WMST 200 Study Guide - Final Guide: Tokenism, Clitoris, Lesbian Literature

• School: McGill University
• Department: Women's Studies
• Course: WMST 200
• Professor: Melissa White

Document Summary

Gender essentialism: the assertion that women"s experiences can be isolated and described independently of race, class, sexuality and other social relations. Biological traits that signal that you are male, female or intersex. Often assumed to be xed (it"s not quite that simple though) Socially constructed expressions of maleness (masculinity) and. There are more than two genders; varies by culture and over time (some native groups have a third gender called two-spirited people ) Sex and gender do no necessarily need to match up. Feminists began to blur the lines between one woman"s experiences and the experiences of all women in all cultures, societies and economic groups. For example, racist and sexist experiences of one black women turned into the generalized experiences of all black women. Essentialist forms of feminism turned women"s problems into addition problems (racism + sexism = black women"s experiences) Brossard"s work can be seen as a necessity of essentialism for feminism.