#gender studies

[quasi-normalcy]

Jamelle Bouie continues to be the only NYT writers who knows what he's talking about.

[jstor]

In a JSTOR Daily article, Betsy Golden Kellem examines gender play in nineteenth-century theater and how performance became a space for questioning social norms.

As theater reached broader audiences, it took on new cultural weight. Women appeared more frequently in roles associated with male tragic heroes such as Hamlet and Romeo, emerging alongside changing ideas about respectability, class, and who theater was for. Kellem situates this shift within a longer history of gender play onstage while noting how the nineteenth century brought it into more prominent and serious roles. Cross-gender casting moved into the center of theatrical culture and became part of how audiences engaged with questions about identity and representation.

Actors including Adah Isaacs Menken, Charlotte Cushman, and Sarah Bernhardt illustrate how these performances were received. Menken’s work in Mazeppa drew attention that often focused on her physical presence. Cushman’s portrayal of Romeo earned recognition alongside commentary shaped by expectations about women’s ambition. Bernhardt’s Hamlet prompted debate about interpretation and character.

Critical responses varied. Some reviewers described these performances as remarkable, while others interpreted them through existing ideas about gender. Even praise reflected assumptions about which roles a woman could convincingly embody.

Image: Lafayette Photo, London. Sarah Bernhardt as Hamlet. June 1899. Wikimedia Commons.

[omgitsburning]

You cannot identify with the social construct of womanhood (or manhood) without reinforcing sexism. Because the social constructs of womanhood and manhood were built on sexist principles under patriarchy.

[feminist-furby-freak]

Why do you seem upset about being a gender studies major?

I literally went into my degree with all the correct woke opinions and it was just so insane I managed to leave a TERF. everyone on here is like read the literature talk to real trans people. Yall. I did an entire 4 year degree in this if I’m not sold “educating” isn’t going to fix it. Honestly reading less and knowing less and not thinking too hard makes it way easier to go along with everything. It was actually having to think and unpack everything that made me realize this shit lowkey doesn’t add up.

[starry-ace]

“The Barbie movie is like basic gender studies 101. It’s like the bare minimum for feminism”

YEAH SOME PEOPLE HAVENT TAKEN GENDER STUDIES 101 AND WOULDNT YOU AGREE WE ARE CURRENTLY AT LESS THAN THE BARE MINIMUM FOR FEMINISM?

things do not need to be perfect to be good. You cannot teach someone intersectionality if that person has not heard of bare minimum feminism. You might be on step 100 but just because you started earlier does not mean that everyone can jump to your level. They have to climb the stairs too. And the people at the top yelling down to the people at the bottom that being at the bottom is bad, they need to be at the top, IT DOES NOT ENCOURAGE THEM TO CLIMB UP.

[rockinwiserebel]

y'know how many fans say they never saw anything between Will and Mike even from the earlier seasons?

In my Gender Studies class, i learned about this term called 'heterosexual matrix'.

It was a term coined by philospher, Judith Butler, in her book Bodies that Matter. It refers to the rigid binary structure of connection between sex, gender and desire. Basically, it refers to how society only validates 'male' and 'female' and only when the sex and gender identity align (aka cis-genderism), and opposite sex attraction (heterosexuality). We live in a heterosexual matrix.

Now, in a heterosexual matrix, everything is viewed only through a heteronormative lens, i.e, heterosexuality, heteroromanticism and the male-female cis-gender binary are the only validated forms of sex, gender and sexuality.

This idea of viewing through a heteronormative lens bleeds into the media we consume too.

If a male and female character form any sort of deep connection in a show or movie, they are shipped together - viewers want them to have the heteronormative happy ending. This is validated too. Not many people would say it's outrageous or whatever. There is a little chemistry, there is a possibility they could be romantically involved.

But if two characters of the same sex have that same sort of chemistry or connection, it is 'a bit crazy to ship them'. They are either a crackship, for shits and giggles. It's not that serious. Or, they are good friends. Why can't two characters of the same sex be just good friends? why does everything have to be gayy, they'll whine.

