sought out to formulate Queer Theory as we know it today, pegged the idea that language is exclusionary in and of itself. His most commonly used example is that of “chair” versus “not chair”; how do you define a chair? If you were to look at a bench, a couch, a table, a swing, a bed- these things are “not chair”. Similar to this example is the situation that society forces every individual born into it to face- “male” and “not male”, or “female” and “not female”. Fausto-Sterling approaches this issue from a unique perspective that utilizes both her knowledge as biologist (looking towards the cellular basis of “sex”) paired with her self-proclaimed feminist perspective. Her perspective on a more sensible system of sex was initial...
In a structured society, as one we’ve continued to create today, has raised concerns over the way society uses the term queer. Queer was a term used to describe “odd” “peculiar” or “strange” beings or things alike, but over the centuries societies began to adapt and incorporate the term into their vocabulary. Many authors such as Natalie Kouri-Towe, Siobhan B. Somerville, and Nikki Sullivan have distinct ways of describing the way the word queer has been shaped over the years and how society has viewed it as a whole. In effect, to talk about the term queer one must understand the hardship and struggle someone from the community faces in their everyday lives. My goal in this paper is to bring attention to the history of the term queer, how different
The lack of an energetic and robust political movement, the lack of an identity "woman" with which to align, and the perception of restrictive and detrimental positions associated with feminism have contributed to bring about a state of post-feminism, a state in which there is nothing to join and no clear "woman" to be, but in which many of the concerns of actual women about equality, free expression, power, respect, and sexual subjectivity are still present and compelling. Reinelt, J. (2003). This is also reflected in studies of anthropology as well. The focus of contemporary scholars in third wave feminist anthropology is the differences existing among women rather than between males and females (McGee, Warms 1996: 392). Dominguez, J., Franks, M., & Boschma, J. H., III.
In the article “An Anthropological Look at Human Sexuality” the authors, Patrick Gray and Linda Wolfe speak about how societies look at human sexuality. The core concept of anthology is the idea of culture, the systems of attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors people acquire as a member of society. The authors give an in depth analysis on how human sexuality is looked at in all different situations.
Homosexuality has become a hot topic of acceptability within the past few decades. The United States has its own fair share of legislation and debate among different cultural groups with the society. However, some societies across the world have instances of ritualized homosexuality as passage to adulthood. Gilbert Herdt is a noted cultural and clinical anthropologist who has conducted extensive research on human sexuality. He is a founder of the Department of Sexuality studies in San Francisco State University and maintains a position as a professor (Gilbert Herdt 2010). He has become an international figure in regards to child and adolescent sexuality, the gender relations involved in cultural views and development of sexuality, and orientation. His work The Sambia: Ritual and Gender in New Guinea, has gained recognition and highlighted the dichotomy of gender in relation to sexuality and power. He won the Ruth Benedict Prize in 1988 for his research (Gilbert Herdt 2010). The Sambia are a “rugged mountain people” that call the rainforest of Papua New Guinea home (Herdt 2006: 1). Herdt began his research in 1974 to discover a group of people who broke the preexisting stereotypes of overly aggressive behavior (Herdt 2006: xvii). His ethnographic research included field observations through participant observation and interactions with informants (Herdt 2006: xxi). His close relations to his informants allowed him insight into traditions and the associate change. He looked to the evident gender differences in the Sambian society that preoccupied the people to the ritual initiation th...
In Kennedy and Davis’ article the debate over who is constituted as the “true” lesbian reflects the tension between heterosexuality and butch-fem identities when taken into account ethnic background and assigned gender roles in the relationship. While lesbianism is supposed to pose as a challenge to heterosexuality as the norm, as Kennedy and Davis’ article shows, within the lesbian community practices like the specification of butch-fem roles becomes a tool of oppression similar to conformity to heterosexual traditional gender roles. To illustrate the point that sexuality is based on the “cultural interpretation of sexual experiences” and “articulation” of power relations in society (Halperin 424), this paper focus on Kennedy and Davis’ debate over who is the real lesbian, and it draws on examples from the film Forbidden Love and Lee’s article “Why Suzie Wong is not a Lesbian”. I argue that sexual deviance or otherwise is always defined by a power elite in the interest of protecting and legitimating the current sexual norms. While lesbian culture is meant to be a challenge to these heterosexual norms, and yet its definition of butch-fem roles performs its own marginalization that ultimately reinforces traditional male-female roles. Interestingly, it also uses this power structure to establish the racial exclusions of non-white women that can be traced through the history of European colonization.
Integrating scripting theory with the compulsory heterosexuality theory, a heteronormative, dominant sexual script was explicated, the Heterosexual Script (Sorsoli; Collins; Zylbergold; Schooler & Tolman 2007 p. 145-157). Traditionally, societies have encouraged both men and women to obey different sexual scripts (Laws and Schwartz 1977). This heterosexual scripts has been commented to be extremely gendered as well as breeding gender inequality (Pascoe 2007) and this essay aims to depict the means in which it is gendered along with its influences towards men and women in Western’s
As Tamsin Wilton explains in her piece, “Which One’s the Man? The Heterosexualisation of Lesbian Sex,” society has fronted that heterosexuality, or desire for the opposite sex, is the norm. However, the reason behind why this is the case is left out. Rather, Wilton claims that “heterosexual desire is [an] eroticised power difference [because] heterosexual desire originates in the power relationship between men and women” (161). This social struggle for power forces the majority of individuals into male-female based relationships because most women are unable to overcome the oppressive cycle society has led them into. Whereas heterosexual relationships are made up of the male (the oppressor) and the female (the victim who is unable to fight against the oppressor), homosexual relationships involve two or more individuals that have been freed from their oppressor-oppressed roles.
Gottlieb, Alma. "Interpreting Gender and Sexuality: Approaches from Cultural Anthropology." Exotic No More: Anthropology on the Front Lines. Ed. Jeremy MacClancy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002.
In the face of a homophobic society we need creative and critical processes that draw out the complexity of lesbian lives and same sex choices, not a retreat into the comforting myths of heroines and unfractured, impeachable identities
... decades ago. This book is one that will allow the reader to view many aspects of sexuality from a social standpoint, and apply it to certain social attitudes in our society today, these attitudes can range from the acceptance of lesbian and gays, and the common sight of sex before marriage and women equality. The new era of sexuality has taken a definite "transformation" as Giddens puts it, and as a society we are living in the world of change in which we must adapt, by accepting our society as a changing society, and not be naive and think all the rules of sexuality from our parents time our still in existence now.