Contesting the Reproduction of the Heterosexual Regime Geographies of Oppression and Resistance
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CONTESTING THE REPRODUCTION OF THE HETEROSEXUAL REGIME GEOGRAPHIES OF OPPRESSION AND RESISTANCE: CONTESTING THE REPRODUCTION OF THE HETEROSEXUAL REGIME By ALI GRANT, B.Sc., M.A. A Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy McMaster University © Copyright by Ali Grant, December 1996 - ----- ----------- DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (1996) McMaster University (Geography) Hamilton, Ontario TITLE: Geographies of Oppression and Resistance: Contesting the Reproduction of the Heterosexual Regime. AUTHOR: Ali Grant, B.Sc. (University of Strathc1yde), M.A. (University of Toronto) SUPERVISOR: Professor Vera Chouinard NUMBER OF PAGES: viii, 264 11 ABSTRACT In this thesis I offer a specifically lesbian and geographic analysis of particular struggles for social change in Hamilton, Canada. Through an investigation of the deployment of the political regime of heterosexuality in the regulation and containment of local anti-violence activism in the 1990s, I build on emerging work in feminist, and lesbian and gay geographies on the institution of heterosexuality as regulatory. Through an exploration of both the struggles over the development of spaces of political resistance, and the importance of gender, sexuality, and "difference" in local urban politics, I suggest that "unnaturalizing" categories such as Woman\Man can offer insights to the processes of identity formation in place. Through employing a politically engaged methodology and constructing this research as part of local struggles for social change, I offer local activists critical analyses of political strategies and processes of institutionalization in Hamilton, as well as challenging the ongoing invisibility of lesbians in geography and beyond. 111 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the members of my committee, Dr. Linda Peake, Dr. Richard Harris, and my supervisor Dr. Vera Chouinard, for their immeasurable patience, guidance, and support over the last few years. They gave me space to learn in my own mysterious ways, and reined me in when necessary. For that I am eternally grateful. In addition to my official committee, there have been many unofficial ones that have shared in the development of this thesis. They are geographically scattered, appropriately enough: internationally, the Grant committee, who never allowed me to take myself too seriously; nationally, the east coast committee who constantly pointed out the contours of the heterosexual regime and my changing locations in and against it, and the west coast committee, who, in their defiant lives, helped keep my timidity at bay; and more locally, the Greensville committee who kept me laughing and the Justice For Women committee who kept me honest. I would especially like to thank the J4W6 for answering more questions than any of us could keep count of. I will receive the credit, and take the responsibility, but this Ph.D. belongs to all of these committees. My gratitude goes to every one of the activists who participated in the research. Without them, this thesis literally would not be. And finally, thanks go to Joan Bridget, my constant companion; she was being UnWomanly before I had even considered it, and wIth her I have learned balance. IV TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT . .. 11l ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . .. IV LIST OF FIGURES . .. viii CHAPTER ONE. INTRODUCTION ................................ 9 1.1 Introduction. .. 9 1.2 Feminist geographies and geographies of sexuality . .. 12 1.3 Gender, sexuality and "difference" in local urban politics ....... 15 1.4 Politics of resistance and state regulation: public patriarchy or contested terrain? ................................... 20 1.5 Being an ally: disruptive practices and the importance of visibility ......................................... 21 Chapter One endnotes . .. 24 CHAPTER TWO. AN ENGAGEMENT WITH THE POLITICAL: ACTIVIST RESEARCH . .. 25 2.1 Introduction. .. 25 2.2 The purpose of feminist research ........................ 26 2.3 Being politically engaged: the case for activist research ........ 33 2.4 Doing the research: processes in place. .. 36 2.5 Doing the research: limitations and advantages . .. 43 Chapter Two endnotes . .. 48 CHAPTER THREE. NICE WHITE GIRLS DON'T: UNDERSTANDING THE HETEROSEXUAL REGIME ................................ 50 3.1 Introduction. .. 50 3.2 Contested categories: what's left to do? . .. 52 3.3 Manufacturing the sex classes .......................... 57 3.4 Mapping the heterosexual regime . .. 60 3.5 Enforcing heterosexual rule: men's violence against females ..... 67 3.6 Coming to terms with the problematic of the state ....... .. 