Hi,
For those who have facilitated (or will facilitate for Week 9) section discussions, please write one or two paragraphs to summarize the readings you presented (or will present next week). You can use the "comment" function to post your summary.
Remember to include the names of the authors and the titles of the readings.
Capitalism and Women's Liberation by Barrett:
ReplyDeleteThis text questions to what extent we are justified in regarding the oppression of women as a ideological process and how we can achieve liberation for women in capitalism. Women’s dependence has been built into capitalism through the myth that there is an idealized natural family to which all women must conform, and that is the only option. The meaning of gender in capitalism is tied to the household structure due to the relations of production. Compared to feudalism, capitalism made women more dependant on men and their wages. There is no definite answer to whether women’s liberation might be achieved within capitalism, however, it would require: re-division of labor and responsibilities of childcare, female dependence on male wage done away with, ideology of gender transformed.
Feminism and Marx by Nicholson:
Marx was aware of the connection between family, state, and economy, yet his theory did not abide by this awareness. This is cross-culturally an economic component of human existence which can be studied independently from other aspects of human life. The concept of production in Marxism is big, but to feminists this concept is ambiguous. It either focuses on: all human activities necessary to the reproduction of the species (nursing and childcare included) OR exclusivly activities concerning the making of food and physical objects. The meaning changes, and there is where the conflict is, since it becomes confusing what the true meaning of production is. Also, in the communist manifesto, Marx treats the family as a superstructural effect of the economy, therefore we fail to see the connection with making food and objects and marriage/sexuality.
-Elle Callahan
Gayle Rubin’s Thinking Sex
ReplyDeleteIn this reading, Rubin talks about how sex is used as a political agent in order to implement repression and to create dominance to Western society. In addition, the author talks about the culture’s standpoint on sexuality and explains what the ‘good’ sex is and what the ‘bad’ sex is. Here, the ‘good’ sex is defined as something that has a significant purpose (such as marriage, reproduction, etc). However, the ‘bad’ sex means sex without a specific purpose (such as homosexual relationship, for sole pleasure, etc). Moreover, the author claims that sex institutionalized and sex is not shaped by biological needs. However, sex is rather formed by social norms that are shaped through different time periods. Sex is a political agent as it influences; for example, the law prohibits children from any type of sexual activity and restricts them from seeing rated things in movies and classrooms. Gayle Rubin also focuses on some main ideas regarding sex. First, the author talks about ‘sex negativity’, which is the idea that sex is dangerous and it is presumed to be dangerous without a specific reason. Hence, sex is treated with suspicion until it is proven innocent. The author also talks about ‘sexual essentialism’, which is basically the idea that sex is a natural form that exists for social life. Feminism is also influenced by sex, in which men have specific sexual practices and they are free to expose those practices. The women on the other hand, are not allowed to freely expose their sexual preferences. Hence, women want to have freedom for sexual behaviors such as pornography, masturbation, masochism, etc. Through this reading, a more realistic viewpoint on how sexuality is applied to Western culture and society is emphasized.
Straight by Hanne Blank is focused on heterosexuality. This concept was invented in 1868 by German researchers protesting the criminalization of same-sex relations. The theories of Krafft-Ebing and Freud made the concept into “doxa” (common knowledge). Heterosexuality is also primal process of perpetuating the species with sex and sorted its possessions with marriage. Birth control and women’s rights affected heterosexuality because they allowed individuals more behavioral freedoms. Furthermore, heterosexuality—unscientific and new—may be merely “a particular configuration of sex and power in a particular historical moment”, according to Blank.
ReplyDeleteThe Egg and Sperm: How Science has constructed a romance based on stereotypical male-female roles By Emily Martin
ReplyDeleteMartin's goal was to expose the gender stereotypes within the scientific language of biology, specifically regarding the interaction between the egg and the sperm. No text expresses enthusiasm for any female biological processes, although descriptions of the male cycle are in elevated language. The egg is described as passive, while the sperm is described as the active participant in the fertilization process. The sperm is described as having a mission to accomplish, while the egg is described similar to a Sleeping Beauty, merely waiting. Over time, researchers discovered that the sperm and egg must actively cooperate in order for fertilization to occur, a team effort. A problem with revised descriptions of the egg-sperm interaction is that although these descriptions give the egg more importance, they play the stereotype that women are a "dangerous and aggressive threat."
Orgasm, Generation, and the Politics of Reproductive Biology By Thomas Laqueur
For several thousand years, there was the belief that women and men had the same reproductive organs but women had them inside the body. Galen developed the best and most resilient model of the homologous nature of male and female reproductive organs. There was the belief that men and women were more biologically similar than dissimilar. However, by 1800, writers focused on emphasizing the biological differences between males and females. Around this time period, arose the concept of heat relations between men and women. Women were seen as "cooler" beings, who were an inferior variation of the hotter male form.
Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality by Sigmund Freud
ReplyDeleteThe book consists of three different essays focused on the different aspects of Sexuality. Considered to be Sigmund Freud's "most momentous and original contributions to human knowledge"
Most psychoanalysts agree that the immediate influence of the Three Essays was profound, and fostered change in the way that people thought, behaved, and learned about sexuality. His influence still abides today.First Essay concerns “Sexual Aberrations” in his treatment of homosexuality (Freud used inversion). Disputed common wisdom that invoked theories of degeneracy, but instead recognizes the decisive participation of accidental causes, Simply that is childhood events that affected sexuality. Two basic concept include: Instinct and Object. From a developmental standpoint, a person would make either a homosexual or heterosexual object choice.
Second Essay focused on sexuality in infancy and childhood. 2 Observations: First, infantile amnesia affects everything concerning sexuality in childhood. Second, the strong moral condemnation that impacts all manifestations of sexuality leads to repression or gratification through sublimation.The sucking activity observed in the infant should be considered as the prototype for all future sexual gratification. Thumb-sucking: "consists in the rhythmic repetition of a sucking contact by the mouth or lips”. Freud declared that thumb sucking is masturbatory in nature
Third Essay examined three central themes in psychoanalysis
•The libidinal economy of the onset of puberty
•Integration of instincts and erotogenic zones which serve as gateways to preliminary gratification preceding complete sexual intercourse
•Female and male sexuality
Object relations
• Primal object: Mother’s breast
• Rediscovery of sexual partner