scholarly journals Forensic evidence: Materializing bodies, materializing crimes

2010 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 363-377 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corinna Kruse
Keyword(s):  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Theoretical Point ◽  
Sociocultural Context ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Forensic Evidence ◽  
Dna Evidence ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Point Of Departure

Based on an ethnographic study of fingerprint and DNA evidence practices in the Swedish judicial system, this article analyses the materialization of forensic evidence. It argues that forensic evidence, while popularly understood as firmly rooted in materiality, is inseparably technoscientific and cultural. Its roots in the material world are entangled threads of matter, technoscience and culture that produce particular bodily constellations within and together with a particular sociocultural context. Forensic evidence, it argues further, is co-materialized with crimes as well as with particular bodily and social constellations. Consequently, the article suggests that an analysis of how forensic evidence is produced can contribute to feminist understandings of the inseparability of sex and gender: understanding bodies as ongoing technoscientific-material-cultural practices of materialization may be a fruitful approach to analysing their complexity, and the relationships in which they are placed, without surrendering to either cultural or biological determinism. Taking a theoretical point of departure not only in an STS-informed approach, but also in material feminist theorizations, the article also underlines that the suggested theoretical conversations across borders of feminist theory and STS should be understood as a two-way-communication where the two fields contribute mutually to each other.

9. Gender

2019 ◽  
pp. 176-198
Author(s):  
Clare Chambers
Keyword(s):  
Gender Difference ◽  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Woman Question ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Consciousness Raising ◽  
Social Differences ◽  
Feminist Methods ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Biological Differences

This chapter discusses gender. Mainstream political theorists have often ignored the issue of gender difference, and so feminists have had to argue for its significance and importance. There are many varieties of feminism, just as there are many varieties of liberalism or egalitarianism. However, it is possible to identify three theses that all feminists support, in one form or another. These theses are the entrenchment of gender; the existence of patriarchy; and the need for change. A key theme of feminist theory has been the idea that it is vital to distinguish the terms ‘sex’ and ‘gender’. According to the distinction, ‘sex’ refers to biological differences and ‘gender’ refers to social differences. Feminists use philosophical and political methods that are common to other theories or campaigns, but there are some distinctively feminist methods, such as the Woman Question and consciousness raising.

Burning Bush

2007 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-108
Author(s):  
Ken Stone
Keyword(s):  
Bush Administration ◽  
Gay Marriage ◽  
Biblical Text ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
The Bible ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Point Of Departure

George W. Bush links the call of Moses at the burning bush (Exod. 3) to his decision to run for US President. This article uses Bush’s appeal to Moses as a point of departure for reflection on the role of biblical rhetoric in and against the Bush Administration. Much attention has been given to the importance of religion in Bush’s 2004 reelection. However, Bush’s appeal to Moses provides openings for potentially subversive readings. Although the politics of marriage (especially as refracted through the “gay marriage” debates) played a role in Bush’s re-election, Moses’ own marriage is a source of contention in the biblical text; and matters of sex and gender create moments of potential instability at several points in the Moses traditions. The claims made about “Bible” by Bush and his supporters are performative rather than constative statements. Like the phrase “Burning Bush” itself, Bush’s Bible therefore remains open for resignification by those who read the Bible for very different purposes.

Bodies of Evidence on Prehistoric Cyprus

1997 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Bernard Knapp ◽  
Lynn Meskell
Keyword(s):  
Queer Theory ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
The Body ◽  
Feminist Studies ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Bodies Of Evidence ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Point Of Departure

This study takes as its point of departure recent discussions in sociology, anthropology, queer theory, and masculinist and feminist studies on the contextual constitution of sex and gender, with its surrounding debates. We explore the adoption and implications of the body as a phenomenon in archaeology and its connection to power-centred theories. As a case study, we use a body of data comprised of prehistoric Cypriot figurines (Chalcolithic and Bronze Age), and suggest that an archaeology of individuals may be possible in prehistoric contexts. In conclusion, we suggest that archaeologists move beyond rigid, binary categorizations and attempt to prioritize specific discourses of difference by implementing constructions of self or identity

