WMST 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Invisibility, Essentialism

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Women's Studies
• Course: WMST 1000
• Professor: Amy Butchart

Document Summary

Kimmel: for one thing, it clears an intellectual space for talking about gender . Prior to women"s studies men were invisible. Though ubiquitous in positions of power, many men remain invisible to themselves as gendered beings . For kimmel, it took a women"s studies course to make this clear. Race, class and gender do not only apply to those who are marginalized by them; they also apply to those who are privileged by them. The very processes that confer privilege to one group and not another group are often invisible to those upon whom that privilege is conferred . When we are privileged because of our gender, we have the luxury of ignoring the centrality of gender in our lives. Women"s studies has helped make men aware of their privilege. Even before first wave feminism there were men who aided women in their struggle for equality.