Download 20121005 - UvA Pride Lecture Gender - AISSR

Let’s Talk About Gender! Masculinity, Femininity, Emancipa2on Laurens Buijs AISSR University of Amsterdam UvA Pride, 5 October 2012 1 2 Pressure to adapt (2006) •  “This research shows that homosexuality is, however not in all, but sKll in broad layers of society, accepted. Many homosexual men and women nowadays are open about their sexual preference: to their parents, friends and at work. At the same 6me, they are s6ll expected to adapt to the codes of the dominant (heterosexual) society. And many gays and lesbians do so. In sum: one can be ‘like that’, but s6ll has to ‘behave normal’.” 3 They are expected to adapt… • 
“They are a liSle bit effeminate. That’s okay, but then they shouldn’t go to a place where you are expected to be a real man.” Perpetrator of an2gay violence “You stand for the Netherlands, and tolerance is the Netherlands. That’s something that belongs to Amsterdam and something every supporter is proud of […] But you don’t want to have gays standing next to you in the stadium.” Ajax supporter •  “While homosexuality is indeed widely accepted in naKonal public discourse, this narraKve coexists with tradiKonal, restricKve norms of gender and sexuality, thereby not challenging the roots of homonegaKvity.” Buijs, Hekma & Duyvendak 2009 • 
4 …and they adapt! •  “Someone who’s very feminine, like really too feminine, then I think, yeah, I don’t like it. It has to be normal in the end. I don’t feel comfortable walking next to him on the street.” •  “If you watch tv, you only see the real ferrys (übernichten), to put it that way. They make it so extreme. And I didn’t wanna be like that, you know. With a handbag.” •  (Gay Pride) “I think it’s nothing to be proud of, being gay. I cannot stand gays who behave and dress in a certain way. That only confirms the image of gays as flaming faggots (relnichten), you know?” 5 Gender norms impact on LGBT’s… •  “On the one hand I feel at home in the gay scene. On the other I someKmes really feel, uh, too normal for it. Because if you see how some men and guys walk in dresses there, I would never be able to do that I think. And maybe I’m not an aSenKon seeker, not a real diva. But I don’t think that is necessary. I don’t feel comfortable with those people.” 6 …but nobody talks about it! •  Many influenKal Dutch studies on LGBT-­‐
emancipaKon ader 2006 do not take gender into account •  The largest LGBT organizaKon, COC Nederland, hardly ever talks about gender 7 Gay tolerance = Dutch! •  “Why is it, you think, that on the website of the Gay Krant we are the largest party? [...] Because gays in the neighborhoods on a day to day basis experience the consequences of IslamizaKon. [...] They don’t want that other, intolerant Netherlands, that the elite is pushing upon them.” Wilders, June 2009 8 Sexual naKonalism •  To be gay tolerant has become part of being Dutch, of the naKonal pride of the Netherlands: it opposes the ‘tolerant Dutch’ versus the ‘backward Muslims’. 9 Back to science: what to do? There are gender norms that we should account for in scienKfic studies, emancipaKon strategies and educaKonal material about LGBT! But how? •  Male and female as given categories? (biology, dominant in society) •  The social construcKon of gender? (sociology, marginal in society – 70s as excepKon) •  And what are the consequences for emancipaKon? 10 Men are from Mars…? •  Neuroscience and neuropsychology •  Dick Swaab 11 12 Dick Swaab •  “The outmoded idea that we are free to choose our sexual orientaKon and that homosexuality is thus just a wrong choice is sKll causing great suffering.[…] The idea that your social environment influences the development of your sexual orientaKon resulted in widespread persecuKon. Nazi Germany’s view, expressed by Hitler himself, that homosexuality is as contagious as the plague, led to unimaginable consequences: first voluntary castraKon, then mandatory castraKon and then the systemaKc murdering of homosexuals in the concentraKon camps.” •  “There can be no doubt that our sexual orientaKon is fixed in adulthood and cannot be influenced.” 13 14 CriKcs of sexed brain research •  “It's hard to name any specific feature of male-­‐typical or female-­‐typical behavior that consistently matches up with prenatal testosterone levels across several models of research. No measure holds up: not aggressiveness, or masturbaKon habits, or even the ability to rotate objects in the mind. Sex difference is not hardwired into the brain.” (RJY) •  “Focusing on testosterone can make us forget how much gender norms have changed, and how remarkably similar men's and women's brains and minds actually are.” (RJY) •  “Once we have cleared the rubble, we can begin to build newer, more scienKfic stories about human development.” (RJY) •  “To shed light on the data and the methods used in some papers, we can now—with today’s knowledge on cerebral plasKcity—challenge even more strongly, many false interpretaKons. Our goal here is double: we want to provide evidence against archaic beliefs about the biological determinism of sex differences but also promote a posiKve image of scienKfic research.” (Catherine Vidal) 15 16 EvoluKon’s Rainbow •  “On a hot, sunny day in June of 1997, I aSended my first gay pride parade, in San Francisco. The size of the crowd amazed me. As I marched from Civic Center up Market Street to San Francisco Bay, a throng of onlookers six persons deep on both sides shouted encouragement and support. For the first Kme, I felt the sheer magnitude of the gay community. I stored this impression in the back of my mind. How, I wondered, does biology account for such a huge populaKon that doesn’t match the template science teaches as normal?” 