Women's Studies 2163A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Biopolitics, Universal Declaration Of Human Rights, Russian Culture
2 May 2018
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1Lecture 7 – Sexual Minority Rights in a Global Context
Where and when was the first-anti gay law created? In roman Empire in 4th Century
- Gay people to be burnt to death
In 2015, what country made it legal to be gay? Mozambique in Africa
- Increase in LGBT rights in some areas of Africa but also a wave of regression
Which country sentences people to death for being gay? Iran
In 2017, which Middle Eastern country held the only Pride Parade with 20k+ people? Israel
Graphs
- Should society accept homosexuality?
o High in north America
o Heavily on the no side: Middle east, Russia, Poland
▪ RELIGION COMES INTO PLAY
▪ Rigid traditional gender roles due to lack of education
▪ Oppressive state structures
• Top down approach such as Russia
▪ Public attitudes
▪ Cultural values
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Setting the scene: Human Rights
- History of the various declarations of human rights throughout history hat are supposed to protect
human beings
- 18th Century – English Magna Carta, limit powers of the king and recognizes that all people are
subject to the law – ushered in a new way of thinking about individual rights as a form of power
distinct from religious authority, the monarch, etc.
o Put into place to start limiting the power monarchy had and increase state power
o We can be thinking human objects and beings and in theory are entitled to all the freedoms
and powers that everyone had IN THEORY!!!
o In practice, the philosophers, that women, children, mentally ill, color should not really get
the rights everyone else (males) should
o BASICALLY HUMAN RIGHTS FOR SOME NOT ALL
- Charter of the United Nations, 1945
o faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the
equal rights of men and women and of nations large or small.
o Need to form some sort of international document that is going to protect the rights of
people
o Direct document or global community that is going to protect the rights of all people
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), 1948
o No longer could ruling regimes use the excuse of state sovereignty to perpetuate genocide
and other gross human rights violations within or beyond their national borders.
o UN puts UDHR together
o Every under the UDHR has the right to exist, inalienable right to be a human being
o IN THEORY, it does not exclude anyone like the original Magna Carta did
- NOTE: any of these declarations are not legally binding documents
o They are aspirational – something to aspire to
o This is how the discrimination and violence can occur
- Human rights continue to be challenged on many different fronts, and often hinges more on moral
claims than the actual enforcement of declarations
o Enforcement is dependent country to country and impinges on their morals
Russia
- Homosexuality was a crime until 1993; medical problem until 1999
- Biopolitical technologies – control the bodies and minds of the population in order to consolidate
power through sexual control – enforce collective cultural values
o Russia uses this biopolitical framework
o Biopolitics – state has power over the physical bodies of the population to considolate some
sort of power
o Power through sexual control
o Enforce collective cultural values over everything else. The collective cultural values are
regarded as more important than individual values
▪ Want to maintain the family – heteronormative, monogamous, reproduce the
population
- Heterosexuality is deeply embedded in what they view as the family, the collective cultural values
o As a result, homophobic discourse is VERY normative and is very public
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
- Homophobic discourse considered highly normative because permitted sexual behaviour is so
conservative, leaving little room for alternative behaviour
o Since it is the only thing that is permitted, there is little room for any behaviour that Is
different
o Collective cultural values see homosexuality as a threat to family!
o 75% OF RUSSIANS IDENTIFY AS ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN
o 38% of Russians have no intent to discuss sexuality with their children
o 62% do not think any sexual issues should be raised with children until age 18-24
- Should Russian society accept homosexuality?
o Decrease from 2002-2013 in the people that say yes (22-16)
Anti-Gay Propaganda Laws
- June 2013, Putin signed into law a bill banning the propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations to
minors"
- Includes: Any material that may raise interest in such relationships, cause minors to form non-
traditional sexual predispositions, or present distorted ideas about the equal social value of
traditional and non- traditional sexual relationships
- Sex work is legal in terms of selling it
- Being homosexual is not illegal, but there are so many things around it that makes it a complex law
o Stigma
o Homosexuals are pushed underground to show affection in public in event that a minor is
there = arrested
- Law was condemned by the international human rights groups
o Global reaction
o Putin did not care because he has built his career on defying the West (every sense of
progress the west has made, he has defied)
- Multiple surveys showed that vast majority of Russian population in favour of law
- Example of bias of courts – Dec 2013, Famous Russian actor and orthodox activist Ivan Okhlobystin
proposed to burn gays in furnaces – Courts refused to qualify as homophobic or hate speech
- Public discourse component more prominent than actual implementation of law
o Public discourse sparked more attention from the media
o Putin is attention grabber with what he does
Reggie Yates Outside Man, clip from Russia: Gay and Under Attack (54-44, 40-37)
- CONSIDER: despite the fact that it is legal to be gay in Russia, it is very similar to the complexities of
sex work laws in Canada
o Manage information – who do u tell
- Resistance and stigma management strategies
- Reasons to implement strategies
- SIMILAR TO SEX WORK
- Only 1 gay taxi service
o They cant afford to be too obvious about it but the car has a few clues
o Rainbow taxi service
o To be safe and protected – why they started it
- Half of gay people have experienced homophobic abuse in Russia
- Bolshevik Revolution lead to 74 years of strict communist rules in all areas of Russian life
o Until gay people could be punished to 5 years in jail including hard labour
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
1lecture 7 sexual minority rights in a global context. Gay people to be burnt to death. Increase in lgbt rights in some areas of africa but also a wave of regression. Universal declaration of human rights (udhr), 1948. In theory, it does not exclude anyone like the original magna carta did: this is how the discrimination and violence can occur. Note: any of these declarations are not legally binding documents. History of the various declarations of human rights throughout history hat are supposed to protect human beings. In practice, the philosophers, that women, children, mentally ill, color should not really get the rights everyone else (males) should. Human rights continue to be challenged on many different fronts, and often hinges more on moral claims than the actual enforcement of declarations: enforcement is dependent country to country and impinges on their morals. Homosexuality was a crime until 1993; medical problem until 1999.
