Introduction to Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies Introduction to Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies MILIANN KANG, DONOVAN LESSARD, AND LAURA HESTON UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST LIBRARIES AMHERST, MA Introduction to Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies by Miliann Kang, Donovan Lessard, Laura Heston, Sonny Nordmarken is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. Introduction to Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies Contents Introduction to Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies .................................................................................. x About This Book ....................................................................................................................................... xi Table of Contents ................................................................................................................................... xiii Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................ xvi Unit I: An Introduction to Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies: Grounding Theoretical Frameworks and Concepts ................................................................................................................................................. 17 Critical Introduction to the Field ..................................................................................................... 18 Theorizing Lived Experiences .......................................................................................................... 22 Identity Terms .................................................................................................................................. 26 Conceptualizing Structures of Power .............................................................................................. 31 Social Constructionism .................................................................................................................... 35 Intersectionality ............................................................................................................................... 38 References: Unit I ............................................................................................................................ 44 Unit II: Challenging Binary Systems and Constructions of Difference .................................................. 47 Introduction: Binary Systems .......................................................................................................... 48 The Sex/Gender/Sexuality System ................................................................................................... 49 Gender and Sex – Transgender and Intersex ................................................................................... 51 Sexualities ........................................................................................................................................ 54 Masculinities .................................................................................................................................... 56 Race ................................................................................................................................................. 57 Class ................................................................................................................................................ 61 Alternatives to Binary Systems ........................................................................................................ 64 References: Unit II ........................................................................................................................... 65 Unit III: Institutions, Culture, and Structures ........................................................................................ 67 Introduction: Institutions, Cultures, and Structures ....................................................................... 68 The Family ....................................................................................................................................... 74 Media ............................................................................................................................................... 78 Medicine, Health, and Reproductive Justice ................................................................................... 82 The State, Law, and the Prison System ........................................................................................... 87 Intersecting Institutions Case Study: The Struggle to End Gendered Violence and Violence Against Women ...................................................................................................................................... 91 References: Unit III ......................................................................................................................... 94 Unit IV: Gender and Work in the Global Economy ................................................................................. 97 Introduction: Gender and Work in the Global Economy .................................................................. 98 Gender and Work in the US ............................................................................................................. 99 Gender and the US Welfare State ................................................................................................. 103 Transnational Production and Globalization ................................................................................. 105 Racialized, Gendered, and Sexualized Labor in the Global Economy ........................................... 109 Introduction to Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies References: Unit IV ........................................................................................................................ 111 Unit V: Historical and Contemporary Feminist Social Movements ...................................................... 113 Introduction: Feminist Movements ................................................................................................ 114 19th Century Feminist Movements ............................................................................................... 116 Early to Late 20th Century Feminist Movements .......................................................................... 121 Third Wave and Queer Feminist Movements ................................................................................ 128 References: Unit V ......................................................................................................................... 134 About This Book Copyright © 2017 Miliann Kang, Donovan Lessard, Laura Heston, and Sonny Nordmarken University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries Amherst, Massachusetts Cover Image: “Resistance and Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies” by Sonny Nordmarken is licensed under CC BY SA 3.0 and contains the following images: “Nekima Levy-Pounds at Black Lives Matter march, April 2015.jpg” by Fibonacci Blue is licensed under CC BY 2.0 “Black Lives Matter in Minneapolis” by Fibonacci Blue is licensed under CC BY 2.0 “Women’s March – Washington DC 2017 (31771083973).jpg” by S. Pakhrin is licensed under CC BY 2.0 “Women’s march against Donald Trump (32406735346).jpg” by Fibonacci Blue is licensed under CC BY 2.0 “Baiga adivasi in protest walk, India.jpg” by Ekta Parishad is licensed under CC BY SA 3.0 Electronic edition available online at: https://press.rebus.community/introwgss/ xi This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ISBN-13: 978-1-945764-02-8 xii References: Unit V xv Acknowledgements Thanks to the Open Education Initiative Grant at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, for providing the funds and support to develop this on-line textbook. It was originally produced for the course, Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies 187: Gender, Sexuality, and Culture, an introductory-level, general education, large-lecture course which has reached upwards of 600 students per academic year. Co-authored by Associate Professor Miliann Kang and graduate teaching assistants Donovan Lessard, Laura Heston and Sonny Nordmarken, this text draws on the collaborative teaching efforts over many years in the department of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies. Many faculty, staff, teaching assistants and students have developed the course and generously shared teaching materials. In the past, we have assigned textbooks which cost approximately $75 per book. Many students, including the many non-traditional and working-class students this course attracts, experienced financial hardship in purchasing required texts. In addition, the intersectional and interdisciplinary content of this class is unique and we felt could not be found in any single existing textbook currently on the market. In recent years, we have attempted to utilize e-reserves for assigned course readings. While more accessible, students and faculty agree that this approach tends to lack the structure found in a textbook, as it is difficult for students to complete all assigned readings and they are missing an anchoring reference text. This situation prompted us to begin drafting this text that we would combine with other assigned readings and make available as an open source textbook. While this textbook draws from and engages with the interdisciplinary field of WGSS, it reflects the disciplinary expertise