scholarly journals Resisting Body Oppression: An Aesthetic Approach

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sherri Irvin
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Gender Identity ◽  
Significant Source ◽  
Social Injustice ◽  
The Social ◽  
Positive Experiences ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Resisting Oppression ◽  
Aesthetic Judgments

This article argues for an aesthetic approach to resisting oppression based on judgments of bodily unattractiveness. Philosophical theories have often suggested that appropriate aesthetic judgments should converge on sets of objects consensually found to be beautiful or ugly. The convergence of judgments about human bodies, however, is a significant source of injustice, because people judged to be unattractive pay substantial social and economic penalties in domains such as education, employment and criminal justice. The injustice is compounded by the interaction between standards of attractiveness and gender, race, disability, and gender identity. I argue that we should actively work to reduce our participation in standard aesthetic practices that involve attractiveness judgments. This does not mean refusing engagement with the embodiment of others; ignoring someone’s embodiment is often a way of dehumanizing them. Instead, I advocate a form of practice, aesthetic exploration, that involves seeking out positive experiences of the unique aesthetic affordances of all bodies, regardless of whether they are attractive in the standard sense. I argue that there are good ethical reasons to cultivate aesthetic exploration, and that it is psychologically plausible that doing so would help to alleviate the social injustice attending judgments of attractiveness.

Sexuality and Gender Identity: From a Discursive to a Relational Analysis

1998 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 483-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Burkitt
Keyword(s):  
Gender Identity ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Judith Butler ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Social Formation ◽  
Relational Analysis ◽  
The Social ◽  
Sexuality And Gender ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Discursive Constructions

This paper concentrates on the recent controversy over the division between sex and gender and the troubling of the binary distinctions between gender identities and sexualities, such as man and woman, heterosexual and homosexual. While supporting the troubling of such categories, I argue against the approach of Judith Butler which claims that these dualities are primarily discursive constructions that can be regarded as fictions. Instead, I trace the emergence of such categories to changing forms of power relations in a more sociological reading of Foucault's conceptualization of power, and argue that the social formation of identity has to be understood as emergent within socio-historical relations. I then consider what implications this has for a politics based in notions of identity centred on questions of sexuality and gender.

scholarly journals Queering Asylum in Europe: A Survey Report

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vítor Lopes Andrade ◽  
Carmelo Danisi ◽  
Moira Dustin ◽  
Nuno Ferreira ◽  
Nina Held
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Sexual Orientation ◽  
Gender Identity ◽  
Research Council ◽  
European Research ◽  
International Protection ◽  
European Research Council ◽  
Survey Report ◽  
The Social ◽  
And Gender

This report discusses the data gathered through two surveys carried out in the context of the SOGICA project. SOGICA – Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Claims of Asylum: A European human rights challenge – is a four-year (2016-2020) research project funded by the European Research Council (ERC) that explores the social and legal experiences of people across Europe claiming international protection on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity (SOGI).

scholarly journals Institutional Change and Transgender Employment

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 515-531
Author(s):  
Alex Redcay ◽  
Wade Luquet
Keyword(s):  
Gender Identity ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Code Of Ethics ◽  
Workplace Discrimination ◽  
Legal Cases ◽  
Identity Recognition ◽  
The Social ◽  
Locker Room ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Policies And Practices

The purpose of this paper is to recommend non-discriminatory policies and practices regarding transgender individuals in the workplace. This paper will summarize workplace discrimination legal cases involving transgender individuals. Specifically, employers can be held financially responsible if they fire or discriminate against transgender individuals on the basis of gender identity and gender expression and can be required to use affirmed pronouns, revise policies, and provide training to employees regarding non-discrimination. Employers cannot discriminate against transgender individuals for transitioning, cannot prevent transgender individuals from using a particular bathroom or locker room, and cannot require employees to medically transition prior to gender identity recognition. Employers can be required to allow medical services related to transgender care. Finally, transgender individuals are a protected class under Title VII. This paper discusses the historical and current legal cases that prevent employment discrimination and proposes policies and practices. Recommendations for social workers include creating a sufficient non-discrimination policy, consulting with experts, becoming recognized on an equality index, educating others by not shaming them, and following the social work code of ethics.

Waste Culture and Isolation: Prisons, Toilets, and Gender Segregation

Hypatia ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 668-689
Author(s):  
Perry Zurn
Keyword(s):  
Gender Identity ◽  
Waste Management ◽  
Historical Development ◽  
Gender Segregation ◽  
Explanatory Theory ◽  
Transgender People ◽  
Gender Binary ◽  
The Social ◽  
And Gender

After reviewing the use of isolation in US prisons and public restrooms to confine transgender people in solitary cells and single‐occupancy bathrooms, I propose an explanatory theory of eliminative space. I argue that prisons and toilets are eliminative spaces: that is, spaces of waste management that use layers of isolation to sanctify social or individual waste, at the outer and inner limits of society. As such, they function according to an eliminative logic. Eliminative logic, as I develop it, involves three distinct but interrelated mechanisms: 1) purification of the social center, through 2) iterative segregation, presuming and enforcing 3) the reduced relationality of marginal persons. By evaluating the historical development and contemporary function of prisons and restrooms, I demonstrate that both seek to protect the gender binary through waves of segregation by sex, race, disability, and gender identity. I further argue that both assume the thin relationality of, in this case, transgender people, who are conceived of as impervious to the effects of isolation and thus always already isolable. I conclude that, if we are to counter the violence of these isolation practices, we not only need to think holistically about eliminative spaces and logic, but also to richly reconceptualize relationality.

