Gender studies

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Gender studies is a field of interdisciplinary study, analyzing the phenomenon of gender. It examines both cultural representations of gender and people's lived experience of it. Gender Studies is sometimes related to studies of class, race, ethnicity and location.^[1]

The philosopher Simone de Beauvoir said: “One is not born a woman, one becomes one”^[2]. In Gender Studies the term "gender" is used to refer to the social and cultural constructions of masculinities and femininities. It does not refer to biological difference, but rather cultural difference.^[3] This emerged from a number of different areas: in sociology during the 1950s (see Sociology of gender); from the theories of the psychoanalyst Jaques Lacan; and in the work of feminists (such as Judith Butler). Each field, came to regard 'gender' as a practice, sometimes referred to as something that is performative^[4].

See also: Gender#In feminist theory and Guattari#1980s to 1990s

1 Studying gender
2 Influences of gender studies
3 The development of gender theory
4 Criticism
5 Theorists associated with gender studies
6 See also
7 References
8 Bibliography
9 External links

[edit] Studying gender

Studies of the role of gender have been undertaken in many academic areas, such as: literary theory, drama studies, film theory, performance theory, anthropology, sociology, and psychology (to name but a few). These studies have different focuses on how and why they study gender. For instance in anthropology, sociology and psychology gender is often studied as a practice. Whereas in Cultural Studies representations of gender are more often examined.

[edit] Influences of gender studies

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[edit] Gender studies and psychoanalytic theory

[edit] Sigmund Freud

Some feminist critics have dismissed the work of Sigmund Freud, considering his view of women, as kinds of mutilated men who must learn to accept their "deformity" - the "lack" of a penis, to be sexist^{[citation needed]} On the other hand, feminist theorists such as Juliet Mitchell, Nancy Chodorow, Jessica Benjamin, Jane Gallop, Shoshana Felman and Jane Flax have argued that psychoanalytic theory is vital to the feminist project and must, like other theoretical traditions. Shulamith Firestone, in "Freudianism: The Misguided Feminism", discusses how Freudianism is almost completely accurate, with the exception of one crucial detail: everywhere that Freud writes "penis", the word should be replaced with "power".

[edit] Jacques Lacan

Some critics accuse Jacques Lacan of maintaining a sexist tradition in psychoanalysis.^{[citation needed]} Conversely Judith Butler and Jane Gallop have offered readings of Lacan's work that developed new possibilities for gender theory. His theory of sexuation (sexual situation): the development of gender-roles and role-play in childhood breaks-down concepts of gender identity as innate or biologically determined.^[5]

[edit] Julia Kristeva

Julia Kristeva, in her work on abjection, argues that the way in which an individual excludes (or abjects) their mother as means of forming an identity is similar to the way in which societies are constructed. She contends that patriarchal cultures, like individuals, have had to exclude the maternal and the feminine so that they can come into being.^[6]