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Feminist CLAIMING*SPACES Glossary

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Feminist CLAIMING*SPACES Glossary B [GLOSSARY] → Binarism, Binarist: Actions, attitudes, or as- sumptions that adhere to, or uphold, some binary A ideology (usually the gender binary in discussions of transgender issues). See also binary. (1) → Accessibility: The state of being open to me- aningful participation by all people, in particular → Binary: Generally refers to the human tenden- people whose participation (in this activity or in cy to describe people or phenomena in terms of society at general) is usually limited by oppressi- two mutually-exclusive categories that suppo- on of some kind. Accessibility in general means sedly exist in opposition to one another. Within being free of barriers into [which can be placed transgender communities, the focus is typically by the group inadvertently or advertently (e.g. on the gender binary. However, there are count- lack of childcare or a members-only policy) and/ less other binaries in our culture, and they often or can be placed by society (e.g. housing must play a foundational role in marginalization. Bina- be paid for rather than being a right, etc.)] … ries tend to have a built-in hierarchy, one that is AND free of limits to participation once present. often discussed in terms of center versus mar- Sometimes the term “accessibility” is used with gin or unmarked versus marked (1) specific reference to the needs of people with di- sabilities. A space cannot be deemed “accessible” → Bisexual: An umbrella term for people who ex- in this sense if the atmosphere is ableist, even if perience sexual attraction to members of more measures are in place (e.g. wheelchair-accessible than one gender or sex. Some people of bisexu- entrance/facilities that are safe and dignified, al experience prefer alternate labels, including Braille/large-print/audio-tape resources, TTY pansexual, polysexual, multisexual, omnisexual, and sign language interpretation). (5) queer, or no label at all (1) → Affirmative action: Refers to such speci- fic measures that are aimed at preventing or C compensating disadvantages that are linked to grounds such as ethnicity, gender and age. (3) → Canon/Canonization: List of generally recog- Agender: a person who does not identify with nized important works in a field, or the process any gender, or who does not experience a gen- of making such a list. In feminist terms, as long der identity. (1) as learning disciplines were controlled exclusively by white males, very few women or ethnically → Ally: A person who is not a member of a par- diverse authors were included in this list. (2) ticular minority or marginalized group, but who works to challenge the discrimination that group → Cis Privilege: societal advantages experienced faces. (1) by people solely as a result of not being trans. (1) → Androgynous: Gender expression or presen- → Cisnormativity, Cis Assumption: related con- tation that combines feminine and masculine cepts that enable trans erasure and invisibility. elements and/or which blurs the lines between “Cisnormativity” describes a societal mindset masculine and feminine. (1) wherein cis/cisgender/cissexual are presumed to be the norm, while trans/transgender/trans- → Appropriation: To borrow or take something sexual people and experiences are deemed “ab- that someone else has created and to use it for normal” by comparison (if they are even conside- one’s own purposes. In activist circles, the term red at all). (1) more specifically refers to instances where a do- minant/majority group appropriates aspects of → Colonization: Colonization can be defined as a marginalized/minority community’s identities, some form of invasion, dispossession and sub- expressions, creations, and/or culture. (1) jugation of a people. The invasion need not be military; it can begin—or continue—as geogra- → Asexual: A term for people who do not ex- phical intrusion in the form of agricultural, urban perience sexual attraction to other individuals. or industrial encroachments. The result of such Asexuality is distinct from experiencing sexual incursion is the dispossession of vast amounts arousal and/or a capacity for romantic relati- of lands from the original inhabitants. This is of- onships with other people. (1) ten legalized after the fact. The long-term result result of such massive dispossession is instituti- → Drag: Sometimes used generically as a syn- onalized inequality. The colonizer/colonized rela- onym for crossdressing, particularly when an tionship is by nature an unequal one that bene- individual is described as being “in drag” Alter- fits the colonizer at the expense of the colonized. natively, “drag” refers to a genre of performance Ongoing and legacy Colonialism impact power re- art or entertainment that is intended