scholarly journals Transphobia and gender identity: social representations of trans women from Brazil and Colombia

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (11) ◽  
pp. 5793-5804
Author(s):  
María del Mar Sánchez-Fuentes ◽  
Ludgleydson Fernandes de Araújo ◽  
Sandra Milena Parra-Barrera ◽  
Érika Rhayane Sousa Fontes ◽  
José Victor de Oliveira Santos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gender Identity ◽  
Family Support ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
The Social ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
Trans Women ◽  
And Gender

Abstract The present research aimed to identify and discuss the social representations of trans women related to gender identity and transphobia in Brazil and Colombia. In this study participated 43 Trans women, 22 from Brazil, aged between 18 and 55 years (M=29.09, SD=8.53) and 21 from Colombia, aged between 21 and 41 years (M=28.19, SD=7.63). This study adopted a qualitative approach in which semi-structured interviews were used. The data were analyzed by the Iramuteq software, which identified the social representations in classes. The results showed what the participants understood about transphobia and how they regarded their experiences with this gender identity. The participants presented negative social representations, aiming at their personal experiences related to their social context. Themes related to violence, discrimination, prejudice, denial of rights and family support emerged from both the Brazilian and Colombian sample. Implications for Tran´s quality of life are discussed.

scholarly journals On Dramatic Narrative in Caryl Churchill’s Vinegar Tom

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 70
Author(s):  
Fengshan Bi
Keyword(s):  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Gender Politics ◽  
Social Injustice ◽  
Contemporary Society ◽  
Caryl Churchill ◽  
The Social ◽  
Dramatic Narrative ◽  
And Gender

Caryl Churchill, in Vinegar Tom, discloses the social plight of marginalized and powerless women through her innovative theatrical methods. The episodic scenes, coupled with cross-cast doubling and contemporary songs, contribute to the formation of a plurality of theatrical implication. Churchill’s experimentation with dramatic narrative, which ingeniously interweaves with feminist theory and gender politics, represents her attempt to explore the possibilities of a feminist aesthetic. The play challenges the dominant versions of witchcraft history as constructed by patriarchy, and simultaneously, points out the continuing impact of gender constrictions on women in contemporary society. Churchill’s commitment to social injustice requires the use of innovative theatrical forms.

scholarly journals Abandoning Gender “Identity”

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 116 ◽  
pp. 27-31
Author(s):  
Giovanna Gilleri
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Gender Identity ◽  
Medical Intervention ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Lacanian Psychoanalysis ◽  
Clear Explanation ◽  
The Social ◽  
And Gender ◽  
International Instruments

International instruments fail to specify the meaning of gender identity. Yet gender identity has been invoked as a prohibited ground of discrimination, particularly in cases concerning trans persons. Trans existences fall outside the expectation of a correspondence between sex and gender. “Trans” is an umbrella term referring to people who do not identify with the sex attributed to them at birth. This broad definition encompasses pre-operative and post-operative transsexuals, as well as persons who have not undergone any medical intervention and do not conform to the social norms of expression and self-identification imposing the binary. Regional conventions do not define the concept of gender identity either. Documents issued by the United Nations (UN) and regional human rights bodies frequently rely on the category, without any clear explanation of the notion, or of what makes gender identity different from gender as such. Relying on Lacanian psychoanalysis, this essay argues that gender is an identity per se and challenges international law's treatment of gender and gender identity as distinct categories. Underlying this essay is the view that questioning the shape that the law gives to “gender identity” is the preliminary step to evaluating what protections human rights law can or cannot offer to individuals.

scholarly journals Strategic Transformation: Cultural and Gender Identity Negotiation in First-Generation Vietnamese Youth

2007 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 853-895 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Stritikus ◽  
Diem Nguyen
Keyword(s):  
Gender Identity ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Immigrant Students ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
School Site ◽  
The Social ◽  
Full Picture ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Strategic Transformation

This article explores the various ways in which recent Vietnamese immigrant students form cultural and gender identities as they transition to U.S. schooling. Using data from a 2-year qualitative study that tracked the social and academic adjustment processes of recent Vietnamese immigrant youth, this article examines the tensions that students struggle with as they bring their own values and practices into the school site. The findings suggest that gender functions as a complex social category for recent immigrants that shifts across social contexts. The authors argue that accounting for a full picture of gender identity more accurately captures the manner in which recent immigrant students adapt to U.S. schooling.

scholarly journals Intersectionality, British criminology and race: Are we there yet?

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alpa Parmar
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Social Construction ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
Criminological Research ◽  
The Social ◽  
Religion And Gender ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Missed Opportunity

Intersectionality is the study of overlapping social identities and related systems of oppression, discrimination and domination. From an intersectional perspective, aspects of a person’s identity, for example race, class and gender are understood to be enmeshed. To understand how systemic injustice operates and is produced, a multi-dimensional framework which captures how forms of oppression intersect and are shaped by one another, is necessary. Although the merits of an intersectional approach in criminology have been widely shown and discussed in US scholarship, within British criminology, there have been few analyses that have implemented an intersectional lens – either explicitly or implicitly. Correspondingly, close examination of the social construction of race within the criminal justice system has been largely absent in British criminology. In the following paper, I suggest that these two developments are co-constitutive – that British criminology’s unwillingness to engage with race has resulted in the reticence towards an intersectional approach and vice versa. This is both problematic and a missed opportunity. At a time when much criminological research convenes around the intersection of race, class, religion and gender, the absence of intersectional approaches and the lack of discussion about the racializing consequences of the criminal justice system serve to stymie meaningful debate and advancement of the field.

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