17 But what do sociologists have to say? 18 Judith Butler •  Gender Trouble: categories of sex, gender, and sexuality are culturally constructed. This happens by means of a conKnuous repe66on of acts over 6me. Butler reasons that gender is performa6ve: it doesn’t exist somewhere out there, unchanged and staKc, but it is only there because we dynamically enact and stage it. •  Butler explicitly challenges biological accounts of binary sex, calling the idea of two biological sexes itself socially constructed. •  Feminism made a mistake in trying to make “women” a discrete, ahistorical group with common characterisKcs. This approach reinforces the binary view of gender relaKons because it allows for two disKnct categories: men and women. Butler believes that feminists should not try to define ‘women’. •  The penis only has a symbolic meaning that is completely arbitrary •  Society is heteronormaKve: a symbolic system has been constructed that is not only ruled by tradiKonal and sexist norms regarding masculinity and femininity, but that is also based on an unfounded idea of binary sex. •  So, what to do with emancipaKon, what to teach our children? 19 20 Genderbread criKque at itspronouncedmetrosexual.com •  “This diagram means well yet actually upholds sexism in various ways. […] Men and women are not opposite genders. Placing these two genders on opposing sides is to put them at odds with one another, as if they ought to be at war with one another as opposed to exist next or with each other. […] This diagram does not account for the fluidity of gender idenKty by presenKng it as a line. […] It doesn’t account for the ability to idenKfy as mulKple genders. […] I’d say that sex, much like gender, is a social construcKon and a form of self idenKficaKon, which means that the diagram is […] contradicKng itself.” 21 22 Nature/nurture all over •  Defenders of the binary stress the natural, fixed, unchangeable aspect of sex difference •  Enemies of the binary stress the social, dynamic, diverse aspect of sex difference –  CriKcism of (neuro)biologists: •  The brain is not staKc: celebral plasKcity •  ‘Typical’ feminine and ‘typical’ masculine behavior is not traceable to hormones or genes •  Studies working with a tradiKonal, stereotypical male/female dichotomy are theoreKcally and methodologically unsound •  Brain researchers sKll work with old-­‐fashioned, sexist assumpKons in either their own work or the work they cite •  The natural world shows unexplained diversity –  CriKcism of sociologists: • 
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Sex difference is not staKc: performance Different cultures have different gender norms: nothing is fixed Gender is just a performance with symbolic meaning They advocate trans*, asexual, and gender fluid idenKKes Or even go ‘beyond gender’: queer, undefined 23 Sex difference in evoluKonary biology: Yes, it is there… •  Sex difference is a method of reproduc6on: certain evoluKonary benefits of sexual fusion over asexual fission: •  Crea6on of new genotypes: Since sex combines genes from two individuals, sexually reproducing populaKons can more easily combine advantageous genes than can asexual populaKons. •  Red Queen’s Hypothesis: Sex difference is maintained to assist sexual individuals in resisKng parasites. …but it is not mutually exclusive with… 24 25 Biological Exuberance •  “Sexual and gender expression in the animal world displays exuberant variety, including same-­‐sex courtship, pair-­‐bonding, sex, and co-­‐
parenKng—even instances of lifelong homosexual bonding in species that do not have lifelong heterosexual bonding.” 26 Conclusion • 
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Gender maSers, but oden overlooked! The topic is subject of a heavy nature/nurture debate. StaKc concepKons of stereotypical sexual difference as ‘fixed in nature’ are sKll dominant but are seriously challenged by convincing and thorough criKques, both from the natural and the social sciences. The different criKques from both the natural and the social sciences are united in their aSempts to replace staKc and fixed concepKons of sexual difference to more dynamic ones that accounts for enormous diversity in sex differences. But both criKques do not have to be at odds with contemporary theories in evoluKonary biology. Biologists have reached out to sociologists, and diversity of gender and sexuality is recognized. Contemporary evoluKonary theory allows for huge gender diversity, both across individuals and across species. EmancipaKon strategies have difficulKes escaping the gender dichotomy altogether, which I believe is not a problem. Campaigning against tradiKonal gender norms and promoKng tolerance for fluid gender idenKKes are strategies that account for recent criKques on the gender binary in both the social and the natural sciences. An example: UvA Pride PoliKcs! 27