to play lations in most of the world today. For example, with, or challenge, commonly held assumptions white supremacy as a philosophy was developed about gender. The most familiar forms of drag largely to justify European colonial exploitation performance involve male-bodied/identified indi- of the Global South (including enslaving African viduals presenting as women (often called drag peoples, extracting resources from much of Asia queens) or female-bodied/identified individuals and Latin America, and enshrining cultural norms presenting as men (often called drag kings), but of whiteness as desirable both in colonizing and numerous other variations exist. (1) colonizer nations). (4) E → Critical human geography: Critical human geo- graphy can be seen as a diverse set of ideas and → Ethnicity: A social construct that divides practices linked by a shared commitment to a people into smaller social groups based on cha- broadly conceived emancipatory politics, pro- racteristics such as shared sense of group gressive social change, and the use of a range of membership, values, behavioral patterns, langua- critical sociogeographic theories. Critical human ge, political and economic interests, history and geographers draw on theoretical approaches ancestral geographical base. such as anarchism, anticolonialism, critical race Examples of different ethnic groups are: Cape theory, environmentalism, feminism, Marxism, Verdean, Haitian, African American (Black); Chi- nonrepresentational theory, post-Marxism, post- nese, Korean, Vietnamese (Asian); Cherokee, Mo- colonialism, poststructuralism, psychoanalysis, hawk, Navaho (Native American); Cuban, Mexican, queer theory, situationism, and socialism. (7) Puerto Rican (Latino); Polish, Irish, and Swedish (White). (13) → Cultural Appropriation: Theft of cultural elements for one’s own use, commodification, → Essentialism, Essentialist: The belief that all or profit — including symbols, art, language, members of a particular category (especially customs, etc. — often without understanding, those categories that are presumed to be na- acknowledgement, or respect for its value in the tural in origin) must share a particular set of original culture. Results from the assumption characteristics, qualities, or “essence” with one of a dominant (i.e. white) culture’s right to take another. One relevant example would be the other cultural elements. (5) notion that all women are genetically XX, or are attracted to men. While essentialism fails to ac- D count for the naturally occurring complexity and heterogeneity exhibited by humans (and other → Discrimination: Any distinction, exclusion, re- organisms), people routinely rely on, or resort striction or preference, based on “race”, colour, to, essentialist explanations of how the world descent, or national or ethnic origin which has works. People often mistakenly conflate essenti- the purpose of or effect of nullifying or impairing alism with biology. (1) the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental F freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultu- ral or any other field of public life. (International → Feminism: a diverse array of activist mo- convention on the elimination of all forms of vements which all share the common goal of racial discrimination ICERD 1965) (3) challenging traditional sexism (i.e., the assump- tion that femaleness/femininity is inferior to, or less legitimate than, maleness/masculinity). → Deconstruction: „strategy of critical analysis . Some strands of feminism focus solely on tradi- . directed towards exposing unquestioned meta- tional sexism and envision themselves as a “wo- physical assumptions and internal contradictions men’s liberation” or “women’s rights” movement. in philosophical and literary language” (OED). Other strands of feminism are more broadly Deconstructive analysis shows the text’s failure focused on challenging multiple (or all) forms of to fulfill its “project” by exposing overly simplistic sexism, and thus are concerned with women as binary assumptions, gaps (aporia) in the messa- well as gender and sexual minorities. Still other ge and by showing the absence of those clearly strands recognize intersectionality, and thus present. (2) argue that feminism should be concerned with with challenging all forms of marginalization → Gender Performativity: A theory of gender rather than just sexism. (1) forwarded by Judith Butler in her book Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identi- → Femme: The French/Français word for woman; ty. (1) in English it generally refers to feminine gender expression or a feminine identity. The word also → Glass Ceiling: An intangible barrier within a hi- refers to an activist and cultural movement that erarchy that prevents women or minorities from challenges masculine-centrism
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