History of Origins: Gender Studies

· Gender Studies often tends to be associated with the field of Women’s Studies and the Feminist movement. However, while an important aspect of Gender Studies, this field is not the singular focus. According to Munns and Rajan, “Gender Studies looks at [the] processes of categorization and the ways in which societies construct, articulate and police sexuality.” (Munns and Rajan 485) Therefore, the horizon of inclusive facets is broadened to include gay and lesbian studies and the study of women of multiple races.
The many different factions of Feminism and Women’s Studies are commonly in conflict. Some stress female equality while others celebrate the differences. Post-modernist feminists stress that “social construction of gender involves power relations.” (Sardar and Loon 144) The so called “Third World” feminists criticize their western counterparts for focusing attention only on how the western woman is oppressed in a multi-cultural world. They claim that “white feminist theories fail ‘to take into account the complexity of life—that women are of many races and ethnic backgrounds with different histories and cultures.’” (Munns and Rajan 486)
Gay and Lesbian Studies have become increasingly prominent areas of study over the last few decades and focuses attention on the “Queer Theory” and the “constructed formation of gender and sexual orientation…” (Munns and Rajan 487)
New Keywords- Gender
I think the first paragraph sums it up nicely saying “Gender operates as an analytic concept in a wider field of study denoted by related concepts such as women and men, male and female, masculinity and femininity, sex and sexuality. It usually denotes the social, cultural, and historical distinctions between men and women, and is sometimes described as the study of masculinity and femininity.” (Bennett 140)
Wikipedia-Feminism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism
Feminism is usually associated with the western movement during the 1960’s and 1970’s that spoke out against male power. However there is more to this critical movement in history and multiple opinions on which issues to address. “Throughout much of its history, most of the leaders of feminist social and political movements, as well as many feminist theorists, have been predominantly middle-class white women from western Europe and North America. However, at least since Sojourner Truth's 1851 speech to US Feminists, women of other races have proposed alternative feminisms.”
Other Source- Queer Theory
http://www.sou.edu/English/Hedges/Sodashop/RCenter/Theory/Explaind/queer.htm
Branching from gender identity issues initiated by feminist and early gay and lesbian studies, the “Queer Theory assumes that sexual identities are a function of representations. It assumes that representations preexist and define, as well as complicate and disrupt, sexual identities.”