lecture_9.docx

Gender Studies I EN2011 – Fall 2010 – Terry Goldie Lecture 9 – Nov 11 ­ 5 things that are either from traffic n women or an incidence that represents some aspect of traffic in women: o Kinship. o Housework. o Marriage. o Sisterhood. o Language. o Essence. Marriage & Kinship ­ Is marriage an inevitable exchange for women? ­ Rituals can be practiced without belief. ­ If you’re engaging in a ritual that is about the exchange of women, even if you change the words and the system, you are still doing the same thing. ­ Financially, we don’t say that only the son gets the property. ­ Women take on the last name of the husband. ­ Initiated by the men. ­ As our apparent belief in the individual value of the women has changes, our social systems have changed. ­ In modern day, it’s the wedding that takes over the idea. It’s all about the actual wedding day. You’re whole life has led to this day. ­ The ritual of the exchange, like in the older days, is the day of your life. ­ The ritual of the exchange is not something which we don’t believe in but it’s the day of your life where this ritual happens. ­ It’s all about the dress… ­ Every time a celebrity gets married, there’s a big control during the ceremony, but the biggest control is the dress. The fashion consultant is sworn to secrecy. ­ It’s all about sexual packaging; it’s about making yourself into a sexual object. ­ Women want to be trafficking in their own sexuality. ­ Religion: o Women protect sexuality for religious reasons. o Covering women: to inhibit the sexuality. ­ If the male power is something that is active, the female power is something to be gained by a male. ­ Women who have a lot of sexual power must present it as an exchange. ­ Is the idea of the exchange of women imprinted to humans? ­ Language is the only way that we can understand. Sisterhood ­ What does this mean? o It’s an understanding of the way women in general are. A connection of women. o The View (TV) – The idea that women have a different perspective. A sense of similarity. ­ How is sisterhood different from brotherhood? o We tend to see women as definably women. o We tend to see men as a general unless we define them in different ways. o Sisterhood – the assumption of male control, the idea of women having an idea of exchange outside of their exchange with men. ­ Gender defined toilets – the idea of being able to go into the washroom defined by the way you dress. The women’s washroom is a place of security. ­ The idea of a sex gender system is the idea that the biological sense is extrinsically connected to the way we understand gender. If gender is the social construction of how males and females operate, the sense of sexuality is connected to that system. Language ­ As we move on with language we have to change language in order to understand the system of exchange. Essence ­ One quality that determines how you act and what you are. ­ The idea of essence: o Comes from essentialism. o Essentialism has more beyond the physical value. o Existentialism has simply the physical value that is you. This is just it. I’m here, I live, I die, that’s it. ­ If women as essentially different from