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- Convenors:
-
Begonya Enguix Grau
(Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, UOC)
Paco Abril (Universidad de Girona/ Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)
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- Format:
- Roundtables Workshops
- Stream:
- Gender
- Location:
- Aula 18
- Sessions:
- Tuesday 16 April, -, -
Time zone: Europe/Madrid
Short Abstract:
We aim to explore the configurations of sex-gender categories through the exploration of 'traditional' models of gender and gender relations and through the exploration of 'emergent' models such as trans*, demisexual, pangender, agender, gender fluid, gender neutral, asexual, and so on.
Long Abstract:
Many sex-gender categories are now present in social life both as legal possibilities (legislation on gender neutrality in Germany and Australia, for instance) or as a possibility for experience and/or experimentation.
For instance, Facebook identifies up to 58 categories related to gender. Asexuals and bisexuals have 'come out' all over the world, trans (genders/sexuals) seem to be on the spotlight, and people are now self-labelling as demisexual, pangender, agender, gender fluid, gender neutral, etc. thus resisting traditional systems of classification but also creating new forms of human categorization of sex-gender experiences.
In this panel we would like to explore the configurations of sex-gender categories both through the exploration of 'traditional' models of gender and gender relations and through the exploration of 'emergent' models of gender and gender relations.
We particularly encourage works based on the embeddedness of genders and bodies (embodied genders) and welcome theoretical explorations on what posthumanism and other feminist epistemologies (such as new materialisms) can 'do' with and for gender studies and for our understanding of actual sex-gender configurations. Through moving from natural(ized) essences to a non-binary model of knowledge that focuses on relations, connections, systems and assemblages, we can learn and grisp many of the actual configurations that are difficult to frame and understand in more stable and traditional sex-gender models.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Tuesday 16 April, 2019, -Paper short abstract:
This work attempts a critical interpretation of the analytical tools of the post-human critical theory. This theory provides a political analysis of the conditions by which the human is inserted into a system of commodification; these conditions are neither post-power nor post-class nor post-gender.
Paper long abstract:
In the 'Order of Things' (1966), Michel Foucault explains how a category of thought emerges at the moment of its disappearance, which means that there is a correlation between becoming thinkable on the one hand and entering a state of crisis on the other. In the end of his book, the French philosopher announces the death of man, declaring as such the crisis of humanism. At this exact moment of advanced capitalism however, which is characterized by a hyper individualistic consumption of mass-produced quantitative goods and by a techno-scientific structure, the notion of human also emerges as a question. In this regard, this paper aims to explore alternative ways of conceptualizing the 'human' on the one hand and the 'gender' (-sex) on the other. In particular, this work wishes to focus on the post-human critical theory, as it has been articulated by Rosi Braidotti and by feminist theories in the vein of Donna Haraway's critique. In this framework, the post-human condition derives from the anti-humanist ideas (the critique of the humanist ideal of man as the universal representative of the human) and from the post-anthropocentric concepts (the critique of the species hierarchy). The purpose of this presentation is to explore the analytical tools that the post-human critical theory has to offer to the field of gender studies and, more significantly, to examine how this theory contributes to our understanding of actual sex-gender configurations.
Paper short abstract:
This paper elaborates upon the political possibilities of "gender" in a posthumanist and postgender context; the contribution is empirically based on the study of (cis-)men's profeminist activism and theoretically inspired by affirmative feminist new materialisms.
Paper long abstract:
In a posthumanist and postgender context, in which the disruption of sexual and gender binaries is advocated for by LGBT+ activists and current conservative anti-gender mobilizations occur, what is the transformative and potential of "gender"? How can we understand gender in order to give justice to its grounded and embodied possibilities for progressive change? This paper answers these questions with a situated approach to activism, by taking into account the ways in which activist configurations manifest themselves and by thinking with the case of (cis-)men's feminist-oriented masculinity politics "as men". Theoretically, this contribution proposes an affirmative approach to gender as a figuration (Braidotti, 2011), so to allow for understanding what gender-based mobilizing can do for a posthumanist feminist political scenario. Finally, compassionate critique is practiced to highlights tensions and contradictions in gender-based (feminist masculinity) politics.
Paper short abstract:
In this paper I will devolep a interpretación of feminisms as hacking practice to gender, sexual and corporal models. This interpretation is based on etnographical experience with colectives and Transfeminist political proyect
Paper long abstract:
In this paper, I will point out the contribution originating from heterogeneous feminist approaches to technologies. The objective directs to develop an interpretation which places body and technology at the same plane in order to read feminisms as hacking practices to normative systems. This reading derives from reflections promoted by the ethnographical experience with groups, career paths and projects that deal with the connection between bodies, sexualities and technologies from feminist and trans-feminist perspectives.
Paper short abstract:
Este texto aborda, desde la perspectiva de la etnosexualidad, el análisis de las narraciones y relatos de las personas trans* en el contexto de una sociedad que contempla la existencia de géneros múltiples: los zapotecas del Istmo de Tehuantepec, México.
Paper long abstract:
Este texto aborda, desde la perspectiva de la etnosexualidad, el análisis de las narraciones y relatos de las personas trans* en el contexto de una sociedad que contempla la existencia de géneros múltiples: los zapotecas del Istmo de Tehuantepec, México, con el fin de identificar las características principales de esta sociedad y de la ideología sexual hegemónica. Nuestra propuesta es facilitar el futuro análisis de otras sociedades que no responden al mandato binario de género. Los hallazgos conseguidos subrayan la flexibilidad y la plasticidad de estas categorías transbinarias étnicas y de la inexistencia en estas sociedades de contextos socioculturales predominantemente transfóbicos y homófobos.
Paper short abstract:
In this presentation, I turn to life experience stories of newcomers from Russia to Finland, which are married to persons of the same sex. The stories are about their everyday experiences of visiting Russia while living in Finland. I want to show how the state border between these countries makes gender categorisation of same-sex pairs fluid.
Paper long abstract:
In this presentation, I turn to life experience stories of newcomers from Russia to Finland, which are married to persons of the same sex. The stories are about their everyday experiences of visiting Russia while living in Finland. They are the tools of categorisation of sex-gender relations and their fluidity within rapidly changing legal and social contexts. What are they talking about when they narrate their movement to another side of the state border between Finland and Russia? How the border crossing participates in the negotiation of their gender relations and family status quo?
Gender relations and sex-gender categories are embedded in social institutions and could not be analysed separately from them. Marriage could be regarded as one of the most significant institutions that configure both sexual relations and influence gender categories within families. Formally registered marriages make sex-gender relations and categories legal in the eyes of the law and society and normalise them. In their turn marriages are embedded into other social and legal contexts. In Finland, same-sex marriages create legal families. However, when a same-sex couple that has a formal status of a married pair in Finland crosses the state border between Finland and Russia, its marriage does change its legal status immediately. In Russia, same-sex marriage does not exist, and even on the level of informal relationships the character of this partnership is not welcome or understood. These changes in legal and cultural circumstances make the gender categorisation of same-sex pairs fluid.