Making sex: law's narratives of sex, gender and identity

Legal Studies ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Grenfell
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Psychological Factors ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Constructive Approach ◽  
Biological Factors ◽  
Transgender People ◽  
Legal Narratives ◽  
And Gender

From the 1970 decision of Corbett onwards, legal narratives established two modes of categorising complex social identity in relation to sex and gender. These narratives responded to complex identity questions by attempting to simplify identity by limiting it to biological factors or anatomical and psychological factors.I demonstrate that the law's struggle to ‘make’ sex is reflected to a certain extent by feminism's trajectory, in that feminisms have also attempted to grapple with these complex questions, and often opted for the same simple solutions to the problem of understanding gender, sex and identity. The aim of this paper is to show that some strands of feminist theory, specifically post-structuralist feminist theory, can produce a more progressive and constructive approach to determining sex in their ability to illuminate the complexities of identity. In particular, my aim is to urge those courts that ‘make’ sex to consider these complexities and the implications that flow from placing transgender people into rigid and narrow categories.

scholarly journals Mand nok? - Om kropsliggørelser og maskulinitetsfortællinger i transkønnedes video blogs på YouTube

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobias Raun
Keyword(s):  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Transgender Studies ◽  
Personal Stories ◽  
In Trans ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
Men And Masculinity

Man enough? Embodiment and masculinity narratives in trans video blogs on YouTubeThe article takes its point of departure in transgender self-representations on YouTube and analyses notions of men and masculinity amongst the vloggers James, Tony and Mason. Through the lens of transgender studies the article points out the importance of paying attention to the personal stories being told and the individual renegotiations of sex and gender.

scholarly journals Gender Precarity: Gender Identity and the Economy of Authenticity

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-75
Author(s):  
Benjamin Carpenter
Keyword(s):  
Gender Identity ◽  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Trans People ◽  
The Common ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Gender Trouble

In this paper I examine the role of authenticity within contemporary debates about gender identity with an eye to exploring the structure of sex and gender-based oppressions - with particular consideration with the marginalisation of trans subjects. I begin with a return to Butler's Gender Trouble to critically examine her ontology of gender and the suggestion that gender cannot be a matter of authenticity. Though this disagrees with the common schematic of trans identity mobilised within contemporary identity politics, this paper seeks to use this critique to provide a deeper explanation of trans oppression within the context of Butler's heterosexual matrix. The aim of this move is to situate trans struggles as central within philosophical feminist theory - whilst breaking from several of the shortcomings of contemporary identity ontology. These considerations will then be explored alongside Butler's work in Precarious Life, wherein the oppression of trans people will be explored in how these subjects bear a greater burden of authenticity - wherein trans genders are automatically regarded as authentic whereas cis genders remain unquestioned. This contextualises the rhetorical and ontological move adopted by many trans activists whereby they present gender as a matter of absolute and inviolable fact - which is incompatible with Butler's ontology of gender. Using bother of Butler's texts, we can regard this move as the pursuit of an impossible security, a move that serves to obscure the inauthenticity of gender overall. Instead, we are encouraged to embrace in inauthenticity of gender and to refuse to allow ourselves to sink into an economy of authenticity that marginalises trans subjects.

scholarly journals Queering Drama - Or Let the Classics Going Beyond Limits

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-124
Author(s):  
Patricia Nedelea
Keyword(s):  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Literary Theory ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Original Method ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Heterosexual Woman ◽  
Academic Fields ◽  
New Meanings ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Performance Results