71 3.7 Nice white girls don't: feminist activism as UnWomanly practices ......................................... 74 Chapter Three endnotes . .. 77 v CHAPTER FOUR. GEOGRAPlllES OF OPPRESSION AND RESISTANCE : LOCA TING THE STRUGGLES . .. 79 4.1 Introduction. .. 79 4.2 Identity and the politics of location . .. 80 4.3 The general context: feminism and anti-violence organizing in Canada .......................................... 83 4.4 The local context: Hamilton, Ontario ..................... 93 4.5 Feminist anti-violence organizing in Hamilton . .. 97 Chapter Four endnotes. .. 117 CHAPTER FIVE. IDENTITY AND THE POLITICS OF LOCATION ........ 120 5.1 Introduction. .. 120 5.2 Identity formation . .. 121 5.3 "the problem with Women is ..... " ........................ 128 5.4 Beyond nice white girls: UnWomanly acts. .. 134 Chapter Five endnotes . .. 140 CHAPTER SIX. UNWOMANLY PRAXIS: CONTESTING THE HETEROSEXUAL REGIME. .. 141 6.1 Introduction. .. 141 6.2 Competing analyses - men's violence against females ....... .. 142 6.3 From analysis to action . .. 156 6.4 Confusing analyses - the state .......................... 161 6.5 In and against the state ............................... 171 6.6 A movement? ...................................... 180 Chapter Six endnotes . .. 189 CHAPTER SEVEN. REGULATING RESISTANCE: REPRODUCING THE HETEROSEXUAL REGIME ................................ 192 7.1 Introduction. .. 192 7.2 Deradicalization: demonizing transgressive females and UnWomanly Acts . .. 193 7.3 Domestication: from "hotbed" to service agency . .. 202 7.4 Competition: "other" professionals and service agencies ........ 207 7.5 Fragmentation: concrete and manufactured barriers ............ 218 Chapter Seven endnotes . .. 223 VI CHAPTER EIGHT. CONCLUSIONS: NEW LOCATIONS, NEW MAPS - (RE)NEGOTIA TING, (RE)TRANSGRESSING THE BOUNDARIES . .. 225 8.1 Introduction. 225 8.2 The heterosexual regime: regulating UnWomanly Acts ......... 226 8.3 Location and spaces of political resistance . .. 229 8.4 Making the connections: feminist and lesbian geographies . .. 231 8.5 Implications for anti-violence activism .................... 235 8.6 Disruptive practices: politically engaged research ............. 238 Chapter Eight endnotes ............................... 239 APPENDIX A: INTERVIEW GUIDELINES. 240 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................. 245 VB LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4.1: The geography of Hamilton-Wentworth . .. 94 Figure 4.2: Selected services for abused women in Hamilton-Wentworth, 1990 ( counselling) ...................................... 102 Figure 4.3: Selected services for abused women in Hamilton-Wentworth, 1990 (shelters) ......................................... 103 Figure 6.1: Relationship of sexism to other forms of oppression .......... 145 Figure 6.2: The power and control wheel. .. 147 Vlll CHAPTER ONE. INTRODUCTION ... many women participate uneasily in the academy. I didn't find a voice of my own when I was a student, and at university I felt a fraud much of the time, never quite as good as the confident bourgeois men (and often women) I studied with. Gillian Rose (1993a: 16) 1. l Introduction The words of Gillian Rose resonate profoundly for many females in academia. Marginalized by interlocking systems of sexism, classism and heterosexism, in a discipline that has, at times, seemed impermeable to the onslaught of feminist theory and practice, I am not alone in rarely having felt part of "the project" (Chouinard and Grant 1995; Christopherson 1989; McDowell 1992). However, it is precisely from that place of marginalization, from my geographical and political location as a radical lesbian involved in local, progressive, political struggles that the focus of this thesis came. That is, my "out-of-placeness" in academia was countered by my experiences as a white, non-disabled, feminist activist, very much "at home" in the loosely defined and ever-shifting communities of lesbian and feminist political resistance. My involvement in local anti- violence activism repeatedly raised the question of why systemic change in the area of men's violence against females!, has been so difficult to effect. As an activist academic I saw the opportunity to contribute to the ongoing process of answering this, and related strategic questions, through my particular skills as a researcher. 9 10 In the processes of challenging the dominant discourses and practices of "the women's movement" as a marginalized "other," and of being challenged on my own privileges (afforded me as a non-disabled, formally-educated, white female), I recognized that my political objectives, and the knowledge I produced would be locally situated, that is, historically, culturally and spatially specific. Thus I chose to research those struggles for social change that were most clearly part of my own experiences: those of white, feminist, anti-violence activists. This is