My point is, viewing everything through a heteronormative lens is drilled into us since the moment we arrive in this society. Heterosexuality is completely normalised, but homosexuality? Not so much. Even though we claim to be a progressive society, not much has changed when it comes to people's mindset. And this shows in popular media. So, any potential chemistry between two characters of the same sex is brushed off or ignored. Whereas any potential chemistry between two characters of the opposite sex is read as romantic.

Will and Mike's love has been the foundation of the story of Stranger Things. If Will had been a girl, I'd bet you my life that they'd be canon. There'd be an angsty love triangle between Will, El and Mike, and Will and Mike would end up together.

But because they're both boys...

So, what i have to say to all the people still shitting on Bylers is - kindly take off the heteronormative lens from your eyes and see the world with an open mind. You don't have to accept anything, but let people live.

[threeofsswords]

“Majoring in gender studies to become a barista”

The notion that the humanities are unimportant compared to stem ultimately comes down to the fact that there’s less money in those fields. Capitalism breeds anti intellectualism

[atlas-affogato]

FTM Book Recs

One of the funny, and by funny I mean infuriating, things about the trans discourse on this website is how everyone screams themselves hoarse "read Whipping Girl" as if its the only book written on the experiences of trans women or transfeminism. But also, people scream at you to read Whipping Girl to.....understand trans men? Julia Serrano is a trans woman who admitted that her book doesn't cover the scope of the trans masculine experience. So here, here's some nonfiction books written by actual trans men. Enjoy.

• Hung Jury: Testimonies of Genital Surgery by Transsexual men, edited by Trystan Cotten • From the Inside Out: Radical Gender Transformation, FTM and Beyond, edited by Morty Diamond • We Both Laughed in Pleasure: The Selected Diaries of Lou Sullivan • No Poster Boy: Trans Fag Essays by Elliot DeLine • Side Effects: on Being Trans and Feeling Bad by Hil Malatino • A Trans Man Walks Into A Gay Bar by Harry Nicholas • Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity by C. Riley Snorton • Men in Place: Trans Masculinity, Race, and Sexuality in America by Miriam J. Abelson • Emergence: A Transsexual Autobiography by Mario Martino • Body Alchemy: Transsexual Portraits by Loren Cameron • The Phallus Palace: Female to Male Transsexuals by Dean Kotula • FTM: Female-to-Male Transsexuals in Society by Jamison Green • Transmen and FTMs: Identities, Bodies, Genders, and Sexualities by Jason Cromwell • Self-Made Men: Identity and Embodiment among Transsexual Men by Henry Rubin • Manning Up: Transsexual men on Finding Brotherhood, Family and Themselves, edited by Zander Kieg • Just Add Hormones: An Insiders Guide to the Transsexual Experience by Matt Kailey • Self-Organizing Men: Conscious Masculinity in Time and Space, edited by Eli Clare • Man Alive: A True Story of Violence, Forgiveness and Becoming a Man by Thomas Page Mcbee • Amateur: A True Story About What Makes A Man by Thomas Page Mcbee • Becoming a Visible Man by Jamison Green • Both Sides Now: One Man's Journey Through Womanhood by Dhillon Khosla • What Becomes You by Aaron Raz Link

*Female Masculinity by Jack Halberstam

And, because I believe in my heart that all trans people have more in common than differences and there's really no such thing as separating our community, I am including here transgender book recs written by non-binary, genderqueer, trans feminine and trans woman authors. Enjoy these too.

• Gender Outlaws: on Men, Women and the Rest of Us by Kate Bornstein • Genderqueer by Maia Kobabe • Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg *(this book is fiction but intensely important to the butch and trans masculine lesbian community) • Tranagender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman by Leslie Feinberg • Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender by Kit Heyam • Black Trans Feminism by Marquis Bey • A Short History of Trans Misogyny by Jules Gill-Peterson • Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex by Eric A. Stanley • Surviving Transphobia by Laura A. Jacobs • Transgender History by Susan Stryker • The Transgender Issue: An Argument For Justice by Shon Faye

A lot of the books on this list are on the older side for nonfiction, my interest leans more towards the 90s and 00s and that shows. I encourage anyone with any other book recommendations to add on.

*Indicates added by an ask.