AbstractThis article proposes, explains and describes an original method called Queering Drama, which is the result of this article’s author one decade of research. Queering Drama is not just a theoretical work hypothesis, but also a practical performing method of going beyond limits by Queering the characters of any classic play (the Queering Drama method can be applied to modern plays as well, but the classic plays are the ones most staged, in greater need for new meanings and refashioning). What happened if one character from a classic play would not be put on stage and played as the dramatist dictates, from a sex and gender perspective? What if, instead of a heterosexual woman (labeled by the dramatist as the wife of..., the daughter of...), the character were played as a bisexual male, or a lesbian female, or a plurisexual hermaphrodite? How would that change the relations between the characters? Would it make a difference? Would such staging change the meanings of the play? Queering Drama involves rethinking and discovering new ways of reading old iconic plays, more specifically through their (iconic, by now) characters, and implicitly uncovering new ways of putting them on stage. The possible performance results are infinite new meanings of old plays, original ways of looking at classic characters and unseen, maybe unimaginable ways of staging the classics. The multidisciplinary theoretical base of this daring aim at Drama and Stage, coming from Pirandello the dramatist, entangles the academic fields of Drama, Feminist Theory, Literary Theory and Epistemology.

The Great American Football Ritual: Reproducing Race, Class, and Gender Inequality

1990 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas E. Foley
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
American Football ◽  
Ruling Class ◽  
High School Football ◽  
Community Sport ◽  
And Gender

An ethnographic study of one football season in a small South Texas town is presented to explore the extent that community sport is, as various critical theorists have suggested, a potential site for counterhegemonic cultural practices. Football is conceptualized as a major community ritual that socializes future generations of youth. This broad, holistic description of socialization also notes various moments of ethnic resistance engendered by the Chicano civil rights movement. Other moments of class and gender resistance to the football ritual are also noted. Finally, the way players generally resisted attempts to thoroughly rationalize their sport is also described. In spite of these moments of resistance, this study ultimately shows how deeply implicated community sport—in this case high school football—is in the reproduction of class, gender, and racial inequality. The white ruling class and the town’s patriarchal system of gender relations are preserved in spite of concessions to the new ethnic challenges. When seen from a historical community perspective, sport may be less a site for progressive, counterhegemonic practices than critical sport theorists hope.

Rabbinic Tales of Destruction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Watts Belser
Keyword(s):  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
The Body ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Body Politics ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Power Politics ◽  
Forced Prostitution ◽  
Female Bodies ◽  
And Gender

Rabbinic Tales of Destruction examines early Jewish accounts of the Roman conquest of Jerusalem from the perspective of the wounded body and the scarred land. Amidst stories saturated with sexual violence, enslavement, forced prostitution, disability, and bodily risk, the book argues that rabbinic narrative wrestles with the brutal body costs of Roman imperial domination. It brings disability studies, feminist theory, and new materialist ecological thought to accounts of rabbinic catastrophe, revealing how rabbinic discourses of gender, sexuality, and the body are shaped in the shadow of empire. Focusing on the Babylonian Talmud’s longest account of the destruction of the Second Temple, the book reveals the distinctive sex and gender politics of Bavli Gittin. While Palestinian tales frequently castigate the “wayward woman” for sexual transgressions that imperil the nation, Bavli Gittin’s stories resist portraying women’s sexuality as a cause of catastrophe. Rather than castigate women’s beauty as the cause of sexual sin, Bavli Gittin’s tales express a strikingly egalitarian discourse that laments the vulnerability of both male and female bodies before the conqueror. Bavli Gittin’s body politics align with a significant theological reorientation. Bavli Gittin does not explain catastrophe as divine chastisement. Instead of imagining God as the architect of Jewish suffering, it evokes God’s empathy with the subjugated Jewish body and forges a sharp critique of empire. Its critical discourse aims to pierce the power politics of Roman conquest, to protest the brutality of imperial dominance, and to make plain the scar that Roman violence leaves upon Jewish flesh.

Goffman in Feminist Perspective

1996 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 353-369 ◽  
Author(s):  
Candace West
Keyword(s):  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Feminist Perspective ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Public Places ◽  
Women’S Experiences ◽  
Women's Experiences ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Spoken Interaction

In this paper, my aim is to call attention to Erving Goffman's contributions to feminist theory. I begin by reviewing his sociological agenda and assessments of that agenda by his critics. Next, I consider various substantive contributions of his work to our understanding of women's experiences in public places, spoken interaction between women and men, and sex and gender. I conclude with a discussion of the significance of Goffman's work for analyzing the politics of and in the personal sphere.

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